Software

Lew wrote:

I see that you are reluctant to name names, perhaps wisely so. I have many
years of accumulated trips, projects, negatives, positives, prints,
developer time/temp combos, notes about same and storage solutions that I'd
like to relate to each other in an efficient way. It's a case of "analog
asset management" that stems from using a darkroom.
-Lew
Since you are talking mainly of non digital items I would imagine a good
database, such as Access, would do the job. That is what I am starting
to use to track my negatives, prints, etc. I still use PFS File, but am
slowly adding things to an Access file because it allows me to put an
image in the datbase and PFS does not. If you don't need a relational
database or a picture there are some old programs that really do the job
well.

Of course you have to have a system already in place. Be prepared to do
a LOT of cataloging if you don't have a system already. If you do then
write your own database with a DB program and be ready to do a lot of
wotk putting it all into your database. It helps to have help in data
entry - a friend, wife, girlfriend, hired temp.

Frank

Well, I'm wondering if there are any commercial products out there that do
this. You've created the Access/PFS solution yourself.
-Lew
"Frank Calidonna" wrote in message
...
Lew wrote:

Since you are talking mainly of non digital items I would imagine a good
database, such as Access, would do the job. That is what I am starting to
use to track my negatives, prints, etc. I still use PFS File, but am
slowly adding things to an Access file because it allows me to put an
image in the datbase and PFS does not. If you don't need a relational
database or a picture there are some old programs that really do the job
well.

Of course you have to have a system already in place. Be prepared to do a
LOT of cataloging if you don't have a system already. If you do then write
your own database with a DB program and be ready to do a lot of wotk
putting it all into your database. It helps to have help in data entry - a
friend, wife, girlfriend, hired temp.

Frank

software photographer business management

and in 0.30 seconds Google spake thusly:

http://www.hindsightltd.com/

I don't know if this stuff is any good at all.

Practice management software, outside of the dental/medical and legal
fields, is pretty grim.

You may want to expand your search to software for managing a print
shop.

One software package that does everything doesn't exist. Look for several
packages that you put together to make up a suite. If you are not into IT
then a simple solution may be:

o Finances - Quick Books/Turbo Tax

o Time management - Palm

o Office - Corel or Microsoft

o Work - PhotoShop

o Data - Whatever database program comes with the office software

A spreadsheet makes a nice start for keeping track of data. When you figure
out what you want to track then you can move it to a database program.

This selection of software to run a practice is generic - nothing whiz-bang -
reason being it has been shown to work well.

Start by looking at what you keep track of now and limit your software to
managing
just that. Don't look to the future until the present is well looked after.
The trap is a tendency to automate -everything- and track -everything- and
the job never finishes and the software never works. Successful programs
throw requirements out the window as they progress, disasters have new
requirements
thrown in continuously.

If you are shooting stock then I am sure there are some good packages for
keeping
track of images.

--
Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio
Consulting Engineer: Electronics; Informatics; Photonics.

"Lew" wrote

Well, I'm wondering if there are any commercial products out there that do
[something, so you don't have to mess with db design].

As Frank stated, the issue isn't the database softwa it is the data.

If you want to catalog a life-time accumulation of photographs prepare
to hire a clerk-typist to do the data entry.

First, though, write down what it is that you can't do now but that you
would be able to do if all the data was on a computer. Then estimate how
much time you spend doing these tasks manually. You may come to the conclusion
that it is just not worth the effort to automate. If the computer won't
save you time in doing a task then don't let the computer do it -- else you
end up slave to the machine.

--
Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio
Consulting Engineer: Electronics; Informatics; Photonics.
To reply, remove spaces: n o lindan at ix . netcom . com
Fstop timer - http://www.nolindan.com/da/fstop/index.htm

Actually, among my other hats, I'm a database application designer and
programmer, so I'm aware of the process and overhead.

Nicholas O. Lindan wrote:

o Office - Corel or Microsoft

Its worth checking out open office.

rafe b wrote:

"Lew" wrote in message
...

I'm curious to know if list members think that it's desirable to manage
their profession/avocation with software and, if so, what features they
need.

I try not to let software manage me. I prefer it the other way around.

And this has what to do with darkroom?

On Fri, 03 Mar 2006 00:34:39 GMT, Frank
Calidonna wrote:

Lew wrote:

I see that you are reluctant to name names, perhaps wisely so. I have many
years of accumulated trips, projects, negatives, positives, prints,
developer time/temp combos, notes about same and storage solutions that I'd
like to relate to each other in an efficient way. It's a case of "analog
asset management" that stems from using a darkroom.
-Lew
Since you are talking mainly of non digital items I would imagine a good
database, such as Access, would do the job. That is what I am starting
to use to track my negatives, prints, etc. I still use PFS File, but am
slowly adding things to an Access file because it allows me to put an
image in the datbase and PFS does not. If you don't need a relational
database or a picture there are some old programs that really do the job
well.

Of course you have to have a system already in place. Be prepared to do
a LOT of cataloging if you don't have a system already. If you do then
write your own database with a DB program and be ready to do a lot of
wotk putting it all into your database. It helps to have help in data
entry - a friend, wife, girlfriend, hired temp.

Frank



March 3, 2006, from Lloyd Erlick,

Frank is describing the method that more or
less worked for me. In the early nineties I
was using a Mac computer, and my database
program was FileMaker. I bought the PC
version when I switched, and it imported
everything conveniently.

But the real work, as Frank pointed out, was
the organizing of all the material that then
had to be keyboarded. I worked out a
numbering system for all my negatives and
prints.

I've never computerized my darkroom print
log. Recently I've begun to scan the pages
containing my handwritten notes for each
print I make. In the computer file containing
the images of these pages, I include an image
file on which I have drawn my cropping lines
and scribbled notes to myself. I don't think
I will turn these into a database. I just
store them filed according to their
respective serial numbers, so everything
alphabetizes nicely.

Frankly, one of my most useful "innovations"
for myself is my file of pictures I plan to
print. I call it 'Print These'. It is nothing
more than a directory in which I copy any
frame I find interesting. There are programs
that conveniently play the contents as a
slide show. I leave the slide show running
frequently and can examine my work quite a
lot while doing other stuff in the room.

I have found the computer extremely useful in
helping me 'live' with my pictures. This is a
very important part of the editing process,
and it was missing for me prior to the
computer.

For me, far more important than any software,
is the ability to have my work on view where
I can absorb it.

regards,
--le
________________________________
Lloyd Erlick Portraits, Toronto.
voice: 416-686-0326
email:
net: www.heylloyd.com
________________________________
--

On Fri, 03 Mar 2006 01:56:26 GMT, "Nicholas
O. Lindan" wrote:

else you
end up slave to the machine.


March 3, 2006, from Lloyd Erlick,

For years I kept notes next to my enlarger
and then put them in a three-ring binder. All
serialized according to roll- and
frame-number. Very convenient.

Then I started cataloging my pictures by
computer. Suddenly I was going to the
darkroom knowing in advance which frame I was
going to work on.

Then I started printing a thumbnail of the
prospective image on a darkroom log form I
'designed'. It's top right on the page, just
below the serial number. It turned out to be
a major convenience to me! Think of it, a
photographer whose memory is attuned to
pictures. Makes hunting through my file much
easier. Too bad only recent pages have
thumbnails ...

Now the computer shakes me out of bed in the
morning and makes me set out chemistry, put a
negative in the enlarger, do all the
scrubbing and schlepping while it churns out
pretty prints. What's really troubling is
it's signing its own name on them ...

regards,
--le
________________________________
Lloyd Erlick Portraits, Toronto.
voice: 416-686-0326
email:
net: www.heylloyd.com
________________________________
--

I use Open Office and love it for correspondence, spreadsheets, etc. My
wife is back in school and cursed me daily for refusing to buy Microsoft
Office since that was what the school used and what she wanted to use and
needed for MLA stylesheets and whatever, since she had taken courses in
Office and wasn't flexible enough to adapt to Open Office I finally relented
and got her a copy of Word. Same thing, school uses XP so I have to buy XP,
XP won't run on her perfectly good PIII (that I built) so I have to buy her
a P4 (I hate bloated cow software).

Most of what I really need could be done in DOS using pfs:Write, Multiplan
and pfs:File. My invoice program is really just a template I designed in
pfs:Write in 1985, I print a copy of each invoice (that's my "backup" for
the computer), manually transfer totals to a spreadsheet and use Turbo Tax
to do my taxes each year. Negative file is in another spreadsheet and
that's it.

--
darkroommike
"Peter Chant" wrote in message
...
Nicholas O. Lindan wrote:

o Office - Corel or Microsoft

Its worth checking out open office.