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scrosland
Participant
June 5, 2011
Open for Voting

P: Add more flexible import naming/structure options

  • June 5, 2011
  • 24 replies
  • 832 views

The one part of Lightroom that I have never got on with is the import module. The file and directory naming options are simply not sufficient to allow for the existing directory structure that and naming conventions that I use. My style is "P:\photos\2011\2011-06\Name of Job\d5100_1234.jpg" which I cannot create with LR3. Instead I use Downloader Pro from BreezeSys which allows me to automatically create this structure, and even prompts me for the "job name" before downloading the images.

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    Geoff the kiwi
    Community Expert
    Geoff the kiwiCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    June 8, 2011
    I'm not sure why you want the camera name in the file though?? It is a metadata sortable field - I use that often. Curious.......
    I agree more flexible options would be useful.
    S
    scroslandAuthor
    Participant
    June 8, 2011
    I'm not near the relevant computer at the moment, but from memory there are two parts that I definitely cannot do in LR3:

    a) The custom file name using only part of the full camera model name. I.e. I want files called "d5100_1234.nef", not "Nikon D5100_1234.nef", can "s95_1234.cr2" not "Canon Powershot S95_1234.cr2".

    b) The "job" code which goes to form the last directory name in the path. That changes on *every* import. So using static custom text doesn't work, it needs to be a free text field that I can fill in every time and which the system will prompt me to complete if I forget.

    I'm also not sure that I can do the month date in "2011-06" format, but I expect I can with the necessary date format code.

    Rob, what's wrong with my workaround? Solely that it requires a separate program* which makes it clunky. A purely LR flow would increase ease of use. The suggestion you link to might be useful depending on how it is implemented. I think I would need a pre-import action here to prompt for the job code and then take the list of files to be imported and massage them into the naming convention that I want. But that's kind of complicated compared to Adobe just extending the current import naming options with a few more!

    * I should perhaps note that the other obvious alternative to Downloader is ImageIngester.

    Cheers,
    Simon
    areohbee
    areohbee
    Legend
    June 8, 2011
    Simon - I understand your Idea is for native functionality in Lightroom, but I'm curious what is the short-coming of your present "workaround"? (PS - I bypass the import dialog altogether, due to some shortcomings I was having too, but now I have no import issues anymore).

    Also, you may be interested in a related Idea: Import Actions which may solve your problem in a more general way, and then some...
    Geoff the kiwi
    Community Expert
    Geoff the kiwiCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    June 5, 2011
    Which part can't be done in Lightroom? i.e. where does the folder naming stop and the file naming begin??
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