File Naming Question

[les_stockton]

I've been using a program called Downloader Pro which does an excellent job of downloading and renaming my photos from the camera. I import into Lightroom 3 afterwards. I'd like to shoot tethered and/or download and import into Lightroom directly, but not sure if I can keep my current naming convention.
Is there a way to set up a template that will allow this?

I use the date and time as part of my naming, but it's an abbreviated coding of the date:
ZD26_16000001.CR2 is an example. The Z is the year 2012. D is 4th month. 1600 is 4PM, and then there's 00 for the seconds. And then finally, there's a counter 01 that is a sequence number in case I get two or more images in the exact same second.

I made an initial attempt at using the Lightroom naming, but wasn't happy with it so I have returned to doing things as I did before. I keep thinking that if Downloader Pro is flexible enough to allow this, then certainly Lightroom should be able to.

Bear in mind that the Z for year, is hardcoded. The system doesn't know this. When the year changes, I have to remember to go change that in my template. Likewise for month. I would have to change the D to an E when we get to May. The day of the month is straight forward, as is the hour, minute, second (from the EXIF) of when the photo was taken.

 

[Jim Wilde]

I can't see why Lightroom can't do that:



Of course you'd have to change the template every month.....

 

[les_stockton]

I think the problem I had before, was that the final 2 digits that I wanted to use as a unique sequence, was a sequence from the download, rather than just the second. In other words, if I shot over 99 shots, I'd end up with 3 digits. With Downloader Pro, most of my files are suffixed with 01 or 02 and I rarely get an 03 (ie, 3 shots per second).

I use a Canon 40D, which doesn't really provide the 1/100 of second information like Nikon does. With Nikon, I'd expect to have a sub-second token for this unique identifier. Since I don't have that, I just wanted to come up with a 2 digit sequence that starts over with every image unless there are 2 or more images that are shot in the same second.

 

[clee01l]

You can construct a file Name template for each Month/Year Like this one for April,2012. If you want to modify your naming convention to use built in tokens for 2 or 4 digit year (12/2012), Month Name (April), Month Abrev (Apr). or 2 digit month (04), you can create a single naming template that will take its cue from the file capture date.

s = {    deflated = {
        {
            "ZD",
            {
                value = "date_DD",
            },
            "_",
            {
                value = "date_Hour",
            },
            {
                value = "date_Minute",
            },
            {
                value = "date_Second",
            },
            {
                value = "naming_sequenceNumber_2Digits",
            },
            name = "2012APR",
            presetType = "Naming",
        },
        "AgTokenPresets",
        "restoreTokenFromArchivedState",
    },
    id = "30784F14-EACF-4AA6-85D9-4CDA20A1D8FA",
    internalName = "2012APR",
    title = "2012APR",
    type = "Naming_Tokens",
    version = 0,
}

In the Tethered Capture settings click on the {Template} dropdown and choose "Edit..." to create your own file naming template(s)

 

[les_stockton]

Nice. So

naming_sequenceNumber_2Digits is what I would use to get the 2 digits that sequence wont go beyond what's necessary to make files with the same hour minute second to be unique? If I understand right, that is what you're saying. If so, this is great news.​

 

[clee01l]

Nice. So

naming_sequenceNumber_2Digits is what I would use to get the 2 digits that sequence wont go beyond what's necessary to make files with the same hour minute second to be unique? If I understand right, that is what you're saying. If so, this is great news.​

Actually, now that I have thought about this a bit, the sequence will start counting from "01" from the initial photo of the session. So it won't give you exactly what you want but it will give you unique file names for each tethered session.

 

[les_stockton]

ouch. So if I shoot more than 99 shots, I have a problem.
I was really hoping I could do it this way.

Thanks for the help though.

 

[clee01l]

You can alway expand this to "

naming_sequenceNumber_3Digits".​