Digital Photo Tip: Renaming Files

If you take a lot of digital photos, you probably are familiar with seeing file names that start with "img" or "dsc" or some other 3 letter code followed by some kind of number. This is what your particular camera names each file. The problem is a file name of "img_00003245" does not really tell us much of anything about the image. Wouldn't it be better if the file was named "beach2009_012"? We would then know just by looking at the file name that the image was taken while on a beach trip in 2009. With that in mind, let me offer a couple recommendations about renaming your digital photos.

Many cameras have the ability to change the default 3 letter code given to each image. You'll have to check your menu (or even better your manual) to see if your camera has this feature. I changed mine to my initials (RAU). By just doing that I am tagging the images coming from my camera with a file name associated with me. If my images were mixed in with other people's images from an event, the file name "RAU_006765" would indicate that image came from me. This is certainly better than having my images tagged with the generic "img_".

Even better though is to rename your image files with a name that corresponds with the event where the images were taken, like my "beach2009_012" example above. Here is my own workflow: I usually shoot with two cameras so I can always have lenses with two different focal lengths. I have the internal clocks of both cameras in sync. When I import onto my computer the images from the two memory cards, all those images are loaded into one folder. My desire is to rename all the images, and at the same time put them into the order in which they were taken. Because the two cameras' clocks are in sync, and because the time each image was taken is imbedded into each image, it is possible to put them in chronological order. I use a program called "A Better Rename Finder", a Mac only shareware program, that allows me to batch rename thousands of images automatically, all at one time. There are several renaming freeware and shareware programs out there that you could try. Because it can be done as a batch, and because it makes renaming files so easy, there really is no reason not to rename your digital photos. I highly recommend doing so. Let me know if you have any questions about this.