Organizing working images, archiving all images, what approach to take?

I'm curious to know how others are dealing with long term storage of
digital images? I'll lay out some of the factors as I see them.

I'm using a 5D, shooting raw most of the time.
Primary software is Photoshop CS2 and Canon's Digital Photo Professional
I tend to use 4gb memory

There are a lot of large files to grapple with.
I want to keep all images 'forever'.
I need to find archived images.
I would like to view thumbnails of archived images.
There are many images that are very similiar.
Some of the images are chosen to process further.
The images that get attention end up as jpg or tiff.

My current system is approx like so:
Return from a shooting session with 2 4gb chips of images.
Copy each chip to separate folder on workstation's hdd.
Folder names reflect date and subject/location (2008-01-18 Death Valley)
Create dvd of each folder, label by date and subject/location.
Select some raw images to work on, move them to working dir.
I usually retain the numeric tag that the camera assigns to an image
through the processing stage of an image, until it gets published. This
helps me keep track of which raw image was the source.
Eventually when workstation hdd are crammed, have to delete older
folders containing raw images.

It's an ok system. Issues I see a
DVD media has limited lifespan so eventually all will turn to dust.
DVD software/hardware still seem very flakey to me; I'm never sure a
copy won't be corrupted or somehow unreadable.
Even if I make 2 copies of images, if one fails other might fail for the
same reason.
Once on dvd it's hard to view thumbnails, and thumbnails are important
when sifting older images for variations on a theme.
It'd be ideal if thumbnails were available on my workstation for all
archived images.
Tried using external hdds for storage but still questions re durability
etc, aside from cost.

I'm a programmer so I may be able to write something that could help
with whatever process I end up using over time, if there isn't already
such software. But I'm very interested to hear what others are doing
with image management.

nano wrote:
I'm curious to know how others are dealing with long term storage of
digital images? I'll lay out some of the factors as I see them.

I'm using a 5D, shooting raw most of the time.
Primary software is Photoshop CS2 and Canon's Digital Photo Professional
I tend to use 4gb memory

There are a lot of large files to grapple with.
I want to keep all images 'forever'.
I need to find archived images.
I would like to view thumbnails of archived images.
There are many images that are very similiar.
Some of the images are chosen to process further.
The images that get attention end up as jpg or tiff.

My current system is approx like so:
Return from a shooting session with 2 4gb chips of images.
Copy each chip to separate folder on workstation's hdd.
Folder names reflect date and subject/location (2008-01-18 Death Valley)
Create dvd of each folder, label by date and subject/location.
Select some raw images to work on, move them to working dir.
I usually retain the numeric tag that the camera assigns to an image
through the processing stage of an image, until it gets published. This
helps me keep track of which raw image was the source.

I keep those numbers with all versions. An annotated web gallery makes
the best searchable thumbnail archive. I also make full pixel crops in
these galleries which is handy to see if I really had that shot sharp
enough or it was cropped, etc.

Tried using external hdds for storage but still questions re durability
etc, aside from cost.

A pair of external drives. Replace when one fails. DVDs are just too
much hassle.

I'm a programmer so I may be able to write something that could help
with whatever process I end up using over time, if there isn't already
such software. But I'm very interested to hear what others are doing
with image management.

You can extract low quality full size jpegs from all the raw files with
some command line programs, or even maybe a batch routine for irfanview
to make smaller thumbnails to keep all the archives on your workstation.

In article ,
nano wrote:

I'm curious to know how others are dealing with long term storage of
digital images? I'll lay out some of the factors as I see them.

I'm using a 5D, shooting raw most of the time.
Primary software is Photoshop CS2 and Canon's Digital Photo Professional
I tend to use 4gb memory

There are a lot of large files to grapple with.
I want to keep all images 'forever'.
I need to find archived images.
I would like to view thumbnails of archived images.
There are many images that are very similiar.
Some of the images are chosen to process further.
The images that get attention end up as jpg or tiff.

My current system is approx like so:
Return from a shooting session with 2 4gb chips of images.
Copy each chip to separate folder on workstation's hdd.
Folder names reflect date and subject/location (2008-01-18 Death Valley)
Create dvd of each folder, label by date and subject/location.
Select some raw images to work on, move them to working dir.
I usually retain the numeric tag that the camera assigns to an image
through the processing stage of an image, until it gets published. This
helps me keep track of which raw image was the source.
Eventually when workstation hdd are crammed, have to delete older
folders containing raw images.

It's an ok system. Issues I see a
DVD media has limited lifespan so eventually all will turn to dust.
DVD software/hardware still seem very flakey to me; I'm never sure a
copy won't be corrupted or somehow unreadable.
Even if I make 2 copies of images, if one fails other might fail for the
same reason.
Once on dvd it's hard to view thumbnails, and thumbnails are important
when sifting older images for variations on a theme.
It'd be ideal if thumbnails were available on my workstation for all
archived images.
Tried using external hdds for storage but still questions re durability
etc, aside from cost.

I'm a programmer so I may be able to write something that could help
with whatever process I end up using over time, if there isn't already
such software. But I'm very interested to hear what others are doing
with image management.


You need a DAM program (Digital Asset Management). After quite a bit of
research I settled on Light-room. There are a number of others, most
have a downloadable trial copy. My computer was old so quite a few would
not function with the about of Ram I had I ended up making my
purchase shortly after buying the new computer. I bought CS3 as an
upgrade and Light Room for the reasons yo describe.

--
Reality is a picture perfected and never looking back.

So, you are using a 5D. You are also a programmer who maybe able to write
something that could help?

I really don't think so. I apologies if I am being harsh.



"nano" wrote in message
.net...
I'm curious to know how others are dealing with long term storage of
digital images? I'll lay out some of the factors as I see them.

I'm using a 5D, shooting raw most of the time.
Primary software is Photoshop CS2 and Canon's Digital Photo Professional
I tend to use 4gb memory

There are a lot of large files to grapple with.
I want to keep all images 'forever'.
I need to find archived images.
I would like to view thumbnails of archived images.
There are many images that are very similiar.
Some of the images are chosen to process further.
The images that get attention end up as jpg or tiff.

My current system is approx like so:
Return from a shooting session with 2 4gb chips of images.
Copy each chip to separate folder on workstation's hdd.
Folder names reflect date and subject/location (2008-01-18 Death Valley)
Create dvd of each folder, label by date and subject/location.
Select some raw images to work on, move them to working dir.
I usually retain the numeric tag that the camera assigns to an image
through the processing stage of an image, until it gets published. This
helps me keep track of which raw image was the source.
Eventually when workstation hdd are crammed, have to delete older
folders containing raw images.

It's an ok system. Issues I see a
DVD media has limited lifespan so eventually all will turn to dust.
DVD software/hardware still seem very flakey to me; I'm never sure a
copy won't be corrupted or somehow unreadable.
Even if I make 2 copies of images, if one fails other might fail for the
same reason.
Once on dvd it's hard to view thumbnails, and thumbnails are important
when sifting older images for variations on a theme.
It'd be ideal if thumbnails were available on my workstation for all
archived images.
Tried using external hdds for storage but still questions re durability
etc, aside from cost.

I'm a programmer so I may be able to write something that could help
with whatever process I end up using over time, if there isn't already
such software. But I'm very interested to hear what others are doing
with image management.

In article ,
TH O wrote:

In article
,
____ wrote:

In article ,
nano wrote:

I'm curious to know how others are dealing with long term storage of
digital images? I'll lay out some of the factors as I see them.

I'm using a 5D, shooting raw most of the time.
Primary software is Photoshop CS2 and Canon's Digital Photo Professional
I tend to use 4gb memory

There are a lot of large files to grapple with.
I want to keep all images 'forever'.
I need to find archived images.
I would like to view thumbnails of archived images.
There are many images that are very similiar.
Some of the images are chosen to process further.
The images that get attention end up as jpg or tiff.

My current system is approx like so:
Return from a shooting session with 2 4gb chips of images.
Copy each chip to separate folder on workstation's hdd.
Folder names reflect date and subject/location (2008-01-18 Death Valley)
Create dvd of each folder, label by date and subject/location.
Select some raw images to work on, move them to working dir.
I usually retain the numeric tag that the camera assigns to an image
through the processing stage of an image, until it gets published. This
helps me keep track of which raw image was the source.
Eventually when workstation hdd are crammed, have to delete older
folders containing raw images.

It's an ok system. Issues I see a
DVD media has limited lifespan so eventually all will turn to dust.
DVD software/hardware still seem very flakey to me; I'm never sure a
copy won't be corrupted or somehow unreadable.
Even if I make 2 copies of images, if one fails other might fail for the
same reason.
Once on dvd it's hard to view thumbnails, and thumbnails are important
when sifting older images for variations on a theme.
It'd be ideal if thumbnails were available on my workstation for all
archived images.
Tried using external hdds for storage but still questions re durability
etc, aside from cost.

I'm a programmer so I may be able to write something that could help
with whatever process I end up using over time, if there isn't already
such software. But I'm very interested to hear what others are doing
with image management.


You need a DAM program (Digital Asset Management). After quite a bit of

I agree. I'd google Digital Asset Management ... you'll find one book
and a ton of information, much more than we could tell you in replies.
There's a couple of forums out there too. I think one may be on the
website of the author who wrote the DAM - Digital Asset Management book.

Good luck.

Scott Kelby has a VG book on Light room, I forgot to mention- I hve not
finished the book as of yet-but it is very detailed.

--
Reality is a picture perfected and never looking back.

I use what used to be iView Media Pro and is now Microsoft (hiss! boo!)
Expression Media Pro since they bought it out.

The great benefit of Expression is that after I have prepped each shoot
or month of files, I do the annotation, keywords, etc in Expression and
create a modest sized catalogue. These small catalogues are kept
separately in the folders with the files for a year or so.

Every now and then I copy all work on a large HD, and while I keep the
files in their folders, I have one master catalogue file which is set to
auto update and search all folders on the HD. This reads off the
annotations, making all the images on the HD fully searchable by
caption, keywords, date, and whatever EXIF data I choose to use. I can
go to this HD at any time, open the catalogue in seconds, and find any
file or selection of files out of around 6000 now stored there as 17+
megapixel JPEGs.

iView also allowed me to run a script which converted all my early TIFFs
(getting just too big to store) into Level 12 JPEGs. It will also open
any file in a designated editor (Photoshop), create web galleries or
slideshows etc.

So far it has proved very efficient and the annotations have been
compliant with other external cataloguing.

David

In article ,
says...
I use what used to be iView Media Pro and is now Microsoft (hiss! boo!)
Expression Media Pro since they bought it out.

The great benefit of Expression is that after I have prepped each shoot
or month of files, I do the annotation, keywords, etc in Expression and
create a modest sized catalogue. These small catalogues are kept
separately in the folders with the files for a year or so.

Every now and then I copy all work on a large HD, and while I keep the
files in their folders, I have one master catalogue file which is set to
auto update and search all folders on the HD. This reads off the
annotations, making all the images on the HD fully searchable by
caption, keywords, date, and whatever EXIF data I choose to use. I can
go to this HD at any time, open the catalogue in seconds, and find any
file or selection of files out of around 6000 now stored there as 17+
megapixel JPEGs.

iView also allowed me to run a script which converted all my early TIFFs
(getting just too big to store) into Level 12 JPEGs. It will also open
any file in a designated editor (Photoshop), create web galleries or
slideshows etc.

So far it has proved very efficient and the annotations have been
compliant with other external cataloguing.

David

Thanks everyone, those are helpful suggestions. I figured there must be
some programs out there that help with this issue but had not run into
the term Digital Asset Management. I've not been hobnobbing with
photographers much, this issue cause me to poke my head out of my
shell...I'm glad I did. I'll scope out the options and may post back
here if I have any questions.

OK, I'm curious, is there something logically impossible about owning a
5D and as a programmer being able to write something that helps with
archiving images?

Your posting might seem harsh to someone that has a clue what you're
about, but I'm just puzzled.

In article ,
says...
So, you are using a 5D. You are also a programmer who maybe able to write
something that could help?

I really don't think so. I apologies if I am being harsh.



"nano" wrote in message
.net...
I'm curious to know how others are dealing with long term storage of
digital images? I'll lay out some of the factors as I see them.

I'm using a 5D, shooting raw most of the time.
Primary software is Photoshop CS2 and Canon's Digital Photo Professional
I tend to use 4gb memory

There are a lot of large files to grapple with.
I want to keep all images 'forever'.
I need to find archived images.
I would like to view thumbnails of archived images.
There are many images that are very similiar.
Some of the images are chosen to process further.
The images that get attention end up as jpg or tiff.

My current system is approx like so:
Return from a shooting session with 2 4gb chips of images.
Copy each chip to separate folder on workstation's hdd.
Folder names reflect date and subject/location (2008-01-18 Death Valley)
Create dvd of each folder, label by date and subject/location.
Select some raw images to work on, move them to working dir.
I usually retain the numeric tag that the camera assigns to an image
through the processing stage of an image, until it gets published. This
helps me keep track of which raw image was the source.
Eventually when workstation hdd are crammed, have to delete older
folders containing raw images.

It's an ok system. Issues I see a
DVD media has limited lifespan so eventually all will turn to dust.
DVD software/hardware still seem very flakey to me; I'm never sure a
copy won't be corrupted or somehow unreadable.
Even if I make 2 copies of images, if one fails other might fail for the
same reason.
Once on dvd it's hard to view thumbnails, and thumbnails are important
when sifting older images for variations on a theme.
It'd be ideal if thumbnails were available on my workstation for all
archived images.
Tried using external hdds for storage but still questions re durability
etc, aside from cost.

I'm a programmer so I may be able to write something that could help

I'll check out iMatch, thanks.

In article ,
lid says...
In article ,
nano wrote:

OK, I'm curious, is there something logically impossible about owning a
5D and as a programmer being able to write something that helps with
archiving images?

Your posting might seem harsh to someone that has a clue what you're
about, but I'm just puzzled.

I'm not the person who posted that but ... it sounds like he was
implying (not very tactfully) that it is a huge project. I'd look at it
this way -- you might be able to purchase something for $65 which will
do what you want. That way you can spend your time taking photographs
instead of programming.

I'd look at programs like Lightroom, iView (now owned by Microsoft and
has a new name), Aperture, and iMatch. I haven't tried a demo recently
but when I looked at iMatch a year or two ago, it looked *very*
impressive for a reasonable price. I'm about to reassess the programs
out there and the first two I would look at today would be Adobe
Lightroom and iMatch.

In article ,
says...
So, you are using a 5D. You are also a programmer who maybe able to write
something that could help?

I really don't think so. I apologies if I am being harsh.



"nano" wrote in message
.net...
I'm curious to know how others are dealing with long term storage of
digital images? I'll lay out some of the factors as I see them.

I'm using a 5D, shooting raw most of the time.
Primary software is Photoshop CS2 and Canon's Digital Photo Professional
I tend to use 4gb memory

There are a lot of large files to grapple with.
I want to keep all images 'forever'.
I need to find archived images.
I would like to view thumbnails of archived images.
There are many images that are very similiar.
Some of the images are chosen to process further.
The images that get attention end up as jpg or tiff.

My current system is approx like so:

In article ,
lid says...
I agree. I'd google Digital Asset Management ... you'll find one book
and a ton of information, much more than we could tell you in replies.
There's a couple of forums out there too. I think one may be on the
website of the author who wrote the DAM - Digital Asset Management book.

Good luck.

One aspect of the various DAMs that I'm not sure of (I've looked at
lightroom and iMatch now) that is at the core of what might be shaping
up into a 'plan', is can they create thumbnail galleries, or catalogs of
any type, for storage that is off line?

I'm still not sure exactly what approach I'm going to take re the
physical storage of the files, but the post by Paul Furman makes a lot
of sense, that is to keep identical copies of the original images on two
separate external hard disks. There will be more than one pair of these
disks, and they'd not always be connected. But it'd be ideal to have the
cataloge or thumgnail gallery available on the main workstation, for all
archived images, even if the disk is not connected. Can they do that?
Most of the stuff I've read deals with organizing images, even
processing them, and that's fine, but my #1 issue is archiving, being
able to reference those archives in a transparent manner.