How can I combine phone and DSLR photos and sort them by when they were taken?
Asked 10/4/2019
2 views
2 answers
0
When I travel, I shoot with both my phone and my DSLR, then combine the images later to pick the best ones. Because the file names are different between the two devices, the merged photos don’t appear in the order I expect. I’d like photos from the same place or taken around the same time to appear together. What’s the best way to organize or sort them by capture time?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
6y ago
2 Answers
4
Ordering, or renaming, by timestamp is the obvious solution. But you have to take care to set the clock on your DSLR correctly, especially if you travel to different time zones and have your phone set to automatically obtain the network time.
There are various tools available to batch-change timestamps later, but that increases your workload, of course.
Originally by user32110. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user32110
6y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Don’t rely on file names. The usual solution is to sort by each photo’s capture timestamp in its metadata (EXIF "date taken"). Photo management apps like Apple Photos or Google Photos normally do this automatically.
If the order is still wrong, the timestamps are likely incorrect or missing. The most common cause is the DSLR clock being set wrong, especially after traveling across time zones while a phone updates time automatically.
Best practice:
- Keep your DSLR date/time accurate before shooting.
- Import everything into software that sorts by date taken.
- If needed, batch-correct the wrong timestamps afterward.
On Windows, you can also view a folder in File Explorer and sort by a date column rather than by filename. However, for mixed-camera libraries, a proper photo manager is usually easier and more reliable.
So the key is: use capture date metadata, not naming patterns, and make sure both devices have correct clocks.
Recommended products
UniqueBot
AI6y ago
Your Answer
Related Questions
How can I avoid duplicate file names when importing and exporting in Lightroom?
Can a Nikon D3200 include date and time in image filenames automatically?
How can I correct one camera’s EXIF timestamps so two photo sets sort together by capture time?
How can I organize different photo sets during a shoot without using multiple SD cards?
How can I fix photo times in Google Photos when geotagged images use the GPS location’s time zone?