Well, I'm only a snapshooter, not a real photographer, so we may be advised that there is nobody here that would be interested in my filenaming practices. Sarah who?
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CAMERA ORIGINAL FILES
The original files from the camera are stored on the hard drive under this scheme:
Filename
The files are stored with a filename of this form:
A12345.JPG
where "A" represents a letter that identifies the source camera, "12345" represents the numeric part of the original filename, always built out to 5 digits, and of course "JPG" represents the filetype extension, whatever it is.
The files are all marked
read only.
Directory
The files are stored in directories whose span is each 1000 potential file numbers. The structure is like this:
F 40D in
. . F 40D in 00nnn
. . F 40D in 02nnn
. . F 40D in 03nnn
etc.
There is no effort made to identify the topic, event, location, date, etc. I will discuss the implications of this a bit later.
Mechanization
The files are all uploaded with the memory card in a reader, using Breeze Systems' Downloader Pro.
The program automatically creates the directories and steers the files to the proper one, reformats the filename as shown above, and sets the
read only attribute. This is done under control of strings of tokens, Downloader Pro's substitute for a script language. It has highly evolved over the years, and lets me do everything necessary for this task.
The forming of the 5-digit new file number has to be done differently for different cameras, owing to their systems of numbering files and the structure of directories in the camera (
e.g., it is different for an EOS 20D than an EOS 40D).
Really the process isn't quite
fully automatic. I do have to use a different shortcut icon to trigger it for each camera, and its command line strings carry all the particular literals and formatting doctrine for that camera.
Downloader Pro will recognize different cameras and select different formatting strings. I have not yet gotten around to see if that can be used to do the whole job here, truly fully automatically.
PROCESSED FILES
Directories
Processed files are generally stored in directories for, and named to indicate, particular events, projects, subject areas, and so forth. The "plan" is highly "variable" (read, "erratic"), and I will not suggest a unifying scheme in that regard.
Filenames
The basic filenames begin with some tag to somewhat identify the subject, project, and the like, then (after an underline) the primary filename of the original camera file as stored on the hard drive.
A typical one would be:
Xmas_2010_F22763.jpg
(Yes, the filetype extension is lowercased for files that have actually been processed - my image editor does that.)
There is no attempt to make this prefix precisely descriptive - the whole story may need to come from the directory trail.
In some case, the prefix has more description in it:
Xmas_2010_Carla_kitchen_F22654.jpg.
Xmas_2010_twins_in_bed_F22654.jpg.
Note that no filenames have spaces in them - there are still too many places where this can cause something between an annoyance and a disaster.
If there are several deliverable files derived from the same original (different crops, etc), that is usually done this way:
Xmas_2010_F22763-01.jpg
Xmas_2010_F22763-02.jpg
If there are variations for the same finished image (for example, a reduced resolution version for posting, or one with certain metadata suppressed) that is typically done something like this:
Xmas_2010_F22763-01R.jpg
Perhaps ones that carry two different schemes of annotation (one with all the people in the picture labeled, one with only the ones that are not on the lam) would have filenames something like this:
Xmas_2010_F22763-01A1.jpg
Xmas_2010_F22763-01A1.jpg
DISCUSSION
Why no attempt to tag or segregate the camera original files by subject, project, date, etc.? This an be very helpful.
In my case, the reason is very practical: I just wouldn't do it. I go out and perhaps shoot two different events and a couple of interesting things I find along the way. I come home and upload 'em. Will I log what I did? No. Would I categorize and tag the files? No. I just upload 'em and go on about my business.
Suppose I want to find the original behind some delivered processed image to make a new version. Well, the deliverable has the filename of the camera original in it.
Suppose I want to look through other frames from the same event ("but did you get a shot of Janie?"). I start with the filename embedded in a deliverable for the same event (if any had been processed) and then use BreezeBrowser to browse through the camera original files near it in in number.
Supposed none of them had been processed? If I know the date of the event, I just search through the camera originals by file date.
Suppose the challenge is, "remember that time we saw the three-legged cow alongside the road and you shot it. Can we find that?"
Only by a lot of browsing.
Would it be nice if I somehow added keywords in a database. Sure, but I wouldn't do it.
Suppose I did that, a very tedious process every day, and had this one tagged with "cow", "three legged", "cornfield", "Summit County", "rainy day", "right side of road", etc.
Now the challenge is, "remember that time we saw some farm animal that was funny somehow on a farm with a purple tractor in front of the barn, and you shot the scene. Can we find it?"
Only by a lot of browsing.
Best regards,
Doug