Naming Photos

[KarlEdmunds]

I'm thinking of buying a Fuji s9500 or a Canon s80 (Thinking, will probably do another thread soon because I'm having trouble buying a camera and the saleperson in my local camera shop was useless).

Anyway, because I'm going to Crete in a few weeks, Italy in August and travelling next year sometime I realised how useful naming photos on the camera would be. Pre photo taking.

For example, I'm in Milan. I set the name of all photos to Milan and the camera adds the photo number to the end rather than the typical CIMG12345.jpg that my girlfriend gets on her camera. Therefore I have Milan001.jpg etc.
Then when I go to Venice, I simply change the name of all future pics to Venice, and then numbers are appended accordingly.

Do cameras already do this? if so, which cameras do if only particular models have this feature.

thanks in advance

kind regards

Karl

 

[iGary]

I'm thinking of buying a Fuji s9500 or a Canon s80 (Thinking, will probably do another thread soon because I'm having trouble buying a camera and the saleperson in my local camera shop was useless).

Anyway, because I'm going to Crete in a few weeks, Italy in August and travelling next year sometime I realised how useful naming photos on the camera would be. Pre photo taking.

For example, I'm in Milan. I set the name of all photos to Milan and the camera adds the photo number to the end rather than the typical CIMG12345.jpg that my girlfriend gets on her camera. Therefore I have Milan001.jpg etc.
Then when I go to Venice, I simply change the name of all future pics to Venice, and then numbers are appended accordingly.

Do cameras already do this? if so, which cameras do if only particular models have this feature.

thanks in advance

kind regards

Karl

My 20D won't (unless there is some magic feature I do not know about).

I name the files in Aperture on import.

My usual format is:

AYCWednesdayNight_5.24.06_MDUS_GR_001.jpg

Event_Date_StateCountry_Photographer_index.file extension.

What photo oprogram are you using? Most support naming on import.

 

[KarlEdmunds]

I will be using iPhoto, however when I travel to Italy it may be difficult to distinguish where the photo was taken if I take alot. Likewise when I go travelling I will be away for a 12 months atleast, and probably won't have the advantage of decent software to import my photos. Just the occassional internet cafe and portable hard drive that allows the import of pics.

I'm only speaking from experience of collecting photos my friends take, since I have never owned a camera myself. Collecting photos and organising them is painful to say the least. my iPhoto library has 2000 images, many duplicates and no real organisation.
I'm a bit OCD when it comes to organising my files, so this bothers me alot

thanks for the reply, when I buy a camera I'll have a chance to play around and find something that is comfortable to use.

cheers

Karl

 

[rdowns]

A friend of mine wanted to do something similar in her long, long travels. She ended up simply writing a description of where she was, place, date, etc. and snapped a pic of the paper. Very low tech but it worked.

 

[aricher]

I've been batch renaming using Photoshop (er - Adobe Bridge) using naming conventions along the lines of what iGary is using. Makes searching for something a snap.

 

[jared_kipe]

A friend of mine wanted to do something similar in her long, long travels. She ended up simply writing a description of where she was, place, date, etc. and snapped a pic of the paper. Very low tech but it worked.

This is probably how you're going to have to do it.

You could use a couple memory cards and only use one in a specific location.

 

[homerjward]

if your camera supports folders you could just make a new folder for each place, then you wouldn't have to worry. i just keep the normal _DSC0001 or whatever, but i organize using folders with event names and dates, though i'm not a pro or anything; just a beginning amateur

edit: again, i'm not sure about the models you have in mind, but my camera supports automatically adding comments to the exif info of images. you might look into that.

 

[ChrisA]

Yes some camera have this feature

Do cameras already do this? if so, which cameras do if only particular models have this feature.
Karl

Don't know about Point and Shoots but My Nikon D50 allows you to make folders on the SD card and then specify which folder the images are to go in. So if you are working on multiple projects you can sort the images. I don't do this. I sort them durring the review process or I use Image Capture and selectivly download the images off the camera

The opther trick which ALL camera allow is that yu simply take several memory cards with you can swap the cards. Good idea too -- What's the expression? All eggs in one basket? Better to rotate cards if you have no way to do backups to CD.

 

[ChrisA]

My usual format is:
AYCWednesdayNight_5.24.06_MDUS_GR_001.jpg
Event_Date_StateCountry_Photographer_index.file extension.
What photo oprogram are you using? Most support naming on import.

Why use filenames to organize? Even iPhoto can search my data, keywords or comment. What you need is a well though out keyword system. I think you actually need to write down the rules you use to assign keywords so your usage does not "creep" over time. The trougble with using filenames is that you can assign only one filename

I archive photos twice. One when they come off the camera before I o anything to them and again later after edits. I do NOT change the file names so that later I can find the camera file that goes with an edited file.

Look at how librarys are organized. They have three card files, each bok has three cards on in each file. You can find a bokk by subject, author or title. With a computer you can keep an unlimited number of files

In the end any system works as long as you stick with it. But think it through. Some day you will have 10,000 photos and organizing them by date and city will jtobe enough.

 

[KarlEdmunds]

Thanks for the replies people, you have been very helpful.

Taking pics of some osrt of marker is a brilliant idea, I will already be taking several memory cards anyway so that will help also.

ChrisA: Spot on, I should have thought that through myself, I am gonna start adding keywords to my photos that I already have. much simpler.

thanks again.

Oh, which camera models are known to support directories, if you have a camera that supports this just post the model. I am still undecided about which camera to get but at the moment I'm interested in the PowerShot s80 and the Fuji s9500.

cheers

Karl

 

[iGary]

Why use filenames to organize?

Because my clients don't use iPhoto, Portfolio or Aperture.

This pretty much answers all of your other questions, too.

 

[BakedBeans]

I use nested folders.

Files in folders inside folders inside folders inside folders

 

[KarlEdmunds]

Ok so I'm going to name the photos on import, and hopefully store them in folders on the camera if the model I buy has that feature. Then I will use keywords to help identify pics and use smart folders etc.

But now comes the big question, one which I really need some help with.

I'm not a professionaly photographer, infact I have never owned anything other than a disposable but I feel it's about time I got myself one. I'm becoming much more interested in photography, I think it would be great to have my own digital library of snaps from my travels and my life in general.

When I use the camera I will be interested in the following, and hopefully from this list (basic I know) you could maybe advise me on which direction to take.

• 
  Scenery shots, from a distance, close up etc

• 
  Wildlife including large and small animals and insects.
  When my lady and I went to Zakynthos we had some cool lizards crawling up our outside wall, but when we got back to rainy britain and put the images onto a computer you can hardly make out the lizard. it's just one big white wall. I know that our photography skills were probably to blame, but her camera isn't the best for close-up shots

• 
  Burst Shots where I can set the camera to take a number of photos over a certain time period to capture cool movements of animals or my friends jumping into the sea from a boat.

• 
  Interesting landmarks

• 
  Nice quality videos no less than 30fps

I will need something farily robust and would also like something heavy enough so that it feels sturdy and allows me to hold it without shaking.

When it comes to the actual science behind photography, I know very little but I'm a quick learn er and already understand aperture, ISO, Exposure and Shutter Speed even if it isn't an advanced knowledge. I will learn quickly when I have a camera to play around with.

Thanks for reading my lengthy post, I understand that this question gets asked so often but the field of photography is complex because of the million options available and I find myself doubting my decision. As I mentioned earlier I'm interested in the powershot s80 and finepix s9500, but I have doubted my decision on both cameras because the s9500 has the 10x optical zoom but the s80 is smaller and more compact.

I appreciate any feedback

Karl

P.s, my budget would be £350 at most, so ebay will probably be my best bet. I have seen the s9500 go for £350 and in some cases £275 but obviously this depends on the extras provided.

 

[KarlEdmunds]

I should also add.

Large LCD screen would be very nice, the s80 has a 2.5" compared to 1.8" on the s9500 but I suppose it isn't essential.
Some sort of folder management would be sueful too, but from reviews and soecifications I can't tell if these cameras offer this.
RAW format support would be nice, I would like to get into the habit of editing my own pictures from RAW. I am under the impression iPhoto is capable of doing this. However I may find this a pain if I need the memory card space that the RAW format will eat.

Thanks again

Karl

 

[homerjward]

check out http://www.dpreview.com
they have very detailed reviews of a lot of cameras and specifications and comparisons on lots of cameras, plus forums.

 

[KarlEdmunds]

check out http://www.dpreview.com
they have very detailed reviews of a lot of cameras and specifications and comparisons on lots of cameras, plus forums.

I have used this site alot the last few weeks, thanks mate. It's brilliant but it still lacks the final help I personally require and that's what I was hoping I could achieve from this forum. Are the s80 and s9500 good for a user like me, or will they be overkill?

Karl

 

[KarlEdmunds]

Ok I have decided to go for the s9500 since noboddy else knows although it's a hard decision to make because I'm not sure if I will get sick of carting a camera that size around. the s80 should fit into a pocket.

Anyway, the s9500 offers 1cm macro focus range which is nice and has many excellent features. the reviews are top notch too.

Does anybody have any objections to my final decision?

Karl