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back up a folder of renamed photos

T

tedesco24

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 4, 2010
75
0
I'm trying to organize and backup my photo collection. Here is my workflow and where I need help.
1. Connect camera and use Image Capture to move the photos off the camera and onto the desktop in a temporary holding folder.
2. Import the photos into iPhoto as an event
3. Batch rename the photos in iPhoto
4. Add keywords, etc
And here is where I am stumped:
4. I want to backup the renamed photos onto an external hard drive and my Mediafire cloud site.
The problem I'm having is when I try to copy the renamed photos, they are showing up with the original names...such as IMG-4012.
Where can I find the renamed photos to copy onto my backup storage sites? Is there a better way than my current entire workflow? I'm cool with using Automator if that would streamline my workflow.
 
Tumbleweed666

Tumbleweed666

macrumors 68000
Mar 20, 2009
1,761
141
Near London, UK.
tedesco24 said:
I'm trying to organize and backup my photo collection. Here is my workflow and where I need help.
1. Connect camera and use Image Capture to move the photos off the camera and onto the desktop in a temporary holding folder.
2. Import the photos into iPhoto as an event
3. Batch rename the photos in iPhoto
4. Add keywords, etc
And here is where I am stumped:
4. I want to backup the renamed photos onto an external hard drive and my Mediafire cloud site.
The problem I'm having is when I try to copy the renamed photos, they are showing up with the original names...such as IMG-4012.
Where can I find the renamed photos to copy onto my backup storage sites? Is there a better way than my current entire workflow? I'm cool with using Automator if that would streamline my workflow.
Click to expand...

Well you should be able to directly import using iPhoto rather than going through the intermediate step of image capture.
Second are you using file > export and using the option of exporting the changed photos rather than originals as otherwise I can't see why you are getting the original names?
Fwiw in case it's of interest you can rename the files on export as well.
Last, why not just backup the whole iPhoto library using time machine or some other method because otherwise if you had a problem all your keywords etc will be lost.
 
T

tedesco24

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 4, 2010
75
0
Thanks Tumbleweed
I did not know about the export feature. After your suggestion, I played around with it and figured out if I set it the drop down choice as "USE TITLE" it will indeed copy the files as they have been renamed. However, that presented a different problem. Now all of the pics have created and modified dates based on when I exported the renamed photos, not when they were shot. For example, the pics were taken on 8-18. After using the export feature, the modified/created date show 8-21. So it seems like I'm caught in a circle. If I export the photos, I compromise the integrity of the photos. Any other suggestions?
 
Tumbleweed666

Tumbleweed666

macrumors 68000
Mar 20, 2009
1,761
141
Near London, UK.
Try using "current" in the "Kind" drop down.

I didn't realise until you pointed this out that putting JPEG (or probably anything other than current) in that drop down changes the embedded EXIF dates* to todays date and time.

But I just did a little test, and Export, even when creating sequential names, seem to retain the original date taken as long you use "Current". Let me know if it works for you.


* I presume this is because if you dont use "current" then its creating new files so it figures it should change the date. Or its just careless design. But I dont think this is very helpful and should at least be a configuration option, all you'd need is "retain original EXIF data" or similar drop down.
 
Last edited:
matrix07

matrix07

macrumors G3
Jun 24, 2010
8,226
4,891
I'm still not sure why didn't you import directly into iPhoto but if you want to start with a folder full of photos, maybe you might want to use Automator to batch rename photos before you import?
That way, you could just easily copy the whole folder to external after you've done with iPhoto.
 
T

tedesco24

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 4, 2010
75
0
Tumbleweed, thanks. I'll try using the CURRENT suggestion.

Matrix, I have created an Automator workflow to rename the photos, add comments and replace the originals in a desktop folder. Then I import the folder into iPhoto as an event and then drag and drop the updated folder to my external storage options.

Importing into iPhoto isn't the problem. It's getting the updated photos to an external storage location.
 
Tumbleweed666

Tumbleweed666

macrumors 68000
Mar 20, 2009
1,761
141
Near London, UK.
tedesco24 said:
Tumbleweed, thanks. I'll try using the CURRENT suggestion.

......

Importing into iPhoto isn't the problem. It's getting the updated photos to an external storage location.
Click to expand...

Tedesco, why arent you just backing up iPhoto itself? You could set TM to backup just the iPhoto library if you were restricted on disk space, though thats cheap these days.
 
matrix07

matrix07

macrumors G3
Jun 24, 2010
8,226
4,891
tedesco24 said:
Matrix, I have created an Automator workflow to rename the photos, add comments and replace the originals in a desktop folder. Then I import the folder into iPhoto as an event and then drag and drop the updated folder to my external storage options.

Importing into iPhoto isn't the problem. It's getting the updated photos to an external storage location.
Click to expand...

So you also want keywords and tags from iPhoto in your backup? In folder form?
Well, that's kind of tough. I agree with other poster that backing up iPhoto library will be less painful.
 
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