JPEG file numbering.

[Neil]

Recently I created a folder to put pictures into for transfer into a digital frame.

I had troubles with different files bearing the same name. Not a problem when they sit in different folders but a royal PITA in my example.

Normally, I simply use Windows file manager to copy from the camera into a new folder that I will have created prior to d-load.

I know software will add a prefix to the files as they are downloaded. Also, when taking pictures I see you can create folders right in the camera but I have never experimented with that.

I was wondering what everyone else does to ensure that no 2 pictures have the exact same file name.

 

[Peakbagr]

I use a DSLR and a POS camera and use a bunch of folders where I dump my photos while waiting to edit, delete and save as you mentioned.
You can also just Copy the photos to the folder instead of cutting and pasting. That will leave the photos in the camera and the subsequent photos will have different numbers in the sequence.

I use a card reader to transfer photos to the hard drive folder. This provides more control over what you transfer.
At the same time, I'm sure there are other and better ways of doing this and I'm interested to hear what others reply on this interesting thread you started.

 

[nartreb]

I do the opposite, actually. My cameras each do their best to create files with a unique name (number), but once I copy the photos onto my hard drive (and make backups) I run a script that copies them to the offline staging area for my website, and renames them in the process. For the sake of keeping the HTML on my website dirt simple, the pictures within each trip (directory) on my website are named "i1.jpg", "i2.jpg", and so on. (Thumbnails are "t1.jpg", etc.)

This works for me because I never change the directory structure on my website. If I make galleries that include photos from multiple trips, I include the proper directory in the reference to each photo; in effect the directory is part of the identifier of the photo.

 

[Grumpy]

This is an interesting thread.

First, I use Nikon digital SLRs, a MacBookPro computer and Photoshop CS3 with Bridge.

My procedure – all done at the post-processing stage rather than in-camera -- works like this:

1) Copy image files to my computer using a card reader.

2) Rename the transferred image file folder using the shoot date (yymmdd) and a brief subject descriptor. For example, a folder created today might have the title “081230 VFTT” – if there are two or more folders from the same shoot the date would stay constant but descriptors would be changed, as, “… VFTT A” and “… VFTT B” and so on.

3) Open a folder using Bridge, and using some batch processing features quickly edit the “file info” (metadata) file for each image, adding my name, a copyright notice, a generic caption for the shoot, and search key words.

4) Browse the shoot folder (using Bridge), open and adjust selected images, save the adjusted images as JPGs with new file names (I just add a “+” in front of the image file name, for speed and convenience at this point). I also can reedit the generic caption material in “file info” to provide more image-specific information at this stage, if I wish. The new saved images reside as additions to (not replacements in) the original image folder at this point.

5) When step 4 is completed on a batch “keeper” images, I select, rename and move those images to a new folder, using the “Batch Rename” function in Bridge. The new folder will be labeled “081230 VFTT JPG” (or “… VFTT A JPG” etc.). New individual image file name is something like “081230_VFTT_A_009” – with the unique identifier in the folder being the final two- or three-digit sequence number.

What I wind up with is a folder of unaltered but captioned original images, and a file of JPG “master users” culled from the shoot – all connected by some common elements in the file or folder names.

There has been no problem with duplicate image file names using this system, even though I often shoot essentially the same basic stuff and subjects over and over again (sports teams, e.g.). Nor have there been any problems retrieving specific images using this system. I should note, though, that my digital archives are something short of humongous at this point.

This system has been comfortable for me because it is very similar to filing systems I used in film days.

G.

 

[DougPaul]

I maintain the following directory structure:

camera_name/yyyy-mm-dd-event_name/IMG_xxxx.jpg

Thus names never collide (unless I take more than 10K shots at a
single event).

BTW, Canon cameras will wrap the file names at 10000. Thus
... IMG_9998.JPG, IMG_9999.JPG, IMG_0001.JPG, IMG_0002.JPG, ...

The raw filenames are the same except for a .CR2 extension.

Doug