Imageview - Digital Asset Management
Being a positive, ‘glass half full’ type of person, I tend to look forward and not dwell too much on the past and any obvious mistakes. However, being a self taught photographer, I have certainly learnt from my errors and there have been quite a few over the past 40 years. We photographers soon learn if we take a ‘squiffy’ photograph and make sure that the next one is far better. When I used film (pre 1996), I seem to remember it cost me around 38p for each frame, with processing. I soon learnt to ‘see the photograph’, before thinking about firing the shutter and save me money from wasted shots.
A helicopter pilot friend of mine used to call me ‘One Shot Charlie’ as we took aerial photographs around the country. As I leant out of the open helicopter door (we could easily remove the door in those days) I would see my target appearing into view below us and I would chat to him through the headset mic, giving him precise instructions for the height and direction of the aircraft that I required. The pilot cannot see through my viewfinder, hence the need for good communication between us. I would raise the camera to my eye, watch the subject, usually a large ‘tin shed’, appearing into view and then ‘click’ - I would fire the shutter before we moved on to find a different angle. After around 10 shots* it was time to switch film backs and we were off again. I would probably only have around 3 backs loaded (30 shots), so when it was time to reload them with a new roll of film, I would try to combine it with flying on to the next site. Helicopter hire with a professional pilot is expensive, so I had to ensure we maximised the aerial photography against flying time. * My Mamiya RZ camera would take 6x7 cm images - hence 10 images on a 120 roll of film.
Digital photography has changed all of this and I do see some young photographers adopting the ‘spray and pray technique’ of firing off a stream of shots in the general direction of the subject, on the basis that a few of them will be ‘keepers’. With autofocus and AI enabled tracking, this can achieve a high rate of sharp focus, if not the best composition and will probably also result in thousands of images to view and processing later on. I guess ‘old habits die hard’ and I have never really adopted this technique, apart from fast moving subjects such as cars, when it is useful to take a quick burst of images.
This brings me to the moral of this story: You will know that we went digital way back in 1996, so we had to quickly learn how to manage large amounts of digital images on computers and hard drives, rather than simply filing negatives and transparencies in folders. This was all pre website and online digital asset management (DAM). I looked at products such as Canto Cumulous™ and Extensis Portfolio™ to manage our ever increasing catalogue of digital images, but they were expensive and lacked the functionality that I was looking for. Here comes my biggest mistake that I have ever made - I decided to commission my own DAM and employ a full time software engineer to build it. The easy bit was to register the name, ‘Imageview’ but I soon learnt that dealing with ‘coders’ is not easy, especially as they tend to work at night and don’t answer the phone! Email was quite basic in those days and we had to connect to the internet via ‘dial up’ - do you remember waiting for the beeps and strange sounds as we tried to connect?
Imageview was now well under construction, but I think it might have been cheaper to tear up ten pound notes, as software coders can also be incredibly expensive. It was also taking ages for our new software to become available and we seemed to be constantly stuck in a ‘Beta’ mode of testing. I can also remember paying for our engineer to fly over to Norway for more training in the principals of DAM. The Nordic companies are really good at software, probably due to their long dark winter months, and I had seen some new developments which looked ideal, hence I decided to send our chap over to investigate. The months went by and we eventually had a basic DAM system that could both store and deliver JPG images to our customers. People began to hear of our new software solution and we even won a marketing award for it. To be honest, I don’t think the judges really understood what we were up to and probably thought this new idea deserved an award of some kind. I guess this recognition helped to dissipate the worry of how much the development had cost to date!
You will all know the saying: ‘don’t try to re-invent the wheel’ and I was beginning to think that, by commissioning our own software, I had not only tried to build the equivalent of new wheels, but also a new chassis and an engine in software terms! It was now 2001 and new websites were starting to appear, so I became aware of a company called Picturepark ™ in Switzerland, who had developed a superb looking DAM system. I always think good design is such an important element of software and that is probably why so many of us love the Mac GUI (general user interface) We spend so much time on our computers and I hate to see badly designed icons, thumbnails and boring fonts. I decided to cut my losses and caught a flight out to Switzerland to meet the young team at Picturepark. The result of my trip was a long standing relationship with them that stretched over many years. I even suggested that they should use the tag line ‘Made in Switzerland’, as their software seemed to run with the reliability of a Swiss watch - I noticed that they still use it to this day.
Over the years, I have worked with many other software companies, but these days, I simply use my Imageview brand as a means to describe the software portion of my digital workflow. With the knowledge that I have accumulated over the years and the many mistakes that I have made, I can also use Imageview as part of my Studio2 consultancy when I help clients install their own product photography studios. It may seem strange for a photographer to do this, but as times change we all need to adapt and many of my customers continue to use me for more complex photography work and are happy to pay me to help them learn how to bring simple and repetitive work in-house. Imageview now uses the very best ‘off the shelf’ software as part of my digital workflow and I will only recommend it after I have carefully researched and tested it as part of my own requirement at CWP. To keep things simple, Imageview now uses three modules called PDC, or ‘Process, Deliver and Catalogue’. Do call me if you would like more details, but here is a quick overview of each module. They can be used individually or as a whole:
Process: Raw image processing for photographers, using the industry standard software for the best colour reproduction.
Delivery: Store and deliver high resolution images and video, or allow the user to select any size of image for download.
Catalogue: Quickly create a searchable image catalogue from your own archive and add AI key-wording automatically.
Imageview has gone through many changes over the years and I have certainly learnt that software development can be incredibly time consuming and expensive. These days we have ‘white label’ apps (software application) that can be quickly modified to give the impression that the software has been developed in-house and these can be incredibly powerful. Indeed, my son and daughter-in-law are currently using an off the shelf app to help with their landscaping business. I have learnt that it is often best to find the best software solution created by others, and then carefully test it, before using it on live photoshoots. Only then, will I recommend it to my customers. Trying to develop my own software was not my best decision, but I do have a nice glass award on the wall to remind me that we all learn from our mistakes!
