rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Donald, the drawback of that for me is that I don't always have Lightroom with me. However, I generally do have a means of getting on the web, and going to the server on which my database is located. Thus, I can show clients images that match some of the descriptions of what they might be interested in seeing, or close enough to give them an idea of what they may want in a photo, or how it might look.
--Bob

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

Understood - was not meant as your solution, thought it might have been a possible solution for the OP, especially given the plugins that seem to perform what he might have been looking for.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Thanks, Don. The OP seems to want a rather easy appearing, but technically involved method of examining/analysing exif data. Personally, I'm glad I got involved in this discussion, as I learned about an app that will extract the data and eliminate the need to do that long hand. Though, I've gotten a few shortcut scripts to work for me. That app bears looking into.

I use lightroom for some editing, but as I mentioned, I don't always have that with me. A tablet and wifi gets me to my database.
--Bob

--Bob

picpiper Loc: California

Having spent many of my working years with dBASE, Paradox, Delphi, Postgres, etc. I understand the DIY urges. I think there are probably off-the-shelf tools that will accomplish a fair amount or your goals.

I poked around a little on the web and discovered digiKam - a very full-featured open-source cataloger/editor. It has roots in Linux - you are told right up-front that the Windows version is buggy. However you should drop right in on this page: http://www.digikam.org/node/509 and work your way back out. Basically digiKam uses SQLite under the hood and the author of this page has a development branch that runs digiKam on MySQL. Even if you go DIY there is undoubtedly a wealth of good stuff in the source code.

To any UHHers following along here: Regardless of whether you have any interest in testing or using digiKam everyone should download and skim the documentation. It is a real treasure chest of both basic and advanced photographic knowledge, particularly the chapter on Digital Asset Management (DAM) that starts on page 53. The doc is here:
http://docs.kde.org/development/en/extragear-graphics/digikam/digikam.pdf

BTW: Did you know that you can filter Picasa for certain EXIF fields? For instance Focal:50 in the search field filters for Focal Length = 50mm photos; ISO:800 does likewise for ISO = 800. Focal:50 ISO:800 filters for both. I haven't been able to find other xxx: filters (except for the colors - color:red finds photos with a lot of red - color:blue , etc.)

picpiper Loc: California

It does really look like Lightroom + Plugins will take care of the OPs needs in the most elegant and least painful manner. I'm not a LR user, but share the OP's interest in these kind of tools. Thanks for the Data Explorer link.

Was tangled in the web reading about digiKam and didn't see your post until after hitting Send on my digiKam post above.

Bobbee

SO I did a quick GOOGLE. This was one guys comment that looked promising because of the word 'command window'. You can put that in a script and run it against a directory and pipe the data to a file.


"....I use dcraw for raw files and jhead for jpegs. You need to run them in a command window and then copy and paste the results. These are free programs, including source code......"

pithydoug Loc: Catskill Mountains, NY

You are asking what products like Lightroom do for you. You can run searches on just about any of the exif data.

Ctrclckws

Not quite the same thing, but...
ACDSee and maybe other programs will let you rename files with at least some of the image parameters in the filename.
Might be useful to some.

Bobbee

So I downloaded JHEAD and just ran it. this is what I got. I then ran it again and piped it to a file. It worked. If this is good for you then there is a command line execution that will go through all the files in a directory. Easy Peasy. If your inventive there is a PERL extension that can create XLS files. You could run this and then edit the data in PERL and route it to a XLS. You could then sell that and become a millionaire.

D:\@Document\Installables\JHEAD EXIF Data>jhead DP8_0161.jpg
File name : DP8_0161.jpg
File size : 13881800 bytes
File date : 2015:04:16 06:04:19
Camera make : NIKON CORPORATION
Camera model : NIKON D800
Date/Time : 2015:04:15 17:04:36
Resolution : 7360 x 4912
Flash used : Yes (manual, return light detected)
Focal length : 70.0mm (35mm equivalent: 70mm)
CCD width : 35.93mm
Exposure time: 0.0050 s (1/200)
Aperture : f/4.5
Focus dist. : 5.01m
ISO equiv. : 100
Whitebalance : Auto
Metering Mode: pattern
Exposure : Manual
Exposure Mode: Manual
JPEG Quality : 98
======= IPTC data: =======
City : ←%G
Record vers. : 60928
DateCreated : 20150415
Time Created : 170436+0000

TomV Loc: Annapolis, Maryland

Jerry, I work for a company that generates a gazillion bits of information that we analyze on a daily basis using a lot of software tools. We then boil it down to manageable sizes and eventually eyeball it graphically looking for trends. We have a team of analysts and engineers doing that while getting paid well from our customers.

With that said, I think you are planning to get into a state we call information overload. You are using a Sony ( I have an a77ii and a99 and had an a65). With the ability to see what your parameter settings are going to get you in the EVF before you take the shot I think you are able to experiment very efficiently without the need for hundreds of exif files to figure out how your camera settings work.

You will quickly discover what is the lowest iso setting you are comfortable with, how the shutter speed and f stop values impact your photos. You will be surprised how easily you will remember the starting parameter values for a particular shooting condition and easily adjust them while using the EVF. Understanding how to use the histogram is also helpful, though the EVF tends to make that less important a tool as it is for OVF cameras.

Remember that some of the parameters can be compensated for during post-processing as well.

BooIsMyCat Loc: Somewhere

I'm not big on Lightroom but, guess what? LR CC allows you to use keywords and catalogs your photos for you. You can update multiple images at one time with different keywords - which you could take from the exif data.

This could do all that you are looking at doing without having to learn another program.

PS... Did I hear you correct in saying you want to use Excel to "eliminate" all the overhead? LOL!

robirdman

I understand extactly what you are wanting. I enter data such as time, place, description etc in Bridge. I have a separate database in MSACESS for keeping track of all my photos for business. I used to have to enter everything all over again. (I actually first enter into MSWorks because of the ability to fill down, instead of retyping everything). Anyway this was so tedious and time consuming, so I posted on Adobe forum if there was a way and got a reply of a little program or code to attach to Bridge. Then there is a metadata menu, with extract exif of all the highlighted images into a text file, which I then import into MSworks, make some modifications and import into Access. It is great. I first asked the person if I could include a couple of extra categories and he modified it. Still takes some time to match up field names and such but saves a huge amount of time over what I used to do.

pbriggs8 Loc: Lexington, KY

Check out Picture Information Extractor (PIE) by picmeta. I think it will do the export of metadata that the OP is asking for.

pithydoug Loc: Catskill Mountains, NY

Or buy Lightroom. :)

zigipha Loc: north nj

http://lightroomsolutions.com/plug-ins/list-view/

http://www.pkzsoftware.com/Pages/LightroomMetadataExplorer.aspx

but the light room collections would be more useful if you want to browse all pics iso 200 etc (as others have mentinoed)