APMD

Analog Photography MetaData

The APMD package is the entry of the NOSSAFLEX file naming convention into the R universe to help scientific, professional or amateur photographers to name their picture files consistently and informatively.

When taking a picture with an analog camera, data such as aperture, shutter speed or focal length are not automatically saved the way they are in a digital camera. Many photographers write down these precious metadata in a notebook, we want to help them improve their workflow and data quality.

What is NOSSAFLEX?

Here is an explanation from the creators:

It’s as easy as the name – NOSSAFLEX has all of the information in the title.

NO = Number SS = Shutter Speed A = Aperture FL = Focal Length EX = Exposure

NOSSAFLEX file names looks like this: NO03_SS250_A8_FL80_EX0.jpg or this: NO34_SS30_A2.8_FL35_EX+1.tiff!

Learn more on their website or on their Youtube channel.

The package

Here are the main functions in the package:

• renaming_nossaflex batch-renames picture files from uninformative DSC_00345.jpg to information-rich NOSSAFLEX name based on data provided by the user, see {analog} section: NO03_SS250_A8_FL80_EX0.jpg.
• parsing_json and parsing_frames parse data in JSON format as exported by the analog™ app and Frames™ app respectively.
• editing_exif batch-saves the metadata of the pictures into the exif slots of the scan files (jpg, tiff, etc).

Analog™, Datafilm™, Frames™ or an other app

The workflow

Installation

You can install the released version of APMD from CRAN with:

install.packages("APMD")

Or the development version from GitHub with:

pak::pkg_install("AlbanSagouis/APMD@dev")

Usage

Renaming files

This is a basic example which shows you how to solve a common problem:

library(APMD)
files <- c("Pictures/2024/01 02 Winter in Berlin/DSC_001034",
          "Pictures/2024/01 02 Winter in Berlin/DSC_001035",
          "Pictures/2024/01 02 Winter in Berlin/DSC_001036")
filenames <- reading_nossaflex(path = "path_to_the_filenames.txt") # provided by the `analog` app
renaming_nossaflex(filenames = filenames, files = files)

Saving exif data

Additionally you may want to safely save the shots metadata inside the scan files:

metadata <- reading_nossaflex(path = "path_to_the_filenames.txt") |>  # provided by the `analog` app
     parsing_nossaflex()
editing_exif(files, metadata)

Related work

The package relies heavily on the great exiftoolr {https://github.com/JoshOBrien/exiftoolr/} package by @JoshOBrien which itself depends on the great exiftool {https://exiftool.org/} software by Phil Harvey. Finally, jExifToolGUI {https://github.com/hvdwolf/jExifToolGUI} offers exif editing and with a Graphical Interface, nice. And for Apple users, the Frames™ iPhone and Mac apps allow integrated shot metadata recording and including the metadata in the exif slots with a great GUI.