OT: Renaming - date format choices?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Terry Pinnell
  • Start date Start date
I know that at least some here use various freeware renaming programs,
so maybe this post isn't too OT.

I'd appreciate learning what format others have chosen for renaming
photos please. Despite much experiment, I have 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 such formats
as
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 many others. What do others use please?
Click to expand...

Just on date... I use the format 18Jul05 or 27Aug03 etc.
 
hummingbird said:
Just on date... I use the format 18Jul05 or 27Aug03 etc.
Click to expand...

That used to be my simplistic approach, but of course it has the snag
that it doesn't sort by date.
 
Susan Bugher said:
I had to make a change recently when I started using a card reader - that necessitated a change from
Cam4you (which I liked a lot) to Stamp:

Program: Cam4you
Author: Hans-David Alkenius
Ware: Donationware
http://jpegclub.org/cam4you/

Program: Stamp
Author: Tempest Solutions
Ware: (Freeware)
http://www.klingebiel.com/tempest/

I have an ancient (by digital standards) Canon camera that stores data in the CIFF format rather
than EXIF. Stamp is the only program I've found so far that can rename image files by date from the
CIFF data after I've downloaded them with the card reader. It has a choice of date formats (Cam4you
let me create my own) and IIRC I have to do a bit more renaming afterward to achieve this format:

20050521_195232.jpg (YearMonthDay_HourMinuteSecond.jpg)

I was using 2005-05-21_19-52-32.jpg (Year-Month-Day_Hour-Minute-Second.jpg). I think I like the new
format better now that I've started using it. It was very easy to remove the dashes (-) from older
file names - I think it would be harder to add them in. . .

My first cataloging effort was scanned photos (old family photos). Often I didn't know the year,
much less the month and day. For those I used the year (best guess) and a 3 digit number (unique
identifier): 1879_051.jpg That worked pretty well. FWIW - I wanted to use 8 digit names to ensure
compatibility with MAC OS (relative's computers). I think I'd be more inclined to use a format like
this if I was starting over: 1879xxxx_051.jpg (YearMonthDay_uniqueidentifier.jpg) IOW - show the
month and day when known - use x's for unknown.

Susan
Click to expand...

Thanks very much. I like your date formats, both modern and old. (1879
sure qualifies for the latter!)

I might settle for the trivial variation 20050521-195232.jpg. I prefer
the more 'symmetrical' look of it. And I've sometimes experienced
underscores becoming invisible on screen when they 'blend' into
underlying lines.

I'm interested that you've raised the issue of 'unknowns'. I'd been
thinking of doing exactly that, even down to using 'x's. But do you
find the practical advantage (sorted appearance?) warrants the
trouble?

I sometimes temporarily use serial numbers for uniqueness (or just
inherited from DSCnnnn.jpg), but don't generally like them and try to
replace with some descriptive text. If after editing
20050521-195232-BabyFirstPaddle.jpg I postpone a decision on which
version to keep, I might save it as
20050521-195232-BabyFirstPaddle2.jpg. But I've so far not been
consistent, and I expect I could find variations like
20050521-195232-BabyFirstPaddle#2.jpg
20050521-195232b-BabyFirstPaddle.jpg
20050521-195232-BabyFirstPaddle-2.jpg
etc!
20050521-195232-BabyFirstPaddle2.jpg
 
Thanks very much. I like your date formats, both modern and old. (1879
sure qualifies for the latter!)
Click to expand...

Yup. :) I have around two dozen that are (or appear to be) from the 1800's - the earliest one with a
date is 1870. . .
I'm interested that you've raised the issue of 'unknowns'. I'd been
thinking of doing exactly that, even down to using 'x's. But do you
find the practical advantage (sorted appearance?) warrants the
trouble?
Click to expand...

I haven't used that format yet.

I scanned several thousand family photos. This was much like working on a gigantic jigsaw puzzle.
Before I scanned the photos I attempted to put them in the proper year - after I scanned them I put
them in month-day order as best I could.

I use a spreadsheet to record info about photos. From that I create HTML files that display the
photos sorted by date and info about them. I use a separate column in the spreadsheet to set the
date order. I made quite a few revisions in that column as I put the pieces of the puzzle together.

I think revising the file names is worth doing if it lets me get rid of the "date order" column.
hmmm. . . perhaps the format should be 1879xxxx_xxxxxx_051.jpg. . . hmmm again. . . The revision
will take some time but perhaps not as much as I was thinking it would. . .

Thanks for bringing this subject up. I still have a great many old photos that haven't been scanned
- if I don't have all the pieces of the puzzle at hand I could revise x's later. That gives me quite
a bit of flexibility. the year and identifier number uniquely identify the photo - the date order is
subject to change. . . when I'm through making revisions in the spreadsheet I rename the image
files from a list (I'll need a temporary column that has the original names). . . I think that will
work nicely. :)
I sometimes temporarily use serial numbers for uniqueness (or just
inherited from DSCnnnn.jpg), but don't generally like them and try to
replace with some descriptive text. If after editing
20050521-195232-BabyFirstPaddle.jpg I postpone a decision on which
version to keep, I might save it as
20050521-195232-BabyFirstPaddle2.jpg. But I've so far not been
consistent, and I expect I could find variations like
20050521-195232-BabyFirstPaddle#2.jpg
20050521-195232b-BabyFirstPaddle.jpg
20050521-195232-BabyFirstPaddle-2.jpg
etc!
20050521-195232-BabyFirstPaddle2.jpg
Click to expand...

LOL - great minds - I do/have done much the same. When I clip out a portion of a photo and save it I
add a letter at the end instead of a number. If I make several clips from the same image they're
renamed with a,b,c etc. added at the end of the name.

Susan
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That used to be my simplistic approach, but of course it has the snag
that it doesn't sort by date.
Click to expand...

Right.
Sorting will require numerics only in the form YYMMDD or similar.
Do you really need to sort by hour/min too?
 
Duddits said:
I use Cammy (freeware version) to rename as they are moved to disc.
http://www.bernd-bock.de/Cammy/index.html

I use %Date%_%Time% - ie 20050313_194551.jpg
Cammy will also create a folder for the current date - ie 20050721

hth

Dud
Click to expand...

Thanks, duly downloaded. Will give it a good workout on return from
imminent 2 weeks walking holiday in Dolomites and Lake Garda.
 
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