(02-01-2022, 08:29 AM)Charlie B Wrote: [ -> ] I have been organizing scanned photos and it seems to be a never ending job. I have a large collection of photos from the family that date back to pre civil war times as well as my train photo collection. Most of the scanning is done but the files remain to be renamed and photoshopped. I don't have anyone helping me, and I am the oldest one in my line so I am the only one that has a chance of identifying some of the people. I actually have some grandchildren that are interested so I will continue.
All,
Sorry for going off topic, but not sure how to respond elsewhere.
Only just learned last week that some Big Blue features are only accessed after signing in, after years of lurking!
Hello Charlie,
I am in a similar situation, but have barely begun to scan. A major problem for me is file naming and cataloging. I remember reading a RR magazine article on train photos, which argued the only way to prevent filename confusion and duplication was to somehow incorporate a date/time in a unique filename.
I have toyed with the idea of this filename format:
YYYYMMDD, xxx (number scanned that day), pluse (family last name initial, to ditilnguish my father's family from my mother's).
So the 15th scan of my father's family photos, scanned today, might be
20220201015S (assuming Smith for last name)
Info retrieval seems to be a major issue for me in this hobby, as well as family history.
Anyone have thoughts on this on this method?
Should this post be move to the photography section?
If so, how?
(02-02-2022, 01:08 PM)ezdays Wrote: [ -> ] (02-02-2022, 12:55 PM)hillyard999 Wrote: [ -> ]Should this post be move to the photography section?
If so, how?
It's OK here, but if you want to start a discussion on this topic, we can move it to a new thread possibly in the "all other hobbies" forum. Send me a PM if you want to do that.
Don, please move the thread and my post here. I can give a lot of pointers on this subject and think it will make a great forum.
Charlie
Hillyard, I use a 8 digit date format to start a file name today would be 20220202, then the subject, then the location and if several a sub of a b c etc at the end. I have learned to rename all my digital photos as I save them to my computer and then I immediately back them up to an external drive. Here is the file name of the post I did in pictures from this day in the past "19780202 CR 5720 epo." epo stands for my home town. (East Palestine, Ohio). I will share more in a future post soon
Charlie
Charlie,
Thanks for the informative response.
I see that you are imbedding subject clues in the file name. In addition to Ransack, I would guess a search for CR 4444 could also be done using File Explorer, since the subject for search is explicit in the file name. Your naming approach would be a big improvement over what I had originally thought about. My proposal would have required some sort of index file to let me know which photos contained which subjects. This in particular for older undated family photos. Example, Dad's family album, many photos from 1920-s through 1940-s.
some thoughts ...
File name length:
In my former line of work, long filenames combined with long names for folders and their subfolders sometimes caused problems which I think are summarized as "file name bloat". For linked excel files, this was a major issue. (long descriptive names required by upper mgt). Have you had any problems with longer file names?
Master copy:
I see in your search example for CR 4444 that you seemed to have duplicate files in different folders. How do you keep track of the original, master file? Has duplicate files an issue for you?
Software:
For my RR photos, I've been saving them in descriptive folders. Usually places and year taken. Okay for perusing, but not for easy retrieval. I do have a very old edition copy of Photo Shop Elements. I am under the impression it allows multiple catalogs. So one catalog could be EMD locomotives, and another could be Pringle Yard. The same picture could be indexed in both, while only keeping a single photographic file. At least that's how I _think_ it works. I've been reluctant to do this, not wanting to risk compromising my original files. Second issue, trying to not get too married to a particular software. I've lost a lot of effort in the past when software companies disappeared, or no longer supported my favorite software. I'm talking about YOU, AskSam. (also 123, and Ashton Tate).
Thanks for your ideas. More to come?
Still ruminating....
: )
Thanks, Charlie!
This gives me a lot to think about.
: )