Image filing

[ned1]

Hi all,
Not sure if this is the right place,
I have been thinking (not a good idea I know), I am up to about 14 gb of photos and getting more all the time, What I would to know is the best way to keep track of them, I have seen things like "digital asset management systems " but not sure what they are and if they are any good for images or if there is software for photo filing !!

Thanks for any help that you may give.
Ned

[René Damkot]

Dam comparison (http://www.impulseadventure.com/photo/flow-catalog-compare.html), The Dam Book (http://thedambook.com/), Some iView Media Pro tutorial podcasts (feed://feeds.feedburner.com/iviewpodcast).

I use iView ;)

[ned1]

Hi,
Thanks for that, I will have a look, can you tell me if "Acdsee pro" would fit the bill.
Thanks
Ned

[sOid]

I use Adobe Lightroom and it works just fine.

[Blackey Cole]

I am working on my workflow at this time to figure out
A) How to to get teh desired outcome I want in the fewest steps
B) using the fewest software applications
C) for the least cash outflow

before I knew better I purchased Portfolio 8
and It is real versitle and I am likeing what it does but it isn't as seamless as their video showed

I am playing with Lightroom to see if it will do what I want but per Adobe it it isn't a DAM application

I also purchased Downloader Pro because I like the way it allows me to rename files on import but I figured out how to do that in LR also.

I am playing with bridge also but am unable to rename the files the way I can in LR and DL Pro.

SAlso I had ACDSee pro for several generations of it and while it was versitle and was simple to use the money could have been spent better else where IMO.

My Idea work Flow would be a nondestructive process through the proff stage and then create the image for the final product and leave the original intack.

If I had it to do over I think I would have skipped the ACDSee and Portfolio and when with Iview since the pros seem to use it the most.

Now portfolio is great in a corp evironment with servers and all because you can asign privialges to users and if you also use the Portfolio Server app it allows multi users to access and view the same files with different levels of rights.

Both LR and portfolio offer Web galleries and slideshows.

LR allows stacking of child versions of the file if create though LR automatically but the one thing so far in my findings that I am found lacking it the ability to open in ACR(Adobe Camera Raw) which is nondestructive but the develope module gives you the same controls and can save to the same xmp file that ACR would from my findings with the default settings. So that may be a mute point.

So if LR had offline tracking I think it would be a better application that way you could archive you work and files to DVD's/CD's and it would be almost perfect for my uses as when I am done I like to archive everythign to a second DVD for offsite storage after copying it for a onsite copy that give me two copies onsite and one offsite. That way I can take the dvd with me if needed to events for orders from previous events since the events I cover usually are of the same individuals competeing at different events.

That is where I see Portfolio coming in handy at this time since it tracks every image no matter where it is located and if you need to pull up the image it tells you which disc to put in so that it can work from the original but for most viewing you do not need the source file as it stores a preview in its database.

ACDSee does this also. Both cost about the same if you get the Pro version of ACDSee which it the later versions I didn't see the need.

The key to all is keywording and the ease to do this both at the global level and at the image level. The easies is LR by far to do this with its Painter tool. Which is a wonderful tool. It can paint any thign to any number of images by just clicking from keyword to settings. I like the adobe reject options as I just learning how to use them in my workflow.

[René Damkot]

So if LR had offline tracking I think it would be a better application that way you could archive you work and files to DVD's/CD's and it would be almost perfect for my uses as when I am done I like to archive everythign to a second DVD

Not sure what it is exactly what you want, but I think you can just point LR to the files on DvD after burning it.
If you remove the original files from the HDD, LR displays 'original file not found' (or something similar)
If you then right-click the folder (highlighted in red because it's not found), you can select 'locate missing folder', and select the DvD...