On a batch of five hundred, the editing is rarely what goes wrong. What goes wrong is that nobody can tell which file is which when it comes back, and the reconciliation takes longer than the retouching did.
Name for the destination, not the camera
Camera names carry no meaning and collide across cards. The name that matters is the one the destination system expects — usually the SKU, then the view, then the variant:
SKU1234_front_01.jpg
SKU1234_detail_02.jpg
SKU1234_black_front_01.jpg
If the channel requires a specific pattern for the main image, that pattern wins over any internal convention.
Keep the structure flat and predictable
One folder per shoot, one subfolder per SKU if the counts are high, and nothing nested deeper than that. Deep trees break on transfer far more often than flat ones.
Decide the output names before the work starts
Renaming on delivery is where errors enter. If the output pattern is agreed at brief stage, files are exported into it directly and nothing is touched afterwards.
Send the spec once
Written down once, a naming convention becomes part of your account and applies to every batch that follows. It is the single cheapest thing you can do to make large orders predictable.
