Remove date from a digital photo

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 1546 Location: Central FL, USA

My Kodak camera has been putting dates on my pictures for some time now.
I finally went through the menu on the camera and found out how to turn off the date, but I've still got many pictures with dates on them that I'd like to remove.

The camera adds the date over the picture.... so, is there some way I can systematically remove them? That's my question.

The Doctor Cool

Werebo · Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 8:22 pm Post subject:

The only effective way I can find, is to work each photo separately, using an image-editing program that has a good 'cloning' tool.

There must be freebie ones out there, but I don't know of any, unless the ol' 'PaintShop Pro' is still available from when it was free. I don't know whether that has a clone tool though.

I had a try using my Corel7's PhotoPaint (still going strong from Win95 days Wink

), and ended up with this, from your pic above:

<<-- click to expand

This wuz a neasy one, most of the background immediately underneath the date, was very dark, so it was easy to clone without getting an obvious pattern showing (remember those 'enhanced' Reuters pictures of smoke columns over Baghdad??? Wink

)

Depending on the quantity of pics you have, I don't mind having a go at them for you. I won't guarantee how well they'll turn out, but I'll try my best. I promise NOT to paste little cartoon betty boop or mickey mouse characters leaping around the bonfire, or something equally daft

brat · Joined: Jun 05, 2003 Posts: 2326

I promise NOT to paste little cartoon betty boop or mickey mouse characters leaping around the bonfire, or something equally daft

Ynot that would be CUTE.

mrsbrat

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 1546 Location: Central FL, USA

Thank you BO!

Massaging the photo can do it, but I know that there is somewhere in the 'Code' for the photo where the date is located and added by the camera.

I looked at that photo with a HEX editor and did find the date, in the header, and removed it, but the date in the picture remained. I assume that it's in pixel code and not just in plain ol' text. There was also the make and model of the camera in that text header.

If someone knew the hex address of that code, I could just Zero out that area and be done with the yellow date sticking out like a red nose on a wine'o.

It's funny though..... when I look at my pic's in Thumbnail view in windows, the date isn't there.....it only shows up when I expand the view to full screen, in any picture viewer like MSPaint or FotoFilter, which I use a lot.

Maybe I'll send an inquiry to Kodak. Idea

This isn't an earth shattering problem, but since participation in this forum has been down of late, I thought I'd throw it in for 'flavor'.

What did you think of my Fire? Confused

Doc

hulland · Joined: Dec 11, 2002 Posts: 14

If you use ACDSEE or similar organiser for your photo's there is an option to type in the Modified date, and/or the CREATION DATE. You can also remove it. It may not do the trick with the Kodak thing but may be worth a try - you can also batch change them to save you time too.

Werebo

'twas indeed an impressive fire, I bet it could have baked some potatoes wonderfully

I tried that photo in Adobe PhotoShop V7, which indicated that there was indeed another layer, but it was locked to the 'base' layer somehow, and I couldn't find a way to unlock it - I bet that locked layer is the date stamp!!!

I'll have a hunt around, and ask on a graphix forum I belong to (GraphixanStuff) - Jan ( the host) is a guru, when it comes to anything PhotoShop

Werebo

Update:

After asking and hunting around, plus playing with that pic, it turns out the the date-stamp is in fact blended into the background - no deletable layers!!!

Nefer mind, they're still do-able so, if you want to sort out the pics you need editing Doc, zip 'em up and email 'em to me. It'll help to keep me out of too much mischief Wink

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 1546 Location: Central FL, USA

Thanks for the offer BO, but I gotta figure this one out.

And besides, you need to take advantage of your freedom to get into as much mischief as possible, while you can. Twisted Evil

Thanks,
The Doctor

Werebo

Hehehehehehehe...

At present, my mischief consists of painting all the doors+frames in the hallway - 7 doors & frames + 3 cupboards. At the same time, I'm laundering the living room curtains + curtain track (No! the curtain track ISN'T in the washing machine!!! Wink

) and painting the board above the living-room window where the track fits on.

I'm having a quick break, at present, to check my mails and grab a mug o' tea, ready for round 2.

With my other hand......

I'd welcome the chance for some serious mischief!!!

goretsky

Hello,

If you are refering to the data which is embedded in a JPEG picture file that contains the date and time stamp, GPS data and so forth, that is called EXIF data.

It seems like there are quite a few picture editing programs which allow you to change the EXIF data in files, but ones which allow changes en masse are not as common. Perhaps some of the batch photo conversion utilities do this?

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

profhig · Joined: Sep 06, 2003 Posts: 239 Location: Tamworth, UK

Depending on the pic and your aesthetic inclinations maybe you could crop the date out? This could be done as a batch in photoshop (and probably other apps) and if you saved the cropped picture separately from the originals, you haven't lost anything? Just a thought.

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 1546 Location: Central FL, USA

I've shut off the Date function in my camera, so this is no longer a problem, but for the older photos that are in my archives, it sure would be nice to remove some of the dates. (although, not absolutely necessary ) Rolling Eyes

Yes, if I took the picture with the topic biased away from the date, I could indeed CROP the picture and remove the date. I've even done that on some pictures where the topic of the picture was away from the date.

Oh well, I thought maybe it would be an easy fix, but it appears that I was wrong. No biggie!

Y'all have a great day now, Y'hear?
The Doctor

Bo, didn't you mean "mug of Ale" instead of 'mug of tea' ??

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 1546 Location: Central FL, USA

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 1546 Location: Central FL, USA

I just searched Kodak's Knowledge-base and came up with this answer:

Question :
How do I remove the date/time stamp from pictures I have already taken?
Answer :

If you take a picture with the date/time stamp, the date/time stamp cannot be removed. You can crop the picture to remove the date/time stamp; however, this will also remove part of the picture. You can open the picture in a third-party image-editing program that lets you write or color over the date/time stamp.
************************************

Somehow, I figured that would be Kodak's answer.

Thanks for everyone's help.

The Doctor

Werebo

Well Doc, the offer still stands if you have some pics you need amending. Zip 'em up and mail 'em - at approx 5 mins to work each pic, it won't take too long.

I promise to get into mischief whilst doing them Wink

eustin · Joined: Jun 05, 2009 Posts: 1

There is a easy-to-use tool which removes date stamps from multiple photos in a batch mode.
Photo Stamp Remover can be downloaded at
http://www.softorbits.com/photo-stamp-remover/

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 1546 Location: Central FL, USA

eustin,

Thank you!
That seems to be the program I would need if I were still needing it.
( I shut off the date stamp feature in my camera )

But...........
the forty dollar price tag is a bit steep for me, someone retired on Social Security.
I installed the DEMO and it does seem to work to remove the date stamp from old photos, but the demo won't save the corrected file. It only slows it as a thumbnail.

But again, I thank you for the information.

The Doctor Cool

Philocalist

Hi Doc, have PM'd you as I thought it would be quicker, as the offer is 24 hours only.
The date removal software you wanted is free for the next few hours at http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/ ... just be sure to instal it before the expiry time (it checks in, and won't instal foc if you are too late!)
Currently 21 hours left ............

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 1546 Location: Central FL, USA

Got it !!!

And thanks a MILLION !!!

I've passed the info along to several friends that I know are in to photo editing.

Now I can clean up some of my old photos that still have the bright yellow date stamps on them.

God Bless

Doc Cool

Rich88 · Joined: Sep 22, 2009 Posts: 1

I need to delete dates from Kodak pics, too. If MSoft can show thumbnails on Windows Explorer without the dates, why can't I somehow do the same? Isn't it an extra piece of data that is ignored by Explorer?