The invention is a method for correlating and assigning digital camera images to a database file. The method enables a photographer to keep track of large numbers of subjects and items. The method uses a timestamp from a bar code reader to synchronize recorded swipes of bar codes with the digital images created produced by the camera. The bar code reader is used to swipe identifying bar code on items or subjects that are to be tracked, such as on a student's camera card, a police investigation report or a catalogue item. The time and the bar code serve as a means to cross-reference any item or subject to the digital images. The photographs and bar code scans are downloaded into a computer, and then by inspection of the recorded times of when the scans were made and the pictures were taken, the images can be assigned to the appropriate file. The images can then be loaded into the item's or subject's file, secure in the knowledge that the images are appropriately assigned.