Can anyone tell me how to rename files a certain way from within LR classic?

[snsok]

I've been using a renaming app to prepare file names for import because I can't figure this out. I am running latest LR Classic on an iMac in Big Sur.

The files come out of my Fuji X-series cameras like this:

00063544.JPG or 00063544.RAF

I want to strip out the 000 and add a place and a date to the filename. When I am done, the file should look like:

63544-YosemiteNP-2021-06-21.JPG  (or RAF)

Right now i use a utility (NameChanger for MacOS) to first remove the 000 and then replace the "." with the name of the location and the date followed by a "."

Any ideas appreciated. I'd like to save a couple steps by doing all this in LR Classic

[dj_paige]

Any ideas appreciated.

Okay, out-of-the-box ideas:

• Lightroom Classic will name folders with the capture date, so you wouldn't need to spend time appending the capture date to the file name. Also, the capture date is stored in the photo's metadata, so you don't need the capture date in the file name. With either the capture date in the folder, in the metadata, it's pretty easy then to find photos taken on a specific day.
• Keywords are another way to store information with the photo file, but without having to go through the process of changing the file's name. Then, whenever you want to find Yosemite photos, you search for photos with the Yosemite keyword.
• Apply both of the above and then you don't even need to rename the photos.

[snsok]

Thanks very much. Those are not out of the box at all. Lightroom does make it easy to store and find images.

I have been using keywords since LR made them available.

I wanted to keep the filenumber/place/date in the filename for a few reasons. 

• Someday I may be using another method of digital asset management and didn't want to be tied to LR forever. 
• If I ever lose my LR catalogs (not likely with a 1-2-3 backup system), I can identify the images in my off-site backups
• When I send images to prospective purchasers, the filenames already have the information they need to sort them. 
• I have 58,000 images already stored with this naming convention. I was hoping for a simpler way to keep subsequent images consistent with them. 

My thinking was if can rename my files with renaming app, LR should be able to do that during import. It doesn't seem flexible enough. The NameChanger app  is here.

[dj_paige]

• Someday I may be using another method of digital asset management and didn't want to be tied to LR forever.
• If I ever lose my LR catalogs (not likely with a 1-2-3 backup system), I can identify the images in my off-site backups

Metadata can be stored in your photo files (or sidecar .xmp files). Any search feature, in any photographic software, or even in your operating system, can find the photos by the metadata (capture date or location). You don't have to put the metadata in the file names. So if you stop using LrC, you still have all the metadata available to you and to your next photographic software.

When I send images to prospective purchasers, the filenames already have the information they need to sort them.

Okay, this is one of the few reasons (in my opinion) that you should include metadata in file names.

Would renaming at Export work for you?

[snsok]

Yes, renaming on export would work. Do you mean renaming during the export from LR or using a utility afterwards?

[GoldingD]

see: https://jkost.com/blog/2021/03/renaming-files-in-lightroom-classic.html

[GoldingD · Accepted solution]

And

When I am done, the file should look like:
 
63544-YosemiteNP-2021-06-21.JPG

You can if you like. It is your process

But

IMO you would be better off naming something like

YYYYMMDD_hhmmss

for example

 20210613_102000

AND using keyords for the descriptive part, i.e. Yosemite

(Yosemite, Yosemite National Park, National Park, Landscape, California,.....)