Batch Rename of RAW files

[kipper]

I want to do a batch rename of files based on RAW file and want to produce it as:

YYYYMMDD_HHMM_Index.NEF

Or something to that effect, is there anything that will allow me to do this and that is quick. Nikon Capture is pathetically slow. I am running linux so a linux app would be preferable but I'm also running VMWare so can run XP apps too.

[Hlop]

I want to do a batch rename of files based on RAW file and want to produce it as:

YYYYMMDD_HHMM_Index.NEF

Or something to that effect, is there anything that will allow me to do this and that is quick. Nikon Capture is pathetically slow. I am running linux so a linux app would be preferable but I'm also running VMWare so can run XP apps too.

Hi Kipper,

If you're into *nix you should start to learn shell scripts. They are very powerful and flexible. Yo don't need any 3rd party software to batch rename

Start from:
man `echo $SHELL`

Look for "for" cycle if you're running bash or sh and for "foreach" if it's csh or tcsh

[stubbsy]

I want to do a batch rename of files based on RAW file and want to produce it as:

YYYYMMDD_HHMM_Index.NEF

Or something to that effect, is there anything that will allow me to do this and that is quick. Nikon Capture is pathetically slow. I am running linux so a linux app would be preferable but I'm also running VMWare so can run XP apps too.

Darryl
Not Unix, but the Windows prog IMatch will do this (costs US$59.95, but has a fully functional 30 day demo. It's an incredibly powerful app and I use it for all my image management. You use the smart rename feature with the following mask setting:

{Image.EXIF.Date and time Digitized}_Image to give something like 20050910 083623_Image.NEF (todays date, 8:36:23 am) or for exactly what you specify you'd use the longer

{Image.EXIF.Date and time Digitized#Year}{Image.EXIF.Date and time Digitized#Month}{Image.EXIF.Date and time Digitized#Day}_{Image.EXIF.Date and time Digitized#Hour}{Image.EXIF.Date and time Digitized#Minute}_Image

Edit: Fixed typo!

[leek]

Adobe Bridge will do it for you...

Tools-->Batch Rename

[DaveB]

Shell or Perl. Of course the tricky bit then is to extract the EXIF capture date, but there are command-line programs you can combine with grep to get the data in sh, and/or EXIF libraries you can use in Perl.

iView MediaPro is a Mac & Windows cataloging program that will do this also.

[kipper]

I can easily whip up a shell (bash etc) or perl script, it's just getting the exif data. That's what I was looking for. I had a look at Dcraw but I don't think the exe actually has an option to just dump the EXIF to the console.

[DaveB]

I *think* the basic structure of a NEF file is the same as a TIFF (even if it doesn't have the image data in the same place). Try treating the files as TIFFs and see if normal EXIF tools will extract the CaptureDate for you.
But then I've never had to handle compressed-NEFs, etc.
The nice thing about dcraw is you can look at the source code and write something for yourself if you want. BTW, BreezeBrowser on Windows also has useful file renaming functions.

[kipper]

Just did a google search for "EXIF Data NEF Linux" and came up with a perl script called Exif Tool that will print out the exif data for many formats including NEF. Haven't given it a go just yet but am about to.

http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/


Update:

Works like a charm

This is some of the data it spits out.....
Shooting Date/Time : 2005:09:05 15:59:46.90