This is the very first, basic step for any professional or amateur photographer in his digital workflow : renaming your photos.
Before anything else, you want to rename your photo accordingly to a “naming convention” pre-established. Why? Because not only you want to avoid replacing photos with the same name on your drives, you want to be able to uniquely identify them… and IMG_0001.jpg or DCS_0001.jpg is not unique, way more, it’s un-efficient!
The naming convention must be quite explicit. It’s not always easy to find a specific photo 2, 4, 10+ years later… Make sure to use a system that speaks to you. There has to be some logic of course. For example, I rename my photos using the following naming convention:
>> 2 digits for the year + 3 to 4 letters for the event + 4 digits for the sequential ordering >>> 06XMAS0711.JPG
This helps me locate a photo in seconds, as long as I remember the year and event that is ahah! Another tip, I never reset the sequential numbering on my camera.
Renaming your photos is different than the EXIF data and IPTC tags (but also important)! One does not affect the other. The first one is more about logically ordering your photos globally and the second is about attaching pertinent information to a specific photo.
What tools should I use?
I use a photo management tool called iView MediaPro to perform the first basic tasks of my digital workflow. I can rename, label, tag and batch rotate my photos before processing them.
Now, if you don’t what to use such a tool, or if you don’t feel like spending $$$ on a renaming tool, here is a free but powerful solution for you : File List
File List is a batch file renamer, and a playlist generator for Mac OS X.
You can Find and replace (including support for regular expressions); Number sequentially; Change case; Set extension; Add prefix/suffix; Remove/insert characters.
Moreover, File List’s “Rename: Advanced” feature comes with its own name conversion description language (NCDL). Using NCDL, you can combine all of the above mentioned name conversions, plus a number of extra features — such as conditional statements, (seemingly) nested counters, and more.
File List 1.2 actually also allows you to work on Folders, Folders content and Files and it’s easy to use thanks to a nice GUI.
This is the perfect tool to help you create a naming convention that will enable you to really organize your photos and files.
[Via DigitalFreak.net]
