# file renaming woes!  can i get to ORIGINAL file name?  r ratings avail elsewhere



## linkwoman (Sep 20, 2010)

I must have set a picture to be a 4-star rating when all of the images in my catalog were were selected! Now all pictures t are set to 4 stars! I didn't realize &gt;1 was selected. I don't know when I did it but it's in the last 2' changes or so..... I've worked so hard to get all these ratings just right.... The changes I've made since then are renaming all the images in the catalog. Is there someway to find the rating change in the database and remove it so that I have my ratings back? ugg! Could I perhaps step backwards until I see the changes? How would i just step back and back and back?
thanks.

*OK I FIGURED IT OUT.* I just did CMD+Z a bunch until the star ratings came back! Whew! Interestingly the filenaming is _not_ undone. that must be something that isn't tracked in undo/redo memory; i.e. it seems you cant undo a file name change. I don't like that!

Ok well here's the *new problem* then;
The way I renamed the files includes the *rating*. And I had the *ratings wrong*, as you read above. So all of the images now have 4star in the name even though I had other star ratings.

I renamed all of the files with masks as follows:
Date (YYYY)-Date (MM)-GlideCruiser_Sequence # ('1) _*AND THEN*_ ON TOP OF THAT: (Filename)-(Rating)s
so that IMG_4893.dng became 2'1'-'6-GlideCruiser_73.dng
_*and then*_ 2'1'-'6-GlideCruiser_73*-4s*.dng
ALL of the files have 4s in the name although they are not all 4 star photos.


So two questions: 
1. How can I rename again using the ORIGINAL filename? is that information accessible anywhere?
  OR can I remove the last x # of characters from the last name? I guess I could use some other program to say the filename should be all but the last 3 characters (before the extension of course). That would get rid of the -4s. But then LR would require me to find the missing files for all of them. Ugg.

2. I'm thinking perhaps it's not a good idea to include the star rating in my naming in LR. Obviously I can filter in LR using rating so I don't need the rating in the name. I just want to give a client his 3-star, 4-star, and 5-star photos and when I realized that rating was an option I thought that was an easy way to do it. Hmmm... maybe I should only do the star rating renaming on an EXPORT. Duh. Well, can you see star ratings in Windows Explorer and in Mac Finder? If so, *how*? That would be cool because I could tell the client how to do that. But if he loves an image I think is 3star and wants to send it to a modeling agency, I don't think he'd want it tagged as a 3star image. So could he change the star rating in windows explorer or mac?

One more thing. Of course NOW I'll be hyper-aware of the # of photos that are selected before I make a change. But I didn't think I was making a big change. I thought I was setting the rating on ONE photo. I wish that LR had a dumb dumb monitor... if someone is about to make all the photos in their catalog.... or a large # of photos have a particular rating, shouldn't it say "HEY! are you sure you want to make this change to hundreds of photos?" 

thanks in advance!

goodnight! will check in the am.....

~Darby, aka. Linkwoman


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## Victoria Bampton (Sep 20, 2010)

Ok, you can't get right of characters, but you can rename back to the original filename.

If there's only GlideCruiser ones, it would be easiest just to use your first naming template again, but I'm guessing that differs?

To change back to the original filename, first check it's still in the data. Look in the Metadata panel and at the top, change it to EXIF & IPTC view so that you see the right fields. The original filename should be listed there. If it is, go to the rename dialog, select Edit from its pop up menu so that you get to the template editor, and just select the 'original filename' token from the Image Name section. That should do the trick.

Yes, a few of us think that large numbers should be made more obvious. Most of the dialogs do say things like 'delete 83 photos' but very few people read dialogs!

For future, I'd just add the star renaming when you export. If you did it to your originals and then decided to change the rating, you'd have a bit of a pain renaming again.


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## linkwoman (Sep 20, 2010)

The original filename was there; thanks for telling me to check exif & iptc beccause it wasn't there before. It is not available as far as I can tell- in the file rename dialog; so I can't seem to just say hey rename all these files to the original file. Also the original filename is not copy-able. So I would have to re-type. If I'm wrong on either, do let me know.

I was really tired last night. Today in the light of day I realize I could just rename them all again w/ the first renaming scheme
Date (YYYY)-Date (MM)-GlideCruiser_Sequence # ('1) 
AND NOT USE THE 2ND ONE: 
(Filename)-(Rating)s

So, I have done that now and do have all my files named like 2'1'-'6-GlideCruiser_'1.dng .... 2'1'-'6-GlideCruiser_146.dng

By the way I went to a really great *Lightroom workshop* put on by *Michael Corsentino* in *Petaluma CA, USA* (follow him on twitter: *@Corsentino*). One thing he suggested was use a different catalog per job. It makes everything cleaner, keeps client images separate from each other, separate from your personal images. It also makes archiving jobs easy - you archive the images and the catalog all on the same media and file it away. I'm also in grad school for photography and taking a class on photoshop but they spend two weeks on lightroom basics first.... and the instructors have NOT said to use separate catalogs (in fact I'm sure that one really didn't know you _could have_ multiple catalogs!).... well if I hadn't had the Glide Cruiser pics in their own catalog, then my mistake of rating everything at once, and then having to cmd+z back .... would have gotten rid of changes to other, unrelated files and really messed things up. I'm so glad that I followed his advice and had the cruiser pics using their own catalog.

The only drawback I see to having the multiple catalogs is that you can't search across multiple catalogs @ once. I'd love to say show me all my 5Star photos marked with the color red, across all catalogs, to get to my very best for portfolio purposes.

Ok, thanks again!

~Darby


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## Victoria Bampton (Sep 20, 2010)

Ah, yes, I know Michael, nice guy. Not sure I'd agree with his different catalog per job, but I do keep work separate from person. If you'd had Glide Cruiser pics in one big catalog, as long as you had catalog backups (which you should anyway) then you could have easily undone it again, so no disaster either way.

Original filename is hiding there somewhere - you do have to go into the Edit &gt; Filename Template Editor and it's one of the options in one of the pop-up menus. I always save a preset which just has that original filename token so that it's easily accessible.

Anyway, great to hear you've got got that sorted. Breathe a sigh of relief again for now - and stick around, and you'll pick up loads of great tips.


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## Brad Snyder (Sep 21, 2010)

Darby, be aware that the multiple catalog idea, is one of Lr's 'hot-button' 'religious war' topics. I believe that most of us here are single-catalogians, who ban those pagan plurals to the eternal darkroom.  

I say that tongue-in-cheek, hoping to avoid having to read that thread rehashed, yet again. (That's why we volunteer moderators get paid the big-bucks.)


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## linkwoman (Sep 22, 2010)

ha ha! I bet file naming conventions is another hair-raising topic. Well, thanks for the heads up, Brad! Who knew catalogs could cause such a rukus!!? All I know is Lightroom is totally amazing! I've been wanting a product like this forever!   BTW if you have a second to post a link to the best thread on the issue, I'd love to read it since I'm not sure which way I'm going yet really. Thanks!
~Darby


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## Brad Snyder (Sep 22, 2010)

There's an excellent read in our Tips/Tricks on the topic, but unfortunately we're having server problems, and the particular piece is unavailable. 

The short and sweet is: 
1) unless you have quantifiable (time or money) productivity, privacy, or business segmentation reasons, avoid multiple catalogs. 
2) Some folks keep one major catalog that gets everything eventually, and a smaller second working catalog, primarily due to portability requirements, i.e., travel, home vs. work/office, laptop vs. desktop, that kind of thing.
3)If someone tells you point blank to use separate catalogs, without explaining all of the pros and cons in some detail, I'd take that advice with a grain of salt.
4) everybody has an opinion, most of them aren't pertinent to your particular situation.


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## linkwoman (Sep 24, 2010)

ok, thanks Brad!


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