I naively imagined that if you selected continuous file numbering in Canon DSLRs, files would have consecutive numbers up to 5 digits. Now realise they only go to 9999 and then start again at 0001. As I am now approaching that number, is there any way of distinguishing files in the second cycle once they are downloaded? Panasonic file numbering included the folder number as a prefix, but Canon so far as I see doesn't. I assign files to named folders but don't rename them. Seems I could run into trouble once I reach 10,000 if I try to move files between folders. Is there any way to assign a folder prefix, or do I need to rename all subsequent files once I reach 9999. I've never bothered with batch renaming but I understand you can do this in DPP (not sure about Bridge/CS2).
I batch rename in Adobe Bridge. The naming convention I have always used seems to work well for me and is as follows:
Here is an example for January 15, 2010:
Folders:
- 2010 (a folder for each year)
- 2010_01 (a folder for each month which has pictures)
- 2010_01_15 (only create day folders if the day has pictures)
Say I take pictures in Washington DC. Files which are placed into the folder "2010\2010_01\2010_01_15" would be as follows:
2010_01_15_dcCapitol_01.cr2
2010_01_15_dcCapitol_02.cr2
2010_01_15_dcCapitol_03.cr2
The Bridge will rename all files in a folder and all you do is give it the name template. In this case, the Bridge will be provided the first part of the name and then it generates the 01,02,03.
This naming convention seems to work well for me. By naming this way, photos are grouped by date which implicitly also groups by event/location. I then manage my photos using Portfolio and attach keywords which can be used to locate my picutures. I can locate pictures in a matter of seconds no matter when it was taken. Once the photo is found, I generally am also interested in the other photos which are in the same directory.
By the way, you may think the "underscores" are a waste of space, but I find they make the names more readable. The operating system could care less about how many characters you use (within reason).
One other note I'll make is that this renaming process involves no creativity and no thinking. It is simple and this simplicity encourages actually doing it. I don't bother giving each photo a unique name since keywords are used to find exactly what I am looking for. I do group somewhat by including a short descriptor, which in the example above was "dcCapitol". So if I had a couple of general things I was taking pictures of, a 100 photos may have 2 or 3 short group names incorporated into the fully qualified name.
