Suggestions for naming convention for photo folders

[nicholasg]

I'm doing some clean-up in Aperture before moving somewhere else and was wondering if people can share their folder naming convention. I have around 500 projects in Aperture and have not been very consistent.

Generally there are YYYY, MMMM - Event name

Most of the photos are from vacation or family events so this work okay, but I'm interested in learning what works for others.

Thanks,
Nicholas

 

[robgendreau]

My suggestion is date based folders. Like 2017-12-22, with maybe an occasional "Yosemite" or something attached.

The reason is that folder names are a crappy way of attaching info to images for the purposes of finding them. Inflexible, not particularly robust, and too time consuming. Especially for when you have to move out of Aperture. Projects, for instance, aren't folders (or even Aperture folders, which aren't Finder folders, confusingly). They don't even exist outside Aperture. So converting project names to keyword hierarchies is one of the best tips I ever got when moving out of Aperture to a referenced library and using other products, from Lightroom to Capture One. You write the keywords to the image metadata and it's there forever, and easily found, even with Spotlight.

And it avoids wasting time deciding if 1234.jpg of mom at her birthday party at Uncle Joe's with the kids on the trip to Disneyland goes into the Mom folder, or Birthdays folder, or Uncle Joe folder, or Disneyland folder, or one of the kids' folders, etc. With keywords, it can be "in" all of 'em.

 

[kenoh]

I use a simple convention which may only work because I am a hobbyist.

I have a top level folder for year, then next level month, then next level is event/trip name/location whichever seems most appropriate at the time.

Forgot, I prefix month with "01 - Jan", "02 - Feb" etc so computer sorts it right in list views. If I dont do this my OCD flares up when it sees June and July in the list before March.

 

[Alexander.Of.Oz]

I use a simple convention which may only work because I am a hobbyist.

I have a top level folder for year, then next level month, then next level is event/trip name/location whichever seems most appropriate at the time.

Forgot, I prefix month with "01 - Jan", "02 - Feb" etc so computer sorts it right in list views. If I dont do this my OCD flares up when it sees June and July in the list before March.

Now that's just spooky, I do the exact same thing for months in regards of a naming convention, but then also have days dated as folders too, like 12-City, 04-Architecture, etc.. I also go one further, if I shoot multiple things on the one day, naming them 08a-Beach, 08b-LongExposure, 08c-Birds, so they appear in order of shooting them. That's not really OCD is it?

 

[someoldguy]

I do pretty much the same . Date and keyword(s) . 20170415TinasBirthday . Works for me , but I'm not trying to make any money with my pix

 

[cyb3rdud3]

I don't put meaning to folders - I find it pointless when you have metadata to describe it and how you can find your stuff not just within applications, but also generally in the operating system functions like spotlight and within finder...

I can't remember the last time I used a folder structure to browse..

 

[MCAsan]

My main folders are for the years. Within each is a folder for each date with images.....yyyy-mm-dd. When importing I have Lr create the folders as needed, rename the images to (body serial #)-(4 digit sequence). The import process also fills out the IPTC fields, adds any specified key words, and applies my default import preset. Once the images are imported you can can create all manner of collections and collection sets to logically sort and resort the images.

 

[Fishrrman]

I create folders with simple dating:
8.8.17
8.9.17
8.10.17
....etc.

If there's something of specific interest IN a folder, I'll add a descriptor behind the date:
9.12.17 (wiring)

ALL my photo viewing/editing apps are set up to "reference" these libraries.
I -do not- import pics into ANY photo/editing app otherwise.

Works for me.

 

[kenoh]

Now that's just spooky, I do the exact same thing for months in regards of a naming convention, but then also have days dated as folders too, like 12-City, 04-Architecture, etc.. I also go one further, if I shoot multiple things on the one day, naming them 08a-Beach, 08b-LongExposure, 08c-Birds, so they appear in order of shooting them. That's not really OCD is it?

No mate, thats not OCD... Thats cookoo.... just kidding... I am sure I would do that if I shot more often...

 

[dwig]

I don't put meaning to folders - I find it pointless when you have metadata to describe it and how you can find your stuff not just within applications, ...

Putting some basic "meaning" into the file and folder names is far from pointless. It is, instead, a decent "backup" to using applications to sniff out the images' metadata and/or to use the applications' proprietary database information. The day may come when you need to manually navigate the files & folders and some basic sorting would be helpful.

Personally, I break down most of my images by "major class - date" with "major class" being things like "Family History" for non-art documentation, ... . Usually each division in the naming is done on separate nested folders.

I highly recommend that all naming be done using characters and name lengths that are totally cross platform; macOS, Window, Linux, iOS, and Android. I also prefer that all dates are YYYY-MM-DD, always using a 4 digit year and two digit month and day and either no separation or some cross platform compatible separator. Don't use the "/" that my boss tends to use even though the current macOS accepts it. Even on macOS, many applications (e.g. Lightroom) can't or won't deal with such names.