Image file naming strategy.

I have yet one more question for the group and it refers to the naming protocol each of you use for naming your digital image files.

First, don’t use long or complex names. Let your database handle all that extra information. Simple is good; DOS 8.3 lowercase is best (as it is compatible with all versions of Win, Mac, Unix, and Linux, and so will work on the web).

Your main use for a file name is to put files in order in a directory view, so you can find the one you want. Let your first 3 or 4 characters designate a category or type, and the remaining characters put the slides into the desired order. Don’t use the date; you can always order by date by clicking the ‘date’ column. (Same with file type.)

I use a hierarchy of directories, organized by major topics. A good database makes this less important.

Hello, all:

I have yet one more question for the group and it refers to the naming protocol each of you use for naming your digital image files.
My Canon camera assigns a different name to each image file when set to continuous numbering system to avoid two images having the same file name. The name format is made of 8 total characters of which the first 4 are alphanumeric characters that are camera specific assigned at the factory and
that can not be changed. The other 4 characters are numbers beginning with 0001 and ending with 9999. Since the first 4 alphanumeric characters don’t change, once the file number reaches 9999 and rolls over to 0001 again the camera is producing a second image file with a name that has already been assigned.

This is an example of how the camera does it: 5F9Z0001.jpg
This is nothing but a minor annoyance and something that could have been slightly better planned. The new EOS1D Mk II N comes with a function built in that allows the user to change the initial 4 characters so that this doesn’t happen.

I am mostly interested, however, in getting your ideas and personal experiences on what type of naming protocol each of you has decided to adopt
for your images.

Bruce Fraser in his "Real World Camera Raw with Adobe Photoshop CS2" text mentions that Photographer Seth Resnick uses a naming protocol for his image
files that he finds quite interesting.

According to Bruce, Seth uses something like the following naming sequence:

20050423STKSR3_0001.tif

Where:

20050423 defines the date when the image was shot (April 23, 2005) STK indicates the photo was shot for stock
SR indicates it was shot by Seth Resnick
3 indicates it was shot for the third assignment or collection of images of
the day
0001 indicates the number of the image (the first image shot)
I found this to be very creative and interesting since the date starting with the year would allow the files to be organized in sequence according to
date.

Do any of you have a naming strategy you would like to share ? I am curious
to know if anyone has a special naming protocol for their images that makes
the process of archiving and search them a little easier.
Another question refers to how you manage your library. Do you choose to place all photos in one single large library and then search images by either date or according to some kind of keyword criteria or do you keep a hierarchical structure with a folder for the library and subfolders that refer each to a specific day or project ?

Again, any suggestions and opinions will be appreciated.
Best regards,

Joseph

—

Dr. Joseph Chamberlain
Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery

Hello, all:

I have yet one more question for the group and it refers to the naming protocol each of you use for naming your digital image files.

Personally, I rename them to when the picture was taken by reading the EXIF info.

For example, "20050817_110947.jpg" indicates the picture was taken Aug 17, 2005 at 11:09:47 am. The filename format is in a "date sortable" friendly format (YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS) that I can simply sort by just clicking the Filename column. And I NEVER have to deal with name collisions when using this method.

Obviously there are other numerous ways, but I find this suits my personal workflow extremely well.

"Joseph Chamberlain, DDS" wrote in message

Hello, all:

I have yet one more question for the group and it refers to the naming protocol each of you use for naming your digital image files.
My Canon camera assigns a different name to each image file when set to continuous numbering system to avoid two images having the same file name. The name format is made of 8 total characters of which the first 4 are alphanumeric characters that are camera specific assigned at the factory and
that can not be changed. The other 4 characters are numbers beginning with 0001 and ending with 9999. Since the first 4 alphanumeric characters don’t change, once the file number reaches 9999 and rolls over to 0001 again the camera is producing a second image file with a name that has already been assigned.

This is an example of how the camera does it: 5F9Z0001.jpg
This is nothing but a minor annoyance and something that could have been slightly better planned. The new EOS1D Mk II N comes with a function built in that allows the user to change the initial 4 characters so that this doesn’t happen.

I am mostly interested, however, in getting your ideas and personal experiences on what type of naming protocol each of you has decided to adopt
for your images.

Bruce Fraser in his "Real World Camera Raw with Adobe Photoshop CS2" text mentions that Photographer Seth Resnick uses a naming protocol for his image
files that he finds quite interesting.

According to Bruce, Seth uses something like the following naming sequence:

20050423STKSR3_0001.tif

Where:

20050423 defines the date when the image was shot (April 23, 2005) STK indicates the photo was shot for stock
SR indicates it was shot by Seth Resnick
3 indicates it was shot for the third assignment or collection of images of
the day
0001 indicates the number of the image (the first image shot)
I found this to be very creative and interesting since the date starting with the year would allow the files to be organized in sequence according to
date.

Do any of you have a naming strategy you would like to share ? I am curious
to know if anyone has a special naming protocol for their images that makes
the process of archiving and search them a little easier.
Another question refers to how you manage your library. Do you choose to place all photos in one single large library and then search images by either date or according to some kind of keyword criteria or do you keep a hierarchical structure with a folder for the library and subfolders that refer each to a specific day or project ?

Again, any suggestions and opinions will be appreciated.
Best regards,

Joseph

—

Dr. Joseph Chamberlain
Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery

Jim Hargan wrote:

First, don’t use long or complex names. Let your database handle all that extra information. Simple is good; DOS 8.3 lowercase is best (as it is compatible with all versions of Win, Mac, Unix, and Linux, and so will work on the web).

if you don’t have a database, it makes sense to put all sorts of organizational data in the file name. don’t worry about long file names, nowadays they work just fine in WIN and linux and pretty much anywhere on the web.

by the way, it’s not only the file but also the directory names that can carry a lot of organizational data. The main thing is, distribute your pix in many directories – never put more than a few dozen pix in one folder, otherwise the performance may suffer badly. Remember, most viewers and image editors will extract thumbnails of a whole directory when it is first accessed (some even do it every time) – this can be intolerably slow if a folder contains five hundred pix.

Your main use for a file name is to put files in order in a directory view, so you can find the one you want. Let your first 3 or 4 characters designate a category or type, and the remaining characters put the slides into the desired order. Don’t use the date; you can always order by date by clicking the ‘date’ column. (Same with file type.)

*DO* use the date and time, maybe in some abbreviated form. remember, whenever you manipulate a picture, the original creation date gets lost, you cannot rely on ‘clicking on the date column’. If you ever need to view your manipulated pix in the order of creation, you better put the creation date and time into the file name.

I use a hierarchy of directories, organized by major topics. A good database makes this less important.

as i said, always avoid large direcories for performance reasons.

Use Greg’s advice if you are organizing a few dozen pictures for family and friends. It’s a lot simpler and easier than my approach.

Use my approach if you are organizing many thousands of images for publication to the web or anywhere else. It’ll save you loads of time and effort in the long run.

And what if you are in between? That’s the hard part. Here’s my advice.
1. Dos 8.3 names, a-z and 0-9 only, will do you no harm and might solve
problems later on. Did you know that MS has changed their long name encoding method *three* times? Be warned.

2. You shouldn’t ever, ever alter your original images. Never! So the creation date will never change.

*DO* use the date and time, maybe in some abbreviated form. remember, whenever you manipulate a picture, the original creation date gets lost, you cannot rely on ‘clicking on the date column’. If you ever need to view your manipulated pix in the order of creation, you better put the creation date and time into the file name.

Jim Hargan wrote:

Use Greg’s advice if you are organizing a few dozen pictures for family and friends. It’s a lot simpler and easier than my approach.

To each his own. I routrinely manage thousands of photos by putting them in a meaningfully segmented directory tree, and by putting the creation date plus other organizational markings in the file name.