7D Time/Date Stamp Question

Hi all,

I have a Canon 7D, and I have a job offer to take pictures for a Real Estate Agent. She needs the time/date stamp to be printed on the photo itself when it's taken. How can this be done so that when I import the photo into my computer, it's already embedded in?

I found something about the "Print Order" section in the menu where you can turn it on and off, but it doesn't seem to be on the photo when I import the pictures.

Help, anyone? Thank you!

You have to do it in post processing.

That's what I was afraid of. So there's no way to do it automatically, similar to the older style cameras?

When you say post processing, do you mean manually adding it in Photoshop or something similar? Or is there another way?

You will have to manually add it in post processing (Photoshop or whatever you use). If you look in the images EXIF data, you'll be able to see the exact time and date the shot was taken and then you just have to add text somewhere on the shot to reflect that. Not difficult, just annoying.

So the 100% accurate answer to your real estate agent is "It can't be done".
The date is never inserted into the image any longer, but in the metadata that goes along with the image file. That's why you have to copy it, if you really do want it to obscure part of the image.

Get yourself a large portable clock that displays date & leave it somewhere in each shot...

Never really thought about putting a date stamp on for a long time. Isn't it funny though that something that was a seling point 20yrs ago, you now can't do.

Well, "can't do" is perhaps not the best term. You can't do it in the same way, since a better way has been invented - metadata.

Download Faststone (it's free). If I remember correctly, it has the ability to add a watermark, which you can set to be lifted from the Exif info.

Just had a look - it's under batch convert/add text. In there you can tell it to add info from exif. Just add all the files you want to perform the action on, tell it where to save the amended files to, and click on convert. Easy.

I agree on the 'better way.' It's just that this job requires that it be put directly on. I took the data from the exif file and wrote a script to write it onto the photo, but that wasn't good enough for this particular job. Maybe she has to find someone with an old film camera! Thanks for the info, everyone. Just wanted to be sure before I gave her the information.

if there are a lot of pics that need time / date, you can make an automated action in photoshop.

Press record, insert time / date once and let photoshop repeat the action automatically for all your pictures.

or use a point and shoot. Ive seen some current point and shoots that still put a date stamp on the pictures. but not on the 7D