Transcript Digital Image Workflow, Metadata, and Data Backup/Recovery

Miceli Photography Mentoring Series
Image Organization,
Metadata, and Digital
Workflow
Arthur P. Miceli
May 8st, 2010
Agenda
Introduction
5 minutes
Part 1 - Image Organization
25 minutes
Part 2 - Metadata
30 minutes
Part 3 - Digital Workflow
30 minutes
Q&A
~ minutes
Copyright 2010 Arthur P. Miceli
Part 1
Image Organization
Copyright 2010 Arthur P. Miceli
Image Organization
 No single “right” approach; but do have an approach and
process you follow.
 Avoid the shoebox syndrome (whether film or digital).
 Your specific approach will depend on a number of factors:
– Personal: e.g. to preserve as a family legacy
– Professional: e.g. stock or wedding photography
– The constraint is time available and your degree of commitment
relative to life’s other demands.
Copyright 2010 Arthur P. Miceli
Image Organization
 My personal photography collection is comprised
of:
– Digital images (from digital camera). (60,000 image
files, 256GB)
– Scans of old family photographs (3100 images, 14GB)
– 35mm prints and associated negatives (20,000 pictures,
600+ rolls)
– 35mm slides (7000 slides, 200+ rolls)
– Home videos: VHS-C (160 tapes, 80+ hours)
– Home movies: Super 8mm silent and sound movie film
(4000 feet)
Copyright 2010 Arthur P. Miceli
Image Organization
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Three main components to the
organization and storage of my
photography collection.
1. All the media themselves(the film, slides, videos,
digital files, etc.)
2. Photo reference logs (i.e. diary of all of the above,
taken to date). All contained in a single PC folder.
3. Future - “Guidebook to the Miceli Photography
Collection” (i.e. a “brain dump” of all of this; a work in progress)
Copyright 2010 Arthur P. Miceli
Physical Media Storage
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Prints stored in their original film wallets in archival cartons from
University Archival Products.
Prints and their negatives are separated as are odd from even roll
numbers.
Slides: some are in Kodak trays, with most being in their original
small boxes. Noteworthy/competition quality slides are stored in
archival slide pages.
Long term goal of digitizing entire collection. Would enable easy
replication of the entire collection and mitigate risk of total loss.
Progress to date includes:
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100% of my parent’s photo collection has been scanned.
My Uncle Arthur’s war letters have been camera scanned.
All 160 VHS-C tapes have been converted to DVD.
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All Super 8mm sound movies have been converted to DVD.
(Are also “Live and Local” on my hard drive)
(Are also “Live and Local” on my hardrive.)
Copyright 2010 Arthur P. Miceli
High Level Conceptual View
OS image backup #1
(i.e. a disaster recovery
backup image)
Viewing and Output
Options
Media and file backup(s)
Set #1
• Browse and view on your
Personal computer
with it’s “Live and
Local” disk storage.
OS image backup #2
(i.e. a disaster recovery
backup image)
Facilitates easy replication and
safeguarding of your entire
collection.
Media and file backup(s)
Set #2
Miscellaneous backups
Copyright 2010 Arthur P. Miceli
desktop PC or laptop
• Make prints and enlargements
• Share via email
• Social networking sites
• Online photo galleries
• Google Earth/GPS
• Personal media players
• Smartphones (iPhone,
Droid, etc.)
• View on your television
• Digital photo frames
•Create elaborate slideshows.
• Future, yet to be imagined
uses.
Digital Image Organization
Copyright 2010 Arthur P. Miceli
Digital Image Organization
Copyright 2010 Arthur P. Miceli
Digital Image Organization
Copyright 2010 Arthur P. Miceli
Digital Image Organization
Copyright 2010 Arthur P. Miceli
Digital Image Organization
Copyright 2010 Arthur P. Miceli
File Naming
Copyright 2010 Arthur P. Miceli
File Naming
Copyright 2010 Arthur P. Miceli
RAW Capture
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Key consideration: The cost of flash memory cards and more importantly hard drive
storage is not a significant concern due to cost per GB dropping faster than my storage
growth. (eg. As low as $99 for an external 1TB multi-interface drive.)
With RAW, you can have your cake and eat it. I.e. you can shoot RAW only and
still easily obtain JPG, TIF, and/or PSD files if you so choose.
RAW contains all of the image data captured by the camera’s sensor.
Enables you greater flexibility in post-processing.
Enables the color balance(daylight, tungsten, custom, etc.), colorspace(sRGB, Adobe
RGB, etc), file format, and bit depth to be selected after the time of capture.
RAW provides several stops greater exposure latitude potential.
As a practical matter, I shoot JPG for action and casual photography; RAW for
serious and professional photography.
I rarely shoot RAW+JPG in camera. It is an unnecessary waste of memory card
capacity, lengthens camera burst processing times, and image transfer time to your PC.
In my workflow, I convert all my RAW files to the standard Adobe DNG file format.
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Helps protect against raw file format obsolecsense.
DNG eliminates need for XMP files.
For precise color balance, I recommend use of a white balance reference card such as the WhiBal
card (www.rawworkflow.com), Photovision Digital Reference Card, and/or Gretag MacBeth
ColorChecker.(or Passport).
Copyright 2010 Arthur P. Miceli
Part 2
MetaData
Copyright 2010 Arthur P. Miceli
Image MetaData
 What is Metadata? Metadata refers to information about the image. I.e.
the “data” is the image itself and the “meta”data is information
regarding that image.
 Types of Metadata?
– Embedded (resides within the image file itself)
 EXIF: Image parameters automatically populated by your camera at the time of
capture. Includes things like date/time taken, shutter speed, f-stop, lens used,
focal length, etc. May also include camera make, serial number, and your
name.
 IPTC: variety of fields available for your use. Includes such things as your
identify and contact information, copyright and usage rights, description,
keywords, etc.
– External: Image information such as ratings, keywords, virtual collections,
etc typically stored by a cataloging application in it’s own database.
Copyright 2010 Arthur P. Miceli
Copyright 2010 Arthur P. Miceli
Metadata Search
Copyright 2010 Arthur P. Miceli
Review So Far
• The challenges associated with organizing your photographic collection.
• Approach to numbering and storage of my legacy collection.
• The end result (folder heirarchy and filenaming) of my ingestion and
organize workflow.
• Role and value of Metadata.
• Concepts and rationale related to RAW, GPS, etc.
Copyright 2010 Arthur P. Miceli
Part 3
Digital Workflow
Copyright 2010 Arthur P. Miceli
Digital Workflow Phases
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Digital workflow: the series of steps you employ to ingest, organize, modify, and/or output your
images.
This presentation focuses on the ingest and organize phases.
Recommend you document your workflow and update it as it evolves over time.
Ingest: the movement of the image files from your camera’s memory card to your computer’s hard
drive.
– Remove your memory card from the camera and plug into a card reader. Use in conjunction
with the image ingestion features of software such as Canon’s ZoomBrowser, ACDSEE, or
Photoshop Bridge.
Organize: the phase which deals with reviewing and deleting images, applying ratings and
keywording, metadata, and file renaming, etc.
Modify: the phase which represents all the modifications you may choose to make with programs
such as Photoshop or ACDSEE.
Examples include adjusting levels, curves, masking, layers, color correction, sharpening, etc.
Output: the steps you would utilize to prepare your modified images for output; which can include a
variety of uses including print, Internet image galleries and websites, and/or professional photo labs.
Examples include cropping, resizing, converting colorspace, etc.
Copyright 2010 Arthur P. Miceli
“Ingest and Organize” Workflow Steps
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Ingest images from the memory card into a folder named yyyyymmdd.
If the image folder contains any RAW files:
a)
Use the DNG converter to convert them to DNG.
b)
Delete the original RAW files and any XMP files that might exist.
Determine the next roll sequence number to be used.
(Optional) Assign ratings here.
Do deletions here.
Apply my standard metadata template to all the selected files.
Then enter into the Description field the Roll number and descriptive information pertaining to all the images.
(Optional) Then iteratively select images as appropriate and add additional description data.
Batch Rename:
a)
Set sort order of images to date/time captured.
b)
Select all image files. (CTRL-A) I.e. Select all files, then deselect files that are not image files. (For example:
Thumbs, ZbThumbnail, Bridge cache files, etc.). (Renaming them would have “broken” their respective
programs ability to read them.)
c)
Perform Batch Rename using a predefined template.
(Optional) Do keywording here.
(Optional) Open all the DNG files in ACR and adjust to suit. Exit(“Done”) from ACR.
From Adobe Bridge, use the Photoshop “Image Processor” tool to convert any DNG files to JPG.
All metadata and filenames are inherited from their DNG parent.
Rename the parent directory containing the images to the Roll#. For example: “R1234_label”.
Copyright 2010 Arthur P. Miceli
Ingestion using CS4 Bridge
“Get Photos from Camera”
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DNG Conversion
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Before Applying Template
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After Applying Template
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Updated IPTC Description Field
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Batch Rename
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Typical Results of Batch Rename
Copyright 2010 Arthur P. Miceli
Photoshop Image Processor
Copyright 2010 Arthur P. Miceli
Results of DNG to JPG Conversion
Copyright 2010 Arthur P. Miceli
Resources
Digital Photography Best Practices and Workflow Handbook by Patricia Russotti and Richard Anderson (Focal Press)
http://dpbestflow.org
The DAM Book – Digital Asset Management for Photographers by Peter Krogh (O’Reilly)
http://www.thedambook.com
Photoshop CS3 Raw: Get the Most Out of the Raw Format with Adobe Photoshop, Camera Raw, and Bridge by Mikkel
Aaland (O’Reilly)
Adobe DNG information and DNG Converter: http://www.adobe.com/products/dng
ACDSEE Pro: http://www.acdsee.com/
Microsoft Expression Media 2 (formerly iViewMediaPro)
http://www.microsoft.com/expression/products/Overview.aspx?key=media
Canon Application Software: http://www.usa.canon.com/html/canonindex.html (Then select “Downloads”, etc.)
NovaBackup Software: http://www.novastor.com
ExifTools: program which allows advanced management of image metadata fields.
8mm (silent and sound) to DVD Conversion by David Seltzer Productions:
http://www.bestfilmtransfer.com Telephone: 866-DVD-2523
Arthur Miceli: www.miceli-photography.com; [email protected]; Cell: 908-902-4151
Copyright 2010 Arthur P. Miceli
Thank you!
Copyright 2010 Arthur P. Miceli
GPS
• Enables the recording the exact location and date/time at which you took your
image(s). Also records additional information such as altitude, etc.
• Quality brands include Garmin, Magellan, and Tom Tom.
• I own the Garmin 76CS handheld model along with the companion MapSelect
software for the United States.
• Other capabilities useful to a nature photographer include calculation of
sunrise/sunset times and tide tables.
• Do sync your cameras’ clock with that of the GPS beforehand.
• Native GPS support is now becoming available in a number of camera models.
•For selected photo shoots (for example, all day hikes, vacations to Arizona and
Cape Cod) I export and store the GPS information with my images.
• Can be manually or automatically correlated later into the image metadata by
programs such as RoboGeo.
• The GPS information can also be used in conjunction with Garmin’s MapSelect
maps, Google Earth, and/or social networking sites.
Copyright 2010 Arthur P. Miceli
Example of a Photographic Journey
Copyright 2010 Arthur P. Miceli