Mark said:
I use it because I like the auto re-numbering. What tool do you use?
I never change the names or numbers of my *originals*.
For all photos that I have worked on, I save them with their original
(camera-created) names with a coded suffix describing the changes I
have made to the copies.
For example, if I adjust levels for a photo named P12400143.jpg, I
would save the modified photo as P12400143a.jpg. If I did a more
complex adjustment involving a mask, for example, then the suffix
would be "A", not "a", and so forth. As additional editing
steps are taken, a saved photo will "grow" additional suffixes.
A photo that has had levels adjusted, noise reduced, and cropped
would be P12400167aNc.jpg, for example.
The originals are *never* changed, and the modified versions are
stored in the same (topical) directory as the originals.
All photos that I select for some use, like printing, slide show,
or sharing, are saved as copies of the originals or modified versions
in another descriptively named directory (often a subdirectory of
the original directory).
If all photos are from one camera, the normal alphabetical ordering
puts them in timeline order, which is my usual choice. If the
photos come from two or more cameras, then I use a utility to prefix
to all the names the date and time, in lexicographic order, so that
all photos are merged into a common timeline. Exifer is a fine program
for that (and other) purposes, allowing for correction of mis-set
camera clocks, among other things.
For slide shows, I usually use Photo Story 3, and just re-arrange
occasional photos when the timeline order isn't the desired order.
Since I don't do major resequencing from timeline order, I've never
found it necessary to have a tool for that.
This works pretty well for me, for what is currently a 87,000 photo
library. I find that hierarchical topical directories with timeline
order withing the directories serves quite well.
I have not found any tool that manages my photos as well.
-michael
"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it's seriously underused."