Dec 11 2009

The Michelin Guide to Rating Images

Category: Workflow & DAMEthan G. Salwen @ 2:07 pm

ACOF_091211_1_ratingI have major difficult ties applying basic star ratings to my images, but I think the Michelin Guide might be able to help.

“The most basic component of higher metadata is the rating,” Peter Krogh told me on page 36 the first edition of his “The DAM Book.” And then, using logical, lucid language and excellent graphics, he illuminated how, instead of emotionally throwing various zero- and five-star ratings on images, I should focus on applying stars extremely selectively (if quickly), almost never using the four-star rating, and holding off on five stars until the future.

If you haven’t read Krogh’s text on rating, it honestly is worth the price of his book, now in the second edition. If 32 bucks seems like a lot for rating advice, consider that most of us — certainly I — have very haphazard, emotional rating systems, and that they do not help us, as Krogh wants us to, to “build for the future.”

Krogh’s thinking is that a two-star image should be a two-star image, no matter what the subject matter is, what job its for or how Continue reading “The Michelin Guide to Rating Images”

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Nov 03 2009

Learning All About The Amazing DNG

AC_Blog_091103_1In my last post I featured the nifty “DNG Recover Edges” and made the point that it only works on DNGs. I discovered this nifty, free application while researching my column for the latest October/November 2009 issue of AfterCapture. In “Catching Up with the Amazing DNG” I celebrate how far the DNG has come in five years, since it was publicly announced by Adobe on September 27, 2004.

If you would appreciate a little background information on the DNG or to better understand how this amazing file format continues to pick up steam in its march towards a universal standard, give my piece a read. It’s based in large part by conversations with Adobe’s Tom Hogarty and digital workflow guru Peter Krogh.

Both touched on some pretty heady technical developments about the DNG, which were both hard to understand and even harder to communicate. However, both Hogarty and Krogh insisted that what really matters Continue reading “Learning All About The Amazing DNG”

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Jul 10 2008

The Greatest Workflow Aide: A Simple Piece of Paper

Category: Workflow & DAMEthan G. Salwen @ 6:00 am

ACMF_080710_WorkflowList_1Create low-tech checklists to guide you through your high-tech digital workflows. If you haven’t done so already, you can’t imagine the benefits. Simple, personalized workflow checklists will help you perform your workflow tasks faster and smoother; turn critical work into monkey work; and help illuminate (and solve) workflow glitches as they arise.

If you are shooting and processing hundreds of RAW files (or JPEGs) you have probably scribbled down a lot of notes regarding your workflow actions–from ingestion to archiving. But if you have not made a formalized checklist—I repeat—you cannot imagine the benefits. Such checklists are simple documents you create in Word (or Excel) that outline your individual process, with check boxes included to ensure work interruptions don’t compromise your process.

Continue reading “The Greatest Workflow Aide: A Simple Piece of Paper”

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May 12 2008

The DNG is Way Cooler Than Cool. So Use It!

Category: Workflow & DAMEthan G. Salwen @ 7:57 am

ACMF_090514_Adobe - Digital Negative (DNG)Here are the four critical things you need know about the DNG, the Adobe-developed, open-source Digital Negative:

1. The DNG is the coolest RAW electronic imaging file format on Earth.

2. The DNG is absolutely the best archival format for all your RAW files.

3. The DNG offers amazingly innovative workflow benefits.

4. You should embrace the Digital Negative by converting all of your RAW captures to DNGs as part of your normal workflow.

Like many elegantly simple and powerful inventions, the DNG is sadly misunderstood. And because the majority of photographers are not yet using the DNG and not yet

Continue reading “The DNG is Way Cooler Than Cool. So Use It!”

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