What is the best way to filter out photos from a specific day across many years?

[ChicagoGhost]

I just started using IMatch and find it very powerful so far.

If I want to filter out photos only on, say, somebody's birthday, from all previous years, what is the best way?
Currently, I am using the following method:
I created two data-driven categories, one for month and one for day. The first one has 12 child categories, and the second one has 31. Then, I created another category using a category formula to select a particular day and month from those two data-driven categories.

Before, I was using Lightroom with Any Filter. To do the above filtering, I used some criteria like "Date/Time Original (Capture) day in month" = 15 AND "Date/Time Original (Capture) month = July".
Is there any method similar to this in IMatch in which I don't need to create other categories before creating the resulting category?

[Mario]

So, basically you wan to see all photos of a specific person taken on <day>, <month> and any year?

Have you considered using the Metadata Filter in the Filter Panel?
Say, for example, you want to see all images where the date subject created is the 14th of March:



Time stamps use the ISO format YYYY:MM:DD hh:mm:ss second format natively.
IMatch formats timestamps in your local format e.g. in variables or the Metadata Panel, but in the database, the ISO format is used for precision and compatibility. This is what we have to consider when searching timestamps in metadata.

When I set the filter to search for 03:15<space>, it finds all files where the time stamp contains 03:15 followed by a space, thus all files taken on Match 14 but not files where the time was something with 03:15 (no blanks in the time portion).

This is for ad-hoc queries where you want to find files taken on a certain day and month in any year.
You can also find files taken in a specific year by filtering e.g. for "starts with" and then use 2019 to find all files taken in 2019 etc. If you want to find really complex combinations of date and time, this filter also supports regular expressions.

Another idea is to create a data-driven category based on the Month/Day part of the date subject created. The idea is to have one category for each combination of Month and Day, e.g. 03:05 (Match 5), 03:08 (Match , 04:15 (April 15.) etc.

This can be achieved like this:



If a person is born on 15. of April, you only need to click into the 04:15 category to see all photos taken on that day. Combine it with a person filter (if you use face recognition and People) and you see all images of that person taken on his/her birthday.

Thinking about this gave me an idea. The Date filter in the filter panel has a Year|Month feature where you select a year and a month from a list. Maybe I should consider adding a Month|Day filter where you select a month and day and the File Window shows all files taken on that month and date, any year. This would make this particular search operations easy.

[Mario]

I've implemented the new filter for IMatch 2025. Did not take long but should be very useful for many users.
The Birthday variant in the Date Filter now allows you to select a day and month and then shows only files matching these parameter, without considering the year.

Show all files taken on March, 15.



Combine this with a People filter or select the Person in the People View to see all files taken on his/her birthday.

[ChicagoGhost]

Thank you Mario for the detailed explanation and the new function added!
I find IMatch so powerful that there is nothing that it can't do.
This will be my ultimate tool for photo management.

One more question:
You mentioned IMatch 2025, when is it going to come out?
The trial version and the version on the purchase page are all 2023 now.

I've implemented the new filter for IMatch 2025. Did not take long but should be very useful for many users.
The Birthday variant in the Date Filter now allows you to select a day and month and then shows only files matching these parameter, without considering the year.

Show all files taken on March, 15.

Combine this with a People filter or select the Person in the People View to see all files taken on his/her birthday.

[Mario]

Thank you Mario for the detailed explanation and the new function added!

I find IMatch so powerful that there is nothing that it can't do.

This is how the features in IMatch come into existence.

A user tries to solve a problem. We see how it can be done. If there is a feature or a way to do it.
This sometimes gives me an idea for how to improve something, or, as in this case, to extend an existing functionality.
The new "Birthday" filter matches well with the new dob: search pattern I've added to IMatch 2025.

You mentioned IMatch 2025, when is it going to come out?

The trial version and the version on the purchase page are all 2023 now.

The current version of IMatch is 2023.
And I'm in the final stages of finishing IMatch 2025, after a long, long, long stressful stretch of work.
I will release it when it is finished, solid and good.

As usual, users who have purchased IMatch 2023 (or upgraded to it) within six months of the IMatch 2025 release get IMatch 2025 for free. See my fair update and upgrade policy on the shop page: https://www.photools.com/shop/

Anticipating your next question:

No, I don't know when IMatch 2025 comes out. I hope soon. I aim to ship a new major release every 12 to 18 months, and IMatch 2023 was released 16 month ago. And I have released 30 (!) free updates since then.

But I might break an arm, get hit by a bus and spend a month in a hospital, a tornado might transport me to a remote island - I just cannot make promises I maybe cannot keep. People would complain and there might be tears.

[ChicagoGhost]

No, I don't know when IMatch 2025 comes out. I hope soon. I aim to ship a new major release every 12 to 18 months, and IMatch 2023 was released 16 month ago. And I have released 30 (!) free updates since then.

But I might break an arm, get hit by a bus and spend a month in a hospital, a tornado might transport me to a remote island - I just cannot make promises I maybe cannot keep. People would complain and there might be tears.

Hah hah!
I am looking forward to the new version.
The current version is already very good. The new version will get even better.
And everything will go well and you won't need to work at the remote island where no internet is available.

[Mario]

The current version is already very good. The new version will get even better.

The most prominent feature will be the face lift, a modernized version of the IMatch user interface we tested and tuned here in the community for a couple of months. See, for example, here https://www.photools.com/community/index.php/topic,13677.0.html and https://www.photools.com/community/index.php/topic,13734.0.html

And there is of course this: https://www.photools.com/community/index.php/topic,14296.0.html

We've discussed and tested and played with this substantial enhancement for a couple of weeks in a closed user group and I think I've got it working neat and tight for IMatch 2025. I already rely on this in my daily personal workflow and I really like it. I thing for many users this will be a game changer and time-saver.

Lots of other things, too. I've completely re-designed and re-implemented the background processing system in IMatch (indexing files, reading metadata, face recognition etc.) It now adapts perfectly to modern processor architectures and I see substantial performance improvements for indexing files, face recognition, face recluster and auto-tagging. On workstation-grade PCs as well as notebooks.

[ChicagoGhost]

It now adapts perfectly to modern processor architectures and I see substantial performance improvements for indexing files, face recognition, face recluster and auto-tagging. On workstation-grade PCs as well as notebooks.

I have a 32-core (64-thread) CPU. Will IMatch 2025 be able to use all the cores? I see it is already pretty fast in the current version. Is it already using multiple-thread processing?

[Mario]

IMatch uses multi-threading for over a decade, for indexing, metadata reading, face recognition, category updates etc.
The new system is just evolved and even better at utilizing all processor cores. It is adaptive and monitors processor, disk and memory utilization and tries to balance everything to get the best possible performance.