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Extensis Portfolio 8.5 Bringing order to your files - part 1 of 1 2 3 4

by Mike McNamee Published

"DAMN! I cannot find that file!"

Sifting through files can be a problem these days as our image inventories rise out of control. Extensis Portfolio can sift through them, sorting the wheat from the chaff, with no lumps!

Consider this scenario. A picture you hold as 'stock' on your hard drive is a business asset (it may also, by the way, be part of your pension!). It has value, particularly when somebody gets on the telephone to you and says, 'Do you have a picture of the Falkirk Wheel?' If you do not have such a picture you do not own an asset. However, if you have such a picture but cannot find it, you own the asset but it has zero value to you. If you spend hours searching for it, by the time you pass it over it to your client, you have seriously eroded your profit margin. Enter Digital Asset Management (DAM), the methodology of ensuring that you maximise the value of your images!

The problem of images building up into a monstrous, belligerent and uncontrolled beasts is getting worse. Digital imaging is maturing and many more photographers are getting to the stage where they can no longer rely on their memory to go and find an image. The problem is compounded if the images have to be searched by another person or a newcomer to your business. Many photographers now archive files off to CD, DVD or off-line hard drives. This means that they cannot be searched by some of the in-built tools such as Windows' Search or Mac's Sherlock. The numbers start to build alarmingly quickly. A typical wedding might now involve 500 shots. If they are RAW files that might involve another 500 XMP sidecar files, and the total could easily double if you make lowresolution versions for a slide show or web use, and sets of manipulated images to go into an album. It is conceivable therefore that your wedding could build to a file total around 1,500. At 50 weddings per year that has already reached 75,000 files without really trying. If you run a studio with more than one shooter and you make portraits or do general purpose work in the week, you have, in the blink of an eye, got yourself a damn (DAM, sorry) problem of some proportions!

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last update 09/12/2022 14:54:04

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