Why not put the date in your photos?

[newbury]

All digital cameras and smartphone cameras will embed information in the image EXIF record,<snip>

A couple of things about this -
Older cameras that recorded exif required setting the "start" date, thus if the owner didn't set the date when they first fired up the camera, say July 4 2002, the camera might think it was Jan 1, 2000 and record that for the date.

The exif data provides a ton of info - Exif - Wikipedia, the user CAN manipulate this data.
I use GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program).

One problem I have with the exif data is that it records which way it thinks "up" was when the picture was taken, that's why so many pictures posted here end up sideways or upside down.

There are MANY software programs designed to pull this data out and imprint it in the image. BUT how do you know where to put it?

I didn't start taking pictures until about 1957. When I take a picture I may try to frame it so there are important things in the corner, it took me a while with the first digital camera to make sure I left a section of the frame for the burned in date. I was very glad when the camera I got made the imprint an option.

I imagine that if it doesn't exist now someone will gin up some software that will provide facial recognition and could put the names of the people in the photo by accessing government data bases.

 

[sixdogs]

How do you put the date on the pic itself? In the past, if I wanted to know the date of a picture, I would just look at the original file on my PC; it shows when it was created (or taken) not the date it was put on the PC. I don't think the created date is changed when I resize my pics using the embedded "Resizer" app on Microsoft Windows 7 Pro.

In my camera, there is a menu function to add the date.

 

[FTG-05]

In my camera, there is a menu function to add the date.

I haven't had a camera for years. I've been using my Motorola Android smart phone as my camera since summer 2014. Anyone know how to do it from that platform?

Thanks,

 

[Coyote machine]

I haven't had a camera for years. I've been using my Motorola Android smart phone as my camera since summer 2014. Anyone know how to do it from that platform?

Thanks,

Try Googling it. Something like: how to tag pics on my Moto xyz phone...
Facebook and some other apps will do a face circle or similar asking for 'tagging info' in pics of people's faces, etc.

I too have problems with what Newbury said: <snip> "One problem I have with the exif data is that it records which way it thinks "up" was when the picture was taken, that's why so many pictures posted here end up sideways or upside down.<snip>.

I find with my Samsung not 8 that if I shoot a pic horizontally it comes out as intended IF I turn the top of the phone to my left rather than right. I haven't tried doing like the 'ole point & shoot cameras of yesterday do- printing the time/date/whatever on the actual image. That I find annoying because it make the pic less a pic and more a date retrieval device. I'm not saying it isn't useful- it is, to know when and so on...

I've had so many cameras over the last 55 years since I started to learn photography, that I can't even count. Started with my grandfather's Contax, and real old Polaroid units, and worked up to SLRs, then point and shoot digitals, then DSLRs, and now like most people who don't take photos for a living, my go to is my phone's embedded camera.

A large portion of the pics I take I don't ever pring, but my daughter is a photo junkie, and she searches my and my wife's phones as well as hers to print certain really good pics.

I like NOT having to deal with film anymore; today's phone cameras are amazing and one can dump bad images instead of having to print whole rolls of film that 'might' contain one or two good images.

 

[sixdogs]

...

I like NOT having to deal with film anymore; today's phone cameras are amazing and one can dump bad images instead of having to print whole rolls of film that 'might' contain one or two good images.

Me too . Print images from rolls of film at the drug store are gone forever but I find it nice to flick through prints and know the date, especially the year that I took the photo. But that's just me and will eventually be all of us as we get older.

 

[ovrszd]

When I was Deploying I carried a Sony digital camera. I took thousands of pics. All dated. I needed them dated for the work I was doing. Now, like Six, I use the date to remind me which Deployment that was......