Importing from multiple cards withOUT resetting sequence number

[schwarznavy]

I use the VIRIN file-naming scheme, which is a military way of renaming photos.
It goes like this:

YYMMDD-N-''''X-''1.jpg
N=Navy
''''=last 4 SSN of photographer
X=first letter of last name
''1=sequence number

So I made a custom import scheme for Lightroom where upon import, Lightroom pulls the YYMMDD by the photo's EXIF data, automatically puts in the "-N-", the ''''X comes from "CUSTOM TEXT" which is typed in by me, and the sequence number is automatically put in.

The problem lies when a photog comes back with multiple cards from the same shoot. Is there a way to tell Lightroom to continue using the last sequence number from the first card when he starts to import the second card?

I'd rather not use multiple folders...

 

[Mark Sirota]

Does your sequence number need to be contiguous? If not, you could use both Import # and Sequence #.

 

[Brad Snyder]

... and then once imported by Import/Sequence, rename sequentially .......

 

[schwarznavy]

I certainly can rename once imported...but the guys I'm training...uh...let's put it this way: the less steps I give them to remember, the better.

 

[clee01l]

[quote author=schwarznavy link=topic=7862.msg53753#msg53753 date=125331'269]
I certainly can rename once imported...but the guys I'm training...uh...let's put it this way: the less steps I give them to remember, the better.
[/quote]Your best answer may not be starting with Lightroom. There is nothing magic about getting photos of a card and onto a HD. A file copy/rename script can be developed simply using almost any scripting language. It can even have a GUI interface for the user to input things like SSN (last 4 digits), User Initials, Branch of Service and beginning sequence number. Once the image files are copied to the HD (maybe even in the final storage location for LR) they will be named using the VIRIN naming scheme and ready for LR to catalog.

If you are using windows, I would recommend Auto-IT for a scripting language that can even build a GUI interface. I used this to import my images before I adopted LR. Of course, if you know PERL or Python, These would work too.

 

[Denis Pagé]

Another simple solution would be to copy the contents of all cards in a single folder on the computer and then import from that folder in one pass.