I know this is old hat to most of you-that's why I'm here. I'd like to learn from your experience and avoid any mistakes. I just shot an event using two cameras and I would like to rename the files based on capture time. I did synchronize the clocks on the cameras prior to the event. There are some separate files with duplicate numbers. I am aware that I can sort them by time, but I think that I would like to rename them. I have Canon DPP software and the most recent version of ACR/Bridge on a PC. I would prefer to use software that I already have.
1) I see that both softwares have a batch rename utility under the tools heading. Is one superior to the other?
2) I already downloaded the photos (copy>paste) from the card to the folder on my hard drive. In the future, would it be better to change the names on import? If so, which of these programs should I use?
3) I'm thinking of renaming them as follows: YEARMONTHDAYHOURSECONDS_Original File Name.CR2 e.g. 20120205.16.41.17_MG_7608.CR2 What do you think? I probably won't include the event name, but I know that is an option.
That's all I can think to ask right now. Thanks for you help!
I use Adobe Bridge. It is quick and simple. You can setup the way you want the file name to be like. I'll just upload one memory card, batch rename. Then upload the second memory card then batch rename again. I like having all the photos ready and renamed before I import it to LR. You can do the same renaming inside LR.
Um, just drop the cards into their own folders and rename in DPP. It's not that big a deal really. Once they're renamed, put 'em together. There are several ways to skin a cat. The bottom line is the cat is still bare in the end.
If you're on a Mac and don't want to change your current workflow, you can try a program I found called "Name Mangler" (http://manytricks.com/namemangler/). I'm 95% sure it can do what you need.
We shoot raw in DPP w/4 bodies on the wedding day (each body is time stamped to computer in EOS utility night before the shoot). Copy each card to folder on desktop, rename each folder on desktop (burn to disc each folder), then edit, wb + exposure corrections to each folder. Move folders to 1 common folder - sort be time stamp, rename as wanted (burn to disc this common folder)). All files now renamed and in sequence from the wedding day. Time spent on computer.. 1 hour to burn back-up discs, takes about 1 hour for us to edit(cull) from approx. 1200+ files down to about 600. Takes about 3&1/2 hours to crop, sharpen, wb & exp. correct. As we shoot mostly w/1Ds2 frames, it may take my work station 3 hours to process the files from raw to Tiff or jpg. Add more time for any b&w or pp work.
empirenine wrote:
If you're on a Mac and don't want to change your current workflow, you can try a program I found called "Name Mangler" (http://manytricks.com/namemangler/). I'm 95% sure it can do what you need.
actually... you don't even need a program, you can do this right in finder. select the files, control-click, and select duplicate. it will simply add a -1 to the end and automatically select highlight them all when its finished so you can drag and drop them or copy them somewhere else.
Obviously you are shooting Canon... so here's a quick way to avoid it to begin with...
change the colorspace of one of the cameras.. I believe the default is ARGB and the camera writes those files as IMG_XXX, if you switch to SRGB, the camera writes the files as _MG_XXX. This only works if you are shooting RAW though as colorspace data isn't saved and is applied at the end of your export.
My flow with multiple cameras is this:
-- Synchronizes clocks in cameras just before event.
-- Copy files from each camera to its own folder.
-- Use DPP to rename the files to eventname-hh-mm-ssSeq.
---- (Seq) is a 4-digit number which I tell the client use when referring to a photo
---- I put each camera in it's own block of sequence numbers so I can find them easily. For instance, from my 1D4 I start numbering at 1000 and my 5D2 starts at 5000.
-- Take into LR and do further post-processing.
Probably some improved variations on that. I think the 4-digit sequence number at the end is the aspect of my workflow that may be most useful to yours.
I put all the cards from one camera in a folder I call "raw". All the cards from camera 2 go into a folder called "raw 2". If there is no file name overlap they could all go into the same folder. I do the separate folders because sometimes the filenames from the 2 cameras are the same. Then I just batch rename the one set and add something to the name like J_ to designate my camera. It doesn't matter to me what it is though, it's just to make it different than the other camera. Then they all go in the same folder, get culled and resorted as to my preference to make them flow the best and all renamed by date and sequence number - something like 102011_001, etc. All done in Bridge.
