# Sorting through the "keepers" - 2 cameras



## KB2 (Jul 5, 2016)

This is the first time I've had 2 cameras going throughout the day.  I shot my first wedding, and had a second shooter helping me. Now I'm having trouble getting the images in order.  The clocks on the cameras were synced, and I can sort them in order in Windows, but here is where I'm getting stuck...

My usual work flow is as follows.
Load all files to my computer in an SOC folder.
Copy the folder and rename it to Working folder.
Open images in Adobe Camera Raw (9.1.1)
I go through them and make some tweaks while choosing the images that I want to delete.
Once I've narrowed it down to the keepers, I save all of the images as jpgs, and Adobe Camera Raw will rename them and add a count (ex: Wedding 01, Wedding 02, etc.).
Then I open them in Photoshop (CS6) for further editing.

The problem is, I can't seem to sort the images by date and time in Adobe Camera Raw, they open by file name, so I get every picture taken by one camera followed by every picture taken by the second camera.

How and when do you rename your files? I don't want to do it immediately because I don't want gaps in the sequencing after I delete unwanted images. 

Is there a way to sort them that I don't know about through Adobe Camera Raw? I'd prefer not to have to learn another program, but there are too many pictures to do it manually, so I may not have a choice.


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## john.margetts (Jul 6, 2016)

Name them immediately, tolerate gaps in the sequence and once the deletions are finished, rename again to get rid of the gaps.


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## KB2 (Jul 6, 2016)

john.margetts said:


> Name them immediately, tolerate gaps in the sequence and once the deletions are finished, rename again to get rid of the gaps.


Which program do you name them with? Or is there a way to sort them first in Camera Raw?


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## goooner (Jul 6, 2016)

Are the 2 cameras identical? If you're using light room this would be quite easy.


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## KB2 (Jul 6, 2016)

goooner said:


> Are the 2 cameras identical? If you're using light room this would be quite easy.


They are not identical cameras. The file names created by the cameras are different, too. They only had the clocks synced which allows me to sort by Date Taken in Windows (this also sorts them by time taken). But as far as I can tell Camera Raw does not give me sorting options. I do not have Lightroom.


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## goooner (Jul 6, 2016)

I seriously don't understand the problem. Copy the files from one camera in a folder 'Canon', then copy the files from the other camera into a folder named Nikon. 
Do your normal work flow on each folder, export with slightly different names WedC01 and WedN01 for the different folders. After culling, put all files in one folder, and sort by date time. 

If both cameras shot at the exact time, the file names will be slightly different. Am I missing something here?


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## robbins.photo (Jul 6, 2016)

There is also a utility called bulk rename utility that allows you to rename files using a wide variety of variables, including date/time stamp as I recall.  You could use it to give each file a name based on the date/timestamp followed by the name given to it by the camera, so that when you sort by filename they will appear in date/timestamp order.


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## KB2 (Jul 6, 2016)

goooner said:


> I seriously don't understand the problem. Copy the files from one camera in a folder 'Canon', then copy the files from the other camera into a folder named Nikon.
> Do your normal work flow on each folder, export with slightly different names WedC01 and WedN01 for the different folders. After culling, put all files in one folder, and sort by date time.
> 
> If both cameras shot at the exact time, the file names will be slightly different. Am I missing something here?


Two things maybe. Not sure if I fully understand your suggestion.
1.) When I give the files to the couple, I want them all to be named uniformly and in order of the day.
2.) When I'm going through the files, it will be much better to have them in order already. That way, if we both took a picture of the same thing I will notice immediately and I can choose the better one.


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## KB2 (Jul 6, 2016)

robbins.photo said:


> There is also a utility called bulk rename utility that allows you to rename files using a wide variety of variables, including date/time stamp as I recall.  You could use it to give each file a name based on the date/timestamp followed by the name given to it by the camera, so that when you sort by filename they will appear in date/timestamp order.


This is what I need to do. What program are you referring to?


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## robbins.photo (Jul 6, 2016)

KB2 said:


> robbins.photo said:
> 
> 
> > There is also a utility called bulk rename utility that allows you to rename files using a wide variety of variables, including date/time stamp as I recall.  You could use it to give each file a name based on the date/timestamp followed by the name given to it by the camera, so that when you sort by filename they will appear in date/timestamp order.
> ...




Bulk rename utility:

Introduction - Bulk Rename Utility


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## KB2 (Jul 6, 2016)

robbins.photo said:


> KB2 said:
> 
> 
> > robbins.photo said:
> ...


Thank you. This is perfect. However, my husband is very picky about installing new programs on the computer, so I sent it to him for the okay... And he sent me this: How to Batch Rename Files in Windows: 4 Ways to Rename Multiple Files
Apparently Windows will rename the files. I thought I would share in case anyone else could use it. It is oversimplified compared to using Bulk Rename Utility, and I will lose the original file names which would be nice to see during editing, but in the long run I would have dropped that part of the file name anyway.


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## table1349 (Jul 6, 2016)

I guess my question would be does it really matter if the photos are slightly out of time order?   If you are printing a book then maybe, but for the clients to have and print does it really matter?


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## KB2 (Jul 6, 2016)

gryphonslair99 said:


> I guess my question would be does it really matter if the photos are slightly out of time order?   If you are printing a book then maybe, but for the clients to have and print does it really matter?


In my opinion it would be very unprofessional to give digital files out of order.  Whether the couple wants to scroll through them individually or via slideshow, the photos should document the day in order.  We were shooting from 10am to 10pm, so it would be quite a jump to get to the end of camera 1 photos and then start the whole day over with camera 2 photos. Even manually grouping them into subcategories such as Getting Ready Photos, Ceremony Photos, Portraits, and Reception would seem choppy within each group.
Also, my main concern was editing them in order, so I could choose the best photos in cases where there would be duplicates.  For example, during the family portraits, we each took the same shot in some cases, to see who was getting the best light. We also each got pictures of the toasts, cake cutting, etc.
I did reach a solution.  I loaded the files from both cameras into one folder, and I used Windows to rename them via the method on the website I linked to on my last post.  I'm now going about my usual method of using Adobe Camera Raw to do some editing and deleting out the images I don't want. Then I'll use it to rename the files again upon saving.


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## bratkinson (Jul 12, 2016)

I'm late to the discussion...

In my own photo editing, I always ended up manually renaming each finished photo to xxx-001, xxx-002, etc.  Very time consuming, to say the least.  Then when I discovered I wanted to change the order, I'd make xxx-002a, xxx-002b, etc.  Then, when done, I'd start working backwards numbering them in whole numbers only.  I dreaded getting them in finished order more than all the hours spent in editing.

So, I Googled a number of ideas and came up with a shareware product "bulk rename utility'.  THAT SAVED THE DAY!!!  Within the utility, you can sort the list of files selected to any sequence prior to processing.  Creation or modified date and time are separate columns.  Like directory lists in Windows, clicking on the column header sorts by that column.  If I had the multiple camera situation like yours, I'd copy all the pictures into a separate folder (NEVER, NEVER, NEVER overwrite your originals!!!!!), then use the utility to sort by date/time.  Then set the processing option to create a 4-digit prefix numbering output and click 'rename'.  It's done in less than a second.  Then, returning to the Windows directory, sort by name, and the prefixed names will put them in perfect order.

I've used this product for more than just photo renaming.  I'm building a library of music downloads, and use it to create/delete/change musician/group names etc, all en-masse.  I also make shortcuts to those files and mass-rename those, too.  That way, I have each musician or group in separate folders, and sorted shortcuts by music title in another folder.


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