File Names
What Do All Those Numbers and Letters Mean???
My image file names follow a system (if you can call it that!) that I´ve developed over the years to serve the main purpose - pointing me in the direction of the original image in my files. The system gives each a unique catalog number - that's what that number at the beginning of each image description means. Here's how I come up with them and what they mean.
As an example we'll use a file named "19300914MISC01 George Redding and Neola Joyce (Bob) Maddison with best man, bridesmaid.tif"
Every filename starts with as much of the date as I know. If I’m missing information I use an X as a placeholder. For example, 193009XX means I know it was September 1930, but have no idea what day. 1930XXXX means I know it was 1930, but have no idea what month or day. 193XXXXX means I know it was in the '30's and that's it. 19XXXXXX means I know it's in the 20th Century but have no real idea. All X's - XXXXXXXX - means I have no idea at all. If I'm not sure, I don't guess, I leave it all X's.
This is followed by the initials of the person who took the picture (if I know that), if I don’t enter anything there. Following that is something that gives me some idea where the original photo came from. If the photo came from my own files, it may be "35NP" (which designates a 35mm negative file page number), 35T (which designates a 35mm transparency original), "MFP" - Medium Format Page, "DG" - Digital, "APS" - Advanced Photo System, etc. Files with MISC here are those that did not come from my own files - generally scanned prints or negatives from someone else's images.
After this sequence are two characters that are just an image number - in case there are more than one picture from that date. 19300914MISC01 means it was the first picture I named from that date (if I know the true sequence they were taken in I'll go in that order, but that's rare for anything I didn't take.
After THAT may be another two digit code, which I use to indicate a variation on the same picture. For example if I had cropped a version of this picture or modified in in some way it might be 19300914MISC0101 (or 02, 03, 04, etc..)
Following the catalog sequence might be a description of the picture, or if the picture had something written on the back of it I would put that here. Words in the description in square brackets are my editorial additions to an original description on the picture.
If the only suffix in the name is the letters "tn", then the image is a low quality, smaller sized "thumbnail" image. I use these for emailing to people, or anywhere image size is a problem. I wouldn't recommend using the "tn"'s for printing.
The final of the filename after the period indicates the file type. TIF means Tagged Image Format, the highest quality format. Use these if you're going to print or distribute the best pictures. JPG is a lesser quality format.
I'd love to fill in as many of the XX's as I can - if anyone sees these and has information that would improve the date accuracy or give more information on the subjects or the pictures, LET ME KNOW!!! Having an archive like this is pretty useless without knowing as exactly as possible when the photos were taken or who is in them.