Today’s Question: I accidentally changed the capture time in metadata for a bunch of photographs in Lightroom and they no longer depict the correct time of capture for the photograph (don’t ask me how or why I did such a silly thing). Is there a way for me to change the date metadata back to the original correct date/time of capture?
Tim’s Quick Answer: The option to correct the capture time for photos in Lightroom is not something you can undo. Therefore, your only option is to apply an additional correction to compensate for the degree of error introduced by your first correction.
More Detail: When you adjust the capture time for photos in Lightroom, it is not possible to undo that task. Therefore, it is important to make sure you have established the correct settings for the capture time adjustment before committing the change.
However, there is still a way to resolve a situation where you’ve applied the wrong correction. You can simply select the same photos and apply an adjustment to compensate for the error.
Let’s assume, for example, that you originally adjusted the capture time by adding three hours to the existing capture time. You then realize that you should have only added two hours to the capture time. You can’t undo the original change, but you can correct the issue by subtracting one hour from the capture time for those same photos.
The key is to determine the new correction that is required. As long as you can determine the “new” error in the capture time, however, you can correct that capture time discrepancy by simply using the “Edit Capture Time” command (found on the Metadata menu in Lightroom) once again.