Help: formatting images with date and time*

[jezsik]

I've still not gotten over the fact that the manufacturers don't allow us to choose how our images are named in the camera (do we REALLY need an IMG prefix to a JPG file?). So, I'm compelled to rename them on the computer. Because I shoot with two cameras, I find the best way is to use a date format. The problem is when I shoot too many images.

I'm aiming for a YYYYMMDDHHMM format. The file 200812051830.jpg was taken last night around 6:30PM (it's really easy to read once you get the hang of it). Of course if I take more than one photo a minute, I have to tag on two more digits for seconds. This makes things a bit awkward, but still manageable. The problem, as I discovered last week, is if I shoot more than one shot in a given second, my renaming software has a conniption.

Has anyone come up with a really effective format for renaming your images, using the date and time, that can handle multiple shots in the same second? Also, what software are you using to do the rename? (I've had great luck with FlashRenamer, but can't quite figure out the custom renaming options.)

• I mistakenly posted this in retouching form earlier.

I've tried variations on this, including the ISO standard of YYYY-MM-DD, but the file names start to get uncomfortably long. I'm open to ideas, though!

 

[iksomodo]

I use IrfanView, free for commercial use, to "batch rename" them, telling it to sort them in chronological order and rename them as, for example, 200812xxxx, where "x" represents a required digit from 0 through 9. I could probably get the date automatically, but I just change the format string each month. I also have to tell it, each time I process a batch of pictures, what the starting number is for the #### part.

So there's a little bit of work in that, and it doesn't give me the day of the month, much less the hour or minute or second, but it's close enough for me. If I want to find the image it's there, named by month and chronological sequence. If I've found the image and want its date or time, I just look in EXIF.

I'm not suggesting that you follow suit. I always assume that some more sophisticated software would do this better: I should add memory to my computer and use Lightroom or whatever. But you'll find the method that works for your needs.

 

[Robert 55]

I use dowloader pro for downloading and automatic renaming and while I don't need subsecond reaming I think the programme can do it:
http://www.breezesys.com/Downloader/help/index.html -scroll to uniqueness.

Even in the old days you could get away with 32 character [including extension] filenames.

BTW: though still far away, using YY instead of YYYY will already get you into trouble in 91 years and a couple of days from now

 

[MPCat]

The EXIF already contains that information. Why rename the file to say the same thing?

 

[sterretje]

for jpeg's from my girlfriend's olympus, I use the tool 'jhead' (under linux) that allows me to extract date and time from exif, add extra info and add the existing filename

so abc0123.jpg becomes e.g. 20081209_130300_holiday_abc0123.jpg

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WimS