Organize images by metadata dates

[reader]

I've never used a fraction of what this complex tool is capable of.  Just the very lowest level stuff.

I've organized my images for years in quite a haphazard way. Only with my last two cameras, going back to about 2003 or so
have I put them in some kind of chrono order.  So I have them in a hierarchy like:

Year/
.......month
.......month
[...]

From 2003 to now.  But at the same time I have accumulated vast stores of images from scanning several generations of
my family pictures, and many images contributed by others.. or off peoples phones these days.

Many more from a time when my wife and I produced a few dozen videos of family memories, wedding, other events on a
very small commercial scale.

Consequently, many images have no reliable metadata since they are scanned images, others are from cameras that didn't do that way
back when, or from customers collections of there family images to be animated, and etc.

I want to see what I can get by using Imatch to tag/categorize/group/ or whatever any images that have sufficient metadata, by
the dates given in the metadata.

Thing is, I have no idea how to do something like that.

I hoped maybe a few experienced users here could provide enough coaching that I get the general idea..
and then I'll begin experimenting.

None of this is well thought out and will no doubt change as I begin to get into it.

I have used categories for some yrs and have quite a mess going on there too.  But since that is my experience
in organizing images, I'm thinking something like having Imatch create a whole new set of categories by year and  month  so I have a tree
of categories along the lines of a chroronographic order. 

Of course I'd like to automate things as much as possible but severely lack the expertise.

I have upwards of some 20,000 images.  Small by many of your standards but still well beyond doing this by hand.

General outlines of how to go at this, pointers to specific sections of the manual...  or any other ideas in that vein
are quite welcome.  However, I suspect a general outline of getting started will be the most useful.

[Mario]

IMatch 5 by default assigns all files for which it can extract a usable date and time value in the time line. Search the help for date and time and then click on the EXIF sub-topic in the help index. This shows you which date metadata is used for which files.

The date and time extracted in this way is uses as the "File Date and Time" used in many features of IMatch, variables, the time line etc.

You can always fill out the XMP Date Created (in the default Metadata Panel layout) to position your files in the IMatch time line. If your scanner did not fill in date and time, you can add it that way.

[Richard]

I want to see what I can get by using Imatch to tag/categorize/group/ or whatever any images that have sufficient metadata, by
the dates given in the metadata.

If I were in your place the first thing I would want to know is:
Which of my image files have usable dates?
To do this I would create a folder in a new IMatch 5 database and label it "Incoming".
In Windows Explorer I would copy* batches of image files to "Incoming".
As IMatch 5 detects these files added to "Incoming" it will search the image file for metadata and if it finds usable dates, those images will be added to the Time line.

* keep in mind that IMatch 5 is still beta. Do not risk doing anything to your original files.

Just off the top of my head I think that your image files will fall into three groups.
1. Those that have an accurate date. Such as those from a recent camera.
2. Those that have a date but that date does not match the date of the event in the picture. Such as those from a scanner where the scan date will be shown.
3. Those that have no usable date and only reflect when you created the file.

In IMatch I would create a folder for those images that have a date that reflects the date of the event. Maybe label it "Correct date".
A second folder for Questionable dates or missing dates.
Working within IMatch 5 I would select batches of files with correct dates and MOVE them into the "Correct date" folder. What is left would go into the other folder.

It is likely that you can COPY all files from one of your folders at a time to "Incoming".
Then select a date from the Time line, look at each thumbnail for that date and if the date and time are usable, use pins, flags, bookmark, labels, etc. to classify the date and time. Since you will have either good or bad dates, I would Flag good files and Bookmark bad files. The good files with the Flag on can be selected from that Collection for moving to "Correct date". Those with Bookmarks go to the other folder.

You should first learn about "Collections" and "The Timeline View" and what dates IMatch will extract, as Mario stated.

I am not suggesting that you do this with all 20,000 files. At this point you are only experimenting and learning. The database, folders and copies that you create are just learning tools and can all be deleted once they have served a purpose. Namely ensuring yourself that you have the answers that you will need when you are sure that IMatch is ready for your original files, not copies. I would not recommend putting a lot time into this. Just enough to be sure you know how you will attack the problem.

[Richard]

As an added thought, when you start correcting dates for scanned files, etc., get the help of women. They have a knack for knowing when certain clothing styles were worn and can often give a pretty close date.

[jch2103]

...
Consequently, many images have no reliable metadata since they are scanned images, others are from cameras that didn't do that way
back when, or from customers collections of there family images to be animated, and etc.
...
I hoped maybe a few experienced users here could provide enough coaching that I get the general idea..
and then I'll begin experimenting.
...

You may want to take a look at this section of the forum https://www.photools.com/community/index.php?board=45.0, which includes several discussions related to dates. As you already know, metadata is a mess and date handing is a particular morass due to no established universal standards for date handing. ExifTool tries to deal with this, but because different vendors/manufacturers/etc all do things different ways, it can be pretty complex.

As Mario suggests, you may want to use the XMP Date Created (XMP::photoshop\DateCreated\DateCreated) to assign dates to scanned images and videos (this means among other things you'll need to use XMP sidecars for videos). You may also want to assign date digitized (XMP::xmp\CreateDate\CreateDate). (As you can see, even the naming of ExifTool metadata date fields is a mess, but it is what it is...)

As Richard suggests, getting dates assigned to your files will entail some work; there's no magic bullet. However, you may be able to set up an efficient work flow. Good luck!

[Mario]

The two XMP dates mentioned by John are visible in the Metadata Panel as "Date Created" and "Date Digitized". IMatch fills these automatically from usable dates in your files. If they are empty, no usable date was found.