Hi,

 

Im trying to start my clip library. Im just totally clueless how to rename files, make folders per trip/day/site, rename per subject, rating.

All of that. Just wondering if theres any helpful tips from good folks here how to set it up. 

Preferably solution that works OsX and Win.

 

You can do this manually through the standard older system of your Mac FINDER but this is always going to be very clumsy. The better solution is to work through a particular software system that will automate file naming on import and allow you to categorise files in a variety of ways. Lightroom (classic)  which is ostensibly for photos can also handle video files and it makes this process very easy.

 

In the import settings you specify a naming protocol that will be automatically applied as Lightroom copies the files from your memory card onto your hard drive. For example each file might be labelled YEAR-MONTH-DAY-TIME which Lightroom will read from the file's metadata written by the camera. It can then automatically create a folder for each day and save the files inside. 

 

Then within Lightroom you can create virtual folders for whatever personal categories you want (favourites, different dive sites based on their GPS, and so on). You can have as many of these as you like, and clips can be place din more than one without ever disturbing the base level folder structure on your hard drive. 

 

HTH 

Edited March 31Mar 31 by MikeJonesDive

I do pretty much the same as Mike on Lightroom (LR) but for stills. As Mike has written in another post, aside from being an excellent image editor, LR is a tremendous database which is highly customisable. 

 

Whilst the idea might sound a bit daunting initially, it's a pretty intuitive program ( and certainly compared to Photoshop) and with a little discipline when importing images/video, as Mike explains, they become pretty easy to find at a later date. You can search and find items in all sorts of ways: which camera did I use; which lens; which date; where was I; through keywords.

 

I know there are members who grumble about the relatively new subscription approach and cost, but I've been using the program since it was first released and it has just gets better and better at, I would argue, not unreasonable cost for what it provides.

Regarding the specific use of LRC for I videos, this article gives you an idea of the pros and cons.

 

https://www.lightstalking.com/lightroom-video/

 

TL;DR

It is useful if you take advantage of its powerful cataloging database. Forget color correction or editing for serious work.

 

For how to take advantage of its catalog for photos (and also for videos) I recommend the excellent article of @MikeJonesDive just published.

 

 

I would add that although you can use the suggested plugins and others, DAM specificity for video has the ability to catalog video clips by default based on video-specific metadata: resolution, aspect ratio, framerate, bit depth, and others.