chronological order of pics

[Bob Trotter]

A few years ago, I took a series of approximately 1500 shots of our area, while my wife was on a nursing assignment. I PSed many of them and posted them on a website for friends to view.

While working with the shots, I neglected to save all the originals in the order in which they were taken.

I would now like to recategorize them so that they're in chronological order. They were all taken with the same camera over a period of close to four months. I did not use the option of date/time so that I wouldn't have that stamped on the pics.

If it's possible to recover their order, how do I go about it?

I have PS, and usually use irfanview for simple viewing.

Thanks for any help.

 

[480sparky]

Check the EXIF data. It may have the "Date/Time Created" intact.

 

[dxqcanada]

Yup, as sparky stated: Date Taken, Date Created, Date Modified: What's the Difference? A Simple Guide to Photo Time Stamps! - Organizing Photos

 

[Designer]

Or the file number.

 

[480sparky]

Or the file number.

 

[petrochemist]

Or the file number.

If the files haven't been renamed that's easiest.

Otherwise there are multiple time stamps in windows, 'date created' should work (as opposed to 'date modified' or simply 'date'). Many of the others (like date taken/date acquired) are blank for regular files but might be suitable too.
These are all accessible in detailed view simply right click the column header & select those you want.

 

[wfooshee]

That's a lot of looking at Properties... right-click an image, pick Properties, go to the Details tab, find the Date Taken field, note it, close Propeties, next image, repeat.

How many of these do you have??? I don't know of a way to batch that, just run a bunch of images through an app and get a sequence report.

I never rename the original RAW files, and I always keep the name for the edited JPGs I will make. I'll use Tags to put in subject information, as tags are searchable.
If I have to have a name that means something to someone, the renamed file will be a copy. EVERY TIME. After editing, the RAW files I keep (I do cull as I edit) go onto their own drive, in folders named YYYY-MM-DD-Subject. My JPGs go onto a different drive in a folder with the same name. My entire library of digital images, some half a terabyte of RAW files and nearly 200 GB of JPGs is organized that way, and ALL have their original camera-written filename.

 

[petrochemist]

That's a lot of looking at Properties... right-click an image, pick Properties, go to the Details tab, find the Date Taken field, note it, close Propeties, next image, repeat.

In details view, you can simply sort by any of the columns, no need to open properties individually.

 

[wfooshee]

You know, I wasn't even thinking about the Details view in Windows explorer, I never use it!

When you mentioned the view before I just didn't connect that with the Explorer window.

 

[petrochemist]

I often have to sort analytical data, so use it quite a bit. Not my normal view for photographs where fingerprints are useful.