Photo Toolchain

Tools and practical techniques for organizing and bulk-renaming mixed photo collections on Windows.

Write a concise opening that tells the reader what they will learn.

Joe

Free for personal, non-commercial use

“Joe” (also known as winRename or Joe Rename) is a classic, lightweight freeware batch file-renaming utility for Windows designed to rename multiple files and folders using masks, scripts, counters, and specific character substring positions.

An indispensable tool for bulk-renaming files.

I use it most often to add a numeric prefix to mixed photo collections from different photographers or devices (iPhone, DSLR, action camera). Simply sort all photos by capture time and prefix them with a sequential number. This makes it much easier to work with the files in tools that have limited support for sorting by EXIF metadata.

The template I use for this is [number].[name].[type], with configuration leading zeros set to None.

German: Das entsprechende Template dazu: [zahl].[name].[typ] mit Konfiguration Vornullen auf Null.

See also: Joe’s Instructions

For a very long time, I used version 3.1 and recently switched to 4.1. Both versions are free for private, non-commercial use.

FastStone Image Viewer

Free for personal and educational use

  • Portable version, XCopy-deployment

  • Dual-Screen Support (Toogle preview to 2nd display: CTRL + SHIFT + D)

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  • According to ChatGPT:

    • only embedded embedded XMP
    • Batch processing: Convert, rename, or edit multiple images simultaneously.
  • AutoHotkey remapping to avoid awkward finger twists:

    #Requires AutoHotkey v2.0
    
    #SingleInstance Force
    
    ; Nur aktiv, wenn FastStone Image Viewer im Vordergrund ist
    #HotIf WinExist("FastStone Image Viewer 8.3")
    Numpad1::Send("!5")   ; Taste Num 1 sendet Alt+5
    Numpad2::Send("!4")
    Numpad3::Send("!3")
    Numpad4::Send("!2")
    Numpad5::Send("!1")
    Numpad0::Send("!0")
    Numpad7::Send("^!l")   ; Taste Num 7 sendet Ctrl+Alt+L = rotate CCW
    Numpad9::Send("^!r")   ; Taste Num 9 sendet Ctrl+Alt+R = rotate CW
    #HotIf
    

FastRawViewer

around 25€

  • Move to Rejected (subfolder)

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  • Rejected as rating

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  • Navigate to next photo after rating

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  • Move filmstrip to 2nd monitor, than expand from 1 row to light-table

  • Batch Renaming

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ExifTool & ExifToolGui

Installation

  • Both apps must be in the same folder; rename ExifTool.exe to exiftool.exe, otherwise ExifToolGui cannot find it

ExifToolGui

  • Preserve timestamps

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  • Timestamp shifting

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  • Geocoding (set address details based on GPS)

Duplicate Finder

AntiTwin

  • Simple/easy to use
  • One “ADS” folder = “Basic Folder” –> makes comparison of originals to - copies handy
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  • Comparision options
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Cons:

  • Slow deletion
  • Initially it did not support mapped network drives
    (X:\2019\Kreta not found)
    After restarting, it worked

AllDup

  • Faster than AntiTwin
  • Somehow outdated since 2011, but still works