DAM Film
When I used film, I never had two identical negatives with the same name. I stored the negatives grouped by the roll and by the session. I put a date and title on the outside envelope and stuck them in a box. When the box was full, I got another box. I haven't looked at them for at least 10 years. I have thousands of negatives in boxes. I have stacks of negatives.
The problem with boxes of negatives was that you had to depend on memory to find specific images. Contact sheets were good in theory, I have even more negatives that were never printed. I had prints made of many negatives. All of these prints are in other groups of boxes. I have stacks of prints.
When I purchased my first PC - an Apple II+ - I created a database of negatives. It included descriptions and the location of negatives. This system worked as long as every negative was filed properly. If a negative was misfiled it was nearly impossible to locate.
DAM JPEGS
My first digital images were JPEGs. They were numbered in the camera. I put them in digital folders. The PC showed thumbnails. I thought this was the perfect solution until the numbers started to repeat. Image 928.jpg was easy to find. Three different Image 928.jpgs were a problem.
When I used image processing software, I ended up with more Image 928s. I changed some to Tiff, I made versions of various sizes and quality. I could end up with dozens of Image 928.
My Inner Hoarder was another problem. I made backups of images and stored them in other locations. I couldn't discard an image until I verified that it was saved somewhere else. I had a bigger problem than ever. An image could be stored in multiple places, with multiple names and other images could have the very same name.
DAM Names
I needed file name to be unique to an image.
I needed to be able to change a renamed file back to the original name.
I needed to keep files in the correct sequence.
The DAM names that I use now work pretty well. With few exceptions, I shoot everything in RAW. This means that any JPEGs on my system are copies - not originals and can be discarded if needed.
I let the files name themselves using information that is internal. The name begins with YYMMDD. The date is followed by the time in a HHMMSS format. I have multiple cameras. As long as the cameras are all set to the correct time, these names will sort themselves into the correct sequence in a directory.
DAM Problems
This system worked at first but a problem developed when I purchased a camera that could take multiple shots in a second. I needed to assign a sequence to these - like 110604_082333_01.CR2 If the file was ever renamed, I could rebuild the name up to the sequence but I could not automatically determine if it was the second or third shot within a single second.
A second problem was that the names were not friendly. 110604_082333_01.CR2 wasn't a name that people wanted to use when asking for a copy of a photo.
DAM Solutions
I ended up making a compromise. I used the sequential number given by the camera in the file name. IMG_0928 was renamed to 110604_082333_0928.CR2. If someone wanted a print of the images I took on June 4 2011, they could ask for the last 4 digits (0928). Even if I used multiple cameras, the numbers are not likely to overlap.
I store my images in folders in year month and date order. 110604_082333_0928.CR2 in the 110604 folder. That folder in the 06-June folder. The 06-June folder is in the 2011 folder. This is a consistent and repeatable way to name images and a consistent way to store them.
The end result is similar to my 2002 negative filing system - all the images are stored in sequential order. I had trouble finding anything in my negative files but it works for digital. The reason is LIGHTROOM.
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