Renaming

[PMF]

Hi, I have recently upgraded to 2.' and now want to devote the majority of my workflow around Lightroom, with only the occassional skirmish into Photoshop. I hope I have not missed an obvious solution but I would like to know how to retrospectively rename my existing library, having imported it from a well structured filing system. The specific problem is that I have RAW, TIFF and JPEG files and I do not know how to rename a set of file types, all with the same new core name. Can anyone help?

 

[Denis Pagé]

Welcome to the forums Pete!

First, you want to upgrade from 2.' to 2.1 to fix the bugs...

Do you mean some images are TIFF others JPEG and others RAW or do you have each image in different formats?

When you say "rename my existing library", do you mean renaming the Catalog's name, the main folder or just the image's names?

Can you give us an example of what you have and where you want to get?

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Hi Pete, welcome to the forum!

Am I right in understanding that you have raw, tiff and jpeg of the each (or some) base image, and you want them all to keep the same base name. The simplest solution would be to use a YYMMDD-HHMM naming structure in that case, and a batch rename should do that with no problem.

 

[Kiwigeoff]

Welcome Pete, I use pretty much what Victoria describes.
I end up with file names GW2''81113_DCS1234.
This works in my thinking as it has my name/initials, date and original file name as well.

 

[PMF]

Thanks for the welcomes and responses. It may well be me, but let me explain the problem in more detail as I have retested it again this morning. I know future work will not be a problem as, post the import of pictures and any immediate culling, I will rename all RAW files before continuing with Development, etc.
This morning I established 3 files in Lighroom: DSC'4189.ARW, DSC'4189-Edit.tif and DSC'4189-Editjpg. As a test and in renaming these files I was trying to call them all 'FLOWER', wanting all three files to be renamed FLOWER-''''1 plus the three suffixes. What I got was FLOWER-''''1ARW, FLOWER-''''2.tif and FLOWER-''''3.jpg, thereby loosing their relationship. What am I doing wrong?
By the way, if I upgrade to 2.1, will it solve the problems I am currently having with the Adjustment Brush. It's very difficult to switch to Erase and the actual application is very delayed before seeing the results on the photo.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Yep, that's why we're suggesting a hhmm setting rather than a sequence number setting. The alternative to do each 'set' at a time, but that could be quite a job if you have a lot.

2.1 - definitely a recommended update, and it has fixed many of the bugs in 2.', including some of the Adj Brush issues.

 

[PMF]

Thanks Victoria, I'll try it.
Pete

 

[Kiwigeoff]

Good luck with it !!

 

[ernie]

I don't know if it will help you or not as I haven't used it in quite the same way I think you are describing, but, you might try Faststone Viewer. It's free and I use it for all my renaming. It is just sooo easy. It does a lot of other stuff too. I think you could just use it with your existing file system at the OS level and then just have LR find the files again, assuming you didn't rename the folders.