Help-Digital Workflow & Image Management

maestrokev

Hi, just wanted to get some input from others on your digital workflow. My problem is I shoot exclusively Canon RAW files, then use C1 to process. As I'm starting to build a stock photo collection, I've realized I need to use an image management program for my photos as many fit more than one category. Any suggestions (Portfolio, iView, IMatch, Cumulus)?

Most of the image processing programs (C1, BreezeBrowser, PS CS) are not good with image management, tough to manage large lists of keywords and offer quick searches when your collection grows over 10,000. I've been told that many of the image management programs only modify IPTC data in JPG's not RAW files. Problem is many RAW processing engines/camera profiles are being revised all the time, if I store all my IPTC data in the JPG, when I reprocess the RAW file, it won't have the IPTC data -- copying IPTC data from old JPG to new JPG seems cumbersome.

Any suggestions on what software you use and your workflow (from backing up files, renaming, keywording, etc) would be appreciated.

Thanks!

DavidTO

I use C1 and iView Media Pro.

I use iView to import, then open that folder in C1. In C1 I click the little + sign to add a folder in the session window. I choose the option of using as the process folder.

The folder structure is ~/Pictures/2004/10 October 2004/yymmdd

In the dated folder (yymmdd) I put the images.

Anyway, I use iView to import, and have it lock the files on import. Then in C1 I set the process to Job and capture name. I set the job to the date as yymmdd. So the filename ends up being something like:

yymmdd CRW_1809.jpg

That way the filename has the date and the original RAW filename in it.

After processing, I drag all the jpgs into iView.

The one thing I don't like about my process is that I have to assign keywords to the RAW and JPG files separately, repeating work. Wish I didn't have to do that.

iView can write the IPTC to the RAW file.

Hope that helps.

maestrokev

DavidTO wrote:

I use C1 and iView Media Pro.

The one thing I don't like about my process is that I have to assign keywords to the RAW and JPG files separately, repeating work. Wish I didn't have to do that.

iView can write the IPTC to the RAW file.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for the great ideas! Are you sure iView can write IPTC data to Canon Raw files? I'm using v2.5.1 and was easy enough to edit IPTC data within the program, but when I sync annotations back to Canon 1DMKII raw file, it doesn't work. Read a few other posts in the MediaPro support forum from Nikon and Canon users complaining that they were unable to sync IPTC annotations back into RAW file as well.

Ideally, if the IPTC info could be written into the RAW file, C1 could process JPG with all the included EXIF/IPTC. Not sure if C1 can output all fields as I remember reading a bug report that EXIF info was not carried over -- will have to give it a try now. However, one could still use BreezeBrowser to copy IPTC info from RAW to JPG. Sure beats keywording RAW and JPG separately which is what I'd like to avoid when developing my stock collection.