This walkthrough shows you how to rename images in bulk using Adobe Bridge software. It is especially useful to rename RAW files using Bridge when you have .XMP files in your RAW folder as Bridge will automatically apply changes to both files. This is important as if you change the filename of your RAW image but not it’s .XMP counterpart, you will lose the editing and metadata for the image which is stored in the .XMP file.
If you don’t have any .XMP files to worry about, we recommend you follow this guide for renaming your files using Bulk Rename Utlity instead as it is much simpler to use.
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If you are a publicist or producer and your unit photographer has sent you images that don’t follow our recommended naming guidelines, you can quickly and easily do this for yourself in the following way.
Please note that this might seem a bit technical however, these steps are easy to follow. If you run into any difficulties or do not feel confident doing this In-House, please get in touch so that we may help you.
Step 1 – Download Adobe Bridge
Adobe Bridge is a FREE photo management software tool and if you ever need to work with images, we cannot emphasise enough how brilliant this is to use in your day-to-day workflow.
Step 2 – Check the images numbers are correct.
Before you start renaming files, it’s important to verify you have all of the images you should as it is common for photographers to miss creating JPGS of some of their RAW files.
Open Adobe Bridge and navigate to the day folders of images you wish to rename using the address bar at the top of the app.
Check there are the same number of RAW files for that day as there are JPGS. If there is a different number of RAW images to JPG images for the same day then get in touch as you won’t be able to continue without doing an audit of the images, which we can help you with.
If image counts between the days’ RAW images and JPG images match, select all of the images in the folder then do the following:
Right click > Sort > By Filename
The images will now be displayed in alphanumerical order.
Top tip: Adobe Bridge does not currently take shooting time into consideration when selecting to sort by date created. This can result in your images being ordered slightly differently between folders and therefore give different filenames for the same image in different formats. It’s for this reason, we recommend sorting by filename if you are using Adobe Bridge.
You should do this each time you want to rename a folder of images; this ensures that when you rename the RAW images for a particular shoot day they are renamed in the same order as when you rename the JPG images for that day.
With all of your images selected, do the following:
Right click > Batch rename
A modal will appear and enable you to customise your filenames.
We recommend these naming guidelines.
Make sure you follow these steps for all of your images and remember the golden rule:
All matching images across different file formats should have the EXACT same filename.
Eg
BarryCotter_20210101_AB_0001.JPG
Must be the same image as
BarryCotter_20210101_AB_0001_DSC3554.RAW
BarryCotter_20210101_AB_0001_DSC3554.TIFF
BarryCotter_20210101_AB_0001_DSC3554.DNG
Or any other format that the same image is supplied to you in.
If the photographer has supplied multiple versions of the same image in the same format, for instance:
In the RAW folder:
BarryCotter_20210101_AB_0001.RAW
In the JPG Folder:
BarryCotter_20210101_AB_0001.JPG
BarryCotter_20210101_AB_0001-Edit.JPG
Remove the edited JPG from this folder, put it into a new folder called:
YYYY-MM-DD_JPG_Edits
And delete the “-Edit” so the filename is identical to all of the other corresponding images.
The above is part of what we do with our Full Service when images need to be audited. You can do this yourself In-House, or get in touch and we can assist you.
Complex renaming?
If you need to perform more complex renaming than what Bridge and Lightroom allow, or correct any naming mistakes, we highly recommend checking out this guide on how to do so using Bulk Rename Utility.