How to create Lightroom 4 import customization using filename and path?

Question

I want my photos to be stored like this

YYYY/YYYY-MM-DD_Name_of_shooting/YYYY-MM-DD_Name_of_shooting_001.nef

(The date is the date of shooting)

Is it possible to setup LR 4 in such a way that the only thing I have to do while importing is to fill in the Name_of_shooting?

I have partially achieved a solution, but it is not optimal since I have to type the folder name manually. I have created Template in File Renaming. I just have to type Custom text (=Name_of_shooting) and it renames files correctly and that's fine.

But next I want LR to put it in folder with the date and Name_of_shooting from template. In destination, I leave selected the root YYYY folder. Next I've ticked "Into subfolder" and I always have to manually fill in the date and the Name_of_shooting. "Organize" is set to "Into one folder".

This is something similar to Q here, but what they achieved is using the current date and not Name_of_shooting in folder name through a little hack in LR.

Answer 1

You can change any of the default-Lightroom patterns to accomodate your desired folder structure.

This will generate the folder structure and date pattern for you. You still need to rename the last folder to put in the shooting name.

You need to change the file "TranslatedStrings.txt", which is located within the following path: (Lightroom 3)

On Windows: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop Lightroom x.x\Resources\de 
On Mac: /Applications/Adobe Lightroom x.app/Contents/Resources/de

(Lightroom 5)

On Mac: /Applications/Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.app/Contents/Resources/de.lproj

Within that file, Search for Strings like

"$$$/AgImportDialog/ShootArrangement_1/Label=Nach Datum: 2005\12-17"
"$$$/AgImportDialog/ShootArrangement_1/Template=%Y/%m-%d"

For each of the 13 Templates, there are these two keys. Now customize it in the following way: Label specifies the text that will be shown in the box if you select this template Template specifies the actual pattern.

You can use the following placeholders:

%a
Shortened Weekday (“Mon”)
%A
Full Weekday (“Montag”)
%b
Shortened Month (“Sep”)
%B
Full Month (“September”)
%d
Day with leading zero (“09″)
%e
Day without leading zero (“9″)
%m
Month with leading zero (“08″)
%y
year with two digits (“11″)
%Y
year with four digits (“2011″)

This change is not really officially supported, and an update of Lightroom will most likely break it (e. g. The file gets replaced and/or moved).

I found that tweak some time ago on an german blog: lightroom-blog.de

This will get your folder structure right, but I have no idea how to rename the files automatically.

Answer 2

This is not possible, unfortunately the custom text variable cannot be included in a folder name.

However, since you are on Windows you are lucky and can use Downloader Pro, it can set up any possible folder/filename structures for you upon import with much more variables (including folder number, what LR cannot).

On Mac I couldn't find any good alternate, apart from writing your own script.