Your photo renaming convention

I just leave them as is and then tag them. Easier to catalogue this way.

YYYY-MM-DD Name of File 01
YYYY-MM-DD Name of File 02


example:
2007-06-04 Day with Reiko in Sydney 01.NEF
2007-06-04 Day with Reiko in Sydney 02.NEF
2007-06-04 Day with Reiko in Sydney 03.NEF
etc.....


If you put the date in your file name, stating it in terms of YYYY-MM-DD is best because computers automatically sort files chronologically this way without even doing so intentionally.

YYYY-MM-DD DSC_nnnnn.NEF

I do this for the reason Abstract mentions. Once they're imported I then tag them.

I hate renamed photo's. I do a lot of printing on a fuji frontier wich only prints 8 characters of the filename on the back of the photo. People that won't rename their photo's can easily find the original file on their computer by just looking on the back of a printed photo. Also some make a mess out of it by renaming files after they burnt a backup on CD. All this renaming results in a terrible mess one day or another. My advice : if you really want to rename the file, keep the original filename as the first characters in the name.
Make it something like DSC_1234_wathever_you_find_neccesary_to_add.jpg

I have Adobe Bridge automatically renaming my files to mmddyy_xxxx.raf, and organized in folders by date yyyymmdd.

Pictures --> YYYYMMDD --> MMDDYY_XXXX.RAF

I leave the filename alone, and have it keep continuous image numbers so none have the same name. For sorting, I stick them in Lightroom and use tags and collections.

In addition, I use a date-based filesystem hierarchy, e.g. /LaCie Disk/Photo Library/2007/June/4 for anything I shoot today. I used to do this same format by hand, but now Lightroom sorts the images for me.

I don't rename them. I figure the date is in the EXIF information, and I try to add a caption, keywords, and a rating as soon as possible - so there's no point.

Oh, and lately I've been adding the city/state/country metadata as well. Seems like a much better way to go.

Westside guy said:

I don't rename them. I figure the date is in the EXIF information, and I try to add a caption, keywords, and a rating as soon as possible - so there's no point.

Oh, and lately I've been adding the city/state/country metadata as well. Seems like a much better way to go.

Click to expand...

Yeah, this is basically my current methodology...

What is the easiest way to tag photos for iPhoto? It would be nice if there was some sort of tagging system similar to the one Facebook uses to tag people, and then be able to search people or locations.

swiftaw said:

As well all know, when we take photos they are all simply numbered on the memory card. Just curious when you import them onto your computer whether you rename them, or do you just tag them with some software app.

If you do rename them, what convention do you use?

Click to expand...

I never rename them. The first thing I do is copy the camera memory to a CD and put that away (and hope to never have need to look at it again). Then I go through the rest of my work flow. If I ever re-named a file I'd never be able to figure out which file was the source of the renamed file abd I'd never be able to find anything in my CD archive.

Ok sometimes I'll export a file to send to some place. But I'll add to the filename like this. Say is was "D56012.NEF" and it was a picture of someones kid. I'd give them "JohnySmith_65012.jpg" But when the file is inside my system it's just whatever the filename was when it was imported.

buffalo said:

What is the easiest way to tag photos for iPhoto? It would be nice if there was some sort of tagging system similar to the one Facebook uses to tag people, and then be able to search people or locations.

Click to expand...

iPhoto does exactly as you've described.

Here is what I do: Each photo gets tagged by (1) The kind of photo either Underwater, landscape, cityscape, portrait, groupshop, still life or whatever. I have a fixed list of these and (2) The location but I assign the same location to an entire "roll" and will divide the roll it it was shot at multiple locations. (3) By subject

This goes fast because in iPhoto you can select multiple images and assign them all the same keywords. So for example I can select all the images taken in my underwater housing and assign the "underwater" keyword to them. and then select all the ones of rock fish and give then a tag. I select and entire roll and give it two stars and then"promote" the rating as a look at them.

I have edited the keywork list to include what I need to do the above and think carfully before adding more keywords, it has to be in a "system" in order to work.

I use the comments field for stuff that can't be done with my keyword system.

I also wrote down my star rating system. Say three stars is a good but un-artfull snapshot, four is a good photo and 5 is what I'd concider publication quality

Any system will work but you have to think it through and stick to it. It helps to write down your "rules" so that they will remain consistent over the years.

I'm stil using iPhoto because my two G4 Macs don't like to run Aperture well. I'll upgrade when Apple builds something comparable in price and form factor to the old PowerMac (remember the $1,400 tower with upgradeable parts Apple sold in 1999?)

ChrisA said:

This goes fast because in iPhoto you can select multiple images and assign them all the same keywords. So for example I can select all the images taken in my underwater housing and assign the "underwater" keyword to them.

Click to expand...

Make it even faster, by using Keyword Assistant. IMO the current iPhoto keyword interface is, in a word, awful -- this really makes it a lot more convenient to use.

Have a look if it is possible to change the prefix in the camera. Then you can change that prefix once. I did so with my Nikon D200 when I reached the 10000 pictures limit to be able to sort my pictures correctly.