File management - naming policy

[BrigitDoon]

I have thousands of photos and it's a nightmare to keep track of them all. I don't like to rely on someone else's software to manage them. (NIH - not invented here, and I'm a sometime software wizardess...)

I get home with a Canon-full of images and download them. The filenames take the form IMG_9999.jpg which isn't particularly helpful.

I copy them to a subfolder and rename them, say 20081226S05_9999.jpg, to reflect the date on which they were taken (in a way that is sortable) and the device that took them S05 = Canon. Can't remember why, but it's the uniqueness that matter.

The trouble arises when I take the original images and then process them. Usually, I'll derive small images for email and website use at 375 x 250 pixels and larger ones at 576 x 384 (they suit a standard web-page design that I've had for years)

What is important to me is that I know which images the second generation are derived from and I also want to guarantee uniqueness of filenames without the filenames being over-complicated.

I'm sure someone's been here before. It's been bothering me for years and I always end up overwriting something or forgetting what policy I had in place at a certain time.

It's doing me swede, so 'tis.

[Peetabix]

Just get Lightroom, use the keywords and be done with it.