What filenames for clients or family?

Started by sinus, November 05, 2014, 08:16:50 AM

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sinus

Hi all,
Well, this is simply a question, I wonder, how you do this handle.

I personally have long filenames like

20141010-1022-243862-s-kun-Cobain-Portraits_m_v1.jpg


Some I know have filenames like
20141010.jpg
2014-10-10.jpg
_DSC1051.jpg

...

I wonder, with what for a filename do you deliver with your files to your friends, clients and so on?
I think, because I have IMatch and also generally, I want not deliver such filenames, for me it looks not professional and not user-friendly.
I prefere filenames to deliver like

sinus-Christmas-2014_1.jpg
sinus-Christmas-2014_2.jpg

...
sinus-Cobain_1.jpg
sinus-Cobain_2.jpg

...

I even have clients, who wants specific filenames like
Staedtli-Chaesi-Sempach_Bruno-Maier_3.jpg
2014-products-alpcheese-region-zh_1.jpg


Now, I wonder, how do you deal with this?
Do you really always deliver simply your own filenames?

Or do you rename them (sometimes)?

If you do rename, how do you do this?

And also, do you use the original files by copying or do you use another kind of copies, like BatchProcessor or other possibilites?


Background: in IM3 I had some scripts to do so (in IM5 this will not be necessary, I think), I worked with some different property-fields, where I could quickly take a "client-filename" as the real filename and change this back also. I had there stored in the Properties 3 different filenames. Finally it was mostly very easy to handle.

Best wishes from Switzerland! :-)
Markus

Carlo Didier

Well, I haven't done much client work, but for those dozen or so weddings and a number of other events, I always left my filenames as they are.

sinus

Quote from: Carlo Didier on November 05, 2014, 08:59:20 AM
Well, I haven't done much client work, but for those dozen or so weddings and a number of other events, I always left my filenames as they are.

Hmm. Thanks, may I ask you, what a typical filename you use? Just curious.
Best wishes from Switzerland! :-)
Markus

Mario

Maybe this gives you some useful ideas:

http://www.damlearningcenter.com/street-smarts/file-naming-best-practices-for-digital-asset-management/

I use unique file names with a TLC prefix for client/project (or PRV for private files). Since even Windows Explorer has learned how to sort by date and time, file names can be kept simple and readable.The uniqueness is the most important aspect, IMHO.
-- Mario
IMatch Developer
Forum Administrator
http://www.photools.com  -  Contact & Support - Follow me on 𝕏 - Like photools.com on Facebook

sinus

Thanks, Mario, interesting.

What does makes it not that easy (that is why I asked here), is that I have at least 3 clients (not small ones  ;D ) who wants have a special name-convention to fulfill THEIR filennaming-system  :-[

And because they are not that easy, I store at the moment this "second" filename in a metadata-field (custom), so that I can everytime change my and their filename to the file.
Best wishes from Switzerland! :-)
Markus

Ferdinand

What I do in this situation is *copy* the files to a new folder outside the normal folder structure, rename them using the renamer, and the remove the folder from the database  (Actually I haven't had to do this in IMatch5, so I haven't worked out how best to copy files to a folder outside the hierarchy indexed by IMatch.)

I agree that short, simple and unique is what you want for clients.

Carlo Didier

Quote from: sinus on November 05, 2014, 09:32:14 AMHmm. Thanks, may I ask you, what a typical filename you use? Just curious.

Dyyyymmddnnn.ext for digital files (therefore the "D", scanned negatives would start with "N" for example), with yyyymmdd the date and nnn a running number (never took more than 1000 images in a day).
That's my naming scheme.

JohnZeman

Mine is somewhat similar to Carlo's YYYY_MMDD_HHNNSS.Subsecond

Since I'm not a professional photographer I rarely have any reason to change my file names, but when I do I just rename them to describe what the image is all about.

sinus

Quote from: Ferdinand on November 05, 2014, 01:37:33 PM
What I do in this situation is *copy* the files to a new folder outside the normal folder structure, rename them using the renamer, and the remove the folder from the database  (Actually I haven't had to do this in IMatch5, so I haven't worked out how best to copy files to a folder outside the hierarchy indexed by IMatch.)

I agree that short, simple and unique is what you want for clients.

Ferdinand, this is also a good system, thanks, I used it also some times.
What for me worked in IM3, should work here in IM5 also or even better.

Because I have to deal with this, I made in IM3 this:

I created 4 property-fields:

Name original
Name sinus
Name short
Name client

To fill these fields I used a script. If the files, created by the script, looked not good, I could change them everytime in the properties.

After the script-run I ended with these values, for example:
Name original _DSC1051 the real original out of the camera
Name sinus 20141010-1022-243862-s-kun-Cobain-Portraits_a my long name
Name short s-243862 created from the longname
Name client 3862Cobain-Portraits created by the longname

The "Name short" I used for private and clients use.
The "Name client" I used for clients, who wants a special naming.
And the "Name sinus" was the real long name (what I use still).

So, if I wanted to give images out of IMatch, I could let run the script and the filename changed. This made it also better, to use these images with the name for things like "Contact Sheets" or my own "Word-Contact-script", under each thumb came then the correct name (what I delivered).

If finished, I simply let run the script to bring again the long name up as the real name.
One big advantage is, that (mostly) my unique number (243862) was inside the delivered name or, for "Name client" at least a fraction of it or for sure the description of the file (Cobain-Portraits).

It does not matter, if a client orders a file, I was able to find the correct file, because I had all informations in the properties.

So I think, I will do the same in IM5, but not with scripts, but with the cool renamer.
I must only use some metadata-fields (I do not want for this the Attributes) and let run the renamer, then I think, I have almost the same like in IM3.

However, I think, I will not more use the orignal name, because I do never use it again.
And also maybe I do not use the short name, because I will create a renamer-profile, where the system is always the same (take the unique numer and put s- ahead (s- for sinus).

So I will end, I think, with one clientnumber-field, for this I will take MAYBE the "transmission reference"-field, because I have no other use (the custom fields in IM5 are unfortunately read-only).

And one for the real name (I think, I will take for that the field "title".

Thanks for your comments!
MAYBE for




20141010-1022-243862-s-kun-Cobain-Portraits_m_v1.jpg

Best wishes from Switzerland! :-)
Markus

sinus

Carlo and John,

Thanks! This (or similar) is for sure a good filenaming-system.
Best wishes from Switzerland! :-)
Markus