Server Organization & Naming Conventions

BU Photo Naming Convention

All BU Photography images (taken by both staff and freelance photographers) are renamed using this naming convention:

24-1234-TEST

This naming convention serves as a way in which we name each photo assignment that we do.

  • The first two numbers (24) are the last two numbers of the year in which the photos are taken. For the example above, this assignment took place in 2024.
  • The second batch of numbers (1234) is always a four-digit number. At the beginning of each calendar year, we reset this number to 1000, which will be the first assignment followed by 1001, 1002, 1003, and so on.
  • The word included in the naming convention is our slug (TEST) for the assignment. This word is often a short word describing the assignment or the last name of the photo subject of the assignment. There are some slugs that we reuse for events that happen every year such as:
    • MOVEIN – move-in before the fall semester
    • MATRIC – matriculation
    • CMCT – commencement
    • Photos taken for school publications will often include the school/college’s acronym at the beginning of the slug: SARTEST, CASTEST, COMTEST, etc.

Archive (film) images follow a similar naming convention but without the SLUG. First two digits are the year followed by a three- or four-digit number, followed by the frame number.

Server Layout

  • The images from each assignment are put into folders with the assignment name, which is the same as the name used when the files are renamed.
  • All folders and their images are stored on a BU server: smb://nas1.bu.edu/MC
  • Folders are first put into a folder named _01_Photo_Drop. See path below:

  • Folders will remain in the Photo Drop folder until the assignment is billed/added to CS Billing. Once the assignment is billed ,the shoot will be moved to its appropriate folder within the year folder.
  • Each year folder contains folders that hold groups of 50 assignment folders – the organization of these folders is based on the four-digit number that follows the year in the folder/image names. See below:

  • All older images that do not show up in the years folders included in the Photo_production folder will be found on our archive server: