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areohbee
Legend
June 23, 2011
In Development

P: Support sub-second (milliseconds) field in file naming templates.

  • June 23, 2011
  • 44 replies
  • 4138 views

This would allow people to start filenames with date-time so alphabetical order is same as capture time order, and would create unique filenames (without yet another field) and properly order bursts....

Presently, exif metadata includes subsecond field, but Lr filenaming template stops at full seconds. So for unique filenames, one would have to tack on some kind of sequence number or something as well.

So, as things stand, one can have:

YYYY-MM-DD_HH-MM-SS_{seq-num}_{photog/camera...}

but not (as I would prefer):

YYYY-MM-DD_HH-MM-SS-MS_{photog/camera...}

A side benefit is that filename indicates subseconds between shots in a burst, which is otherwise unavailable in Lightroom without a plugin. Although, I could argue for displaying that too in formatted metadata display, even if only upon mouse-over.

---------------
I would like to use Lightroom import dialog box for importing, instead of the plugin I use now, but it stops just shy of what I need/want still. - this is one of the things. However, if import actions were implemented, that would be enough.

44 replies

vtpeters63
Participating Frequently
April 5, 2017

When transferring my photos from my camera's memory card to my computer, one of the first thing I do is batch rename the photos to include their shooting date/time in the name.

Because I shoot in bursts a lot of the times, I have quite a few photos that were shot within the same second.

Renaming these photos in Lightroom results in a sequence numbers being added to the shooting date/time.

After importing the photos in Lightroom I start culling my photos, marking the rejected ones and deleting them. This causes sometimes for 'gaps' in the sequence of photos shot within the same second. To remedy this, I would need to batch rename the photos again.

It would be easier for me if Lightroom were able to include the 'milliseconds' attribute in the date/time of shooting like Adobe Bridge does.

Lightroom knows this 'millisecond' value. The value is visible in the Date Created meta data field in the Library Module (see screenshot below). The field clearly shows "2017-03-31T20:02:15.46", where ".46" is the 'millisecond' part I'm referring to.

I just wish that Lightroom would be able to use the 'millisecond' part for renaming photos, so I can do all my basic editing and organising in Lightroom only and not have to go back to Adobe Bridge just for renaming my photos.

Todd Shaner
Legend
April 5, 2017

A request has already been made in the Photoshop Family forum, which I see you've found. Anyone landing here with this issue should add your 'Me To' vote here:

Lightroom: Support sub-second (milliseconds) field in filenaming templates. | Photoshop Family Customer Community

PhilBurton
Inspiring
June 17, 2016
Agree with other posters that this capability is long overdue.  My Nikon D3 can burst at 9 frames per second and new models have higher burst rates.
lhiapgpeonk
Participating Frequently
June 1, 2016
Can you set the capture time inside of Bridge? (Same dialog as in LR?) If so, then I would gladly try to embrace Bridge...
vtpeters63
Participating Frequently
June 1, 2016
That's why I have a different workflow...
  1. I create a folder on my hard drive with a date and clear description for the photos I want to import and edit (e.g. 20150324__StevenWilson_TivoliVredenburg_Utrecht).
  2. I create two subfolders. One named JPG (for holding the exported JPG's) and one named RAW (for storing the original RAW files.
  3. I simply copy the (RAW) files from the memory card(s) to the RAW folder created in step 2.
  4. I use Adobe Bridge to rename the files in the RAW folder (using the milliseconds option in Bridge) and add copyright information to the files.
  5. I open Lightroom and create a new catalogue in the folder that I created in step 1. Lightroom restarts and opens the newly created catalogue.
  6. I import the already renamed RAW files into this catalogue and  start editing the photos...
Because of Lightroom's shortcomings in the file renaming department, I'm forced to do this in Adobe Bridge. The knowledge about how to extract the information from the EXIF is present at Adobe (Bridge can do it), it 'simply' needs to be implemented in Lightroom.

Come on Adobe, you can do it!
lhiapgpeonk
Participating Frequently
June 1, 2016
Please make Subseconds for renaming happen soon. Otherwise one had to take a roundtrip to different programs. Just imagine the hassle of:
- Importing photos to Lightroom
- Setting correct time via reference shots
- renaming all photos in Bridge
- Oh no! Lightroom forgot about all images, let me just re-import them...
Inspiring
January 16, 2016


Lightroom 4.
In the Filename Template Editor you can use Hour, Minute and Second but not Hundredths of a second.
Many cameras can take multi images in a second and also put hundredths into EXIF.
Inspiring
April 27, 2015
Ugh, they didn't even update this in LR6. Milliseconds is still not an option for the Lightroom 6 rename presets.
vtpeters63
Participating Frequently
April 14, 2015


In the File Naming Template Editor in Lightroom 5 you can select the date and time in the EXIF data when renaming photos on import.
Most camera's are capable of capturing a burst of several photos within a second. In Lightroom 5 I have to use a sequence number to differentiate between each photo made within the same second. But after culling my photos (and deleting some that were part of a burst) I'm left with 'gaps' in the sequence numbering.

For renaming my photos instead of using Lightroom I use Adobe Bridge CC.
With Bridge I can use milliseconds (data present in the EXIF, field names SubSecTime, SubSecTimeOriginal and SubSecTimeDigitized) when renaming my photos using Batch Rename. Because there's no sequence number involved after renaming, deleting photos when culling doesn't create 'gaps'.

I'd very much like Lightroom 5 to also be able to use milliseconds in the photo's EXIF data when renaming my photos. It seems the information is present in the EXIF data and Adobe Bridge CC is already using it for its Batch Rename functionality (see attached screen shot).
Inspiring
September 16, 2014
Please Adobe, high time you sorted this out on your market-leading and expensive software.
Chris Breeze's Breezebrowser has done it very simply for the last 15 years... Just adds 1 or 01 for the first picture, 2 or 02 for the second within the same second, all automatically... All nice and easy, all file names have the same length, and hence are correctly sorted.
Thanks beforehand, Jean-Marie Sohier, jms@sealord.be.
Inspiring
April 7, 2012
I would also like to see the ability to include the sub-second part of the Exif information in the filename template. The inability to handle burst shot naming is currently the only reason that prevents me from using Lightroom to download files from my memory cards, and I have to use a third-party product.

It is true that not all cameras do provide this information - but if it is not there, just set this field to "00". We can already make use of the camera serial number field, and this is also not provided by all cameras.