I am somewhat confused by the various dates available for display. Ideally I want to be able to show when the photo was taken (the original date) and any modification date, though I am not so bothered about that one,
That would help me figure out where some of the photos I have were taken!!
This shows the dates for an image as displayed in Opus. The creation date is later than the modified date which obviously doesn't make sense.
Looking at Properties the same dates are displayed so the chances are that some other software may be responsible. See image. Both show the creation date later than the modified date.
This dialog is from File Explorer and shows only dates for the file, not for the picture it contains. Have a look at the "Details" tab. Better yet, use an Opus column. datetaken is usually the field you are looking for, although especially older pictures might have used different fields.
Thanks for the prompt response. The scan I included in the first post is from Opus but I agree just showing one panel makes it look like File Explorer. See first scan below which encompasses a larger bit of screen. It also shows that the dates displayed are Date (Created) and Date (Modified) though the displayed column names are Creation date and Date. As you can see the Creation date is always later than the Modified Date.
You mention using datetaken in Opus but this does not appear to be an option.
The second scan is from File Explorer where all the 4 dates available are displayed. Again the created date is after the modified date, and these are the only dates available.
So it doesn't seem to be either a File Explorer or Opus issue, so possibly a camera issue. I will try taking some new photos with a different and newer camera, downloading them and modifying and checking the dates.
To clarify @lxp's comment, he was referring to the Properties dialog shown in your screenshot. DOpus does not have its own Properties dialog, so it invokes the one built into Windows when you ask it to show Properties. Note that a dialog is a window that usually has the "OK", "Cancel", and occasionally, "Apply" buttons.
If you right-click one of the column headers (like "Name"), you can get a nice, big list of choices. Navigate your way to Columns -> Picture Metadata -> Date Taken to find the date the picture was taken that lxp was mentioning. (See the first screenshot below.)
Also, the Date Taken can be found in the Folder Options window under the Picture Metadata. (See the second screenshot below.)
Date Created and Date Modified are not image-specific timestamps. Every file in Windows has those, and they are part of the filesystem
They usually mean:
Created: When the file was originally created. Or when that copy of the file was made.
Modified: When that copy of the file was last edited (or when the copy was created).
It can depend on what created, editor or copied them, and also how things were configured at the time. The timestamps can be set to any time at all if software chooses to do so, and these are just defaults and conventions.
JPG files from cameras and scanners also tend to have additional timestamps inside them, which may record things like when the photo was taken and when it was digitized.
Thank you all for these explanations. I think I now have a better idea of the meaning of date stamps.
So, to be clear, let me ask the basic question - I want to list my photos according to the date I took them. What date do I use? My understanding is Date Taken, but if so, where is it in the Opus Folder Options box of Columns and Groupings?
Logically (maybe!) if the EXIF contains a date and time when that photo was taken, then, excluding use of specialised software, that date will never change.
That's most likely the column you want, at least assuming your camera has filled it in (most do these days) and nothing that edited the photos since has removed it.
One final question (I/you) hope. Maybe should be a new thread.
This is the setup I want. I have set this up with the Photos folder displayed. I want to apply this to all the sub-folders of Photos. I have tried various ways including the one shown below (2nd scan)-
If you wanted to save the current settings for E:\Photos and sub-folder, you want the "Save format for a folder" option, and "Save for all sub-folders".
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