How do you manage images with duplicate file names in Lightroom?

Question

I've had my camera for about a year, and having taken 9999 images the camera's file naming system has rolled over to 0001..I usually import my photos to Lightroom, so Lightroom sorts them into different folders based on year..like 2010, 2011, and then into further sub-folders by date.I am doing some stock photography, so I am exporting all the final images into a same folder. Since some of the images will have duplicate names, there is a risk that I will overwrite files on export.I would like to know how you handle this situation? do you use a specific naming strategy, or just simply put everything into different folders on export?

Answer 1

I have a naming strategy for SEO that precludes this issue. For you the important thing would be to set up an import preset to automatically give new pictures a prefix before the number. that will set you straight in the future.

For your current problem at hand I would rename the current pictures with a prefix, like a year, month or something else. The rename tool is easy to figure out in LR.