• furinkan
• photography
• SortingFilmScans

Not having embedded shooting metadata is kinda annoying. There are ways around it, like getting stored data out of the camera, but I don't have the gear for that yet.

1. You must start with the files outside of Dropbox, otherwise exiftool will keep failing because Dropbox freaks out when the files disappears or is renamed quickly. You can use C:\Users\furinkan\Pictures\ for this

2. Use ACDSee to fix rotations, this makes viewing much more convenient even before importing to Lightroom. Ctrl-Alt-Left/Right will do it, but you have to select save between every file

3. Batch rename the files to get them into chronological order, the original filenames are arbitrary anyway (but are usually <ROLL_ID><FRAME_ID>.jpg)

4. Write a notes.txt for the photos, gather timestamps and GPS coordinates and shooting settings as much as possible

5. Fire up AnalogExif

6. Auto-tag exposure numbers
7. Fill in camera, lens, and film metadata
8. Tag timestamps
   • If you can't provide accurate timestamps, close enough is fine. If the timestamps are all the same for a cluster, then Lightroom will resort to sorting by filename on import, which is probably what you want.
9. Tag GPS if it's convenient/possible, it's good to have that in the raws too. Find the location in Google Maps or other Lightroom files, then get the Degrees-Minutes-Seconds coordinates from it

   • The format for pasting into AnalogExif is like: -33°56'1.1804" +151°15'42.312"

10. Tag the camera settings if you've got them (or can guess them)

11. Use exiftools on the raws to populate the correct date fields, otherwise LR will import using the file's scan date

    # JPEG
    exiftool -XMP-xmp:CreateDate= "-FileCreateDate<DateTimeOriginal" "-FileModifyDate<DateTimeOriginal" "-IFD0:ModifyDate<DateTimeOriginal" "-XMP-xmp:ModifyDate<DateTimeOriginal" *.jpg
    
    # TIFF
    exiftool -XMP-xmp:CreateDate= "-FileCreateDate<DateTimeOriginal" "-FileModifyDate<DateTimeOriginal" "-IFD0:ModifyDate<DateTimeOriginal" "-XMP-xmp:ModifyDate<DateTimeOriginal" *.tif

12. Import to Lightroom as normal

    • Make a new collection for the roll, eg: Film 2024-12-29 Fuji Velvia 50 [135]

      • Put an A/B/C/etc after the date if you have multiple rolls processed on the same date, eg: Film 2024-09-28A Kodak Gold 200 [120]

    • Apply tags during import, something like:
      • film
      • Fuji Provia 400X
      • cosplay/travel/whatever might be applicable
    • Add files to existing collections as well, typically a cosplay set
    • Add to the All Film Shots collection as well
13. Stuff you shouldn't need to do any more, but just in case...
    1. Fix rotations if needed, but it shouldn't be needed now

    2. File ordering should already be correct thanks to the renaming and metadata entry in AnalogExif, but correct them in LR if needed

       • It's common for rolls to be scanned in reverse shooting order, or for file mtimes to be out of sequence
       • Adjust seconds/minutes to get all shots to the correct timestamp now
    3. Using Lightroom, move the files to the correct folder on disk if needed. But they should've imported correctly already
    4. GPS tag as well if you haven't already
14. Perform face tagging

15. Now you can move the raws into Dropbox where they'll live, in Dropbox/Photos/0000_film_scans/

Filing away the prints

Once you get them back from the lab and admire them, it's time to store them.

1. Slap a processing date label on it, use the lab's own date for simplicity.

   • Processed YYYY-MM-DD

   It goes near the top for easy visibility when in the storage crate.
   This uses a standard 12mm label. Default font size of Auto for DTM font (24pt) is fine.

2. For the details of the content, use one of the big 24mm labelling tapes in the Brother Cube labeling machine.

   • YYYY-MM-DD [this is the shoot date] Description Of The Shoot
     Camera And Lens Details
     Filmstock And Any Push/Pull/Bracketing Notes

   Use one label per film in the envelope.
   Add a single-line box border to make it pretty.

3. If there's anything else special to note, slap another 12mm label on the envelope, eg:

   • Dev and scan, NO PRINTS

References

• https://exiftool.org/forum/index.php?topic=5007.0

• https://exiftool.org/forum/index.php?topic=3167.0

• https://exiftool.org/faq.html

• https://exiftool.org/forum/index.php?topic=7935.0

Commands

Inspect all info on a file, use this to figure out why LR is still seeing a current date on an old film scan.

exiftool -a -G1 -s c:\images\test.jpg