Differences between copying and ingesting

[Renaud]

Hi,

I've been given a try to PM since yesterday, and I confess i'm very enthusiast !
Incredible as I can speed up the whole process, do more, and stay organized at the same time !
I'm going to buy a license, and add PM before LR in my workflow.

I have a few beginner's questions, though, among these are the following :
- I always rename my photos like this : RS_yyyy.mm.dd hg.mm.ss _ camera name.
- I also import them in a folder with subfolders by date -which is automatically done by LR when importing directly from the card, which is no more the case-

The 'copy' function allows me to do both : use '.' in file names, and create subfolders, very handy.

But not the 'ingest' one :
- no option to create subfolders,
- and '.' are automatically replaced by hyphens '-' in files names.
Why this difference ? Did I miss something ?
What is funny is that I can use ' . ' but not '.'

This bothers me, as I can no more sort my files by name...And I don't want to rename all my previous pictures !

I would appreciate your thoughts on this, and a solution if there is one..

Oh, another question regarding folder naming : is there a way to name automatically the ingested folders with the range of the pictures which populate it, i.e. the name of the first file and the name of the last one ? Image Ingester did that..

Thanks !

[Kirk Baker]

Renaud,

I've been given a try to PM since yesterday, and I confess i'm very enthusiast !
Incredible as I can speed up the whole process, do more, and stay organized at the same time !
I'm going to buy a license, and add PM before LR in my workflow.

I have a few beginner's questions, though, among these are the following :
- I always rename my photos like this : RS_yyyy.mm.dd hg.mm.ss _ camera name.

I suggest you don't use multiple periods in your file naming.  While not an illegal character, some programs will see your filename extension as ".mm.dd hg.mm.ss _ camera name.jpg".

Why not use hyphens or underscores instead?  They won't be mistaken like periods can.

- I also import them in a folder with subfolders by date -which is automatically done by LR when importing directly from the card, which is no more the case-

Ingest fully allows subfolders to be created.  The documentation for Ingest is here: http://wiki.camerabits.com/en/index.php?title=User_Manual_Flat_View#Ingesting_Images
Variables are described here: http://wiki.camerabits.com/en/index.php?title=User_Manual_Flat_View#Image_Variables

- and '.' are automatically replaced by hyphens '-' in files names.
Why this difference ? Did I miss something ?

It's more of an oversight on the Copy/Rename command.  But we'll have to think about it some more.  Periods are legal in filenames on all filesystems, but can cause problems.

Oh, another question regarding folder naming : is there a way to name automatically the ingested folders with the range of the pictures which populate it, i.e. the name of the first file and the name of the last one ? Image Ingester did that..

No, Photo Mechanic offers no such feature.  I wonder what Image Ingester does when the two filenames are very large and the two filenames added together exceeds the maximum length for a folder name?

-Kirk

[Renaud]

Thanks Kirk for your quick and complete answer,

"I suggest you don't use multiple periods in your file naming.  While not an illegal character, some programs will see your filename extension as ".mm.dd hg.mm.ss _ camera name.jpg"."
> I find periods more readable... but the main reason is that all my pictures are already named this way...
I never had any issue, and I would be happy if this could be allowed.. as for copying files.

"Ingest fully allows subfolders to be created.  The documentation for Ingest is here: http://wiki.camerabits.com/en/index.php?title=User_Manual_Flat_View#Ingesting_Images
Variables are described here: http://wiki.camerabits.com/en/index.php?title=User_Manual_Flat_View#Image_Variables"
> I had a look again, and I didn't find any reference to subfolder creation, except in the 'copy' and the 'save as' sections ?
And a search for 'subfolder' does't give results in the ingest section.

[Kirk Baker]

Renaud,

"Ingest fully allows subfolders to be created.  The documentation for Ingest is here: http://wiki.camerabits.com/en/index.php?title=User_Manual_Flat_View#Ingesting_Images
Variables are described here: http://wiki.camerabits.com/en/index.php?title=User_Manual_Flat_View#Image_Variables"
> I had a look again, and I didn't find any reference to subfolder creation, except in the 'copy' and the 'save as' sections ?
And a search for 'subfolder' does't give results in the ingest section.

Look at the "Copy Photos" section of the Ingest documentation.  You choose how folder creation will happen.

http://wiki.camerabits.com/en/index.php?title=User_Manual_Flat_View#Copy_Photos

You'll want one of the last two options: "Into Folder with Name" or "Into Dated Folder then folder with name".

Either way, you can use image {variables} to specify the naming of your folder hierarchy.

-Kirk

[Renaud]

OK, got it, I just tried with a card and a folder in my drive, it works fine !

Thanks a lot for your very responsive support !