Batch adjusting the date (but not the time) of photos imported into Lightroom?

Question

I purchased a new camera during my vacation, but I managed to take a whole night worth of photos with the incorrect date. I purchased the camera July 18th, but managed to set June 18th as the date.These are JPEG's by the way.I imported the photos into Lightroom, but no matter what I try, I can't get all the photos moved to the correct date.Here's what I tried, which looked promising, but failed.I first exported all the originals back out (I've tried copying the files as well) to a temporary directory.Then I used FastStone Viewer to batch manipulate the date and time. It has a function that allows me to keep the time, but set the date, and brought all images up to July 18th. The files had their dates changed on disk as well.When I try to import the files back into Lightroom, they still appear on the June 18th date, I can see that in the import window, and after import they're still back in June.This is Windows 7, 64-bit, Lightroom 3.If I check the files with FastStone viewer on disk, they have no date back in June, still Lightroom seems to think they are.What am I doing wrong? Does Lightroom cache this information from a previous import? I've tried exiting Lightroom, moving the directory with my temporary files, and restarting it, same results.

Answer 1

Aligning timestamps can be a common need, particularly when shooting with more than one camera and/or a second shooter/friend/family member despite best efforts to keep the cameras' clocks synchronized.

Thankfully, there's a solution in the library module. Go the metadata menu and select "Edit Capture Time.." A dialog box will guide you through the process.

You can batch process the changes by first selecting all the images that need to be shifted by the same amount. Input the correct date and time for the first image, and all the selected images will be shifted accordingly.