Optimum format for filenames?

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Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

I'd appreciate learning what format others have chosen for renaming
photos please. Despite much experiment, I've still not settled on
anything consistent!

In particular, with future sorting in mind, I vary between making the
major field the Date/Time Taken, or some keyword about the subject.
For example, my photo taken at 4:26pm yesterday on a walk from a place
called Exceat could be renamed from
DSC0005.jpg to
2005-07-17-09-16-26-Exceat.JPG
or
Exceat-2005-07-17-09-16-26-Exceat.JPG

But, assuming I do settle on making Date/Time Taken the major sort,
there are so many formats possible for that. I've tried:
2005-07-17-09-16-26
2005-07-17 09.16.26
05-07-17 09.16.26 (that space can cause problems)
2005Jul17-16.26
2005Jul17-16.26
2005Jul17-16:26 (looks better but often the ':' screws up)

and more. What do others use please?

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK
 
Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Terry Pinnell wrote:
[]
> But, assuming I do settle on making Date/Time Taken the major sort,
> there are so many formats possible for that. I've tried:
> 2005-07-17-09-16-26
> 2005-07-17 09.16.26
> 05-07-17 09.16.26 (that space can cause problems)
> 2005Jul17-16.26
> 2005Jul17-16.26
> 2005Jul17-16:26 (looks better but often the ':' screws up)
>
> and more. What do others use please?

2005-03-20-1032-49

Each image is also in a tree folder structure:

\2005\
\2005\03\
\2005\03\20\
\2005\03\20\2005-03-20-1032-49.jpg

Dead easy to navigate, and keeps the number of images per folder down to a
couple of hundred at most.

Cheers,
David
 
Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

$number.$format for example 4312.jpeg. Other meta information is best
mtained in exif or an in external database (but a given piece of info
should be "owned" in one place only).

Most file systems become progressively slower as files are added to a
directory. Hence the need for directories each containing, say,
at most 500 entries each. Hashing would a useful mechanism to map
files to directories, for example, hash(4312.jpeg) -> 17/2/4312.jpeg
(17 and 2 were here chosen randomly but would depend on your hash
function). 2 levels would allow for 500^2 levels of files 250,000
files. When you hit that limit you can rehash your files using
3 levels (alternative decide what would be a reasonable large number and
use that from the start).

number is a plain sequence number and date searching can be implemented
by binary search knowing the maximum number added so for. Say, you
need 2005-3-18. You then look in hash(max/2) and see (file system, or
meta data contained in file) is smaller than 2005-3-18. Depending on
the result you repeat the search in either the 1st or 2nd half, or hit
it right on the nail to begin with.

If you have multiple streams of images, you want to serialize it into
one when added to your archive. Searching probably breaks hence you
want to use meta data, and an external database then becomes very
useful (database means just a collection of information, could start out
as a text file). Tree naming convention is not general enough, so
meta-data probably needs the capability to tag multiple pieces of
information on a given picture. For instance, subject for a picture
could include: people, spring, water, family.

Hope that helps?


/Allan
 
Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Hi Terry!
This is the way I proceed:
year, month, date, "underscore", title
For example, 05-07-18_party-at-mikes
This way, I know the date and the do. I can also upload directly without
changing the title
Marcel



"Terry Pinnell" <terrypinDELETE@THESEdial.pipex.com> wrote in message
news:vglmd19jb3a5hf19g43h1apl0b751p6htp@4ax.com...
> I'd appreciate learning what format others have chosen for renaming
> photos please. Despite much experiment, I've still not settled on
> anything consistent!
>
> In particular, with future sorting in mind, I vary between making the
> major field the Date/Time Taken, or some keyword about the subject.
> For example, my photo taken at 4:26pm yesterday on a walk from a place
> called Exceat could be renamed from
> DSC0005.jpg to
> 2005-07-17-09-16-26-Exceat.JPG
> or
> Exceat-2005-07-17-09-16-26-Exceat.JPG
>
> But, assuming I do settle on making Date/Time Taken the major sort,
> there are so many formats possible for that. I've tried:
> 2005-07-17-09-16-26
> 2005-07-17 09.16.26
> 05-07-17 09.16.26 (that space can cause problems)
> 2005Jul17-16.26
> 2005Jul17-16.26
> 2005Jul17-16:26 (looks better but often the ':' screws up)
>
> and more. What do others use please?
>
> --
> Terry, West Sussex, UK
>
 
Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

"Terry Pinnell" <terrypinDELETE@THESEdial.pipex.com> wrote in message
news:vglmd19jb3a5hf19g43h1apl0b751p6htp@4ax.com...
> I'd appreciate learning what format others have chosen for renaming
> photos please. Despite much experiment, I've still not settled on
> anything consistent!
>
I leave the filename as it is from the camera. I dont believe in making the
filename searchable.
Instead I use EXIF/IPTC data, which can be embedded into the picturefile.
This way I can use a lot more keywords, than there is room for in the
filename. And I get a lot more flexibility when searching.
Also the keywords and other info follows the picturefile.

I use www.pixvue.com for adding EXIF/IPTC keywords/metadata and
www.picasa.com as "photodatabase".
In Picasa I can search for the keywords and other info in my picturefiles.

regards



> In particular, with future sorting in mind, I vary between making the
> major field the Date/Time Taken, or some keyword about the subject.
> For example, my photo taken at 4:26pm yesterday on a walk from a place
> called Exceat could be renamed from
> DSC0005.jpg to
> 2005-07-17-09-16-26-Exceat.JPG
> or
> Exceat-2005-07-17-09-16-26-Exceat.JPG
>
> But, assuming I do settle on making Date/Time Taken the major sort,
> there are so many formats possible for that. I've tried:
> 2005-07-17-09-16-26
> 2005-07-17 09.16.26
> 05-07-17 09.16.26 (that space can cause problems)
> 2005Jul17-16.26
> 2005Jul17-16.26
> 2005Jul17-16:26 (looks better but often the ':' screws up)
>
> and more. What do others use please?
>
> --
> Terry, West Sussex, UK
>
 
Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

"Terry Pinnell" <terrypinDELETE@THESEdial.pipex.com> wrote in message
news:vglmd19jb3a5hf19g43h1apl0b751p6htp@4ax.com...
> I'd appreciate learning what format others have chosen for renaming
> photos please. Despite much experiment, I've still not settled on
> anything consistent!
>
> In particular, with future sorting in mind, I vary between making the
> major field the Date/Time Taken, or some keyword about the subject.
> For example, my photo taken at 4:26pm yesterday on a walk from a place
> called Exceat could be renamed from

<< SNIP>

> Terry, West Sussex, UK

How long did it take to get to the coast and was it crowded ?

Steve
--
Milk floats, stainless steel sinks...
 
Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

"Terry Pinnell" <terrypinDELETE@THESEdial.pipex.com> wrote in message
news:vglmd19jb3a5hf19g43h1apl0b751p6htp@4ax.com...
> I'd appreciate learning what format others have chosen for renaming
> photos please. Despite much experiment, I've still not settled on
> anything consistent!
>
> In particular, with future sorting in mind, I vary between making the
> major field the Date/Time Taken, or some keyword about the subject.
> For example, my photo taken at 4:26pm yesterday on a walk from a place
> called Exceat could be renamed from
> DSC0005.jpg to
> 2005-07-17-09-16-26-Exceat.JPG
> or
> Exceat-2005-07-17-09-16-26-Exceat.JPG
>
> But, assuming I do settle on making Date/Time Taken the major sort,
> there are so many formats possible for that. I've tried:
> 2005-07-17-09-16-26
> 2005-07-17 09.16.26
> 05-07-17 09.16.26 (that space can cause problems)
> 2005Jul17-16.26
> 2005Jul17-16.26
> 2005Jul17-16:26 (looks better but often the ':' screws up)
>
> and more. What do others use please?
>
> --
> Terry, West Sussex, UK
>
>
One alternative out there over the past year has been indexing programs such
as X1 and Copernick Desktop Search that index all H.D. files, emails and
attachments, etc. I think these programs make having to use any type of
sophisticated file-naming scheme largely unnecessary, beyond giving the
jpeg, RAW, etc., a descriptive name that tells roughly what's there and
approximately the date. These programs, because they maintain a "live"
index, yield search results instanteously. Maybe EXIF is same functionally
(live index??), I don't know. But I can tell you that all my Outlook emails
are not kept in topical folders any longer at work.
 
Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

I was talking about a subdirectory of course.
Pictures are either renamed (001, etc. , or left as is)
Marcel


"Celcius" <cosmar@rogers.com> wrote in message
news:SpSdnewAA80fSUbfRVn-rA@rogers.com...
> Hi Terry!
> This is the way I proceed:
> year, month, date, "underscore", title
> For example, 05-07-18_party-at-mikes
> This way, I know the date and the do. I can also upload directly without
> changing the title
> Marcel
>
>
>
> "Terry Pinnell" <terrypinDELETE@THESEdial.pipex.com> wrote in message
> news:vglmd19jb3a5hf19g43h1apl0b751p6htp@4ax.com...
> > I'd appreciate learning what format others have chosen for renaming
> > photos please. Despite much experiment, I've still not settled on
> > anything consistent!
> >
> > In particular, with future sorting in mind, I vary between making the
> > major field the Date/Time Taken, or some keyword about the subject.
> > For example, my photo taken at 4:26pm yesterday on a walk from a place
> > called Exceat could be renamed from
> > DSC0005.jpg to
> > 2005-07-17-09-16-26-Exceat.JPG
> > or
> > Exceat-2005-07-17-09-16-26-Exceat.JPG
> >
> > But, assuming I do settle on making Date/Time Taken the major sort,
> > there are so many formats possible for that. I've tried:
> > 2005-07-17-09-16-26
> > 2005-07-17 09.16.26
> > 05-07-17 09.16.26 (that space can cause problems)
> > 2005Jul17-16.26
> > 2005Jul17-16.26
> > 2005Jul17-16:26 (looks better but often the ':' screws up)
> >
> > and more. What do others use please?
> >
> > --
> > Terry, West Sussex, UK
> >
>
>
 
Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Allan Wind <allan_wind@lifeintegrity.com> wrote:

>$number.$format for example 4312.jpeg. Other meta information is best
>mtained in exif or an in external database (but a given piece of info
>should be "owned" in one place only).
>
>Most file systems become progressively slower as files are added to a
>directory. Hence the need for directories each containing, say,
>at most 500 entries each. Hashing would a useful mechanism to map
>files to directories, for example, hash(4312.jpeg) -> 17/2/4312.jpeg
>(17 and 2 were here chosen randomly but would depend on your hash
>function). 2 levels would allow for 500^2 levels of files 250,000
>files. When you hit that limit you can rehash your files using
>3 levels (alternative decide what would be a reasonable large number and
>use that from the start).
>
>number is a plain sequence number and date searching can be implemented
>by binary search knowing the maximum number added so for. Say, you
>need 2005-3-18. You then look in hash(max/2) and see (file system, or
>meta data contained in file) is smaller than 2005-3-18. Depending on
>the result you repeat the search in either the 1st or 2nd half, or hit
>it right on the nail to begin with.
>
>If you have multiple streams of images, you want to serialize it into
>one when added to your archive. Searching probably breaks hence you
>want to use meta data, and an external database then becomes very
>useful (database means just a collection of information, could start out
>as a text file). Tree naming convention is not general enough, so
>meta-data probably needs the capability to tag multiple pieces of
>information on a given picture. For instance, subject for a picture
>could include: people, spring, water, family.
>
>Hope that helps?
>
>
>/Allan

Thanks, appreciate the detailed response, but I'm afraid it's largely
over my head! You lost me on this 'hashing' stuff.

Also, if I've understood the rest correctly, I'm afraid some sort of
'meta' or serial number approach wouldn't suit me. I like my filenames
to be inherently meaningful in *some* way, even if it's only the date
and a word of text.

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK
 
Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

"Morten L.Pedersen" <mlp@melped.dk> wrote:

>"Terry Pinnell" <terrypinDELETE@THESEdial.pipex.com> wrote in message
>news:vglmd19jb3a5hf19g43h1apl0b751p6htp@4ax.com...
>> I'd appreciate learning what format others have chosen for renaming
>> photos please. Despite much experiment, I've still not settled on
>> anything consistent!
>>
>I leave the filename as it is from the camera. I dont believe in making the
>filename searchable.
>Instead I use EXIF/IPTC data, which can be embedded into the picturefile.
>This way I can use a lot more keywords, than there is room for in the
>filename. And I get a lot more flexibility when searching.
>Also the keywords and other info follows the picturefile.
>
>I use www.pixvue.com for adding EXIF/IPTC keywords/metadata and
>www.picasa.com as "photodatabase".
>In Picasa I can search for the keywords and other info in my picturefiles.

Thanks, I'll take another look at both Picasa and pixvue.

What do you with filenames for images that have no EXIF, such as from
old scans?

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK
 
Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

On Mon, 18 Jul 2005 08:13:16 +0100, Terry Pinnell
<terrypinDELETE@THESEdial.pipex.com> wrote:

>I'd appreciate learning what format others have chosen for renaming
>photos please. Despite much experiment, I've still not settled on
>anything consistent!

In view of the somewhat complicated approaches mentioned here, I
prefer my current system (having moved away from a more structured,
somewhat encrypted system that I used for films and negs).

Here is an example directory snippet:

Set044_Mar_2005_Renaissance_Festival
Set045_Mar_2005_St_Patrics_Day
Set046_Mar_2005_Universal_Studios
Set047_Apr_2005_Key_Lago_Dolphins
Set048_Apr_2005_Loxahatchee
Set049_Apr_2005_Sprinkler

Set number represents a 1Gb or under CF card being filled. I usually
empty the card after any 'major' event, create the set and name it
accordingly. Underscores are optional of course, and this system
allows you to use whatever date format you are happy with because the
set-number keeps them in chronological order. One set will often
contain photos taken over a number of days, and the descriptive tag I
choose is one that best describes the majority of the photos.

Inside, the DSC_NNNN.NEF files get renamed to the set number:

048_0001.NEF
048_0002.NEF
048_0003.NEF

and so on...., this keeps the filenames of the images unique, but
still nice and small.

Every few months I get around to making a small html based index in
each set, for fast visual location of a particular file (using
software that makes small thumbnails + 800x600 preview files, and
exposes the EXIF data for each image).

I'm too damn lazy to add EXIF descriptions for every shot or create
some kind of database. Everything I print (using mpix.com) gets the
filename printed on the back of the photo, which makes it easy to
re-print if I need to.

--
Owamanga!
http://www.pbase.com/owamanga
 
Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

"Biker2 \(Threadstopper\)" <steve at pvl dot co dot uk> wrote:

>
>"Terry Pinnell" <terrypinDELETE@THESEdial.pipex.com> wrote in message
>news:vglmd19jb3a5hf19g43h1apl0b751p6htp@4ax.com...
>> I'd appreciate learning what format others have chosen for renaming
>> photos please. Despite much experiment, I've still not settled on
>> anything consistent!
>>
>> In particular, with future sorting in mind, I vary between making the
>> major field the Date/Time Taken, or some keyword about the subject.
>> For example, my photo taken at 4:26pm yesterday on a walk from a place
>> called Exceat could be renamed from
>
><< SNIP>
>
>> Terry, West Sussex, UK
>
>How long did it take to get to the coast and was it crowded ?
>
>Steve

An hour from East Grinstead to Exceat, mainly on very busy A22,
arriving at 10:00. Area was 'crowded' compared to a weekday in April,
but spread out over the 9.5 miles we weren't tripping over other
walkers <g>.


--
Terry, West Sussex, UK
 
Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Terry Pinnell <terrypinDELETE@THESEdial.pipex.com> writes:
>I'd appreciate learning what format others have chosen for renaming
>photos please. Despite much experiment, I've still not settled on
>anything consistent!

>What do others use please?

I don't rename the image files at all. Too much work. Instead, I
transfer them from the card using the free Breeze Downloader. I have it
set up to read the date in the EXIF data and then store the images in
individual folders for each date. The folders name pattern is
"2005-07-18". Then I add an entry to a simple text file telling me the
general subject of photos shot on that day.

To find photos about a particular subject or place, searching the text
file is fast. Then I use a browser like ACDSee or Irfanview to show me
thumbnail images of all images in the folder. When I find a particular
image, I can look at the EXIF info to tell me what time of day it was
shot, as well as exposure conditions.

So the date turns into the folder name, the time isn't used (but is
stored in EXIF), and any comments are in the text file.

Note that this method is for someone who "sorts" or looks for images
infrequently than they transfer recent images, so it minimizes the
amount of work done at the transfer stage. If I was a commercial
photographer who wanted to be able to search for a particular image by
keyword, I'd probably maintain a database of them. But I'm not.

Dave
 
Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

>I'd appreciate learning what format others have chosen for renaming
>photos please. Despite much experiment, I've still not settled on
>anything consistent!

I think you're best bet is to make heavy use of subdirectories. I use
a different subdir for each event, so it's easy to find the photos.

But if you're going to name each photo individually, why not put lots
of information in the name? After all, Windows will look for subparts
of a file name. If you have something like
"July14,2004:RiverInMaineWithFishInTheStream.jpg" you should be able
to find it"

As for dates, I've always found that spelling out the month is the
best way to go.

-Joel

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

"Terry Pinnell" <terrypinDELETE@THESEdial.pipex.com> wrote in message
news:vglmd19jb3a5hf19g43h1apl0b751p6htp@4ax.com...
> I'd appreciate learning what format others have chosen for renaming
> photos please. Despite much experiment, I've still not settled on
> anything consistent!
>
> In particular, with future sorting in mind, I vary between making the
> major field the Date/Time Taken, or some keyword about the subject.
> For example, my photo taken at 4:26pm yesterday on a walk from a place
> called Exceat could be renamed from
> DSC0005.jpg to
> 2005-07-17-09-16-26-Exceat.JPG
> or
> Exceat-2005-07-17-09-16-26-Exceat.JPG
>
> But, assuming I do settle on making Date/Time Taken the major sort,
> there are so many formats possible for that. I've tried:
> 2005-07-17-09-16-26
> 2005-07-17 09.16.26
> 05-07-17 09.16.26 (that space can cause problems)
> 2005Jul17-16.26
> 2005Jul17-16.26
> 2005Jul17-16:26 (looks better but often the ':' screws up)
>
> and more. What do others use please?
>
> --
> Terry, West Sussex, UK
>
I use month-day-year-image sequence number. I also have an Excel
spreadsheet which gives more information including a thumbnail. Just use a
format which you understand.
Jim
 
Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

I guess it depends upon how many photos you take. I take drga racing and
family photos, not commercial.
I store my photos in folders with the date they were taken.
I then browse the new directories with IrfanView thumbnails to determine
what was taken on each date. I then make a brief note of what is each
directory in a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet has a different page for each
year and the entries are in date order.

--
remove n u m b e r s to reply
Terry Pinnell wrote in message ...
>I'd appreciate learning what format others have chosen for renaming
>photos please. Despite much experiment, I've still not settled on
>anything consistent!
>
>In particular, with future sorting in mind, I vary between making the
>major field the Date/Time Taken, or some keyword about the subject.
>For example, my photo taken at 4:26pm yesterday on a walk from a place
>called Exceat could be renamed from
>DSC0005.jpg to
>2005-07-17-09-16-26-Exceat.JPG
>or
>Exceat-2005-07-17-09-16-26-Exceat.JPG
>
>But, assuming I do settle on making Date/Time Taken the major sort,
>there are so many formats possible for that. I've tried:
>2005-07-17-09-16-26
>2005-07-17 09.16.26
>05-07-17 09.16.26 (that space can cause problems)
>2005Jul17-16.26
>2005Jul17-16.26
>2005Jul17-16:26 (looks better but often the ':' screws up)
>
>and more. What do others use please?
>
>--
>Terry, West Sussex, UK
>
 
Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

"Ralph" <Ralph.Smith2@team4.telstra6.com> wrote:

>I guess it depends upon how many photos you take. I take drga racing and
>family photos, not commercial.
>I store my photos in folders with the date they were taken.
>I then browse the new directories with IrfanView thumbnails to determine
>what was taken on each date. I then make a brief note of what is each
>directory in a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet has a different page for each
>year and the entries are in date order.

Many thanks for the many further replies. Several new ideas I hadn't
previously considered seriously, especially:
- dated *folders* rather than (or in addition to) dated filenames
- the complementary use of a spreadsheet to aid retrieval (at the cost
of additional input effort)

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK
 
Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

"Terry Pinnell" <terrypinDELETE@THESEdial.pipex.com> wrote in message
news:1mfnd11ls6ufuu00hekbg4gam59sbqohgu@4ax.com...
> "Morten L.Pedersen" <mlp@melped.dk> wrote:
>
> >"Terry Pinnell" <terrypinDELETE@THESEdial.pipex.com> wrote in message
> >news:vglmd19jb3a5hf19g43h1apl0b751p6htp@4ax.com...
> >> I'd appreciate learning what format others have chosen for renaming
> >> photos please. Despite much experiment, I've still not settled on
> >> anything consistent!
> >>
> >I leave the filename as it is from the camera. I dont believe in making
the
> >filename searchable.
> >Instead I use EXIF/IPTC data, which can be embedded into the picturefile.
> >This way I can use a lot more keywords, than there is room for in the
> >filename. And I get a lot more flexibility when searching.
> >Also the keywords and other info follows the picturefile.
> >
> >I use www.pixvue.com for adding EXIF/IPTC keywords/metadata and
> >www.picasa.com as "photodatabase".
> >In Picasa I can search for the keywords and other info in my
picturefiles.
>
> Thanks, I'll take another look at both Picasa and pixvue.
>
> What do you with filenames for images that have no EXIF, such as from
> old scans?
>

I give them a meaningfull filename (E.g. "<keyword>_<Date>.jpg") AND add
EXIF/IPTC metadata (To make them searchable in Picasa).

regards

> --
> Terry, West Sussex, UK
>
 
Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

"Owamanga" <owamanga-not-this-bit@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:bmhnd1des6o3uef3dhr49jucp778kkfotm@4ax.com...
> On Mon, 18 Jul 2005 08:13:16 +0100, Terry Pinnell
> <terrypinDELETE@THESEdial.pipex.com> wrote:
>
>
> In view of the somewhat complicated approaches mentioned here, I
> prefer my current system (having moved away from a more structured,
> somewhat encrypted system that I used for films and negs).
>
> Here is an example directory snippet:
>
> Set044_Mar_2005_Renaissance_Festival
> Set045_Mar_2005_St_Patrics_Day
> Set046_Mar_2005_Universal_Studios
> Set047_Apr_2005_Key_Lago_Dolphins
> Set048_Apr_2005_Loxahatchee
> Set049_Apr_2005_Sprinkler
>
> Set number represents a 1Gb or under CF card being filled. I usually
> empty the card after any 'major' event, create the set and name it
> accordingly. Underscores are optional of course, and this system
> allows you to use whatever date format you are happy with because the
> set-number keeps them in chronological order. One set will often
> contain photos taken over a number of days, and the descriptive tag I
> choose is one that best describes the majority of the photos.
>
> Inside, the DSC_NNNN.NEF files get renamed to the set number:
>
> 048_0001.NEF
> 048_0002.NEF
> 048_0003.NEF
>
> and so on...., this keeps the filenames of the images unique, but
> still nice and small.
>
> Every few months I get around to making a small html based index in
> each set, for fast visual location of a particular file (using
> software that makes small thumbnails + 800x600 preview files, and
> exposes the EXIF data for each image).
>
> I'm too damn lazy to add EXIF descriptions for every shot or create
> some kind of database. Everything I print (using mpix.com) gets the
> filename printed on the back of the photo, which makes it easy to
> re-print if I need to.
>
> --

With this approach it's difficult to find photos showing a particular person
or photos with other specifich properties.
The EXIF/IPTC metadata-approach takes a little work and effort, but it pays
off, when you need to find that one particular picture.

regards

> Owamanga!
> http://www.pbase.com/owamanga
 
Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

On Tue, 19 Jul 2005 10:29:52 +0200, "Morten L.Pedersen"
<mlp@melped.dk> wrote:

>"Owamanga" <owamanga-not-this-bit@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>news:bmhnd1des6o3uef3dhr49jucp778kkfotm@4ax.com...
>> On Mon, 18 Jul 2005 08:13:16 +0100, Terry Pinnell
>> <terrypinDELETE@THESEdial.pipex.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>> In view of the somewhat complicated approaches mentioned here, I
>> prefer my current system (having moved away from a more structured,
>> somewhat encrypted system that I used for films and negs).
>>
>> Here is an example directory snippet:
>>
>> Set044_Mar_2005_Renaissance_Festival
>> Set045_Mar_2005_St_Patrics_Day
>> Set046_Mar_2005_Universal_Studios
>> Set047_Apr_2005_Key_Lago_Dolphins
>> Set048_Apr_2005_Loxahatchee
>> Set049_Apr_2005_Sprinkler
>>
>> Set number represents a 1Gb or under CF card being filled. I usually
>> empty the card after any 'major' event, create the set and name it
>> accordingly. Underscores are optional of course, and this system
>> allows you to use whatever date format you are happy with because the
>> set-number keeps them in chronological order. One set will often
>> contain photos taken over a number of days, and the descriptive tag I
>> choose is one that best describes the majority of the photos.
>>
>> Inside, the DSC_NNNN.NEF files get renamed to the set number:
>>
>> 048_0001.NEF
>> 048_0002.NEF
>> 048_0003.NEF
>>
>> and so on...., this keeps the filenames of the images unique, but
>> still nice and small.
>>
>> Every few months I get around to making a small html based index in
>> each set, for fast visual location of a particular file (using
>> software that makes small thumbnails + 800x600 preview files, and
>> exposes the EXIF data for each image).
>>
>> I'm too damn lazy to add EXIF descriptions for every shot or create
>> some kind of database. Everything I print (using mpix.com) gets the
>> filename printed on the back of the photo, which makes it easy to
>> re-print if I need to.
>>
>> --
>
>With this approach it's difficult to find photos showing a particular person
>or photos with other specifich properties.
>The EXIF/IPTC metadata-approach takes a little work and effort, but it pays
>off, when you need to find that one particular picture.

I guess it depends heavily on your shooting habits. The subject of 70%
of shots is my toddler, 25% is Florida wildlife and 5% is everything
else. A searchable EXIF database has an extremely limited appeal for
me. I can recall an image with good accuracy based on the event, and
with my visual indexing system, finding the exact file is extremely
rapid.

--
Owamanga!
http://www.pbase.com/owamanga
 
Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

"Owamanga" <owamanga-not-this-bit@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:stqpd1dfd2j6b9e8506mpdf7it583gnai3@4ax.com...
> On Tue, 19 Jul 2005 10:29:52 +0200, "Morten L.Pedersen"
> <mlp@melped.dk> wrote:
>
> >"Owamanga" <owamanga-not-this-bit@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> >news:bmhnd1des6o3uef3dhr49jucp778kkfotm@4ax.com...
> >> On Mon, 18 Jul 2005 08:13:16 +0100, Terry Pinnell
> >> <terrypinDELETE@THESEdial.pipex.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >> In view of the somewhat complicated approaches mentioned here, I
> >> prefer my current system (having moved away from a more structured,
> >> somewhat encrypted system that I used for films and negs).
> >>
> >> Here is an example directory snippet:
> >>
> >> Set044_Mar_2005_Renaissance_Festival
> >> Set045_Mar_2005_St_Patrics_Day
> >> Set046_Mar_2005_Universal_Studios
> >> Set047_Apr_2005_Key_Lago_Dolphins
> >> Set048_Apr_2005_Loxahatchee
> >> Set049_Apr_2005_Sprinkler
> >>
> >> Set number represents a 1Gb or under CF card being filled. I usually
> >> empty the card after any 'major' event, create the set and name it
> >> accordingly. Underscores are optional of course, and this system
> >> allows you to use whatever date format you are happy with because the
> >> set-number keeps them in chronological order. One set will often
> >> contain photos taken over a number of days, and the descriptive tag I
> >> choose is one that best describes the majority of the photos.
> >>
> >> Inside, the DSC_NNNN.NEF files get renamed to the set number:
> >>
> >> 048_0001.NEF
> >> 048_0002.NEF
> >> 048_0003.NEF
> >>
> >> and so on...., this keeps the filenames of the images unique, but
> >> still nice and small.
> >>
> >> Every few months I get around to making a small html based index in
> >> each set, for fast visual location of a particular file (using
> >> software that makes small thumbnails + 800x600 preview files, and
> >> exposes the EXIF data for each image).
> >>
> >> I'm too damn lazy to add EXIF descriptions for every shot or create
> >> some kind of database. Everything I print (using mpix.com) gets the
> >> filename printed on the back of the photo, which makes it easy to
> >> re-print if I need to.
> >>
> >> --
> >
> >With this approach it's difficult to find photos showing a particular
person
> >or photos with other specifich properties.
> >The EXIF/IPTC metadata-approach takes a little work and effort, but it
pays
> >off, when you need to find that one particular picture.
>
> I guess it depends heavily on your shooting habits. The subject of 70%
> of shots is my toddler, 25% is Florida wildlife and 5% is everything
> else. A searchable EXIF database has an extremely limited appeal for
> me. I can recall an image with good accuracy based on the event, and
> with my visual indexing system, finding the exact file is extremely
> rapid.
>

But when you're not here anymore, a lot of info about your pictures will die
with you.
If you find a box of old photographs with no comments written on the back -
they are not of much value to you when you don't know anything about who's
on the pictures, where were they taken and so on.
I try to treat my picturefiles as I treated my old negatives/paperprints. I
placed them in an album and wrote comments beside them. Then my children and
other people can get an idea about whats on the pictures, when they look at
them 50 years from now...

regards


> --
> Owamanga!
> http://www.pbase.com/owamanga
 
Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

On Tue, 19 Jul 2005 16:10:42 +0200, "Morten L.Pedersen"
<mlp@melped.dk> wrote:

>But when you're not here anymore, a lot of info about your pictures will die
>with you.

That is true, yes. I'm not at all certain that an EXIF database will
help. It'll probably disappear long before me. Tagging the files is
the only hope, and I'm simply too lazy.

>If you find a box of old photographs with no comments written on the back -
>they are not of much value to you when you don't know anything about who's
>on the pictures, where were they taken and so on.

Usually the set names cover the general 'where' bit, of course the
EXIF copes with the date. The 'who' is still missing, yes...

>I try to treat my picturefiles as I treated my old negatives/paperprints. I
>placed them in an album and wrote comments beside them. Then my children and
>other people can get an idea about whats on the pictures, when they look at
>them 50 years from now...

Okay, maybe I'll add a text file alongside the images describing the
batch in more detail, and specific people in specific shots.
(Presuming of course the electronic version of the images survive any
significant amount of time - something which I can't guarantee.)

Over the last year I've been slowly scanning all my family slides -
dating back from the early 50's. I named each slide with the people,
date, and location. These are destined to become a slideshow on a DVD
(I've done one already, the extended family loved it), but having
since received another batch from the same time period, I need to
re-do it.

For this I want to put that filename info onto the subtitle track, so
the viewer can switch it on or off as needed. On the first try, I
grouped each batch of slide based on the decade it was shot, and added
music from that era. The software I used lets you pan & zoom, and
cross-fades which added interest and kept the thing from becoming
tedious. It was cool, and I'll be making another one from my recent
D70 photos.

--
Owamanga!
http://www.pbase.com/owamanga
 
Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Owamanga <owamanga-not-this-bit@hotmail.com> wrote:

<snip>

>Over the last year I've been slowly scanning all my family slides -
>dating back from the early 50's. I named each slide with the people,
>date, and location. These are destined to become a slideshow on a DVD
>(I've done one already, the extended family loved it), but having
>since received another batch from the same time period, I need to
>re-do it.
>
>For this I want to put that filename info onto the subtitle track, so
>the viewer can switch it on or off as needed. On the first try, I
>grouped each batch of slide based on the decade it was shot, and added
>music from that era. The software I used lets you pan & zoom, and
>cross-fades which added interest and kept the thing from becoming
>tedious. It was cool, and I'll be making another one from my recent
>D70 photos.

I'm doing almost exactly the same here. Some of my photos are
hand-me-downs, and go back to about 1940. What DVD software are you
using? I have MemoriesOnTV, but that has no 'subtitle' track. (I can
add text captions either as part of an image or a separate text-only
image.) And I too am trying to come up with appropriate soundtracks
for each decade. Good fun, but time-consuming stuff!

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK
 
Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

On Tue, 19 Jul 2005 18:45:14 +0100, Terry Pinnell
<terrypinDELETE@THESEdial.pipex.com> wrote:

>Owamanga <owamanga-not-this-bit@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
><snip>
>
>>Over the last year I've been slowly scanning all my family slides -
>>dating back from the early 50's. I named each slide with the people,
>>date, and location. These are destined to become a slideshow on a DVD
>>(I've done one already, the extended family loved it), but having
>>since received another batch from the same time period, I need to
>>re-do it.
>>
>>For this I want to put that filename info onto the subtitle track, so
>>the viewer can switch it on or off as needed. On the first try, I
>>grouped each batch of slide based on the decade it was shot, and added
>>music from that era. The software I used lets you pan & zoom, and
>>cross-fades which added interest and kept the thing from becoming
>>tedious. It was cool, and I'll be making another one from my recent
>>D70 photos.
>
>I'm doing almost exactly the same here. Some of my photos are
>hand-me-downs, and go back to about 1940. What DVD software are you
>using? I have MemoriesOnTV, but that has no 'subtitle' track. (I can
>add text captions either as part of an image or a separate text-only
>image.) And I too am trying to come up with appropriate soundtracks
>for each decade. Good fun, but time-consuming stuff!

Canopus Imaginate

http://www.canopus.us/US/products/Imaginate2/pm_imaginate2.asp

Quality was superb - zooms pans etc are jitter-free, but it's hardly a
single-click operation, and I had to use other authoring software to
get the AVI's it made onto a DVD. I could add the soundtrack, but
needed to do the fade in other software. I recall it had a some stupid
limitation of around 100 pictures in any one sequence too.

So, basically it made me a DV compliant video sequence containing the
slide show. This meant I could (but didn't) bring it into premiere for
bits of home video to be included in the mix. I also got to build my
own DVD menu and stuff. Lots of control, but far too much work really.

Subtitles I need to investigate further, I have no experience of them
at all.

MemoriesOnTV looks quite good, I may DL the trial version they have,
it's a quarter the price of Imaginate too.

Given it's the limitation of no subtitle support, maybe simply
creating 2 nearly identical titles on the DVD - One clean one with no
text, and the other with text describing each image (MOTV supports
that). Two versions of one half-hour slide show should fit nicely onto
the disk.

I'm gonna have the same problem when I get round to editing my DV home
videos and putting them onto DVD - I want to retain the date/time
info, and a subtitle track is the perfect place for it, so I've really
got to figure out how these are authored, and what software is needed.

Either that, (still on home video here) or between scenes add little
title pages that describe the location, date etc. I guess the time
isn't *that* relevant.

--
Owamanga!
http://www.pbase.com/owamanga
 
Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

On Tue, 19 Jul 2005 18:45:14 +0100, Terry Pinnell
<terrypinDELETE@THESEdial.pipex.com> wrote:

>And I too am trying to come up with appropriate soundtracks
>for each decade. Good fun, but time-consuming stuff!

(I didn't read your post fully the first time...)

alt.binaries.sounds.1940s.mp3
alt.binaries.sounds.1950s.mp3
alt.binaries.sounds.1960s.mp3
alt.binaries.sounds.1970s.mp3
alt.binaries.sounds.1980s.mp3

...I can see a pattern here..

Usenet is a very handy resource for this type of project. I'm blessed
with easynews as my provider who have a web-based global search just
to make things really simple.

--
Owamanga!
http://www.pbase.com/owamanga
 
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