The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers

498 Pages·2009·81.017 MB·English

by  Peter Krogh

The DAM Book
Digital Asset Management for Photographers
Second Edition

The DAM Book
Digital Asset Management for Photographers
Second Edition
Peter Krogh
Beijing • CamBridge • Farnham • Köln • SeBaStopol • toKyo
The DAM Book
Digital Asset Management for Photographers, Second Edition
Copyright © 2009 Peter Krogh. All rights reserved.
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Editor: Colleen Wheeler
Developmental Editor: Bonnie Bills
Technical Editor: Michael Stewart
Production Editor: Kim Wimpsett
Copyeditor: Amy Thomson
Proofreader: Nancy Bell
Indexer: Jack Wilson
Illustrator: Jeff Wilson, Happenstance Type-O-Rama
Cover Designer: Mark Paglietti
Interior Designer: Maureen Forys, Happenstance Type-O-Rama
Print History:
November 2005: First Edition.
April 2009: Second Edition.
The O’Reilly logo is a registered trademark of O’Reilly Media, Inc.
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While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publishers and authors
assume no responsibility for errors and omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the
information contained herein.
All photographs, except as noted, are by Peter Krogh.
Skip Steaurt: Figures 1-12 and 1-13.
Darren Higgins: Figures 3-52, 3-55, 5-1. 5-2, 5-4, 5-5, 5-6. 5-9, 5-10, 5-12 through 5-23, 5-25,
5-29, 5-31 through 5-34, 5-38, 5-39, 6-10, 9-42, 12-3, 12-24, and 12-24.
Alyson Krogh: Figure 12-30.
Dodo Gad: Photo on page xi.
TM
This book uses RepKoverTM, a durable and flexible lay-flat binding.
[TI]
ISBN-13: 978-0-596-52357-2 [2012-02-03]
To my best teachers, Ed Sundt, Ann Sundt,
Peter Swinehart, Bill Geer, Greg Dinkins, and
especially Marvin Saltzman and Steve Uzzell.
In memory of Ellie Johnson (1937–2006)
Acknowledgments
This book would not have been possible without the full support of my family: Alyson, Josie,
Maddy, Dot, Paul, and the rest of the Kroghs, Gallaghers, and Hookways. I am also grateful for the
tenacious support of my friend and mentor Steve Uzzell, who has provided invaluable advice and
assistance for more than 25 years. I also need to thank Darren Higgins for keeping the wheels of
Peter Krogh Photography turning while I was busy writing this book (again), and for his valuable
contributions to the development of my workflow.
I have had the great privilege of working with some really smart people over the last few years,
and my understanding of this complex subject matter would not be complete without them. Spe-
cial thanks to these smart people: Mikkel Aaland, Richard Anderson, John Beardsworth, Shayne
Bowman, Russell Brown, Yan Calotychos, Robert Edwards, Melissa Gaul, Tom Hogarty, John Nack,
Tom Nolan, Marc Rochkind, Skip Steuart, Mike Stewart, and Josh Weisberg. All of you have been
invaluable.
My relationship with ASMP has also been extremely important over the last 10 years. Thanks to
all the board, staff, and volunteers, and in particular Victor Perleman, Gene Mopsik, Susan Carr,
Todd Joyce, Judy Herrmann, Stan Rowin, Elena Goertz, and Pete Dyson.
Microsoft has been an important sponsor of the work I do through the Icons of Imaging program.
I would not have been able to give this book the attention it deserved without that generous sup-
port. Thanks particularly to Mike Tedesco, Jeff Greene, Amy Sorokas, Neil Latham, Phil Hayward,
Kostas Malios, and David Vaskevitch.
This book would also not be what it is today without the support and involvement of a number of peo-
ple at Adobe, including Thomas Knoll, Troy Gaul, Dustin Bruzenak, George Jardine, Frederick Johnson,
Gunar Penekis, and Kevin Connor, as well as the Lightroom, Bridge, and Photoshop teams.
A number of other people have helped me understand various components of the digital imag-
ing ecosystem. Thanks to Alan Dorow, Katrin Eismann, Martin Evening, Mark Fuccio, Eric Hyman,
David James, David Riecks, Andrew Rodney, Jeff Schewe, Jeff Sedlik, Derrick Story, the Metadata
Working Group, and the Photoshop and Lightroom prerelease teams.
I could not ask for a better publisher of this material than O’Reilly. In particular, Colleen Wheeler,
who edited the first volume of the book, has been instrumental in getting the second one done.
Bonnie Bills took over the development editing for this edition, and has worked tirelessly to make
the material clear and relevant. Thanks to Kim Wimpsett for moving the book through a chal-
lenging production schedule. My friend and technical editor Michael Stewart once again brought
much-needed clarity to this project, and I thank him for his perseverance. I’d also like to thank
everyone else at O’Reilly who helped bring this book to fruition, especially Steve Weiss for recog-
nizing and believing in the project.
Finally, I need to thank my colleagues at the University of North Carolina Yackety Yack, with whom
I’ve shared a love of photography for nearly three decades, including Bryce Lankard, Greg Dinkins,
Sam Kittner, Bob Donnan, Thad Watkins, Rusty Walden, May Lois Hare, Gaston Callum, and
Susie Post.
Contents
Introduction ..................................................... xi
CHAPTER 1 A Digital Photography Ecosystem 1
The Digital Photography Ecosystem ................................2
What Is Digital Asset Management? ...............................2
The Prime Directive, and Other Goals ..............................4
The Benefits of Sound Digital Asset Management ...................6
Exploring Digital Asset Management Tools ........................12
Rules of Sound Digital Asset Management ........................19
Understanding the Data Lifecycle ................................ 22
Intelligent Imaging Technologies ................................. 24
CHAPTER 2 Non-destructive Image Editing 33
Parametric Image Editing: An Introduction ........................ 34
Advantages of Parametric Image Editing .......................... 43
Limitations of Parametric Image Editing .......................... 49
DNG as a Parametric Image-Editing Solution ......................52
Working Non-destructively in Photoshop ..........................61
CHAPTER 3 Metadata 63
Metadata: An Introduction ...................................... 64
Classes of Metadata ............................................ 66
Ownership and Licensing Metadata .............................. 69
Image Content Metadata .........................................75
Describing Images with Keywords ............................... 77
Prioritizing Images with Ratings ................................. 85
Grouping Images ............................................... 96
Metadata Schema ..............................................102
Metadata Handling ............................................ 108
Tagging Images with GPS Data ..................................116
CHAPTER 4 Organizing and Naming Files and Folders 129
Organizing Your Image Files: An Overview .......................130
Working File Directory Structure .................................136
Archive Directory Structure: An Overview ........................137
Archive Directory Structure: Making Buckets .....................141
The Fine Art of File Naming .....................................150
CHAPTER 5 Choosing Hardware for Image Storage 159
Choosing the Appropriate Storage Media ........................ 160
Hard Drive 101 ..................................................165
Purchasing a Hard Drive .........................................175
Hard Drive Handling ............................................178
Drive Configurations: JBOD, RAID, Drobo, or NAS? .............. 180
Other Storage Media ........................................... 184
Media Cards ...................................................188
Network ...................................................... 190
Monitors .......................................................193
Uninterruptible Power Supplies ..................................194
System Configurations ..........................................194
CHAPTER 6 Backing Up and Validating Data 205
Primary vs. Backups ...........................................206
Understanding Threats to Your Data ............................207
Backup Types ..................................................213
Additional Protections ..........................................218
Backup Software .............................................. 223
Protecting Data Throughout the Data Lifecycle ...................228
Putting It All Together: Backup Configurations ...................236
Data Validation ................................................246
Restoration ................................................... 253
CHAPTER 7 Ingestion Workflow 257
Image Ingestion: Overview .....................................258
Ingestion with Lightroom ....................................... 267
Ingestion with ImageIngesterPro ................................ 272
viii Contents