Best Business Practices for Photographers [209]
The most significant limitation to file naming is a legacy system that is running an operating system such as Windows 95 or others that use what is technically referred to as ISO9660, Level 1. These operating systems limit you to eight characters, plus a dot, and then three additional characters. Older, pre–OS X Macintosh computers have a 31-character limit, and ISO9660 has extended character lengths up to 64 characters. Most computer systems nowadays are Windows 2000/Windows XP or some flavor of Mac OS X. These systems allow for a maximum of 255 characters. Be careful, through: The total length of the file name and all the directories from the very top level down to the end of the file name cannot safely exceed 256 characters.
1 Controlled Vocabulary, at www.ControlledVocabulary.com, is primarily a system for keywording, but the website contains a large number of resources for establishing systems, keywords, and other metadata information. A review of the site for those looking to maximize their return on their image assets is mandatory.
There are also systems for working with large volumes of images—25 GB, 100 GB, or more. I often find myself out on assignment for days at a time, generating 50 to 100 GB for one assignment. In those instances, the ingestion of the files can take all night, as well as the proper saving of the files to two external drives—one that always stays with you and one that stays in the hotel room or, in some instances, is shipped back to the office for post-production to begin.
The key, in my opinion, is to read the book and consider the principles and thoroughness of the workflow. Then, where it does not work for you and you've thought about how to change it, make those changes so that you are using your workflow in a way that suits your needs.
I fully expect that Krogh's DAM Book will continue to be updated and that others will perhaps come out with other systems and workflows. Until that happens, this book is a well-done basis from which to operate and then to evolve as your needs do.
Evaluating the Cost of Analog Archive Conversions to Digital: Is It Worth It?
How much are your analog images worth? If no one knows they exist, then not only are they not generating revenue, but they are depreciating. How's that? A photograph of a streetscape from, say, 1970 will immediately be recognizable as such, if for no other reason than the appearance of the cars. Photographs of the New York City skyline that include the World Trade Center immediately date the images as pre-9/11, so a travel guide looking for images of the skyline will opt for something more current. At some point, images become historic and are no longer suitable to illustrate timely people and events.
To evaluate an analog archive, you'll want to consider the subject matter. If you have closeup images of plants with their genus and species, those will hold their value for some time. Images of someone using a cell phone will be worth much less five years from now than they are now. Consider the use of a businesswoman in a suit using a portable cellular phone that is so large it's in a bag or the first generation of Motorola flip phones.
In my office, I took the time to review nearly 100,000 transparencies to determine which had potential. I made it a priority to convert the images from analog to digital, apply correct captions, and develop keywords that would maximize the potential licensing of each image.
Scanning your analog images once you select them from your overall collection of images can be done yourself, or you can outsource the service to one (or more) of several different service bureaus. The costs can range from $10 or so for a 60-MB 8-bit file to $40 or so for the same file from other providers. Some differentiate by using drum scanners; others use different scanners to accomplish the same task. Should you opt for one service, first try them out for 10 or 20 images and see what the results are. Negotiate a rate by committing to the chosen vendor a consistent quantity of images over a certain period of time