Changing Owners Name in existing image files

I have an old 20D which i still use occasionally (I take it to work with me).
When I originally got it, I inserted my name, along with my phone number in the 'Owners name' field in EOS Utility.
I now wish to remove the phone number part of the string from the images already taken with it.

I know how to go in and change this on the camera so any future images don't include the phone number (I've already done this), but how can i go through old images taken with it and remove this info. I can't seem to find it using Bridge or Lightroom.

Is this a unique Canon only field?


EDIT: Not sure if this belongs in post-processing forum??

No it's not Canon specific. There are various tools you can use to change it after.

From a command line exiftool is handy for batch processing:

exiftool -overwrite_original -OwnerName="...." filename.ext

On a more recent version of windows you could use the following to update an entire directory assuming it only contained pictures:

C:\SomeDir>for /R %i in (*.*) do @exiftool -overwrite_original -OwnerName="NewName" "%i"

e-k

If you can see the field in Lightroom you can change it using the metadata update. You should be able to see all the EXIF info.

E-K wrote in post #8860200
No it's not Canon specific. There are various tools you can use to change it after.

From a command line exiftool is handy for batch processing:

exiftool -overwrite_original -OwnerName="...." filename.ext

On a more recent version of windows you could use the following to update an entire directory assuming it only contained pictures:

C:\SomeDir>for /R %i in (*.*) do @exiftool -overwrite_original -OwnerName="NewName" "%i"

e-k

Mmmm, Thanks for the info but it's just gone waaay over my head!
They are not all in the same folder about three years worth of images.

Tom_D wrote in post #8860885
If you can see the field in Lightroom you can change it using the metadata update. You should be able to see all the EXIF info.

Unfortunately I can't see this field in any program except DPP, and in DPP it can't be changed as far as I know.

NinetyEight wrote in post #8865518
Mmmm, Thanks for the info but it's just gone waaay over my head!
They are not all in the same folder about three years worth of images.

The command goes into each folder below the current folder as well (the /R stands for recurse), so it would be no problem.

Say you had a number of folders under the D:\ drive, grab the Windows executable from http://www.sno.phy.que​ensu.ca/~phil/exiftool​/ and place it in your path or at the root of D:.

Then just bring up a command line and type:

D:
cd \
for /R %i in (*.CR2;*.JPG;*.JPEG) do @exiftool -overwrite_original -OwnerName="NewName" "%i"

That will go into each and every folder and overwrite the existing OwnerName in the EXIF with NewName for all CR2 and JPEG files.

It will take some time if you have a lot of images but it will do it. You may want to back things up too if you haven't done so already (I've never had a problem rewriting the EXIF but there's always a chance).

e-k

E-K wrote in post #8866108
The command goes into each folder below the current folder as well (the /R stands for recurse), so it would be no problem.

Say you had a number of folders under the D:\ drive, grab the Windows executable from http://www.sno.phy.que​ensu.ca/~phil/exiftool​/ and place it in your path or at the root of D:.

Then just bring up a command line and type:

D:
cd \
for /R %i in (*.CR2;*.JPG;*.JPEG) do @exiftool -overwrite_original -OwnerName="NewName" "%i"

That will go into each and every folder and overwrite the existing OwnerName in the EXIF with NewName for all CR2 and JPEG files.

It will take some time if you have a lot of images but it will do it. You may want to back things up too if you haven't done so already (I've never had a problem rewriting the EXIF but there's always a chance).

e-k

Thanks for the explanation, I appreciate the time you took on this - I'll give this a go this evening. I just get a but twitchy doing things from the command line these days!

All of my images are backed up - On two external hard drives, one off site and I have a set of DVD's with all my CR2 files as well, so no worries there

I'll still copy a years worth of files (a few thousand) to a separate location and try it first.

Thanks again.

No problem.

I forgot that ExifTool has a recurse option and a preserve original filestamp option. So basically you can just use something like,

exiftool -r -P -overwrite_original -OwnerName="NewName" D:\photos

This would change the OwnerName on all image file in and under the folder D:\photos keeping the original file time stamp.

Have fun.

e-k

e-k

Many thanks - Just tried it on a batch of images from 2005 and it works a treat

I noticed that the old 'OwnerName' still showed up in the XMP file, but I then ran the exiftool on these and it changed it also.
I've re-viewed some of these files in Bridge and Lightroom and all seems fine.

Thanks again for your valuable assistance - I owe you a beer!

Why not use this tool and change it directly in the RAW file itself?

http://freeweb.siol.ne​t/hrastni3/

pixelshooter.net wrote in post #8871332
Why not use this tool and change it directly in the RAW file itself?

http://freeweb.siol.ne​t/hrastni3/

Isn't that what I've been doing with the method e-k suggested?

Yes. I clicked on the link and it's a GUI front-end to ExifTool. For a large number of files though in multiple sub-folders, you're probably better off with just using the command line.

e-k

E-K wrote in post #8872721
Yes. I clicked on the link and it's a GUI front-end to ExifTool. For a large number of files though in multiple sub-folders, you're probably better off with just using the command line.

e-k

Glad about that - I updated all the affected cr2 files (with great success) last night!

Thanks again

Just to get down things, what if you never created an OwnerName? I checked a jpeg created by LR and couldn't find an OwnerName field...?

I can only see this field in DPP, and the associated xmp file, It doesn't seem to appear anywhere else.

So I wonder then if running the above scripts would break on a file generated by another developer?