How to Improve the Filename of Your Photos

In 2013, I was enrolled at a film school in Marbella, Spain. One particular line was yelled repeatedly throughout my first-year Editing class:

¡Un editor debe ser ordenado!

It translates to "An editor must be organised!" and it has served me well in more than one aspect of my life. I hope it does the same for yours. De nada.

Now, let's talk about …

📁 Filenames

I get it, dealing with files isn't as exciting as, say, taking photos. Nevertheless, file management remains a crucial part of the photography process, even if you shoot on film. We embrace digital for making our lives easier, but we mustn't allow ourselves to become overly lazy because of it.

This post was written for my fellow photographers and anyone who deals with any type of media on a regular basis. Its purpose serves as an invitation to look at media management in a new light: something fun, something that's uniquely yours, something that serves you for life. Best of all, it's based on a free, local system — what more can you ask for?

I have a lot to say on this topic (4,785 words to be precise) so stretch your legs, adjust your posture, and rub your eyes — I'm about to hit you with a few gigabytes of high-resolution tips and tricks that will render you an independent photo manager.

But first:

With that out of the way, let me tell you about …

🧔🏻‍♂️ One clever photographer

I've been familiar with photography for a long time, but I've only started growing an archive in the past few years. Like most modern photographers, I relied on a premium software solution for all my photo needs. That is, until last year when I came across a YouTube video by Tokyo-based photographer Lukasz Palka.

In this screen recording, Mr Palka shares his process of organising images, and it opened my eyes, to say the least. The first point he made was that he doesn't use Lightroom to edit his photos — he uses Camera Raw. The second point explains why: He doesn't use Lightroom to manage his photos — he doesn't even use Lightroom.

So what was he doing differently? Had my ignorant soul been overlooking a superior software with better managing features? The answer was another slap in the face — he uses his operating system. Read that again.

The reasoning was rather ingenious: He didn't want to be bound to a subscription service. More specifically, he wasn't fond of the idea of having his archive depend on one external entity. What if they changed their UI and you hated it? What if they raised their prices? Even worse, what if one day they go out of business?

These are all interesting arguments, but let's address the elephant in the room: How was Mr Palka using basic desktop features to manage his photo library of over 30,000 images? The answer is the very reason I wanted to write this post.

Allow me to present what I call an …

🗄️ Independent Photo Oversight System

An IPOS is made out of three components, and in this precise order:

1. 🧬 FNC
2. 🎯 Keywords (optional)
3. 📦 Extension

Don't be scared. By the end of this post, you'll know exactly what all of these mean, and how they form such a powerful free media-managing solution.

Let's start with the first. The acronym stands for …

🧬 File Naming Convention

This component shines in many ways, but the name is not one of them.

An FNC is a systematic method for naming files which allows them to be easily accessed later on, making them key to a well-organised database. They exist in all things digital, and camera manufacturers are no exception — take a look at this:

• IMG_7591
• IMG_7592
• IMG_7593

This is what a typical set of image files looks like straight out of most modern cameras. This one in particular is the default FNC of my camera.

So what's so special about it? That's the thing — nothing. What's worse, it packs two main problems:

I'd like to point out that I don't blame camera manufacturers for injecting such lacklustre FNCs into their devices. To their credit, some even allow you to modify it in-camera — albeit in a limited manner. The thing is, it's not their responsibility to figure out each customer's ideal FNC — that duty belongs to this post.

Besides, it could be worse. Are you familiar with how GoPro does it?

• GX020604
• GX030603
• GX040603

I'll give it a go:

• G = GoPro, the brand?
• X = 10, the edition?
• 20604 > 30603 > 40603 = *Dazé is in a daze*

… I'm back. Speaking of returns, let's summon Mr Palka in spirit once again. In his video, he mentions that the first thing he does after returning home from a photo walk is to batch rename his photos with Bridge to his custom FNC. Hold on! Batch rename? Bridge? Custom FNC? Chill, bro! Listen, bro, I got you.

Let's break it down:

You may be itching to download Bridge and try it yourself — not so fast. First, you must familiarise yourself with what a custom FNC looks like and what makes it so useful; otherwise, you won't know how to configure one in Bridge.

Let's bring back the set of photo files as they appear straight out of camera:

• IMG_7591
• IMG_7592
• IMG_7593

And here they are after a basic batch rename:

• 20240325-170511
• 20240325-170854
• 20240325-172102

At first glance, they don't look that dissimilar to the default FNC of my camera — just a cluster of random numbers, right? Except they aren't. Every letter, character, and number, is there for a reason.

Let's break it down:

The beauty of this system is that it fixes both problems addressed before: avoids duplicates and allows you to easily locate a photo using the …

🗓️ Date-Time structures

These two prime clauses go hand-in-hand. The Date clause goes first and is represented as "YYYYMMDD" (Year-Month-Day). The latter is Time and appears as "HHMMSS" (Hour-Minute-Second). These structures are crucial because they allow a computer to organise any group of photos in chronological order.

Before I move on, allow me to clear up any doubts you may have about the aesthetic choices of the Date-Time clauses:

YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS vs YYYMMDDHHMMSS
Can you combine the Date and Time clauses into one and avoid the separator?

If you prefer to treat them as one clause, sure — I see them as two.

YYYYMMDD vs YYYY-MM-DD
Can you separate the different parts with separators to make it more simple to read?

Yes, but the thing is you don't need to be able to read it easily — the computer does the work. Additionally, it adds separators within a single clause, chopping it into more clauses, which visually complicates things — oh, the irony!

YYYYMMDD vs YYMMDD
Can you use 2 digits for the year instead of 4?

Yes, but what if you live beyond the year 2099? … Unconvinced? Here's another reason: A day has 2 digits and gets 2; a month also has 2 and gets 2; a year has 4, so give it the 4 it deserves, whether you live to the next century or not.

Although it may seem like it, the Date-Time clauses are not the ones responsible for avoiding duplicate filenames, at least not in the realm of photography. That's because the Time structure has an …

💥 Achilles' heel

What if you're a sports or wildlife photographer who relies on the camera's burst mode? What happens is that you end up with multiple photos taken in the same second. When you batch rename photos like these, Bridge does this:

• 20240412-120945
• 20240412-120945(1)
• 20240412-120945(2)

Photos that were taken on the same YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS will read as duplicates, so Bridge adds a parenthesis to keep them as separate files. This is a valid solution in its own right. However, I don't like. Why?

1. It's not aesthetic.
2. It's inconsistent; some files will have parentheses and some not.
3. I'm not a fan of using parenthesis in filenames.

Of course, none of this would be an issue if camera manufacturers included milliseconds in the metadata (YYYYMMDD-HHMMSSmm).

So what's the solution? Behold, the …

🎰 Counter

It does what its name implies: counts the photos, assigning each one an ID number within a given day.

Let's batch rename the same set of images from before, but this time using a 4-digit counter:

• 20240412-120945-0001
• 20240412-120945-0002
• 20240412-120945-0003

Much nicer, eh? And even if the time changes, the counter remains unaffected; if the next image is taken 7 minutes after 0003, it would still be counted as …

• 20240412-120952-0004

Now, you might be wondering …

How many digits do I choose for the counter?

It's a great question, and the answer will depend on your shooting style. One way is to take the maximum number of units per digit, and figure out how many photos you would have to take per hour within the same day before filling the counter:

• 1-digit: 9 photos / 24 hours = 0.4 photos per hour
• 2-digit: 99 photos / 24 hours = 4 photos per hour
• 3-digit: 999 photos / 24 hours = 42 photos per hour
• 4-digit: 9,999 photos / 24 hours = 417 photos per hour
• 5-digit: 99,999 photos / 24 hours = 4,167 photos per hour
• 6-digit: 999,999 photos / 24 hours = 41,667 photos per hour

With these figures in mind, ask yourself …

What is realistically the maximum amount of photos I would take in a single day?

In my case, photography is a leisure. I take photos when I go on walks or when I travel. My usual image count per walk is around 120. Out of this total, I usually only end up keeping about 30 (25%).

Before I proceed with the example, I think it's important to answer another question — your ideal digit might greatly depend on the answer:

Do you keep every single photo you take or cull them and delete the unselected?

I like to select my images and discard those that don't make the cut, but that's just me — there's no right or wrong way in this respect.

Returning to my case, if I'm travelling with a busy agenda, I might take more than one walk within a day — let's say I take four: 120 x 4 = 480 photos in a single day. After applying my percentage of deletes (75%), I end up with 120 keepers.

That solves it, right? Clearly, my case is telling me to use a three-digit counter because it would be very hard to exceed 999 photos in one day given how I shoot, let alone surpass 999 keepers. And yet, I went with four digits. Why? Because …

What if one day NASA invites me to spend 24 hours on the ISS?

Given this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I might easily go beyond my usual rate, and even transcend the limits of my counter. It's also possible that I might want to keep all of them, or end up with a selection that exceeds 999. For this reason, four digits; despite the odds, it remains a possibility, and I want my FNC to handle it.

You could take the hypothesis to greater heights:

What if I get to take two assistants with me, one operating my B-camera and the other my C-camera?

Do you see how easily circumstances can impact your ideal digit? Having said that, I doubt this would be the case for me. Even if it did happen, I could remedy it by adding a camera counter to my FNC for this particular project:

• YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS-C1-0001
• YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS-C2-0001
• YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS-C3-0001

Another option would be to use the initials of each photographer:

• YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS-DN-0001
• YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS-LP-0001
• YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS-CM-0001

I chose an extreme case scenario to illustrate my point of thinking ahead, but it doesn't have to be so farfetched. Consider wedding photographers; the team might consist of one–three photographers that cover the day's event, each one with a separate camera, and each ending up with hundreds if not thousands of images.

To determine your ideal digit, you must assess your own use case and hypotheticals. Go on, give it a try — and have fun with it!

🚦 Checkpoint

Whew! That was a lot to take in … I told you, gigabytes.

So where are we? Well, we've covered what a custom FNC looks like:

And why it's a blessing:

1. Avoids duplicates.
2. Allows you to search for photos using the Date-Time structure.

Now, I know I meant to show you the bridge made out of adobe, but I've decided to postpone it — bear with me.

Moreover, as you may remember, the second component of an IPOS is 🎯 Keywords. However, this component is optional, so I'll leave it for last.

With that cleared up, let's dive head-first into the other essential component:

📦 Extension

They appear at the end of a filename and are preceded by a period. The emoji I chose fits it nicely because extensions act as a container for a file. In the photography realm, they come in two shapes:

Mr Palka is a Nikon user, so his raw files end with …

• DSC_200326_185355.NEF

I use Canon, so mine read …

• 20200326-185355-0084.CR3

We both, however, export with the same compressed extension:

• DSC_200326_185355.jpg
• 20200326-185355-0084.jpg

As you can see, the raw and the edited files of the same photo can share the same FNC because the extension distinguishes their filename, avoiding duplication. The only exception is if you export a photo in several versions. In this case, you guessed it, a custom counter is required:

• 20200326-185355-0084-V1.jpg
• 20200326-185355-0084-V2.jpg
• 20200326-185355-0084-V3.jpg

All right, it's time to address the final component of an IPOS, the handy …

🎯 Keywords

Although an FNC can provide some search capabilities with the Date-Time structures, it's not always enough. What if you want to search for photos that share other commonalities, like theme or location? Keywords unlock such potential.

I don't use keywords in my IPOS, but don't let that discourage you from doing it. Luckily, Mr Palka happens to be a fan of them, so I'll use him for this example.

To recap, this is what Mr Palka's raw files look like fresh from the camera:

• DSC_0001.NEF
• DSC_0002.NEF
• DSC_0003.NEF

Here they are after the batch rename to his custom FNC:

• DSC_200326_185355.NEF
• DSC_200326_185356.NEF
• DSC_200326_185357.NEF

Lastly, here are the same files after being edited, exported, and given keywords:

• DSC_200326_185355 night, red, street, yurakucho (Black Sedan) (ps).jpg
• DSC_200326_185356 night, red, street, yurakucho (Kinken Shop) (ps).jpg
• DSC_200326_185357 city, night, red, street, yurakucho (Social Distancing) (ps).jpg

Let's break down the new additions:

• night, red, street, yurakucho (Kinen Shop) are all independent, manually-added keywords that describe a particular image. What this allows him to do is to search for photos that share something in common, such as images taken at "night" or in the "yurakucho" district of Tokyo.
• (ps) is a suffix that represents the software used to edit the photo — in this case, Photoshop. This is an optional add-on that he chose to implement as part of his keywords.

If I were to apply Mr Palka's keywords to my IPOS, my files would look like this:

• 20200326-185415-night-red-street-yurakucho-blacksedan.jpg
• 20200326-185356-night-red-street-yurakucho-kinkenshop.jpg
• 20200326-185357-city-night-red-street-yurakucho-socialdistancing.jpg

Let's break down my changes:

• Removed the initials. This is a personal choice as I don't want to bind my system to one set of initials. If I ever work with a team of photographers for a specific project, I will add a camera counter or place our initials after the Date-Time clauses.
• Added 4 digits to the year. I've already explained my reasoning for this.
• Changed underscores for hyphens, and extended their use throughout the keywords for aesthetic consistency — more on this later.
• Merged two words into one ("blacksedan"). Just as I'm not a fan of parenthesis in filenames, I'm not a fan of spaces.
• Removed the parentheses for the same reason as well as redundancy; I just need to know the photo has been edited, and I know that because they have the ".jpg" extension.

This is just how Mr Palka and I would do it, respectively. You have to figure out what works best for you. Want to add weather conditions? Name of the camera and lens you used? GPS coordinates? Countries? Only you can decide.

Now, you might have noticed something peculiar with Mr Palka's filenames: He uses underscores instead of hyphens.

So what's the difference? Which one should you use? Is one better than the other? Let's jump into the arena and find out:

⚔️ Hyphens vs Underscores

The short answer? It doesn't matter. One technical peculiarity that hyphens have is that they act as separators when you click on a word. Try it — double-click on the bolded word below, and notice the difference:

• THIS-IS-AN-EXAMPLE-WITH-HYPHENS
• THIS_IS_AN_EXAMPLE_WITH_UNDERSCORES

Surprised? This happens because the computer recognises hyphens as separators and reads underscores as a normal character. Granted, this has little practical use, but it does indicate that hyphens are the true separators.

Alternatively, you could embrace both and combine them for further separation within your filename. In this sense, hyphens serve as the main separators between clauses while underscores act as dividers within a given clause, or vice versa:

Whichever path you choose — hyphens, underscores, hyphens + underscores, or underscores + hyphens — it doesn't matter, but you can only choose one. I think the decision boils down to your sense of aesthetics.

Well, my young filename Padawan, you've mastered all three components of an IPOS. This can only mean one thing: I can finally take you over the …

🪜 Bridge

It's time to craft your own custom FNC — you've earned it.

The first thing to do, if you haven't already, is to download Bridge. (This isn't an affiliate link — remember, Bridge is free!) Once installed, follow these steps:

1. Open Bridge.
2. Locate the group of images you wish to rename by utilising the Folder window.
3. Select the images > Right-click > Batch rename …
4. A dialogue box opens — this is where you configure your custom FNC.
   1. Ignore Presets for now.
   2. Make sure Rename in Same Folder is selected.
   3. Take a good look at the New Filenames section — this is where the magic happens. Each row represents a clause and/or a separator within your FNC. Try it — build a rough FNC and finesse it.
      1. To add initials, select Text. In the box beside it, enter your initials, followed by a hyphen or an underscore — this is important because if you don't, the initials will fuse with your Date clause.
      2. To add the Date clause, select Date Time. In the box beside it, select Date Created. In the third, select YYYYMMDD.
      3. To add a separator, select Text. In the box beside it, enter a hyphen and/or underscore. Repeat this every time you need to add a new separator within your FNC using the + button to the far right.
      4. To add the Time clause, select Date Time. In the box beside it, select Date Created. In the third, select HHMMSS.
      5. Add another separator (see iii).
      6. To add a counter, select Sequence Number. To make sure it counts the first image as the number one and not zero, type "1" in the second box. In the third, select the number of digits you've chosen.
1. You can see how your current and new filenames are looking by going to the last section of the dialogue box titled Preview.
2. By the way, Options (in the section above) leave it as is.
5. Once you've configured your custom FNC and have checked that it's looking good in Preview, head left of the Rename button and click on the icon with the arrow pointing down onto an oversimplified hard drive.
6. Another dialogue box opens — this is where you save your FNC as a preset. Give it a sparkly name like "My Dazzling FNC", and press OK.
7. You should be back in the Batch rename box now. It's time to show Presets some love — click it and select the preset you've just created.
8. All that's left is to hit Rename.

That's it — you'e all set. From now on, all you have to do is perform steps 1-3, make sure the right preset is selected, and press Rename.

You know what an IPOS is, you've designed your own FNC in Bridge, and now you're ready to batch rename all your photos, and perhaps even add keywords. But all this work won't mean anything if you don't …

🚨 Stay consistent

I cannot stress this enough. If you don't stay true to the system you've chosen, it loses all its purpose. This is especially true if you decide to use initials or any other fixed clause in front of the Date-Time prime clauses like Mr Palka.

If one day you batch rename to …

And the next day you wake up feeling for …

You might as well stick with …

This is why it's paramount to take your time while establishing your IPOS. Future-proof it as much as possible; once you commit to it, it sort of binds you to it.

To exemplify Mr Palka one last time, in his video he mentions that he wished he had used his initials at the start of his custom FNC instead of Nikon's default "DSC" signature — he can't change this now. Well, he could, but it would require an enormous amount of time and tedious labour.

And with that, you've officially reached the …

🏁 Finishing line

Congratulations! You're now an independent photo manager. Take your new superpower and apply it to your workflow — or don't and let Lightroom, Capture One, or the next iteration of ChatGPT take care of it — whatever works for you.