Digital Asset Management – Part I

… or How to Cope in the Digital Age of Photography

We're headed out to our final scheduled workshop of the year, Lighthouses of the Outer Banks. We look forward to another great group, including several alumni/ae friends.

As people in our workshops try to get a handle on organizing their photographs and coming up with a sensible and efficient work flow, we hear lots of confusion about where the images are stored and many questions about what to do about them so they can be found in the future. Speaking of which, all of the ones I included in this blog, I found really easily!

First, I will suggest (sacré bleu!) that there are some great programs that very inappropriately use the word “Import.” I prefer Camera Bits Photo Mechanic’s use of the work “ingest” much better, as I think it is far less confusing. That said, let’s start at the beginning, step by step. I’ll describe what I do.

There is no one right way. Just as there are probably four or five ways to accomplish any task on the computer, there are as many and more ways to cope with your images. You have to find what works best for you, but this may help those of you who are overwhelmed by the process or who want to refine their work flow.

When you import/download images from your card reader (never directly from your camera because of potential damage to same if the computer experiences a power surge), you are importing them into folders on your computer. You create those folders, probably in a folder called “My Pictures” or some such that the computer already had waiting for you when you bought it. Let’s start by setting up your system.

Folders in the File Cabinet

Think of “My Pictures” as a file cabinet. Within that file cabinet are file folders, in this case yours. Arnie’s and my folders are very simply named so that they will self-sort chronologically. The format I use is YYMMP-Very-Short-Description, or, for example, 08102-BCPA-NEpriv:

• YY=two-digit year (08), or if you prefer, YYY=three-digit year (208) – are you really going to be around in 2108 or 2208?
• MM=two-digit month (10)
• P=number of project within that month (2, in this case)
• - is an easy visual separation, but some people prefer an underscore (_) that is more universally accepted; I don't like it, since if it is involved in a link, the underscore becomes part of the underline in the link, so you don't know if there is a space there or an underscore!
• BCPA lets me know this was a workshop
• -NEpriv tells me it was a private one in New England

In two-photographer households where the images end up on the same computer, add an initial after the date string. In this case, for Arnie, his folder is almost the same, with the addition of an “A”, or 08102A-BCPA-NEpriv.

Sometimes, the folder name is very simple, such as last month’s 08099-KS. In all cases, note that because the year comes first, these files will always sort in order. The second project in September will come before the ninth project that month. Many pros use some variation on this system, and if it works for them, it will probably work for you.

Some people do sub-folders by day/date. I don’t, because all that information is in your file metadata, put there by the camera at the moment you click the shutter. If I am looking for a photograph of a vineyard I did three years ago in France, for example, I don’t care what day it was shot and certainly have no burning desire to wade through three weeks’ worth of folders to find what I’m seeking. Think about it. Twenty-one folders or one folder? Twenty-one folders or one folder??? Hmmm!

Image Files in the Folders

The first thing to remember in naming your image files is that there is a limit of 32 characters, including the extension, you know, that dot whatever (.dng or .jpg or .tif, etc.) that can be universally read by any computer. That leaves you with 28 characters to spend as you see fit.

Although computers are getting more universal as time passes, there are still some operating systems that do not like spaces, so I would suggest avoiding spaces in your names.

In naming our image files, I stick to an echo of the folder name, with a slight variation. We add ZAP- before our names, since we publish a lot, both on the Internet and elsewhere. That ZAP- sets our image apart from someone else’s who might use the same naming convention.

I also turn the year into three digits. This may be unusual, but I set up this convention back in the early 80’s when I turned pro, and it has worked for almost 30 years. 1998 became 198, as I figured there was little likelihood that I would live to see 2198, and 198 used one less character space than 1998.

Referring back to the 08099-KS folder above, my first image would be labeled ZAP-208-099-001-KS.dng. The hyphens aren’t necessary, but it is the convention I set up, and I can easily see the year, month, and “frame number”. In the case of two-photographers sharing the same computer, Arnie’s is ZAP-A208099001-KS.dng. At a quick glance, because one has an A and the other does not, and because one has hyphens and the other does not, I can see which are Arnie’s and which are mine. If that file ends up in a collection (more about this later), I can instantly see it was from Kansas.

Finally, and this is a subtlety, I always use lower case for the extension. That is another visual aid in quickly seeing where that photograph was made. Look at the difference between ZAP-208-099-001-KS.dng and ZAP-208-099-001-KS.DNG. See what I mean?

Camera Raw

Let me talk a little bit about camera raw versus JPG/JPEG. For those who don’t know, jpg is a PC extension, while jpeg is the one used by Mac. We shoot in camera raw quite simply because we want to take full advantage of what a digital image can offer, including very sophisticated post-processing. Camera raw gives you a much wider gamut (range of colors and tonality) than does jpg. JPGS/JPEGS are great for the Internet and e-mail (another form of using the Internet), or even for family snaps, but the gamut simply is not as great as with camera raw.

One of the potential downsides of camera raw, is that some of the top camera manufacturers no longer support their earliest versions of camera raw. In addition, none of them has guaranteed support of current and future versions down the road. Don’t panic! Adobe has made a twenty-year commitment to supporting their version of camera raw, DNG or Digital Negatives. They have a converter, downloadable at Adobe, for converting most manufacturers’ camera raw files into the DNG format.

What happens after 20 years? Realistically, if Adobe doesn’t want to have millions of photographers surrounding their headquarters with malevolent intent, they will give us the tools to translate our collective zigabytes of photographs into the next form, whatever that might be.

But what happens to your original files? DNG files have the same integrity as your original NEF or CR2, etc. files. You have the same gamut range, the same ability to perform the identical, sophisticated, post-processing tweaks on your image files. Personally, I don’t even keep our original NEF files once I make sure they have successfully been converted into DNG and backed up. Most of our compatriots take the same approach.

Importing/Downloading

OK, now that you have figured out what naming conventions will work for you, and you know that if you can, you really should shoot in camera raw, let’s get down to the first step, transferring your image files on your card to your computer. Remember, importing and downloading really mean the same thing. Either way, you are getting the digital images onto your computer.

If you don’t have a card reader, run, even gallop, don’t walk to your nearest supply house and buy a good one. As noted above, the camera manufacturers really advise against downloading directly from the camera for good reason. If your computer experiences a power surge or some other variation in power, for example, that could kill your camera. Believe me, a card reader is a hell of a lot cheaper than a new camera body!

There are various programs one can use to download or import your images, including Bridge that is included with Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom (version 2 is a vast improvement over 1), Adobe Photoshop Elements, iView MediaPro, etc. I happen to use Bridge CS3, as I think the sorting/culling feature is faster than in Lightroom 2. I also prefer it for renaming my files. Having said that, the other programs work just fine. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” as the old saying goes. Remember, you are importing your image files into a folder on your computer, not into the program itself. We’ll talk more about that later In Part II.

I noted above that we shoot in camera raw. That means, I need to convert them into DNGs. I do this when I download our image files. At the same time, I add basic metadata from a template I have already created, including copyright, contact information, project number (those first six numbers in the file name … 208099).

While the images are downloading and being converted, I can go inside, do some laundry, take care of a few dishes, catch up on some phone calls, even have a glass of wine!

Once the download is complete, I do some serious editing. There are two schools of thought on this one. Arnie keeps everything, as he quips with a mischevious smile in his eyes, “They are all masterpieces!” Me, I know when I shoot that the light got better, or that the person’s expressions improved, or that I found a better composition, so I tend to cull the earlier shots, keeping the later, better ones. When I say better composition, I am not including different variations that I like for a particular scene.

Sometimes, it is true, a photograph that doesn’t grab you today may be your favorite in five, ten years. That said, I personally have never missed any of the photographs I deleted. If I think there may be potential, I keep them.

After culling, I rename the photographs. That way, if one goes missing, I can instantly tell. If, say, a project goes up to “frame” number 982, and I select all my DNG files in that folder and see that only 973 files are there, I have reason to panic and had better find out what happened. Arghhh!

Post Production

In Part II, I’ll talk about those confusing elements of “importing” your digital photographs “into” your imaging programs. With our Lighthouses of the Outer Banks workshop starting on Thursday, and our practice of doing additional scouting for this and future years, it may or may not be published on Friday. I’ll try!

For more information about our workshops, go to our Barefoot Contessa Photo Adventures website.

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