Need a free Photo renaming software supporting NEF

[srijan_roy_choudhury]

<p>Hello friends</p>

<p>I need a batch photo renaming software which can support "<strong>Batch Renaming</strong>" of Nikon RAW <strong>.NEF</strong> files. I have been using FastStone Photo Resizer for some time, but the latest update <strong>do not list or support .NEF</strong> files anymore. I tried to downgrade the program, but that also went in vein. I sent a support request email, but have not received any response yet. This used to be a great program with very useful built-in presets for renaming photos like time taken, date taken etc. it could collect all the required data from EXIF data of the photos.</p>

<p>So could some one please suggest any freeware <strong>batch photo renaming tool suitable to my needs</strong> with built in presets/templates as I have in FastStone Photo Resize program? I use Windows XP.</p>

<p>Please help.<br>

Thank you</p>

[yann1]

<p>I can only think of Picasa, it's what I use for my raw files, but there are probably some better ones, free I'm not sure...</p>

[Matt Laur]

<p>You can use Nikon's free Transfer program to rename (and alter EXIF meta data) as you move things around. And you may want to try a 60 day free trial of Nikon's Capture NX2, which can do some very powerful things while batch processing your NEFs into output files like JPGs/TIFFs. Renaming is the least of those things. But if you keep using it, you will have to license a copy. Once you try it, though, you may never go back, since as an NEF editor, it may really surprise you. </p>

[will_daniel1]

<p>Powerful, free, easy-to-use small utility: <a href="http://www.1-4a.com/rename/">http://www.1-4a.com/rename/</a></p>

[srijan_roy_choudhury]

<p>Thank you Yann, Matt and Will for taking time to respond and to help me out. :)<br>

I have tried Picasa, CNX2 and VNX, but al these have very limited Rename feature. Nikon's software can rename, no doubt but has limitations like the length of the name for example. FS Photo Resizer does not have any limitaion and it also has very useful built in templates which use the EXIF data to rename.<br>

I shall surely try the "Rename", but does it support .NEF files? I have visited the website but there I could not locate any list of supported file extensions! Do you have any confirmation regarding this, Will?</p>

<p>Thanks again friends</p>

[tom_mann1]

<p>Srijan, "1-4a rename" will rename any file, NEF or otherwise. That's why there was no list of supported file types. It's a very nice little utility. Unfortunately, AFAIK, it's not specifically for images, so it doesn't have any ability to extract EXIF or other metadata from the file and then incorporate that into the file name. </p>

<p>Tom M</p>

[emaxxman]

<p>I don't know if it can handle .NEF files or pull the EXIF data out and put it in the file name but try IrfanView. It's completely free and has many options for setting up naming templates. I used to use it under Windows XP with great success...haven't reinstalled it yet since I upgraded to Windows 7.</p>

[srijan_roy_choudhury]

<p>Thanks Tom...yeah, you are absolutely right. It's a neat little utility indeed, but not much of a flexible utility in terms of Photos, as it does not seem to be capable of reading from EXIF data.</p>

[tom_mann1]

<p>Srijan, if the word, "free", wasn't in your question ;-) I would heartily recommend "Photo Mechanic" by Camera Bits: http://www.camerabits.com/site/</p>

<p>Practically every metadata field can be used as a variable and assigned to another field (within reason, of course), to a string to be included in the file name, etc.</p>

<p>It is just superb. I have used it for many years for such tasks. It used to be the standard in newsrooms and other large volume organizations. However, with the advent of LR, I'm not sure how it's selling, but it runs circles around LR at the smaller set of things it can do. </p>

<p>Tom</p>

[curt wiler]

<p>+1 for Photo Mechanic, but for less than half the price you should look at either Downloader Pro or Breeze Browser from Breeze Systems. The first is particularly useful with NEF files because it can write EXIF data to the file itself when downloading - something that only Photo Mechanic and maybe Nikon's software can do.</p>

[Richard Williams]

<p>If you don't mind command-line tools:</p>

<p>http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/<br>

http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/exiftool_pod.html<br>

http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/exiftool_pod.html#renaming_examples</p>

[srijan_roy_choudhury]

<p>Thanks very much everyone. I shall surely give IrfanView a try, and also take a look at Photo Mechanic (I think it has a trial version).<br>

Thanks very much Richard, the tools are great, but I wold prefer to shy away from CUI tools for now.</p>

[parv]

Thanks Richard W for saving me from mentioning exiftool. :-)