My current ‘production’ raw image processor is Lightroom 6. Its ‘file renaming on import’ capability is more than enough for my needs. Just considering file renaming, I see some capability in DT (3.2.1) but it appears to be limited to options of using a form of date and/or sequence number. I would like to add my own custom string (for a selection of images) in the way I can in Lightroom. In essence I would like to add something like the “$(JOBCODE)” variable to a filename. Can this be done?
This leads me to a point of confusion for me: in the DT session options I don’t understand what strings such as “$(PICTURES_FOLDER)” mean. I guess this is a generic directory name, but how do I determine how my ‘system’ (Windows or Linux) has set this string to? And where is the information that maps this string to a specific directory kept (in Windows and Linux)? Are such strings - and there are many of them - formal system parameters in the operating system of choice? I am assuming not, because it would have to be a miracle for the same string to be used in Windows and Linux. So how do I set the string values?
just to briefly throw in a comment here:
If you are looking into darktable in Linux (what I would recommned ) I actually also highly would recommend to take a close look at “Rapid Photo Downloader” .
This is an essential part of my workflow and provides anything regarding renaming, automatic backup during import and more you could image… …
Strongly agree: RPD is a most excellent piece of software to do what I want to do in Linux, but sadly it is not available in the Windows environment, where I am forced to continue to play because there are functions and capabilities in Photoshop which are not so easily applicable in GIMP. Of course I could export a tif from DT in linux and edit it in PS and then return it to DT, but that is adding a bit of a hassle with the networking steps. For the present I am planning to make most use of DT in the Windows environment.
But I have just realised that I could import using RPD in Linux and then just transfer the renamed raw files to windows. I need to think about that a bit because I have failed, so far, in my attempts to make the directories that Windows/Lightroom uses shareable from Linux, where (I assume) RPD could see them and directly save to them.
Look it the other way around: mount the windows data partition on Linux. I think nowadays NTFS support on the Linux kernel is very robust and safe (maybe make a small partition just for data transfer, to be even safer). I do it in my notebook to move the ocasional data between OS.