Re: Your Computer Filing System?

Speaking very generally I mainly use 'crop' to make a set of photos consistent, for example landscapes often look better 16:9 and my cameras are set for different formats 3:2 and 4:3.

Sometimes 'Auto Contrast' can smarten up a shot very quickly too by making whites white and blacks black.

In the past I have used some of the novelty effects like Sepia or Boost for a computer desktop picture. That's just a bit of fun.

This was my desktop for a while - a cropped, boosted and and added contrast version of Turner's Fighting Temeraire. A travesty for art lovers but a fun desktop for a while.



Funny thing is that I rarely use red eye removal but only because I rarely use flash, in fact I don't think I have used it literally for years but I do recall that it is very effective.

Re: Your Computer Filing System?

File/Windows Explorer provides a quite good way to batch rename a folder of files. Just select all the files in the folder, right-click on the first file and rename it.



Then click on a blank part of the Window and the files will automatically and quickly rename as shown below.

Re: Your Computer Filing System?

That is true and quite handy for simple renames BUT in the example you showed if you press F5 I think it would then order the photos

Sky (1).jpg
Sky (10).jpg
Sky (11).jpg
Sky (12).jpg
Sky (13).jpg
Sky (2).jpg
Sky (3).jpg
...and so on

Which might not be desired (I realise you can sort on a different column in Windows Explorer) and if you imagine 40 photos with many different descriptions then that would be far more complex



Bulk Rename Utility does look complex and puts people off but once you get the idea that you are only going to use a couple of its features at a time then it becomes clearer.



But for the renaming of photos you only need a very few changes as highlighted in red below and once set up can be saved to be recovered easily again and again.



For example I use it to rename TV episodes from this:

outlander.s04e03.web.h264-convoy.mkv
sally4ever.s01e05.web.h264-memento.mkv
The.Missing.S02E01.HDTV.x264-TLA.mkv

to this:

Outlander S04E03.mkv
Sally4ever S01E05.mkv
The Missing S02E01.mkv

It can do dozens of files each with different names at a time, they can also be in different sub folders all with a single click of a button.

If you get the impression that I am somewhat enamoured with Bulk Rename Utility then you would be right. I really couldn't do without it

Re: Your Computer Filing System?

It doesn't do that. I think that's possibly because of the way File Explorer brackets the numbers. I've tried pressing F5 several times with an open folder containing 62 photo files and the result stays the same.



The folder could be divided into sub-folders of different flower categories if necessary ..or individual files renamed within the folder if they are of particular interest.

I mostly use a search of the entire Pictures directory for finding image files. Searching for flowers (for instance) would bring up those numerous results to look through. That's OK but if I thought a photo file might need to stand out from the crowd, it would have been given an individual file name and searching the directory would bring up just that.

This way might not suit everyone but that's how I do it ..and you did ask.

Re: Your Computer Filing System?

I don't keep many photos, I might come home with 50 on my camera (50 jpegs + 50 raw), view them on camera via picasa on my pc, import two, delete the rest by reformatting the card.

I edit in Paint.Net and save to a specific folder in "Pictures" ... might be called something like "Hyde Park", "Covent Gdn", a place where the picture was taken.

I then upload to Google Photos where I have Albums with the same or similar names to my computer Folders. Once online I add photos to other existing albums or maybe start a new album so usually there are two or more albums where a photo can be found.

Many people keep stuff in the clouds as a backup, I consider my pc hard-drive as the backup, the clouds being the place I view and share stuff.

Re: Your Computer Filing System?

Ah, you add tags do you! I know many people do that on Flickr, I didn't know you could do it on Google photos.

Do you have the same pic in different albums as I do? ....

Kids on the Beach could be in both your "Kids" and "Beach" albums.

Re: Your Computer Filing System?

I just name the files.

Re: Your Computer Filing System?

No you don't need to tag anything (don't think you can actually) - it looks at the photos and works it out by magic! Bloody clever if you ask me! I do have face recognition turned on so it also knows my family members and finds them too. No bad for free eh? I don't rename anything as I can't see the point - if everything is logically organised your PC by date or event then you look at the pics thumbnails not the names. In Google photos you don't need to care about filenames

Re: Your Computer Filing System?

No, it is not the brackets - Windows Explorer has got clever. I just tested it by putting a number at the beginning - same result.



However I tried it with some other programs and they sort the way DOS does and how I expected Windows Explorer to behave.



I also found something else I didn't know - when you rename different file types in Windows Explorer they end up with the same index number. Logical when you think about but annoying - I had to change the extensions to TEST. (I had set up these test folders to try some batch files - always useful)



Always something to learn.

Re: Your Computer Filing System?

I've just tried it ... Thanks

I searched Bicycle and about a dozen pics were found, that's most of what I've got. Interestingly, I've got a couple of pics of people cycling toward the camera and they weren't found, but side-on shots were. Also HERE is one I did playing with motion blur and that wasn't recognised.

But still ... damn useful, and - as you say - not bad for free!