Every now and again I run into a very useful Mac utility which just isn’t going to be used much by the great masses of Mac users who stuff every new photo into iPhoto and call it a day. Photographers have different requirements, and one is the need to batch re-name or re-date hundreds of photos or movies at a time.
That’s exactly what ShootShifter does.
Not only is it useful, fast, and accurate, ShootShifter couldn’t be much simpler to use. Drag and drop a folder full of photos or movie clips onto ShootShifter and you get a list of each one based on EXIF or filesystem dates displayed on chronological order.
Simply apply the changes using the built-in tools, and Voila! Done.
ShootShifter’s timeline visual approach makes it easy to change dates, even among several photos. It’s the perfect app to modify photos or videos from a camera that was set to the wrong date or wrong time.
You control both time and date stamp and the file name using simple renaming tools. ShootShifter can double up as an image or movie viewer, too, as it’s easy to get rid of photos or clips you don’t need. There’s even a built-in magnifying loupe to view photos in closeup mode.
The preview mode lets you view file name changes and date changes before implementing them. Date changes are saved back to the EXIF tag so photos remain in the correct sequence when importing into iPhoto or Lightroom.
While the basics of renaming or changing the file dates is easy enough, ShootShifter comes with other useful features, including keyboard shortcuts for power users, an ‘adjust separately’ mode for individual photo or movie clip editing, and more.
ShootShifter is priced right but, as it’s Mac App Store only, there’s no try-before-you-buy option. If you’re a bona fide card carrying photographer and need what ShootShifter does, the price tag is nominal, but a trial version would be useful.