Today’s Question: In your recent presentation I noticed you seem to use the default file names for your photos from the camera. What are your thoughts on keeping those names instead of something more meaningful? If the original file name is required, it can be appended to the end.
Tim’s Quick Answer: I think renaming your photos to something more meaningful than what comes out of the camera can be very helpful. I just don’t tend to rename my own photos in large part because I don’t have the need to send copies of images to others very often, and I don’t find renaming to be all that helpful in my normal workflow.
More Detail: To be clear, the filenames that are generated by most cameras aren’t exactly helpful. The filenames generally consist of a base filename that is only eight characters long, often with additional characters that further reduce the value of the filename. For example, a common structure uses a filename along the lines of IMG_1234.CR3, meaning there are only four characters used for the sequence number. This, in turn, means that after 9,999 photos the filename rolls back to something like IMG_0001.CR3.
So, I certainly think it is a good idea for photographers to rename their photos upon download or import, so that they can use a filename structure that is more meaningful and helpful. That might include, for example, the photographer’s name or initials, the year, month, and day of capture, as well as a sequence number to ensure unique filenames for all images.
However, while I consider renaming to more meaningful filenames, I simply don’t find the improved filenames to be particularly helpful in my own workflow. I almost always sort photos by capture time, so having a better filename structure won’t help with sorting my images in a meaningful way. I don’t send photos to others very often where I need to be able to reference the original filename, so I can simply rename the derivative copy of photos when sending them to others.
Ultimately, what this all boils down to is that I do think renaming photos to have more meaningful filenames is a good thing. It is just something I’ve fallen out of the habit of doing. In other words, I have myself in a situation of, “Do as I say not as I do”!
