admin
10-31-2007, 02:23 PM
Keep in mind that none of the operations in Photo-grapher will affect or alter the trail camera pictures you are analyzing.
Default Time and Photograph Time
The first step in the file selection process is to select your default time frame you wish to have on your graphs. The two choices are Standard Time and Daylight Savings Time. This selection is important so that all photographs can be standarized to either Standard or Daylight Savings. A second option (to the right of the file selection window) is to input which time frame the camera clock was set to. If the camera clock is not set to the same reference time (Standard or Daylight Savings) then an adjustment to time the picture was taken will be automatically performed.
Type of Date
Digital trail camera photographs have the date and time the photograph was taken embedded in the file code. There are date/times embedded in the code with the picture stored on your computer. One is "date modified" and another is "date picture taken". For most trail cameras the date modified is the correct date to use with this program. The user should confirm that the date modified is the same as the date and time shown on the photograph. You can right click on the photograph and select properties to see what the modified date is and compare to what is shown on the photograph.
If these dates do not match you should determine if the "date picture taken" matches the date/time on the photograph. To do this, use Explorer to go to the photo folder on your computer and select "Detail" view. In this view you should have a list of photographs with different properties listed to the right of each photo. If "Date Picture Taken" does not show up right click at the list header where "date modified" is printed. A pop-up list of properties available will appear. You should select "date picture taken" from this list. Again, the user should confirm that this date matches the date on the photograph. WARNING - Using Date Picture Taken will take longer for the program to process. If possible, use Date Modified instead. One indicator that you should be using Date Picture Taken would be a large group of photos being graphed during the middle of the day. If you see abnormal peaks in the graphs, you should switch to Date Picture Taken.
Select Folder Location
The next step is to select a folder(s) of files you wish to analyze. When you click on "select folder location" a pop-up window will allow you to navigate to your folder of photos on your computer. Select a folder by double clicking on the folder name. You are then sent back to the folder location tab. If you check the "Include Subfolders" tab, all folders inside of the folder you have selected will be included in the analysis. At this point you can go to the graph tabs shown at the top of the page
Save Data Profile
You can use this option to save your data to a file. This option is important if you wish to save a particular analysis to use to compare to another analysis. To do this, simply click the "Save" button and place the new file in a location you will be able to locate it later.
Add Previously Saved Data Profile
Instead of locating a folder of photographs on your computer to analyze, you can open previously saved data profiles. You have the option to select more than one profile and all of the data from each profile will be added together.
Enable Second Series
This is a great option for comparing different folders or camera locations. Simply select a second folder in the same manner the first folder was chosen. A graph of the second series will automatically be shown on the Time of Day graph as well as the Age of Moon graph. For each of these graphs you will have the option of showing the actual file count OR the percent of photographs. This is important because if two cameras were in the field for different amounts of time, then one will likely have more photographs, even though it make take the same number of pictures per day. For a fair comparison, you should use, percent of total to compare two locations.
Default Time and Photograph Time
The first step in the file selection process is to select your default time frame you wish to have on your graphs. The two choices are Standard Time and Daylight Savings Time. This selection is important so that all photographs can be standarized to either Standard or Daylight Savings. A second option (to the right of the file selection window) is to input which time frame the camera clock was set to. If the camera clock is not set to the same reference time (Standard or Daylight Savings) then an adjustment to time the picture was taken will be automatically performed.
Type of Date
Digital trail camera photographs have the date and time the photograph was taken embedded in the file code. There are date/times embedded in the code with the picture stored on your computer. One is "date modified" and another is "date picture taken". For most trail cameras the date modified is the correct date to use with this program. The user should confirm that the date modified is the same as the date and time shown on the photograph. You can right click on the photograph and select properties to see what the modified date is and compare to what is shown on the photograph.
If these dates do not match you should determine if the "date picture taken" matches the date/time on the photograph. To do this, use Explorer to go to the photo folder on your computer and select "Detail" view. In this view you should have a list of photographs with different properties listed to the right of each photo. If "Date Picture Taken" does not show up right click at the list header where "date modified" is printed. A pop-up list of properties available will appear. You should select "date picture taken" from this list. Again, the user should confirm that this date matches the date on the photograph. WARNING - Using Date Picture Taken will take longer for the program to process. If possible, use Date Modified instead. One indicator that you should be using Date Picture Taken would be a large group of photos being graphed during the middle of the day. If you see abnormal peaks in the graphs, you should switch to Date Picture Taken.
Select Folder Location
The next step is to select a folder(s) of files you wish to analyze. When you click on "select folder location" a pop-up window will allow you to navigate to your folder of photos on your computer. Select a folder by double clicking on the folder name. You are then sent back to the folder location tab. If you check the "Include Subfolders" tab, all folders inside of the folder you have selected will be included in the analysis. At this point you can go to the graph tabs shown at the top of the page
Save Data Profile
You can use this option to save your data to a file. This option is important if you wish to save a particular analysis to use to compare to another analysis. To do this, simply click the "Save" button and place the new file in a location you will be able to locate it later.
Add Previously Saved Data Profile
Instead of locating a folder of photographs on your computer to analyze, you can open previously saved data profiles. You have the option to select more than one profile and all of the data from each profile will be added together.
Enable Second Series
This is a great option for comparing different folders or camera locations. Simply select a second folder in the same manner the first folder was chosen. A graph of the second series will automatically be shown on the Time of Day graph as well as the Age of Moon graph. For each of these graphs you will have the option of showing the actual file count OR the percent of photographs. This is important because if two cameras were in the field for different amounts of time, then one will likely have more photographs, even though it make take the same number of pictures per day. For a fair comparison, you should use, percent of total to compare two locations.