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- Julian Ayling
A tale of simple folk (me - I'm quite simple) fighting with automation (Lightroom Import file naming and Library display)
For just over a year I've been using my EOS R and happily renaming my files on import to Lightroom Classic using this date and time format:
YYYY-MM-DD-Hour-Minute-Second
This has met my needs without any obvious issues with the EOS R for two main reasons:
1. I hardly ever shoot burst (continuous) mode
2. The absolute maximum frame rate on the EOS R is 8fps and I've never seen anything like that achieved.
On the rare occasion that I had more than 1 image per second, Lightroom seemed to have managed to add an extra digit to the file name without any problem. The numbering was a little odd but I could understand this as as I was once a lazy software engineer and the solution met the spec, sort of. I could live with it. The file renaming numbering was sequential in line with the capture time and all made sense:
2021-04-08-11-25-18
2021-04-08-11-25-18-2
2021-04-08-11-25-18-3
I now also have an EOS R5 and thought I'd test that 20fps electronic shutter. All worked as expected on the camera and I was able to get 20fps, but there was a little more flickering in the viewfinder than I'd hoped for. When I imported the images into Lightroom things took a turn for the worse. As you can see below, the renaming was out of sequence with the shooting order, and it changed from import run to import run:
My initial reaction was to Google the solution. I could find quite a few complaints and quite a few complicated solutions requiring far too much manual intervention, but I thought a simple change to the Library sort order, from Capture Time to File Name, would fix it for me. Then I realised that the files were definitely out of shooting sequence because the Preserved File Name order was wrong. Not only that but the Lightroom sort order puts the first file of the sequence, 2021-04-09-10-10-02, right at the end of the imported images for that second in the library. Clearly this was no good.
I decided to go back to the Import file naming rules to see what I could do, and hit upon using the Filename number suffix on the end of my rule:
YYYY-MM-DD-Hour-Minute-Second-Filename number suffix
So I'm back to being happy with the file naming in Lightroom, well almost. I'd prefer it if the suffix was zero padded so the file names were always the same length 0001 to 9999 then over to 0001 again, but I'll live with what I've got, for now.
All testing done with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic build [202103041821-226a1211] (yes that's really what it's officially called!) on Windows 10 20H2 build 19042.867
EOS R
For just over a year I've been using my EOS R and happily renaming my files on import to Lightroom Classic using this date and time format:
YYYY-MM-DD-Hour-Minute-Second
This has met my needs without any obvious issues with the EOS R for two main reasons:
1. I hardly ever shoot burst (continuous) mode
2. The absolute maximum frame rate on the EOS R is 8fps and I've never seen anything like that achieved.
On the rare occasion that I had more than 1 image per second, Lightroom seemed to have managed to add an extra digit to the file name without any problem. The numbering was a little odd but I could understand this as as I was once a lazy software engineer and the solution met the spec, sort of. I could live with it. The file renaming numbering was sequential in line with the capture time and all made sense:
2021-04-08-11-25-18
2021-04-08-11-25-18-2
2021-04-08-11-25-18-3
EOS R5
I now also have an EOS R5 and thought I'd test that 20fps electronic shutter. All worked as expected on the camera and I was able to get 20fps, but there was a little more flickering in the viewfinder than I'd hoped for. When I imported the images into Lightroom things took a turn for the worse. As you can see below, the renaming was out of sequence with the shooting order, and it changed from import run to import run:
| Camera File Name | Capture Time | LRC File Name First Import Run | LRC File Name Second Import Run |
798 | 10:10:02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02 |
799 | 10:10:02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-2 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-3 |
800 | 10:10:02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-4 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-2 |
801 | 10:10:02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-3 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-5 |
802 | 10:10:02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-5 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-4 |
803 | 10:10:02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-6 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-6 |
804 | 10:10:02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-8 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-7 |
805 | 10:10:02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-7 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-8 |
806 | 10:10:02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-9 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-9 |
807 | 10:10:02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-10 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-10 |
808 | 10:10:02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-12 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-11 |
809 | 10:10:02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-11 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-12 |
810 | 10:10:02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-13 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-13 |
811 | 10:10:02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-14 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-14 |
812 | 10:10:02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-15 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-15 |
813 | 10:10:02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-16 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-16 |
814 | 10:10:02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-17 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-17 |
815 | 10:10:02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-19 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-18 |
816 | 10:10:02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-18 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-19 |
817 | 10:10:02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-20 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-20 |
My initial reaction was to Google the solution. I could find quite a few complaints and quite a few complicated solutions requiring far too much manual intervention, but I thought a simple change to the Library sort order, from Capture Time to File Name, would fix it for me. Then I realised that the files were definitely out of shooting sequence because the Preserved File Name order was wrong. Not only that but the Lightroom sort order puts the first file of the sequence, 2021-04-09-10-10-02, right at the end of the imported images for that second in the library. Clearly this was no good.
I decided to go back to the Import file naming rules to see what I could do, and hit upon using the Filename number suffix on the end of my rule:
YYYY-MM-DD-Hour-Minute-Second-Filename number suffix
| Camera File Name | Capture Time | LRC Filename Final Import Run |
798 | 10:10:02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-798 |
799 | 10:10:02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-799 |
800 | 10:10:02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-800 |
801 | 10:10:02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-801 |
802 | 10:10:02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-802 |
803 | 10:10:02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-803 |
804 | 10:10:02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-804 |
805 | 10:10:02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-805 |
806 | 10:10:02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-806 |
807 | 10:10:02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-807 |
808 | 10:10:02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-808 |
809 | 10:10:02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-809 |
810 | 10:10:02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-810 |
811 | 10:10:02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-811 |
812 | 10:10:02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-812 |
813 | 10:10:02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-813 |
814 | 10:10:02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-814 |
815 | 10:10:02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-815 |
816 | 10:10:02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-816 |
817 | 10:10:02 | 2021-04-09-10-10-02-817 |
So I'm back to being happy with the file naming in Lightroom, well almost. I'd prefer it if the suffix was zero padded so the file names were always the same length 0001 to 9999 then over to 0001 again, but I'll live with what I've got, for now.
All testing done with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic build [202103041821-226a1211] (yes that's really what it's officially called!) on Windows 10 20H2 build 19042.867
