Take Control of Photo File Names

Tips and tools for managing your ever-expanding photo file collection.

Dave Johnson

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Feature: Take Control of Photo File Names

It's a problem I've complained about many times before in this newsletter: Finding a photo on your computer can be as challenging as locating a specific grain of salt in a salt shaker.

That's because your digital camera doesn't know anything about the contents of your photos, so it simply assigns each picture a sequential file name with some seemingly random collection of letters and numbers. The assumption on the part of camera manufacturers is that you'll change the file names to something more useful, but the reality is that few people consistently do. And that leaves many of us with thousands of pictures marked with some variation of DSC00121.JPG.

Rename the Whole Batch

If you're as lazy as I am, you might want to find some compromise between maintaining all those useless file names and spending the time it would take to change each and every one. Thankfully, there's a simple solution: You can just "batch rename" an entire collection to the same base file name when you copy them from the camera to the PC. If you've got a bunch of pictures from your Hawaiian vacation, for instance, just rename the whole 150 photos to "Hawaii" and Microsoft Windows will tack 01, 02, 03, and so on to the end of each file name automatically. It's not as nice as specifying details in the file name, but it's good enough to help you find the right set of photos pretty easily. Here's what you do: After you copy your pictures from the camera to your computer, open the folder that contains the pictures. Select them all--you can choose Edit, Select All from the folder menu--and then press F2. You'll find that the first image in the folder is waiting to be renamed.

Type a base file name (like vacation, office party, or holiday portraits), add the file extension of the file you're renaming, and press Enter. All of the images in that folder will be renamed. Note that this approach works even if you're renaming files with a mixture of extensions, such as.jpg and.avi.

Rename Them One at a Time

If you would rather give custom file names to specific pictures, that's easy to do as well. Just right-click on a photo and choose Rename. Type the file name and press Enter; the photo now has a shiny new name.

Use Renaming Software

If you're excited by the thought of getting organized with file names, perhaps you'll want to step up to the software equivalent of a power screwdriver. There are several programs that promise to help you rename photos quickly and efficiently. My favorite is Name Dropper, a $20 program you can download from Congenital.com.

Name Dropper lets you create a slew of name fragments and assign them to a dozen buttons. Then you can rename photos just by combining the fragments. It's a fast and elegant way to work, especially if you have a whole lot of photos all saved up for renaming at once. I reviewed Name Dropper in June 2004.

Don't Worry About File Names

As useful as good file names can be for zeroing in on the right picture, digital photography is slowly but inexorably moving away from file names as a way to manage your images. In five years, the thought of tracking down images based on something as rigidly unfriendly as a file name will probably sound pretty silly.

Photography is a visual medium, so you should probably get in the habit of looking for photos by eye. Windows is usually pretty good at displaying photos in folders properly; but if you open a folder full of images and see a details view like this, then you can take steps to view them better.

For example, you could choose View, Filmstrip or View, Thumbnails from the folder menu to change the folder's appearance. You can even make your favorite view the default.

If you have a folder filled with lots of photo subfolders, for instance, open the topmost folder and choose View, Customize This Folder. If you prefer the Filmstrip view, choose Photo Album from the template menu at the top of the dialog box, like this. If you like thumbnails better, choose Pictures. Then select the check box for "Also apply this template to all subfolders" and click OK.

Dave's Favorites: You Won't Believe Your Eyes

Recently, a friend pointed me to a Web page with the caveat that I would simply not believe my eyes. And he was right--I had to study this picture for an hour before I'd believe what he told me was true.

Here's the deal: The picture looks like a gorgeously photographed Venetian nightscape. The colors and the detail are impressive. But it's not a photograph at all. In fact, the artist painted it--pixel by pixel--in Paint. That's right, Paint: the goofy little program that comes free with Windows. Paint has no sophisticated painting tools or photo effects, just a few assorted brush sizes and a color picker. The artist claims his work is the result of 500 hours in Paint with a little blurring effect thrown in courtesy of Adobe Photoshop.

So here's a question, readers: Have you ever created original art using Paint or some other simple graphics program? If so, I'd love to see it.

Q&A: Dealing With an EBay Sale Gone Bad

I recently bought a copy of Adobe Photoshop on EBay. When I received the item, the registration code was not with it. In follow-up e-mails, the seller swore to me that the code was in the box when he sent it to me. Is there any way I can use the program without the code? Or is there something else I can do? I'd like to get some value for the money spent. Now I distrust doing business this way.

--Bob Jacobs, Davenport, Rhode Island

I feel bad for you, Bob. It sounds like you pursued this through the seller and he wasn't interested in refunding your money. That's the first thing I would have tried. I'd also visit EBay's Dispute Console to "report an item not received as described."

I contacted Adobe to see if you might have any recourse to get a replacement code. Unfortunately, the company has a pretty rigid policy when it comes to the resale of its software. A company spokesperson says: "It is against the terms of Adobe's end user licensing agreement (EULA) to sell a used copy of Adobe software. Adobe's product EULAs are available on our Web site, in addition to being included with the product itself, and we encourage customers to read the terms carefully."

I'm sorry, Bob; I know that's disappointing. If you haven't tried it already, it sounds like using EBay's dispute process may be your best bet.

Hot Pic of the Week

Get published, get famous! Each week, we select our favorite reader-submitted photo based on creativity, originality, and technique. Every month, the best of the weekly winners gets a prize valued at between $15 and $50.

Here's how to enter: Send us your photograph in JPEG format, at a resolution no higher than 640 by 480 pixels. Entries at higher resolutions will be immediately disqualified. If necessary, use an image editing program to reduce the file size of your image before e-mailing it to us. Include the title of your photo along with a short description and how you photographed it. Don't forget to send your name, e-mail address, and postal address. Before entering, please read the full description of the contest rules and regulations.

This Week's Hot Pic: "Three Ballet Dancers," by Allen Casebolt, Rocklin, California

Alan says that he took this photo during a dress rehearsal using just the available light in the theater and his Nikon D70. Allen shot it using ISO 800 in order to coax the shutter speed down to 1/30 second, since he had no tripod. That introduced a fair bit of digital noise, which he cleaned up using the free Noiseware Community Edition.