Today’s Question: I believe you taught me at one time that you need to be in the Grid view, not the Loop view to reset these [the capture time] all at once [in Lightroom Classic].
Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, just as with other metadata updates, if you want to adjust the capture time you’ll want to be in the grid view display in Lightroom Classic before using the Edit Capture Time command.
More Detail: Today’s “question” is a follow-up to an earlier Ask Tim Grey eNewsletter, where I explained how you can adjust the capture time for a group of photos. The specific example involved two cameras, one of which had a time that was off by about five minutes compared to the camera that had an accurate time setting.
In my answer I explained a process for filtering the images to those captured only with the camera that had the time set incorrectly. Part of that process involved accessing the Library Filter bar that is available in the grid view (but not in the loupe view). However, I didn’t explicitly state that it was necessary to be in the grid view in order to adjust the capture time for multiple photos.
So, I thought it was worthwhile to amplify the point about the difference between the grid view and the loupe view displays in Lightroom Classic when you have selected multiple images.
By default, even if you have selected multiple photos on the filmstrip, if you are in the loupe view Lightroom Classic assumes you are working with a single image, and updates you apply (such as adding keywords or adjusting capture time) will only apply to the single image shown in the loupe view display.
Therefore, it is necessary to be in the grid view (not the loupe view) if you want to select multiple photos and apply metadata updates to all of those selected images. I should add that it is possible to enable automatic metadata synchronization when you are in the loupe view display, but I don’t recommend taking advantage of this option because there is a risk of forgetting to turn it on, or of forgetting that it is on. In my mind it is more obvious that you are working with multiple images when you are in the grid view, and I prefer to maintain consistent behavior in the loupe view.