Beginner Image Naming Convention

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Edit My Images
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Hi All. Sorry if this post is long but I have tried to put all the info to help you understand my issue.

I'm new to this photographic forum (all photographic forums for that matter) but not to photography. I've been taking photos for many years and have built up quite a large collection of digital images. Most of these are family or personal memories. I have for a while been taking photo on a more enthusiastic basis and now go out to take photos rather than take photos when I go out.

I now have over 7,000 (plus another 15,000 personal) despite being ruthless on my return home and deleting those photos I'm not happy with.

I'm now finding my naming convention is no longer effective as many filenames are quite long and windows 10 file explorer (which I use a lot) and other programs don't always display the full filename. It is also getting a bit out of hand when shooting in RAW, editing in Photoshop CC, needing some images in PNG and some in JPG formats. There are also xmp files from PS.

An example and explanation of my naming convention is as follows

YYYY-MM-DD (HH-MM-SS) - Where taken - 012 Date taken (time taken) - Where the photo was taken - reference number.

I can create this naming convention on upload to PC ready to review & delete unwanted images. Deleting images creates gaps in the Ref.No. sequence but I could leave off the number and possibly add it once the selection process is over. Even without the number the name can be too long but Windows 10 doesn't display the date taken correctly (well I can't get it to) with PSD, CR2 & CR3 files in particular and JPG etc. are no better which is why I include time & date so they order 'by name' correctly.

Also CR3 files do not show thumbnail in file explorer and PSD didn't but do now since I installed a little utility.

All the images are stored in directories named YYYY-MM-DD - Where Taken

I would be grateful if forum members would make suggestion as to how to name & store the files for me to work out what would suit me and make it easier to manage.

I have Lightroom CC but their catalogue system seems odd and I struggle with it.
 
Welcome to TP Norman!

First - bear in mind that most people's systems will work best for them and might not work best for you...
Second - you need to understand how you look for your own images. Do you do it by file name, or by scrolling through your LR catalogue looking for it?
That said...

I folderise my images by year, then what I'm doing with the camera, then maybe by something more granular, but very rarely. The folder nest is no more than 2-3 layers deep.

I don't include the year in the filename because it's already in a folder that tells me the year.
I don't include the date in the filename because it's already in the metadata.
The "where" is usually in the subfolder name under the year.

So I just leave my images as they come out of the camera. All my XT-2 files for example are DSCFXXXX.raf

The reason for this is that I never use the folder tree to find anything. I always use Lightroom's catalogue (the library module) function.

If I want photos from 2015, I go to the 2015 folder in LR under the "folders" tab on the left.
If I want photos taken in January 2012 (and I can't be bothered using the filters) then I go to the 2012 folder and sort it by "date taken". January will often be at the top or bottom.

If you have LR Classic, I'd set some time aside to get to grips with the catalogue. There are tons of tutorials on the Library Module which is a powerful tool to allow you to catalogue your images with easy to use systems (stars, colour labels, keywords etc) rather than over complicated filenaming conventions.

With a properly keyworded image library, finding your images becomes an absolute breeze in Lightroom. I can find all the pictures of our cat, and sort it by date, and very quickly browse through them. Do I want a picture where both are cats are in? And maybe my wife? Easy.

Also, feel free to make use of the forums here to ask your questions if you're stuck on something specific. There's a whole forum dedicated to computers and software and there are lots of answered questions regarding how to do stuff in LR already in there.
 
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Welcome to TP Norman!

First - bear in mind that most people's systems will work best for them and might not work best for you...
Second - you need to understand how you look for your own images. Do you do it by file name, or by scrolling through your LR catalogue looking for it?
That said...

Well if you have got Lightroom you don’t need to rename anything, all you have to do is import by shooting date, and then apply some judicious keywords.


I have lightroom and have tried to use it but do not like or find the catalogue method useful or easy to use. I found the keyword system to be poor and difficult to manage. Maybe I didn't give it enough time but I did try for several days on 3 or 4 occasions and got nowhere. I know that people do a lot of editing etc. in LR and say PS is hard. I find PS easier to use but there is so much to learn it does take a while.

I previously used windows photo gallery which worked for me. The WPG keyword system work good for me, as does the image browsing, but WPG in no longer supported and does not display CR3 thumbnails. I don't convert RAW files to PSD, JPG or PNG until required.

I know other peoples system might not work for me but I'm after ideas to help find one that does.
 
I have lightroom and have tried to use it but do not like or find the catalogue method useful or easy to use. I found the keyword system to be poor and difficult to manage. Maybe I didn't give it enough time but I did try for several days on 3 or 4 occasions and got nowhere. I know that people do a lot of editing etc. in LR and say PS is hard. I find PS easier to use but there is so much to learn it does take a while.

Photoshop is a tool for editing images. Lightroom does a bit of that but its real power lies in digital asset management (DAM). I've run Lightroom courses in the past, both in classrooms to large groups, and individually (1-1). Universally, everyone finds the Develop module far far easier than the Library module. Also though, when people have got their heads round how it works, and how to approach a keyword strategy, they can see the power of it. Many of my students said the same as you're saying.

Perhaps try a different asset management tool? I know it's more expense, but it may solve your problem if it has an interface that meshes with you better. Or see if there is anyone local to you who offers training/help with Lightroom. Your local photographic society may have people there who can help and sitting down 1-1 with someone for an afternoon will likely save you many many hours staring at books and trying to follow YouTube tutorials.

Sadly you're looking for a solution to a problem that Lightroom was developed to solve. The majority of photographers have moved to using DAM sofware and thus don't care how their images are named.

Best of luck!
 
Photoshop is a tool for editing images. Lightroom does a bit of that but its real power lies in digital asset management (DAM). I've run Lightroom courses in the past, both in classrooms to large groups, and individually (1-1). Universally, everyone finds the Develop module far far easier than the Library module. Also though, when people have got their heads round how it works, and how to approach a keyword strategy, they can see the power of it. Many of my students said the same as you're saying.

Perhaps try a different asset management tool? I know it's more expense, but it may solve your problem if it has an interface that meshes with you better. Or see if there is anyone local to you who offers training/help with Lightroom. Your local photographic society may have people there who can help and sitting down 1-1 with someone for an afternoon will likely save you many many hours staring at books and trying to follow YouTube tutorials.

Sadly you're looking for a solution to a problem that Lightroom was developed to solve. The majority of photographers have moved to using DAM sofware and thus don't care how their images are named.

Best of luck!

Just having another look at LR. The classic version is a lot different to the lates CC version as far as I can see. Are they now calling catalogues albums?
 
Just have them in folders if you don't like Lightroom / Bridge.

I used to use this method.

e.g.

Photos > 2015 > "Camera - Where taken - Month" was all I needed.
 
Just have them in folders if you don't like Lightroom / Bridge.

I used to use this method.

e.g.

Photos > 2015 > "Camera - Where taken - Month" was all I needed.

I have them in folders and find windows photo gallery so much easier & better but it doesn't display thumbnails of my CR3 files Processing them all to PSD quadruples the size of the CR3 RAW file so I would have a 40 meg CR3 and 190meg (or 380meg) PSD.

Not really bothered about space on disk but trying to maintain continuity between the RAW files & the processed files ie.

If I take 50 photos in CRS, delete 10 poor ones. Do I process them to PSD and move the CR3 to a back up drive and do all the editing in PS or LR.
Suppose I find that the 10 images taken for a panoramic shot do not create an acceptable image and are no good as singles and I delete them do I just keep the CR3 files even though they will never get used.

Maybe I'm just over-thinking all this.
 
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LR CC seems less user friendly and I can't get ALBUMS & KEYWORDS displayed at the same time as I can in classic.
 
Do you have Lightroom classic? I found CC to be unusable.
 
I store mine in subfolders
- 2019
-- 2019-12-15 <shoot title / location>
---filename, starting at 0001
As I regularly use two camera bodies, I have different file name prefixes set in camera so I can differentiate which camera took the photo from the filename.

If several photographers are working for me I'll rename their photos with their initials rather than IMG_ so I can see who took it.

The lightroom catalog has approaching 1m photos in it, and it doesn't take that long to locate the image required.
 
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I store mine in subfolders
- 2019
-- 2019-12-15 <shoot title / location>
---filename, starting at 0001
As I regularly use two camera bodies, I have different file name prefixes set in camera so I can differentiate which camera took the photo from the filename.

If several photographers are working for me I'll rename their photos with their initials rather than IMG_ so I can see who took it.

The lightroom catalog has approaching 1m photos in it, and it doesn't take that long to locate the image required.

I store them in subfolders 2019-12-1 - Location but I found that if the filename was just a number ie 001 to 010 then if I needed 2 images from 2 different directories it could be possible for both files to be number 005 meaning renaming them was necessary. Whoever I passed them on to would be referring to the new numbers & I would have the old ones, confusing. That is why I added the date & time (also because windows always used date modified. I got a time stamp program to return them to the date in the file name.

Just been checking and it appears that windows 10 now displays photo dates correctly ie. Date Taken even when the JPG is produced from a PSD which windows displays with the date & time the PSD was created. It must have changed with a recent update.
 
During the testing I have been doing I have noticed that the time stamp on some CR3 files is correct but on others there is a difference. All the photos were uploaded between 30 mins & 3 hours after the photo was taken so where there is a difference why would there not be a difference on ALL files?

Now that windows appears to be getting date & time displayed in File Explorer it may be that I can stop including it in the filename and change the naming convention incorporating some of the suggestions made here. I just need to find out what is going on with the CR3 files and see if it also applies to my CR2s.
 
I store mine in subfolders by year and then in a folder by date - sometimes I add a clue on to the folder name e.g. 2019-06-25beach.

At time of import I rename each image with date and sometimes time (depending on subject and if shooting with more than one camera) plus original filename. Then sorting by filename also puts them in time sequence - really useful if you use more than one camera - as long as you have synced the time on each.

I also use different prefixes for each camera.

I once had something weird happen in Lightroom when my camera went round the clock. This is why I now rename with the date on it at the very least. Also having the date means I can quickly locate a folder if necessary to go back to the original.

There is probably a good argument to lose the original filename and just sequence them, but it can be a quick way to search with a few less possibilities if you just use the filename.

Edit: I use Lightroom Classic - though hope one day to leave the subscription behind, so am looking at other software for the future. I have to say it does work really well for importing images.
 
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On a drive of the PC I have a folder called Photos.
This has a number of sub-folders named by year, so I have 2015, 2016, 2017 etc
Each of these sub-folders is split into more sub-folders by month. To make sure January comes first in the is I name these sub-folders, aJan, bFeb, cMar etc

My camera groups photos taken on the same day into a folder that ends with xxyy, where xx is the month number and yy is the date, so a folder ending in 1105 contains photos taken on 5th November. I guess other cameras do something similar.

I copy each of the folders from the camera into the appropriate month sub-folder and bring them into Photoshop Elements.

I find the Keyword system in PSE very useful to tag and multiple tag photos. However, I think it is best to take some time deciding on the main keywords and sub groups you want to use away from the PC, to get the structure right, or as near as you can, before putting it into whatever organiser you want to use.

Dave
 
Storage on the PC isn't a problem. The folder/subfolder structure is fine for me and works well. I have just found out the a recent windows 10 update displays the date taken rather than the modified date it used to so ordering images within the subfolder is easy and I no longer need filename to start with the date in reverse order or the time. They have also corrected the number handling so leading zeros are not needed now.

This should shorten filename somewhat.

Now if only someone would do something so that File Explorer could display a thumbnail for Canon CR3 RAW files ie a codec but Canon won't (Adobe won't for PSD files although I have a utility embedded in file explorer which does that) then windows photo gallery would be good again.

So now the only thing I need sorting is where to store various files. If I take one photo today, process and print it in the subfolder for today there will be

1: CR3 Raw File
2: PSD Photoshop image file
3: XMP Camera Raw recipe file
4: JPG printable image.

Photo browsers will display 3 images & count 3 images (I think the ignore the XMP file). Assuming you have 3,000 photos in RAW processed 2,000 in to PSD then further processed 1,000 of them to JPG the browser will count your 3k images as 6,000. As they read in to subfolders making PSD, JPG & CR3 subfolders doesn't help.

How best do I deal with the multiple file/image formats?
 
I found the reason for the different dates in the CR3 files. I had corrected the dates using the Date Created (actual date & time taken). To prevent windows 10 altering them when copying or moving files I can set them read only. RAW files don't get edited so this is not an issue for PS etc.
 
Storage on the PC isn't a problem. The folder/subfolder structure is fine for me and works well. I have just found out the a recent windows 10 update displays the date taken rather than the modified date it used to so ordering images within the subfolder is easy and I no longer need filename to start with the date in reverse order or the time. They have also corrected the number handling so leading zeros are not needed now.

This should shorten filename somewhat.

Now if only someone would do something so that File Explorer could display a thumbnail for Canon CR3 RAW files ie a codec but Canon won't (Adobe won't for PSD files although I have a utility embedded in file explorer which does that) then windows photo gallery would be good again.

So now the only thing I need sorting is where to store various files. If I take one photo today, process and print it in the subfolder for today there will be

1: CR3 Raw File
2: PSD Photoshop image file
3: XMP Camera Raw recipe file
4: JPG printable image.

Photo browsers will display 3 images & count 3 images (I think the ignore the XMP file). Assuming you have 3,000 photos in RAW processed 2,000 in to PSD then further processed 1,000 of them to JPG the browser will count your 3k images as 6,000. As they read in to subfolders making PSD, JPG & CR3 subfolders doesn't help.

How best do I deal with the multiple file/image formats?
I keep all the file formats in the same folder, other than exports - where that depends on where they are destined for. I usually don't keep these in the catalog unless it's a full jpeg which I'm not sending anywhere - I will usually keep that in the same folder.

You can stack them in Lightroom. I think XMP files have to be in the same folder don't they?
 
I keep all the file formats in the same folder, other than exports - where that depends on where they are destined for. I usually don't keep these in the catalog unless it's a full jpeg which I'm not sending anywhere - I will usually keep that in the same folder.

You can stack them in Lightroom. I think XMP files have to be in the same folder don't they?

Yeah, xmps do have to stay with PSD but they don't count in the image browser I use. My CR3s do count as photos but don't have a thumbnail windows 10 can read but faststone image viewer can.

I move out single use JPGs (usually reduced size/quality) but not the full sized ones. I believe Canon DPP can stack.
 
Because of the changes in the way Win 10 shows the date taken in file explorer (correctly now) I have renamed over 7,000 images to remove the time although I'm leaving the date in for now. I may remove that at a later date if all goes well. This makes the filenames more readable.

I'm now checking out Lightroom Classic. I see in their catalog they group CR2s & JPGs with the same filename as 1 but a PSD with the same filename is listed separate. Can these be grouped with the CR2/JPG?

Thanks to all who have provided input, it has helped me.
 
For the past 10 years or so, I've been using a folder structure to file my photos.

Top-down, I file by year then by general subject (for example portraits), then by a more explicit subject (Fred, Jill, etc.). I don't change the name of the RAW files only those that are post-processed. These ones are named descriptively by subject (Fred_portrait_1.psd for example). I put all post-processed files (PSD, jpeg, etc) in a sub-folder (named post_prod) of the original.

This system, used in conjunction with LR, works quite well (over 10k photos) and I never spend much time looking for old shots, if I know more or less the year it was taken.
 
The key to organisation for most of us is folders named by date with format 2019-12-29 and crucially 2020-01-01
Lightroom does this for you, you can add a clue word afterwards without upsetting indexing.
You ought to have a folder for each year, and possibly each month if you are taking a lot.
 
I import into Lightroom with the date (yymmdd) in front of the file number directly into whichever folder they 'belong' on the HD. ie, family > 2019 or holiday > Weymouth 2019 or Wales > Brecon Beacons..... I then know where to find them on the HD and they are listed on the same place in the Lightroom catalogue.

I reject images through Lightroom and eventually delete them through Lightroom too.

Oh, I then export the finished jpegs to the original folder.
 
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I'm trying work without Lr and use a top level of the folder structure named after years and below these subfolders named after the shoot/event/trip and the date.

2010
2010_06_23_Sue
2010_09_01_France
::
2011
2011_07_12_Carnival
2011_10_01_New_Forest
::
and so on.

I plan to use tagging of images to improve searching.

In addition I would like to add something to image file names to improve uniqueness. Can anyone recommend a file copy/rename utility that can take info from exif data?
 
Probably me, but I utterly hated lightroom, primarily down to the DAM side of it. I've managed all of my assets for the last 17 years, so it's no surprise I don't like software trying to do it for me. Everyone will have their preferences on how to do things. This is my way of managing it.

My folder structure has always been:
Code:
Photos
  |- Camera
  |    |- Year
  |    |- Month
  |    |    |- Event/Place
  |- Corrected
  |    |-B&W

I don't see the point to excessive folders for individual days as the exif data records this. Random photos that I take in day to day life don't get put into specific event/place folders and just live in the root of the month they were taken.

The filenames remain as they were from the camera which is set to prefix my initials on the files. (KMW_xxxx.NEF in my case) In the corrected folder, these names tend to remain and I usually add a hyphen and a postfix for some things like panoramas and duotone/tritone etc.
 
@Dangerous When I switched from film to digital in around 1999-2000, at that time computers still used Windows 95/98 and the likes. That means that when you open your folders, all you see are filenames but no thumbnails. I found a lot of magazines and some online websites, suggesting you rename your filenames to something easy to remember or find, every one of them gave so many different formats and styles. Every photographers have their own options, I was like that. Renamed filenames to something like YYYY-MM-DD, or Where taken, or What subject, or stuff like that.

Then I ran into a problem: What if you scanned in an old photo, but don't remember the actual date, all you could guess is YYYY-MM but you don't remember the DD. What if you're using the Where taken or What subject format? What if you took a photograph of a specific location, but in those photos, you have a model posing in them, or it could be photos of a car, or of a friend. Should that photo be filed under Where taken or What subject?

When I switched to Windows XP then later to Windows 7. I realised that I could use the thumbnails instead of just the filenames. A thumbnail is better than a filename, it's quicker to look at the thumbnail than to read the filenames. So I kind of used only dates in filenames instead of using name of locations or subjects. Just worry about names of the folders.

But I still have a problem, I still move photos all over the hard drive. Some of those photos goes into a folder based on the location, but some of those photos goes in to a folder that is about my friends. Soon, the photos gets mixed up, in all the places. That photo of an old building is saved to a folder with the name of the location, but that photo of my friend, taken at the same location, ended up in a folder that says People or whatever. Not wise to split up your photos.

So I've given up on all that, and gone back to the old school filing system, the filing system most of us used when we used to have film cameras.

My was based on a professional photographer I worked for, which was Year followed by Roll number - Frame number. YYYYNNN-0000. All I did was replace the roll number with a folder number.

If it was a film. After developing the film and making a contact sheet, some of us would file it in a folder and kind of write they year and a number on it. Like 1985001 (or 1985-001 or 1985/001 or whatever). Usually make a note of where and when and what and who in a notebook or card file or whatever, then write the year and roll number next to it. Something like Old train at train scrapyard, outside of Old Town, Somewhereshire, 01/02/85. - 1985007. You look it up in a book, there is it, "File 1985007." then you go and get that page with the negative stripes.

The last numbers is usually the frame number.

So I kind of borrowed this old fashion technique for my digital filing system.

I create folders that are named after the years, and the subfolders are the "roll numbers" thus

2017
¦---001
¦---002
¦---003
2018
¦---001
¦---002

Usually, after doing a project (ie: booking a model or taking photos of a building or whatever), or after an event (ie: Formula One, etc.,) I would then upload the photos to my computer, and I would call it a "memory dump" as in dumping the files from the card in the camera to the hard drive on the computer. Each "memory dump" would be the equivalent of processing a roll of film. Thus, when I process a roll of film, I would file it as 1985001, therefore when I transfer the photos from card to hard drive, I would put them in folder 2015, subfolder 001, and they would be filed as 2015001.

Sometimes in between projects and events, I would use my camera for some casual photos, nothing important, just photos of friends, something I spotted, whatever. If they're not really that important, there is no need to transfer them to the computer, so the card would then get more and more photos added to it. I would either transfer them to the computer to free up the storage space for a project, or just because there's enough photos in there to justify it having its own folder. That would be the equivalent of leaving a roll of film in your camera for weeks, and you only used it a few times during the weeks. Few photos of your friends, then it's left in your camera bag for days and days, then couple of photos of a rainbow, then it's back in bag for a week or two. After processing the film, you can't give it a specific date as every frames were taken at different dates, you either give it a date you developed the film, or the year followed by it's next place in your old fashion filling system.

Every images gets a filename of YYYYNNN-0000, where the last four digitals is mainly the file number. Normally if it was old fashion 35mm film, it would be YYYYNNN-00 (being capable of 36 frames), but shooting with a digital DSLR and memory card, we could go up to 9999!

If I want a specific photo, say of a model I booked, or of my best friend, or of a car or whatever subject, I just go with Lightroom and its keywords, collections, and whatever it have to help me narrow it down. If I lose Lightroom, no problem, I just go with old fashion filing system like...

Snow landscape, Somewhereshire, Jan-Feb 2017: 2017001
Model booked for fashion photos, Spring 2017: 2017002
Odd photos, junk photos, some photos of friends: May-July2017: 2017003
British Grand Prix, Formula One race, July 2017: 2017004


Stuff like that, like we used to do when we had old fashion film cameras and darkroom work.

That's just how I do it for myself.
 
@Dangerous When I switched from film to digital in around 1999-2000, at that time computers still used Windows 95/98 and the likes. That means that when you open your folders, all you see are filenames but no thumbnails. I found a lot of magazines and some online websites, suggesting you rename your filenames to something easy to remember or find, every one of them gave so many different formats and styles. Every photographers have their own options, I was like that. Renamed filenames to something like YYYY-MM-DD, or Where taken, or What subject, or stuff like that.

Then I ran into a problem: What if you scanned in an old photo, but don't remember the actual date, all you could guess is YYYY-MM but you don't remember the DD. What if you're using the Where taken or What subject format? What if you took a photograph of a specific location, but in those photos, you have a model posing in them, or it could be photos of a car, or of a friend. Should that photo be filed under Where taken or What subject?

When I switched to Windows XP then later to Windows 7. I realised that I could use the thumbnails instead of just the filenames. A thumbnail is better than a filename, it's quicker to look at the thumbnail than to read the filenames. So I kind of used only dates in filenames instead of using name of locations or subjects. Just worry about names of the folders.

But I still have a problem, I still move photos all over the hard drive. Some of those photos goes into a folder based on the location, but some of those photos goes in to a folder that is about my friends. Soon, the photos gets mixed up, in all the places. That photo of an old building is saved to a folder with the name of the location, but that photo of my friend, taken at the same location, ended up in a folder that says People or whatever. Not wise to split up your photos.

So I've given up on all that, and gone back to the old school filing system, the filing system most of us used when we used to have film cameras.

My was based on a professional photographer I worked for, which was Year followed by Roll number - Frame number. YYYYNNN-0000. All I did was replace the roll number with a folder number.

If it was a film. After developing the film and making a contact sheet, some of us would file it in a folder and kind of write they year and a number on it. Like 1985001 (or 1985-001 or 1985/001 or whatever). Usually make a note of where and when and what and who in a notebook or card file or whatever, then write the year and roll number next to it. Something like Old train at train scrapyard, outside of Old Town, Somewhereshire, 01/02/85. - 1985007. You look it up in a book, there is it, "File 1985007." then you go and get that page with the negative stripes.

The last numbers is usually the frame number.

So I kind of borrowed this old fashion technique for my digital filing system.

I create folders that are named after the years, and the subfolders are the "roll numbers" thus

2017
¦---001
¦---002
¦---003
2018
¦---001
¦---002

Usually, after doing a project (ie: booking a model or taking photos of a building or whatever), or after an event (ie: Formula One, etc.,) I would then upload the photos to my computer, and I would call it a "memory dump" as in dumping the files from the card in the camera to the hard drive on the computer. Each "memory dump" would be the equivalent of processing a roll of film. Thus, when I process a roll of film, I would file it as 1985001, therefore when I transfer the photos from card to hard drive, I would put them in folder 2015, subfolder 001, and they would be filed as 2015001.

Sometimes in between projects and events, I would use my camera for some casual photos, nothing important, just photos of friends, something I spotted, whatever. If they're not really that important, there is no need to transfer them to the computer, so the card would then get more and more photos added to it. I would either transfer them to the computer to free up the storage space for a project, or just because there's enough photos in there to justify it having its own folder. That would be the equivalent of leaving a roll of film in your camera for weeks, and you only used it a few times during the weeks. Few photos of your friends, then it's left in your camera bag for days and days, then couple of photos of a rainbow, then it's back in bag for a week or two. After processing the film, you can't give it a specific date as every frames were taken at different dates, you either give it a date you developed the film, or the year followed by it's next place in your old fashion filling system.

Every images gets a filename of YYYYNNN-0000, where the last four digitals is mainly the file number. Normally if it was old fashion 35mm film, it would be YYYYNNN-00 (being capable of 36 frames), but shooting with a digital DSLR and memory card, we could go up to 9999!

If I want a specific photo, say of a model I booked, or of my best friend, or of a car or whatever subject, I just go with Lightroom and its keywords, collections, and whatever it have to help me narrow it down. If I lose Lightroom, no problem, I just go with old fashion filing system like...

Snow landscape, Somewhereshire, Jan-Feb 2017: 2017001
Model booked for fashion photos, Spring 2017: 2017002
Odd photos, junk photos, some photos of friends: May-July2017: 2017003
British Grand Prix, Formula One race, July 2017: 2017004


Stuff like that, like we used to do when we had old fashion film cameras and darkroom work.

That's just how I do it for myself.


Windows 10 now sorts dates correctly in the DDMMYYYY format and also picks up the DATE TAKEN rather than the DATE MODIFIED. Add to that the fact that leading zeros are no longer needed for correct numerical ordering. My biggest issue is that it doesn't display thumbnails of CR3 raw files or Photoshop psd files (without a small utility installed).

With the help given is this thread I have just about managed to understand Lightroom keywording and, for the most part, it does what I want. Once I'm fully familiar with it it should be as close to perfect as I need.

I erase all images from the card after uploading to computer and then weed out the duffs before finally renaming/renumbering sequentially and adding to the correct folder and keywording them. Health has limited what I am able to do at the moment so until I can get back out and take a few photos I would know how the new method will work 'live'.
 
Windows 10 now sorts dates correctly in the DDMMYYYY format and also picks up the DATE TAKEN rather than the DATE MODIFIED. Add to that the fact that leading zeros are no longer needed for correct numerical ordering. My biggest issue is that it doesn't display thumbnails of CR3 raw files or Photoshop psd files (without a small utility installed).

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I still prefer to stick with leading zeros, mainly to make it look tidy.
 

True, but at least Microsoft has finally got it right. Only took them 35 or so years!
 
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