We’ve all accepted that working with the digital photography medium is a process of constant learning. Still, wouldn’t it be nice if there were one place we could go to find all the answers to all our digital imaging questions? Well there is. It’s a wonderful place called UPDIG.
The Universal Photographic Digital Imaging Guidelines (UPDIG) are a set of very concise and well informed guidelines related to the full scope of digital imaging practices. Just a few of the topics covered include color management, monitor calibration, file formats, naming conventions, resolution, sharpening, file delivery and workflow. And there’s much, much more.
The UPDIG guidelines are organized very clearly and thoughtfully online and are also available in PDF format. UPDIG is a free service that has been made available to the industry through a broad coalition of more than 20 international photography associations, as well as support from the Library of Congress.
I wasn’t writing literally when I said that UPDIG can provide us with all the answers to all our digital questions. Even with UPDIG, we’re still going to have to keep reading all of those books and magazines, visiting websites and attending seminars to keep up with the digital learning curve. But as soon as you check out UPDIG, my bet is that’s you’ll see how these guidelines fulfill a utterly unique and valuable need.
What is amazing about UPDIG is how much information is covered, and the authority with it is covered—having been developed with the input of an international working group with a massive amount of combined expertise. And yet the guidelines are amazingly straightforward, easy to peruse and a great place to gain clarification and increase fundamental knowledge.
One thing that is particularly useful about the most recent version of the UPDIG guidelines (v.3) is they provide more information for clients licensing and using images—not just information for photographers. Richard Anderson, the principal author of UPDIG and a commercial photographer with three decades of experience, felt that this was a particularly important aspect of the current version of UPDIG to address. And so he spearheaded the new section called, “The Guidelines for Image Receivers.”
“Most clients don’t have any idea the amount of work photographers have to do in postproduction,” Anderson explained to me. “‘The Guidelines for Image Receivers’ is a tool photographers can use for creating better understanding and communication with clients.”
The history of how UPDIG came into existence is pretty interesting. The initiative was started by the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP), and at first those working on the project were looking to define concrete standards. However, by the time Anderson came to the project it was realized that there is little, if anything, that is actually standard in electronic imaging. Thus, Anderson set about authoring the more appropriate and flexible guidelines.
Take a look at the UPDIG Guidelines and let the ACMetaforum community know what you think. UPDIG is a work in progress and Anderson and the UPIG team would appreciate your constructive feedback.
January 1st, 2010 3:27 pm
[...] heavily on the Universal Photographic Digital Imaging Guidelines (UPDIG), which I discussed in a previous posting. Not only do the guidelines offer a comprehensive and up-to-date resource, but they are far, far [...]