How do you name/number your photos?

Every roll of film has a unique number, and the photo is named as the frame number on the roll.

So photo 090524 is frame 24 of the fifth roll that I shot in 2009.

Works for me.
 
Same as Yaron, except that my numbers are like this: C-137/18a and 109/35. With digital photos, I mostly keep the file names given by the camera. If I had had more than one DSLR, this may not have worked.

[oops] Not the same as Yaron, whose films are numbered by year. But I have an index on computer, with all frames identified by subject.
 
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YYYYMMDDx_FN

YYYY = Year
MM = Month
DD = Day
x = a, b, c, d, e, etc...
FN = Frame number

The date I use is the date in which the roll was developed. If I've developed more than 1 roll that day, then x denotes a separate roll.
 
Also very similar:

C139-14 means the 139th roll I shot in the Contax and frame number is 14. Or N454-27a for a Nikon shot, O12-35 for Olympus, P21-9 for my pinhole camera, R7-11 for the Rolleiflex, ...

All on film; and my film sleeves all have the film number and a date : C139 O4/09, N454 07/06, O12 8/98, P21 1/08 , R7 08/09 etc

For digital, I would indicate the camera, a monthly restarting number sequence and the month. Such as C5d1234 07/12.
 
I'm sure this is a nutty way to do it, but I ID camera, lens and date/frame number into a very long file name. For instance:

M2 28mm 01 23 09-36

This indicates my Leica M2, with a Canon 28/3.5 lens, taken on January 23, of 2009, last frame. And here it is, in case you're interested...

 
I like to base the name on date/time as the files then "self-organize" in my filesystem.
Something like YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS_{camera or event}

All my digital cameras have their clocks synchronized and files are renamed as they are downloaded. Files from multiple cameras are interleaved into one chronological pool this way, but I prefer that.... I can still split them out by either EXIF or filename if I need to do something specific to camera type.

For film I'm not as specific, so if one roll covers many dates and subjects, the filename may just be YYYYMM_{camera or event}_XXX where XXX is just an incrementing unique-i-fier.

j
 
I do this, all in very obvious abbreviations:

Place/Camera type/Month/Year/Photo title/.type of file (usually a jpeg, I treat my raw files as digital negatives and they are downloaded into the camera with some info, like place, sequencial number and date, but no title).

I was scanning some negs last night, and I wound up with photos titled like this:

DVR M3 10 08 Red Rock Runners.jpg

Which tells me that the photograph was taken in Denver, with my M3 (on which I ONLY use my collapsible 'cron), on October 2008, at the Red Rock Auditorium, when some people were using the place as a training facility. No need to record film type as I only use Agfa APX 400 or Arista II.

As you can see, everyone has perfected their own. :) And, of course, people differ as to whether they'll pre-soak film before developing (I do) or using water alone as stop developer (I don't). Have fun! :)
 
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YYRRRFF, where YY = year, RRR = roll #, FF = frame (e.g. 0900126)

I shoot with one camera and one lens, and I use fewer than 5 types of film (easily identifiable) so I find it unnecessary to record that information in the filename. I don't record the month or day the photo was taken unless it's a very important event. It's usually easy to tell when the photo was taken by looking to see how much snow is on the ground and what the trees look like.
 
sienarot said:
YYYYMMDDx_FN

YYYY = Year
MM = Month
DD = Day
x = a, b, c, d, e, etc...
FN = Frame number

The date I use is the date in which the roll was developed. If I've developed more than 1 roll that day, then x denotes a separate roll.
Click to expand...

I do it almost exactly the same. I find it perfect. And then you just put your sleeves in chronological order and you will always find the negative to your scan immediately.

I wish I had started earlier.
 
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Negatives are cut in strips of 6, each in a numbered glassine. Ten glassines go in a manilla envelope made by cutting a 9x12 envelope in two, dated & numbered. Contact sheets have 5 strips each with a white strip across the top where I number the strips to match the negative sleeves. I make notes on the back of the contacts. Fifty manilla envelopes of ten strips each go in a a 250 or 500 sheet 8x10 paper box, along with the 100 matching contact sheets. The boxes have the dates and strip numbers marked on the end. Right now I'm looking at a bright orange Agfa box. It says 4501 ~ 5000, May 1971 ~ Oct. 1971.

Fortunately I started in the beginning, back in 1961. I pay no attention to the frame numbers. The frame closest to the number I wrote on the contact sheet is "A", the next is "B", etc. The fourth frame on strip number 2287 would be 2287-D and that's what I'd write on the back of the print.
 
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YYYYMM-camera-film-lens(es)-FFZZZ

YYYY: year
MM: month
FF: number of the roll of that month
ZZZ: frame number on that specific roll

I note the used camera and lens or lenses to easier track down camera / lens faults.
 
sienarot said:
YYYYMMDDx_FN

YYYY = Year
MM = Month
DD = Day
x = a, b, c, d, e, etc...
FN = Frame number

The date I use is the date in which the roll was developed. If I've developed more than 1 roll that day, then x denotes a separate roll.
Click to expand...

Very similar, but with two exceptions:

a) I use the date I took the photographs on, not the developing date. If, unusually, the film spans a range of dates then it's the date of the first shots on the film. When I file the film I use the name of the event or primary subject, eg "090318 Sarah's Birthday". When scanned, I use the same name for the folder, creating a new folder for each subject.

b) If I use more than one roll in a day then I will usually add 100 to the frame numbers, so the first film is numbered 001 to 036, the second 101 to 136 etc.

It works well for me and is efficient if I retain the file names when I create sub-sets of images, eg all the photos of the same family member in their own directory.
 
For digital images from my digicams....
yymmdd_camera_uniqueserial (where the uniqueserial is the non-reset file number of the camera). I use either a program called "downloader pro" or the auto-renaming features of Lightroom to do this.

For scanned film images...
yymmdd_filmtype_uniqueserial (where the uniqueserial is an incremental number assigned by my scanner, and the yymmdd is either the date/event which the roll of film was taken, or date it was processed if there was no particular event and the images contained in that roll spanned over a period of time). In a separate folder, I cut the film into strips of 6, give them the same yymmdd, and also record the camera/lens used.

I am not the most patient person in the world, but my discipline on this method/process simply amazes my wife :)

This process has worked well for me, as I have been requested to provide high-res photos of images people like and I have never had problems going back to the original.
 
YYMMDD-(camera e.g M6)(film e.g Sup100 for Superia100)-serial (starting from 001). I use the date of scanning in for files and make note on folder name of the range of date shot rather than name it onto the files individually.
 
I use <type><size><item><frame>

So a 35mm film would be: Film-135-08946-01 to Film-135-08946-36

Or digi-aps-08947-01 or film-120-18948-01
 
35mm slide: after editing on light table, they get rubber stamped with a 4 digit number. I began with 1000. If I scan them, the digital file will be named 35s-1234.jpg.

35mm negs: the negatives are sleeved and labeled by roll 35n-034 or 35n-035, etc. The images are then 35n-034-25 (25th shot on the 34th roll). At scanning they will get the jpg extension.

120: same as 35m negs, excepet in the format 120-017-08 (120 film-17th roll-frame 8)

Digital captures: I started out auto renaming them with the date/time of capture, but am questioning that.

My system may not stick. I really haven't gotten that far into it. I am still open to ideas.
 
with digi photos, where exif stores everything, name is
MMDD_Location_<camera running number>.file extension

with film scans:
MMDD_Location_Camera_Lens_Film_<scanner running number>.file extension

then store them under YYYY folder. been using same system since 2003 when I started snapping more and more.
 
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