"What’s that you are reading?"

"The DAM Book"
"Charming! I only asked!"

Be prepared for this conversation if you read the highly recommended "The DAM Book" by Peter Krogh, but it's worth it.

So what is DAM?

DAM stands for Digital Asset Management, which means managing your images so that you can find your images easily and they are backed up properly, which will ensure you won't loose them in event of a hardware, software or user error. In order to achieve this you need to have a well thought out workflow that you stick to consistently.

A workflow is the series of processes you go through to handle your images. A comprehensive workflow covers everything from downloading from the cards, through sorting, indexing and classifying, raw conversion, Photoshop work, archiving and backup.

The DAM Book provides a complete working and proven workflow based on the Adobe Bridge product (which comes as part of Photoshop CS2), Adobe DNG and iView Media Pro plus some other bits and pieces downloadable from its own website. Even if you don't use the flow described in the book it is a great tool for reassessing how you handle your images.

Reading the book made me decide to re-plan and document my own workflow. So I thought I would share it with my readers. This article describes the very first part of the workflow – Capture and download.

Capture

I shoot on a canon 20D using the raw file format. There are many reasons for using raw which have been detailed in articles such as this one. Two reasons draw me to this way of shooting,: the first is being able to deal with white balance problems easily and the second is that using a good raw processor like Capture 1 allows you to replicate the traditional processes of printing an image, minimising the amount of correction required in Photoshop. For me, the more I get an image right in the camera (and the raw processor) the more I like it.

I use 512Mb Compact flash cards, which seem incredibly small and cheap in these days of 8GB cards. There are a couple of reasons for using smaller cards:

• A 512mb card fits neatly on to a CD which makes backing them up a doodle, by the time I buy my next camera I expect sensors to be up to 20+ megapixel sizes at which point 4GB cards and DVDs might be a good pairing.
• I get 50ish raw files onto one card, which is about the maximum number of images I could bear to lose in one go should I drop it in the sea, a lake, a washing machine, a volcano, etc, etc.

I store the cards in Jessops media cases, which hold 4 cards at a time and provide them with a degree of shock proofing. I know it's not the most original system in the world but I keep track of which ones have been used, by keeping empty cards face up & shot cards face down. I always reformat cards every time I put them into the camera in an effort to reduce the possibility of file system problems on the card.

Numbering the cards helps to identify if there are any recurring problems with a particular card or not.

On returning from the shoot my workflow depends on if I am back at base or not.

Normal workflow

On returning from a shoot, I use a card reader to download the images to my laptop using Downloader Pro. See this Blog for more details on setting up Downloader pro and the Controlled Vocabulary. I have this, deceptively easy to use bit of software setup to completely automate the download part of my workflow:

• Files are copied into a directory within my working area which is named based on the year and month. i.e.: C:\Working\200611_Nov\04Nov06\Raw - where:
• "C:\Working" is my working directory
• "200611_Nov" is a directory for nov 2006-11-04
• "04Nov06" this is the actual date of the shoot
• "Raw" indicates that these are the raw files.


• Files are renamed based on the original name, job code and date i.e.: CS20061104-IMG_0123_Epping Forest.cr2 - where:
• "CS" are my initials
• "20061104" is the date in YYYYMMDD format
• "IMG_0123" is the original file name
  
  
• 2 directories are created at the same level as the "RAW" directory. These are:
  • "Tiff" - for files converted from raw
  • "WebReady" - for files converted too web proofing size.
    
    
• IPTC/XMP data is added to each file automatically adding creator, copyright, contact info, keywords & location etc to every file.
  
  
• Files are automatically copied, across the network, to a second PC (my file server) to ensure I have a backup of every image.
  
• When the download is complete the card is completely erased ready for reuse.

Amazingly it does all this automatically when I insert a card in to the card reader. At some point in the future I may take advantage of downloader pros ability to automatically generate DNG files, but at the moment I don't feel DNG fits into my workflow very well.

Now the images are ready for rating and raw conversion as detailed in part 2.

On-Location Workflow

The normal workflow relies on a network file server to provide a backup of all the images downloaded. This is not possible when I am away from base and simply download all the files to my laptop is not a secure option because the laptop could crash or be stolen and I would lose an entire expeditions work.

Instead I use a digimagic CD writer to duplicate each card to CD. Spindles of CD-Rs are very cheap these days and provide an ideal backup medium. I then load from the CD into the laptop using Downloader Pro which does all the renaming/directory creation as detailed in the normal process. This way I can be sure that not only do I have a backup but that backup works!

On returning I use the Microsoft Sync-toy to duplicate the working directory back to the file server.

In part 2, I will detail the process of sorting the wheat from the chaff and converting raw files into a usable format.

If you are getting a sense of Deja-vue that is because this blog was originally in the Articles section of the site...but I'm having a tidy up!


My Workflow

• Capture
• Processing
• Output
• Archiving

Labels: Controlled Vocabulary, Downloader Pro, IPTC, Keywording, Keywords, Workflow, XMP

In Part 1 I discussed how to set-up Downloader Pro and The Controlled Vocabulary Keyword Catalogue to enable easy file management and downloading. So now we have set it up, how do we go about using it.

Insert a Card in your Cardreader.

Once Downloader Pro has been setup to detect card events, inserting a card with images on will automatically fire you into Downloader Pro. If you have the option to prompt for job-code set then the first dialogue will prompt for job-code:


Enter a descriptive job-code or select a previously used one from the dropdown and click OK. Next you will be prompted for the metadata and the dialogue will appear, prefilled with the entries you added during the setup.


Click on the Keywords tab, here you can enter keywords separated by commas. To use the Controlled Vocabulary click on the catalogue button.

You can either browse the catalogue using the tree view or just enter a search string and click find. For example entering "beach" returns two possible results:


Select the ones you want and click OK. Repeat this process bringing in all the keywords that apply to your set of images.

Note: that some terms or phrases are in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS and may not make much sense as keywords by themselves. These terms are needed in order to create a branch under which other terms may be grouped. However, once you have pulled them into the BreezeBrowser list, they have served their purpose and can be removed from the list.

Once you have added all the keywords you need then clicking OK will bring you to the automation dialogue.
Click Yes and everything happens by magic! Files are downloaded, renamed, keyworded, backed-up , metadata added, directories created and the card deleted..all in one little measure - marvellous!

Labels: Controlled Vocabulary, Downloader Pro, IPTC, Keywording, Keywords, Workflow, XMP

I am still investigating using the controlled vocabulary when keywording images. David Riecks at www.controlledvocabulary.com has produced a controlled vocabulary keyword catalogue, which is a great basis for a structured keywording of files and now the new version of Downloader Pro integrates with the controlled vocabulary keyword catalogue. This blog is the first part of a 2 part blog showing how to use downloader pro and Controlled Vocalbulary to manage your images. This first blog covers the set-up of the programs which you should only have to do once and the second covers day to day usage.

Downloader Pro is a great tool for downloading images from a memory card - the main benefits I get out of using it are:

• Intelligent File Renaming based on attributes in the file.
• Intelligent directory creation based attributes in the files.
• Supporting directory creation (../Tiffs,../Webready) to improve workflow
• Immediate backup of every document to a different drive
• Bulk keywording and metadata.

Of these keywording and metadata are one of the most neglected areas for most photographers. The download process is one of the most useful times to apply metadata to your images as this bulk information will usually apply to a whole shoot and stay with the images throughout your workflow.


Installing the CVKC

1. Order the Controlled Vocabulary Keyword Catalogue.
2.Download the breezebrowser zip file: cvkcv3_0-BBpro16.zip
3. Unzip cvkcv3_0-BBpro16.zip
4. From the downloaded files copy cvkcv3_0.txt into the Downloader Pro program directory (usually C:\Program Files\BreezeSys\Downloader Pro), replacing the Keywords.txt file that is there already.


Set up your Downloader Pro configuration

Run Downloader Pro and Select File>Preferences and on the Download Path tab you can use the {tags} to allow files to be renamed in whatever way you like and placed in named directories according to your preferred naming scheme. if you use the {J tag and select "Prompt for Job code every time Downloader Pro is run, the system will request a name/code for each batch of pictures you download and build them into the naming of the files.

On the general tab make sure you check "Add ITPC/XMP data to downloaded images" and "prompt for ITPC/XMP data every time Downloader pro is run. The first means that your standard metadata will be written to the files as you download. The second means that you can change this each time you download.

On Automation tab it is best to check all the options so that downloading is completely automated.
Setup the custom button for your preferred software for browsing the downloaded images, In my case I use Breezebrowser which makes things quite simple:


On the plug-in screen I have 2 plug-ins enabled , director maker and Backup.Backup is configured to automatically copy every downloaded image to a second disk drive whilst the directory maker is set to create the directories that support my workflow.



Setup your default metadata

One of the clever things with Downloader pro is that the {tags} can be used all over the program and they really come in handy when configuring your standard metadata. On the Origin Tab I use {tags} to set the date & time correctly and enter the standard origin information I want to write to every file:


My contact information stays the same from one day to the next , so again this is set for all images: The Caption information can be defaulted as well - here I have used the {J} tag to render the job-code into every image.
Now we are all set-up and ready to go. In part 2 I will take you through the actual download process I use on a daily basis.

Labels: Controlled Vocabulary, Downloader Pro, IPTC, Keywording, Keywords, Workflow, XMP