Date stamp removal

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Date stamp removal

Postby BarbaraC » Thu Oct 11, 2012 6:19 am

Is there any known (& easy) way to remove a time/date stamp from a photo without having to resort to cropping and cloning? I just received a small bunch of photos taken by someone who had the feature turned on in the camera, and it's kind of an eyesore. I can see that it's in the EXIF data, but I can't figure out how to edit it.

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Re: Date stamp removal

Postby texan » Thu Oct 11, 2012 6:31 am

If you have Photoshop......."Content Aware" (A new feature in PS 5 & 6 will wipe them off like magic.....
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Re: Date stamp removal

Postby BarbaraC » Thu Oct 11, 2012 6:37 am

I never bothered to upgrade from CS3. :-(

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Re: Date stamp removal

Postby BarbaraC » Thu Oct 11, 2012 6:58 am

Found a way that's working admirably, and here it is for anyone else in the same predicament: http://www.digiretus.com/tippek/cikkiro.php?SORSZAM=16

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Re: Date stamp removal

Postby debngar » Thu Oct 11, 2012 7:15 am

It will be work either way to remove the dates. Hopefully the person has learned to turn off that feature in their camera now. It's definitely not fun cloning that out in a bunch of photos.
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Re: Date stamp removal

Postby debngar » Thu Oct 11, 2012 7:21 am

On a related side note... a useful practice is to name the images with the date they were taken in the beginning of the filename, starting with the year, then month, then day, when importing into the computer for processing. Other short descriptive info can be added after that before the sequence numbering of the files.
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Re: Date stamp removal

Postby BarbaraC » Thu Oct 11, 2012 7:28 am

debngar wrote:It's definitely not fun cloning that out in a bunch of photos.

No cloning required in the method described on that site. I've been using it, and only a few photos have I had to use a bit of touchup with the healing brush. It's like a minor miracle.

My naming method is simply descriptive because dates aren't important due to how I use photos. However, if I were a photo journalist or other kind of professional photographer, I bet the date would be vital. Heck, I often don't even know what month or week or day it is. :D

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Re: Date stamp removal

Postby debngar » Thu Oct 11, 2012 8:07 am

The process described in the link suggests, and I agree, that some images may not require cloning but others might need a bit of further help. See step 4. It depends on the image. Without doing some cloning/healing, a blob remains in that area after the blur step. It lacks detail and doesn't match the surrounding area.

4. Be Cautious!
If you have a fine, irregular texture in the background, you can stop here. Grass, rippled water or earth textures can be restored nicely this way. If, on the other hand, you have a relatively regular texture (as in this example), it is best to get your hands on the Healing Brush tool (press J). Take a sample from a part that has a similar structure (just like we have shown you before), by Alt+Click-ing, and cloning the texture to the transformed area with fine clicks.


Finishing the process with the clone tool is a choice that may depend on how picky one is about the end results. Maybe for some it's not all that important and that's ok. Personally, I don't see the reason for the selection and blur steps if I'm going to use the healing/clone tool anyways. Using that tool makes it just one step and might be less clicking work.

The content aware fill tool doesn't work miracles in all instances either. That also depends on the image.

I can sympathize about not updating software all that frequently. The cost to do that every year is prohibitive and it's not getting any cheaper! :roll:
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Re: Date stamp removal

Postby BarbaraC » Thu Oct 11, 2012 8:23 am

These were all landscapes for the most part, and other than a bit of healing and some touchup cloning, it worked wonderfully. All 28 photos are done. There were a number of other photos where cropping not only got rid of the date, but it also improved the pics hugely. This wasn't a job involving photos for sale; rather, it was a matter of getting rid of an eyesore. I know you're coming from a whole different angle where perfection is required. These were photos of a friend's vacation in Switzerland. Memories.

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Re: Date stamp removal

Postby gpsmikey » Thu Oct 11, 2012 12:24 pm

Back in the days of film, I always had mixed feelings about the datestamp on the pictures. While I could understand the complaints, I also found it interesting how the same people that complained that I had it on my images would make the comment when looking at their pictures of the kids etc "I wish I could remember when I took this". I did make it a point to be aware of where the datestamp would be on the image and compose the shot to avoid putting the date stamp in the middle of something :lol: Now days, in the digital world, I always rename all images I import into the system based on the date/timestamp as well as which camera they were taken with (makes it easy to find all images my wife or daughter took for example). My newest feature that I have added to images taken when we go places is geotagging - adding the location information to the image so it is easy to locate where it was taken later. You do have to be careful though with that kind of information on images where that information is sensitive - things that show your house location, or kids school etc. Since I add the geotag info after getting home, it is easy to select which ones have the info in the headers.

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Re: Date stamp removal

Postby BarbaraC » Thu Oct 11, 2012 12:50 pm

That's too database-intensive for me. On the older photos of the film sort, I've got dates, names, and whatever written in pencil on the back. For digital stuff, I name things first by subject and then by date only if it's important. Most of the time it isn't. I mean, a dandelion is pretty much the same now as it was back in 1950. :D But therein lies the difference. I take photos of whatever catches my eye at the moment, my husband likes cars and boats and bridges (weird), and my son likes birds and bugs and off-topic things like spilled coffee. No one sane would ever ask any of us when we took a photograph.

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