07-07-2010, 12:40 PM
[quote name='adifrank' date='07 July 2010 - 10:39 AM' timestamp='1278495546' post='867']
Hi. My archive of images (on hard drive) is starting to become a mess. So far I've been just using folders and sub-folders in Windows - with dates and some general text which might help me know what the images are, but evidently this method is becoming cumbersome and ineffective.
I'm hoping that maybe someone with similar needs and a bit of experience with this might share a few tips and good a software solution to quickly and efficiently store and locate image files.
My first concern is how to quickly and wisely store several different kinds of images coming from various sources, so that they can quickly be located later and their exact sources easily identified.
The images stored on my hard drive come from several different sources - digital SLR, point&shoot digital camera, high-end negative scans, scans from home flatbed scanner, and possibly others. Images from digital cameras have embedded data indicating which camera the image came from and a bunch of other useful info - this is great. Yet images coming from other sources don't have this information which means I need to somehow input this information myself manually. Ideally, there would be some image managing software that enables custom-made templates which I could create and apply to my images accordingly.
For example, if I took a photo with my film Mamiya 6, then scanned the negative using a high-end Scitex scanner - I'd want to have the following information stored in the file's data: name of camera, name of scanner, type of film, roll number (I number every roll of film I develop), frame number (from negative), date shot, date scanned, comments. Once again, ideally, an image organizing application would also recommend or automatically create tags or keywords for searching purposes.
[/quote]
Hello adifrank,
I don't know other products so well but I know lightroom quite well since v1 and I think it can fulfill your needs.
Using Lightroom, you have to distinguish two types of metadata. File metadata & Library metadata :
-File metadata is written in the picture file by the camera at capture time. It's usually EXIF & IPTC metadata.
-Library metadata is stored outside the file (within Lightroom catalag files) as accompanying data and is added by the user.
You have different type of such library metadata : flag status,star rating, colour labels, keywords tag.
The flag status, star rating and colour labels are mostly useful to pick your favourites, reject, sort large collections...They are called Attributes
Keywords tag are probably the most important thing you're looking for. You can assign keywords to your picture just like you would do on flickr.
There are several ways to add keywords :
[indent]-Picture by picture, you just type them in;[/indent]
[indent]-On import mode, all your pictures can be assigned keywords on import. That would work for your requested "name of camera, name of scanner, type of film, roll number, date shot, date scanned, comments" but less so for frame number (from negative). You can also save a set of keywords as a reusable preset for later imports to reuse later, to batch-tag. (E.g. import a series of scanned Mamiya pictures, Pentax 645,...);[/indent]
[indent]-You can use the paint can. You simply drag your mouse around pictures you want tagged with a word. Quite fast when working on large heterogeneous collections.[/indent]
All added keywords become part of the keywords pool and as you type a keyword, lightroom looks up for available matching keywords and suggest auto-completion of keywords. Works like a charm.
As far as I know, no library data is ever actually written in your picture file. This is deliberate and part of the Lightroom philosophy : never alter original files.
Same goes for image edits. Image edits are another sort of Library metadata and are stored outside the file.
One thing you should know though is that when you use the Export function of Lightroom, and that you export as a JPEG, it will add your input keywords in the field Tags that Windows Vista & 7 seem to recognize.
This is all very powerful and flexible but of course, it firmly ties you to Lightroom... Maybe using the export function as described right above this paragraph as a "tag" backup measure?
So, having your set of File metadata and user input Library metadata, you can then use filters!
Three types of filters :
-Text : filters on any text, including your keywords, filename, ...
-Attributes : filters on flags, rating, labels
-Metadata : refers to what I call File metadata, that is all capture related information including lenses.
It is extremely fast and easy to use.
You can also create dynamic collections based on user defined conjunction or disjunction of filter clauses.
[quote name='adifrank' date='07 July 2010 - 10:39 AM' timestamp='1278495546' post='867']
My other concern is how to work with multiple copies of images. Let me give an example... I start out with a RAW file taken from my dSLR and store it on my hard drive using whatever archiving system. Now I want to start processing it with Photoshop. So I naturally need to make a working copy of the file, right? So now there are two files of basically the same image. With most images that will be it - two files - source file and working file. Yet other images might require a 2nd working file - when the processing is more than just adjusting colors, brightness and contrast - and include major manipulation changing the original significantly. In such cases, I prefer have a second working copy rather than a different set of layers in the same Photoshop file.
[/quote]
Lightroom has it all. You can create what they call "Virtual Copies".As many virtual copies as you want.And you can edit or go edit any of them in CS if you wish. Remember, lightroom will never touch your original files. They all become part of a stack for the same picture (the stack hasn't anything to do with layers).
I get the impression you would be pretty happy with Lightroom for the needs you described. For me, lightroom shined mostly for its file handling and its raw engine was quite good enough that I would use other tools only occasionally. Now with Lightroom 3 and its improved editing and RAW engine, I simply don't need anything else (well, not quite).
Hope it helps,
S.
p.s.: sorry for the bad text layout, I dislike these web editors <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='
' />.
Hi. My archive of images (on hard drive) is starting to become a mess. So far I've been just using folders and sub-folders in Windows - with dates and some general text which might help me know what the images are, but evidently this method is becoming cumbersome and ineffective.
I'm hoping that maybe someone with similar needs and a bit of experience with this might share a few tips and good a software solution to quickly and efficiently store and locate image files.
My first concern is how to quickly and wisely store several different kinds of images coming from various sources, so that they can quickly be located later and their exact sources easily identified.
The images stored on my hard drive come from several different sources - digital SLR, point&shoot digital camera, high-end negative scans, scans from home flatbed scanner, and possibly others. Images from digital cameras have embedded data indicating which camera the image came from and a bunch of other useful info - this is great. Yet images coming from other sources don't have this information which means I need to somehow input this information myself manually. Ideally, there would be some image managing software that enables custom-made templates which I could create and apply to my images accordingly.
For example, if I took a photo with my film Mamiya 6, then scanned the negative using a high-end Scitex scanner - I'd want to have the following information stored in the file's data: name of camera, name of scanner, type of film, roll number (I number every roll of film I develop), frame number (from negative), date shot, date scanned, comments. Once again, ideally, an image organizing application would also recommend or automatically create tags or keywords for searching purposes.
[/quote]
Hello adifrank,
I don't know other products so well but I know lightroom quite well since v1 and I think it can fulfill your needs.
Using Lightroom, you have to distinguish two types of metadata. File metadata & Library metadata :
-File metadata is written in the picture file by the camera at capture time. It's usually EXIF & IPTC metadata.
-Library metadata is stored outside the file (within Lightroom catalag files) as accompanying data and is added by the user.
You have different type of such library metadata : flag status,star rating, colour labels, keywords tag.
The flag status, star rating and colour labels are mostly useful to pick your favourites, reject, sort large collections...They are called Attributes
Keywords tag are probably the most important thing you're looking for. You can assign keywords to your picture just like you would do on flickr.
There are several ways to add keywords :
[indent]-Picture by picture, you just type them in;[/indent]
[indent]-On import mode, all your pictures can be assigned keywords on import. That would work for your requested "name of camera, name of scanner, type of film, roll number, date shot, date scanned, comments" but less so for frame number (from negative). You can also save a set of keywords as a reusable preset for later imports to reuse later, to batch-tag. (E.g. import a series of scanned Mamiya pictures, Pentax 645,...);[/indent]
[indent]-You can use the paint can. You simply drag your mouse around pictures you want tagged with a word. Quite fast when working on large heterogeneous collections.[/indent]
All added keywords become part of the keywords pool and as you type a keyword, lightroom looks up for available matching keywords and suggest auto-completion of keywords. Works like a charm.
As far as I know, no library data is ever actually written in your picture file. This is deliberate and part of the Lightroom philosophy : never alter original files.
Same goes for image edits. Image edits are another sort of Library metadata and are stored outside the file.
One thing you should know though is that when you use the Export function of Lightroom, and that you export as a JPEG, it will add your input keywords in the field Tags that Windows Vista & 7 seem to recognize.
This is all very powerful and flexible but of course, it firmly ties you to Lightroom... Maybe using the export function as described right above this paragraph as a "tag" backup measure?
So, having your set of File metadata and user input Library metadata, you can then use filters!
Three types of filters :
-Text : filters on any text, including your keywords, filename, ...
-Attributes : filters on flags, rating, labels
-Metadata : refers to what I call File metadata, that is all capture related information including lenses.
It is extremely fast and easy to use.
You can also create dynamic collections based on user defined conjunction or disjunction of filter clauses.
[quote name='adifrank' date='07 July 2010 - 10:39 AM' timestamp='1278495546' post='867']
My other concern is how to work with multiple copies of images. Let me give an example... I start out with a RAW file taken from my dSLR and store it on my hard drive using whatever archiving system. Now I want to start processing it with Photoshop. So I naturally need to make a working copy of the file, right? So now there are two files of basically the same image. With most images that will be it - two files - source file and working file. Yet other images might require a 2nd working file - when the processing is more than just adjusting colors, brightness and contrast - and include major manipulation changing the original significantly. In such cases, I prefer have a second working copy rather than a different set of layers in the same Photoshop file.
[/quote]
Lightroom has it all. You can create what they call "Virtual Copies".As many virtual copies as you want.And you can edit or go edit any of them in CS if you wish. Remember, lightroom will never touch your original files. They all become part of a stack for the same picture (the stack hasn't anything to do with layers).
I get the impression you would be pretty happy with Lightroom for the needs you described. For me, lightroom shined mostly for its file handling and its raw engine was quite good enough that I would use other tools only occasionally. Now with Lightroom 3 and its improved editing and RAW engine, I simply don't need anything else (well, not quite).
Hope it helps,
S.
p.s.: sorry for the bad text layout, I dislike these web editors <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='
' />.