ChApter 2. digitAl workFlow
62 For more on textbooks in digitAl photogrAphy, visit http://www.photoCourse.Com
http://www.photocourse.com/itext/assets/Many image management applications also index and catalog other kinds of
files such as movies, sounds, and the like. For this reason, these programs are
called by the more inclusive name asset managers—each file on your system
from a Quark document to a digital image being an asset.
Database-backed image managers are used to manage small and large col-
lections of images. Their features only grow in importance as the number
of photos on your system increases. Here are some of the most important
features.
liBrArieS
The database in which image information is stored is called a library or
catalog. Once a photo has been added to the library, all of the image manage-
ment and editing tools can be used on it. Some early applications forced you
to copy the original image files into the Library so the Library could never
be larger than the drive it was stored on, and as the library got larger it got
slower. Newer applications let you copy or move photos into their libraries
if you want, but also let you reference photos anywhere on your system and
even those stored off-line. For example, you can take a CD/DVD or external
hard drive out of a drawer, add its contents to your library, and return it to
the drawer. You can then view thumbnails and even larger previews of the
images even though they are no longer on the system—called off-line. This is
because you are actually viewing thumbnails and previews stored in the data-
base when the images were added to the library. Each thumbnail or preview
in the library is linked to its full-size image or points to it. If you double-click
a thumbnail or preview of an image that’s still on the system, the image opens
full-size. If you double-click a thumbnail or preview of an image that is on a
CD/DVD or hard disk drive in a drawer, the program gives you the name of
the disc on which it’s stored and prompts you to insert the disc or connect the
drive.
If your library ever does get too large or too slow you can create more than
one library—perhaps one for professional work and another for personal.
However, you can’t work on both libraries at the same time so this approach
has limits.trACking
Photographers often like to move photos around, rename them, and delete
them. If you do this from within the image manager the program keeps track
of and accurately reflects the changes.wAtChed FolderS
You can specify that certain folders be watched so when you copy or move
files into these folders without using the image manager to do so, they are
automatically added to the library. The contents of the folder and the library
are synchronized.In an image database
there is a record (red
row) for each image and
a number of fields (blue
column).
Click for a movie on
Portfolio, and asset
manager from Extensis.
In Lightroom you can
mark images with
different colors and then
locate all of the images
with any of the colors
you assigned.