Response to Comments on My Recent Open Letter on File Naming

After writing an article for Photofocus.com (which you can find here), I started receiving comments about it on some forums, via Twitter and directly via e-mail. The comments were overwhelmingly positive (it seems many people share my wishes for such an option), but a few people doubted that camera manufacturers would make the option that I outlined available to their customers. One of the reasons cited was that my approach required the use of more than 8 characters prior to the 3 letter extension (CR2, JPG, NEF, etc.), which I learned is currently a part of the EXIF specification.

The text below is from the EXIF Ver. 2.3 (updated April 2010)  (The full PDF can be found here):

5.7.1 File Naming Stipulation: The file name and characters used for file names are not specified, other than to stipulate the use of ASCII alphanumerics. (File names in Japanese or other character sets are not to be used.) File names shall be 8 characters or fewer, not including the extension. (Long file names are not to be used.) The file extension is “.WAV” (to match the WAVE Form Audio File extension) regardless of the audio data format type.

For those into this stuff, the Wikipedia entry on this topic is very interesting.

After taking all this info in, I put my thinking cap on, and much like in the TV Game Show Name That Tune, I tried to “Name that File in 8 Characters or Less!”

What I came up with is a specific approach for unique, date-based naming within an 8 character limit. Here’s an overview: I recommend designating numbers from 0-9, and then letters from A-Z for years beginning in 2010; then numbers from 1-9 and letters from A-C for the months; then numbers from 1-9 and letters from A-V for days; then a single unique letter or number at the end of the first 4 characters so that multiple cameras can be given a unique letter or number (in this case, the unique letter is A, and this should be able to be edited by the user):

Below is an overview of the years, months and days with their corresponding characters:

YEAR
2010 =0
2011 =1
2012 =2
2013 =3
2014 =4
2015 =5
2016 =6
2017 =7
2018 =8
2019 =9
2020 =A

MONTH
JAN =1
FEB =2
MAR =3
APR =4
MAY =5
JUN =6
JUL =7
AUG =8
SEP =9
OCT =A
NOV =B
DEC =C

DAY OF THE MONTH
1 =1
2 =2
3 =3
4 =4
5 =5
6 =6
7 =7
8 =8
9 =9
10 =A
11 =B
12 =C
13 =D
14 =E
15 =F
16 =G
17 =H
18 =I
19 =J
20 =K
21 =L
22 =M
23 =N
24 =O
25 =P
26 =Q
27 =R
28 =S
29 =T
30 =U
31 =V

Below are three examples of how files might be named if three photos were shot in succession on these three days:
09DA0001.JPG = Name of the first photo after formatting a card, shot on 9/13/2010;
09EA0002.JPG = Next photo, shot on 9/14/2010; and
424A0003.JPG = Third photo, shot on 2/4/2114

Advantages, issues and suggestions to camera manufacturers related to this system:

1. Apart from using 8 characters instead of 13-15, everything else in the original article applies with regard to the advantages of this system.
2. I chose the numbers you see above for the months, years and dates because they are easy to understand (at least until you reach a letter!). 424A0003.JPG is a good example-once you know the system, it’s easy to see that 4=2014, 2=Feb and 4=the 4th day of the month.
3. When we get to 2046, we will be out of letters for the first character used in this system. My guess is that the EXIF standard will allow more than 8 characters by then.

Special thanks to Andrew Sharpe for his comments about my article on Photofocus.com that led to this article.

My Recent Open Letter Article on File Naming Available on Photofocus.com

After dealing with this issue for years, I recently wrote an article on the topic of in-camera file naming in the form of an Open Letter for the site Photofocus.com . You can find the article here:

https://photofocus.com/2010/09/13/an-open-letter-to-digital-camera-manufacturers-regarding-camera-file-naming/
or
https://tinyurl.com/32hklb4

If you are interested in this topic and have a chance to read the article, it would be great to get your comments on it. Also, feel free to share the links above, and to retweet the article, please use the retweet button at the bottom of the article on Photofocus.com.

50+ Links to Photo-Related Stories, Events and Tutorials Plus an Upcoming Workshop in NJ

I’ve slowly been building a list of links on my Facebook Fan Page over at facebook.com/andrewdarlow. There’s quite a range of topics there that I’ve found interesting or enlightening, from installing a backup generator, to some incredible photos that I came across on Flickr.com.

I like the way that Facebook makes it easy for people to make quick comments and to “Like” specific stories. I will be incorporating some of that functionality into my sites soon because it helps others find content that their friends are reading/watching when they are browsing various Facebook pages and the Web.

Full Day Lightroom Printing Workshops in NJ-8/28 and 8/29, 2010

I’d like to mention an upcoming full day Lightroom printing workshop that I’m giving in Berkeley Heights, NJ on Sat/Sun Aug. 28 and Aug. 29, 2010. Both workshops are the same, and are limited to just 7 attendees each day. I’ll be covering the newest features in Lightroom 3, and attendees will go home with at least one print prepped by me in Lightroom and output on a high-quality paper of their choice. I’ve done about 20 similar workshops at NJ Media Center and I’m really looking forward to this one. For more info and pricing, visit this page, or feel free to send me an e-mail through this page if you have any questions for me.

Readers of The Imaging Buffet who register by August 20 and who mention that they saw the workshop announced here will also receive a 30 minute phone consult with me after the workshop ($100 value). Just send an e-mail through this contact form after you register, and I’ll set up a session with you.