To keep track of where in my workflow an image is: not started, processing, done… or where in the my kewywording process it is.

For the (non-standard) three levels of description that Alamy (a stock agency) requires.

This is both for speed and security reasons.Ĭustom Fields are important. DAM FUNCTIONALITIES: Dom Ruinart writing in a book with a bird quill feather pen at Champagne Ruinartġ - Must: keywording and captioning (“description”) – this is the key to the whole application!ģ - Must: possibility to create “custom fields”.Ĥ - Must: possibility to create “virtual galleries” or “temporary sets” (what is called “categories” in Portfolio)ĥ - Must: virtual galleries can be hierarchicalĦ - Nice to Have: “Folder watching” – the app can detect changes on monitored foldersħ - Must: possibility to apply keywords and captioning to multiple files at the same timeĨ - Must: possibility to append data (as opposed to overwrite) to captioning (“description”) fieldĩ – Must: it is a cataloguing application, with a database, not just a file browser (not even a pimped-up and glorified file browser). – Files stored on a network (NAS) file server, so the sw needs to be able to work over a network. (Currently split on two RAW/originals catalogues and one Develops catalogue in Portfolio) Capability for video files would be a plus but not absolutely necessary. – Archiving of raw files (Canon cr2 mainly) and tiffs. – Stand-alone desktop application on Windows (I don’t want to rely on a sometimes not perfect internet connection) – Single user = I’m an independent photographer. My requirements of a Digital Asset Management software solution:

Through my own on-line photo library “store-front” base on PhotoshelterĪ sign at a winery pointing the way to Self Service shoppingĪ discussion with David Riecks, the creator of the Controlled Vocabulary Keyword Catalogue (CVKC) and a great metadata advocate and guru, prompted my to formulate what I need and expect from a DAM solution.

Directly to customers who I am myself in contact with.

Through photo agencies (I send my images to agencies who then license them to customers).

I am an independent photographer mainly selling my photography in three ways: You can’t just store them on a disk and hope to find them when you need them… Here are my requirements on what a DAM should do (for me), plus some comments on current DAM vendors. In the photography world it usually refers to an application to manage the thousands or hundreds of thousands of image files that a photographer accumulates. It usually refers to a software used to manage various digital files.

What options are there to manage a library of photographs?ĭAM is short for Digital Asset Management.

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