Synchronize Digital Camera Time Stamps for iPhoto

Whether it's for a family event or a professional shoot, it's useful to have the internal clocks on all the digital still cameras set to the same time. When combining those exposures in one digital album, the images can then be sorted chronologically to the second. With today's vacation outings often sporting a camera for each family member, it's fun to see all the photos taken by everyone in the group in order they were taken.

However, there will be times when you forget to do change the synchronization of the cameras' clocks, or forget to set their clocks after a battery change. Here is my procedure for addressing this after the fact (or during the shoot) when using iPhoto (v6 in my case):

• With every camera involved, shoot a still photo of the same clock or watch which displays seconds.
• It is not necessary for the photos from each camera to be taken at the same time. Just take a picture of the clock/watch with every camera sometime during the day.
  
• If possible, use a timepiece that you know to be accurate.
• If some of the cameras don't belong to you, just make sure at some point during the event to walk around with the timepiece and have everyone shoot a close-up of the current time.
• Import all the images from each camera into iPhoto.
• Isolate all the images from each camera, either by importing them into separate albums, or by using a Smart Album and using the "Camera Model" criteria filter.
  
• Select all the images taken by one camera at the event.
  
• Using either Joe's iPhoto AppleScripts for Date Manipulation (for iPhoto versions up to 6) or iPhoto v7's (iPhoto '08) built-in Adjust Date and Time function, adjust the time (and date, if necessary) of all the photos taken by that camera at once, until the time displayed by iPhoto's "information" pane is exactly correct for the image of the clock. This shifts the time/date for all the selected images. At this point, all the other photos' time stamps will be synchronized with your reference timepiece.
• Repeat this step with every camera's albums, adjusting the time and date of that camera's images to the picture of the timepiece taken with that camera.
  
• After performing the previous steps, combine any or all of the images from all cameras in one album. In iPhoto's "View" menu, choose "Sort by Date." All the images will appear in chronological order, regardless of the camera on which they were taken.
• Note: These changes to time and date stamps are only reflected within iPhoto. If you export image files from iPhoto after adjusting their date and time, other programs that honor their embedded EXIF data will still reflect the original date and time setting of the camera at the time the exposure was taken.
• If you really get lost with shifting times/dates, you can use the iPhoto Date Reset script in Joe's iPhoto Applescripts to revert the time stamps of any selected images to their EXIF data.