Pine Warbler

I use location and date on all my files when I import into Lightroom. I go to certain places on a very regular basis to shoot birds, landscape, flowers, so like to be able to compare what is occurring during the same month or season. After many years...and fiddling around, I am very happy with what I have come up with. I needed to become very systematic with my dates. You will notice on the first picture, that I have the created master files for place, then organized the subfiles under the month. The second slide shows the particular date the photo was taken. I like this because I can compare the change of seasons or see what birds were present. What I love about LR is that I can easily search for photos taken on certain date. I also use keywords extensively to help in my searches.
I also like to be able to put family photos in the same kind of organization so that pictures I take on a specific date get saved with different files names when I import them. I used to have family photos mixed up with nature or trip photos, then could never find anything. That is one of the reasons I love LR.

sawdust_128

Take a look at BULK RENAME UTILITY

http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Main_Intro.php

Also, you may want to look at the contributor advise sections of some of the stock photography sights. Very often they give a format which helps the host and the contributor to better manage their catalogs.

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

Right on, beside the numbering of the image in Lightroom is a property of the cataloging system

OldBobD Loc: Ohio

I use Lightroom and keywords. I don't rename anything.

Lenshood Loc: Maine

Each set of pictures I take are put into a folder named using the year, space, the month and two digit date, space, a brief description.

I use the following format: The year, space, The month and two digit date, space, a brief description, space, number
So, "2017 0715 Slidell 007" means July 15, 2017 pictures taken in Slidell, picture number 7.

In the import dialoge box, I choose the custom name field and name the files the same as the folder from which they're being imported. The file import feature of Lightroom automatically numbers the pictures. I also put "2017 0715 Slidell" into the keyword section of the import dialoge box.

Of course, what happens is that all my pictures are kept in folders that are automatically filed in chronological order. Each file is ordered by its specific file number, and all files are capable of being located and searched by date and subject matter. I fine tune keywords or use color tagging to distinguish pictures that I intend to publish. To date, I've not lost or failed to find a file that I've imported into Lightroom. Best of luck

Bob Boner

I essentially do what the poster does: file by date (eg.20170716) If I shoot with different cameras on a day, I use a subfolder for each camera. I would do the same if I photographed different jobs on a given day.

DWU2 Loc: Phoenix Arizona area

So long as they're in different directories, having duplicate file names won't matter to Lightroom.

By the way, I think it's interesting that your camera restarts numbering after each format. I've never seen that before. What camera? I wonder if there's a menu setting you can change to prevent that?

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

I tend to use a method similar to GoofyNewfy. Friday, July 14, I shot two different sessions. I create folders for each year, month, day and session. This is a carry over from shooting rolls of film. So each session has associated folders. The images are sequentially numbered. I also include a camera identifier for each of the cameras I use. It gets pretty granular, but makes searching for images quite a lot easier.

So the first image from session one is 2017 / 201707 / 20170714 / 2017071401 / D800-2017071401-001 (spaces were added for readability only)

Software does 98% of the work for me.

In a database, which is application independent, I can fill in the main and secondary subjects, locations, etc.

That is an example of the first image of the first session from last Friday.
--Bob

teleice

I put each days shoot in a folder with the date first, (year, month, day, in that order for sorting purposes), followed by the name of the location. I am a bird photographer, so each bird has a key name for the common and scientific name of the bird (or other animal or person if not a bird). In Library mode at the bottom, is a blank field for File Name, where I paste the name used as a key name (referred to in the previous sentence. Then I rename the picture(s) (F2 is the shortcut I think), usually in a batch all at once, by selecting from the rename options, "Folder Name and File Name." It is really pretty simple, and I then have each picture named by date, place and subject, which can be really handy, especially if you are sending a jpeg in an email.

Noel C. Ice
teleice@earthlink.net

hassighedgehog Loc: Corona, CA

I use the date for file name, then identify places etc in tags. So far, I've not had any cameras that duplicate the individual file names. Even if it did the date would prevent them being truly duplicate. Rarely use two different cameras on the same day.

Jack 13088 Loc: Central NY

Not true! You cannot have files in any operating system with the same PATH.

LR does not use the file name for anything. LR assigns a unique key or nickname to each image (and virtual copy if it exists) that you never see. And, of course, images with the same file name can be in catalogs.

hassighedgehog Loc: Corona, CA

re: Jack 13088 you can also have files with the same name under different dates. From other threads I've seen that Lightroom has the same or similar file system as PSE. I file by the current date and identify with tags. You cannot have more than one tag with the exact name, ie "trip" and another "trip", but if you give a number or more words, "Trip 2016" "trip 2017" etc it will take it.

Morning Star Loc: West coast, North of the 49th N.

I don't use Lr or the Organizer of PSE. I use Windows File Explorer to add tags to my photos.
Open File Explorer, select a photo, and in the panel on the right hand side find the label Tags, type your own tagname over "add a tag" (if more than one, separate with semi-colons), click Save at the bottom.
Using the search field just above this panel, on the right hand side, you can search for tags just like you search for file- and/or folder names.

Jack 13088 Loc: Central NY

I don't use file explorer to search for photos. Without thought I Import photos in files organized by date taken which I believe is the LR default. I either add a key word identifying the session and/or also add the Import photos to a new or existing collection. And live in LR happily ever after. In case I forget to add a keyword I have a smart collection if files in the current year without key words to help me clean up.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

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That's what i do too