This is a collection of pieces of advice to make your everyday photos more enjoyable to look at; a little more with every post. These are only bits which do not claim to be complete, but are rather all you need to know at that moment.


I assume my readers are non-professionals who are interested in capturing their memories in the way they have experienced them, instead of how their camera device automatically suggests an output, thereby speaking of using anything from a mobile phone to an auto-set DSLR.

About the author: I am Mareen Fischinger, a professional photographer, living and working in Düsseldorf, Germany.

You are welcome to ask snpsht a question! (Please check your spelling...)
If you would like to submit posts to the site, you can do so via this form.
(Please note that I know nothing about certain camera models and do not see myself in a position to give any shopping advice.)
May 28

How to keep up with your photo stacks

Once you have downloaded the folder (DCIM or whatever) or files from your memory card, rename the pics!

Renaming photos can be done as a batch operation with programs like iView or free ones like ExifRenamer:

  1. They should go as something like date taken – because these names never reoccur: »yyyymmdd«
  2. an underscore for seperation »_«
  3. optional: add an event »Easter«, location »Denmark« or name »Sarah«, and another underscore for seperation »_«, when you have a whole stack from the same shoot.
  4. your image number, to be inserted automatically »123« (make sure to use zeros up front: start with 001, not 1).

Your file name will then be different from all the other image names you have ever had and look like this: »20090522_Sarah_002.jpg«

More tips:

When you do alterations to the image, say photoshop or resize it, and you want to keep the original and mark that this image has been changed, then you should use suffixes. For example, your photo can be called »20090522_Sarah_002a_1000px.jpg« – and you will never take the file assuming it is in original size.

I also recommend making folders in the same structure: »yyyymmdd_Name«, for example: »20090522_Sarah«

****

Why all this? Now you have a definite name for every single file and will be able to search for any photo taken on any date that you can look up via your calendar and what you did that day; or any photos of Sarah, for example. When someone asks you for a certain image, you can easily look it up on your computer by using search.

The earlier you start implementing this into your work flow, the better for you (as with all improvements). You can even go back and auto-rename all of the old images you have on your computer, because the programs can read out the date from your metadata (exif).

****

PS.: Always remember that any digital file should have at least one backup.