Exporting an image file with the creation date intact via LR for Mac

[scottc37542422]

I'm absolutely baffled as to what I'm not doing properly with this one...

Here's the challenge:

1. I see the metadata in an image file when it is imported into Lightroom, specifically the Capture Time and Capture Date.
2. When I export the file from Lightroom, I go to look at the metadata in Finder and discover that the Capture Date is nowhere to be found and instead I have my choices of the Created and Modified dates, both of which are today's date.
3. I keep files sorted on a monthly basis, so when I export files from Lightroom, I lose the ability to know when the image was originally created.

Is Finder not robust enough to show me the metadata that contains capture and only shows me created and modified? Should I be using another "Finder" equivalent that shows additional metadata so I can sort my exported files appropriately?

Thanks in advance for whatever assistance the community can provide.

[johnrellis · Accepted solution]

Is Finder not robust enough to show me the metadata that contains capture and only shows me created and modified? Should I be using another "Finder" equivalent that shows additional metadata so I can sort my exported files appropriately?

The Finder doesn't have the capability of showing the EXIF capture date as a column.  (Windows File Explorer can do this, but that doesn't help you.)

Some options:

- The Better Finder Attributes utility can set the file creation date from the EXIF capture date for a batch of photos.  But you'll have to do this every time you export.

- If you want just any one exported batch of photos to sort properly, sort the photos by capture date in LR before exporting them, and use export file renaming to use an increasing sequence number (e.g. p0001.jpg, p0002.jpg, p0003.jpg, etc.).

- Include the capture date/time in the filename of exported photos.  Then sorting alphabetically in the Finder will cause them to be sorted by capture date.