Image File Naming Conventions

It is helpful if your file names carry as much information as possible. The Windows file system allows long file names. With image files it's a good idea to take advantage of this fact and the alphabetical display of the Windows file system. Most scanners automatically name the files they create to eliminate the danger of duplicate file names. Digital cameras number the images they create. We can take the suggestions from these devices and come up with a naming system that is descriptive of the content, enables unique names, and is similar enough in structure to make alphabetizing useful.
      Here is a naming suggestion:
FamilynameFirstname(age)-occasion-photo#-photodate-imagenumber.ext


This is Mary Smith who is 6-years-old on the occasion of her birthday party (2nd pic) on March 15, 1925, image #7. We'll talk about the ".tif" file extension later when we discuss file storage options.


This is Joe Smith at Arches NP in Utah (3rd pic) May 25, 2006, image #425. If this were a vacation or travel picture, it would make sense to reverse the names of the person or people and the location.
      A photo number and an image number? The first is where you have more than one picture with the same description e.g. several of Mary at her birthday party. The second is the image number supplied by the digital camera or perhaps the scan number supplied by you, if that is your image source. If you keep a running number series for your images, they are much easier to identify later, as in, Sunday you scanned images 16 through 45. Tip: If you never reset the image numbers created by your camera, you will have unique image numbers created throughout the life of your camera.
      About dates: Month names have little value in an alphabetized list, but their numbers do. If you apply dates in your file names beginning with the year then month then day, your computer operating system will keep them in chronological order for you. So, Jan2505 will fall in place, but that place will have little meaning in the list. But a file with the date 050125 (1/25/05) will fall between files dated in 2004 e.g. 041106 (11/6/04) and 2006 e.g. 060114 (1/14/06).
      If you wish to sort your pictures in chronological order, place the date before the other information in the file name.