Image Library's

[yma123]

Dear All,

I am in the process of putting together a massive image library...

We have purchased i view media pro & I am using bridge also to apply keywords & meta data but I was wondering if anyone out there has put together a IL & what is the best way of doing this?

ideas pretty please?
thanks
amy...

[WannaBrie]

What is the end use of the image library? Is it for a database, or is this the library for use of your art dept. or clients?

[yma123]

the image library will be on our intranet, so available to employees...

Our technician/programmer is investigating the best way to do this at the moment & his options are database, index server & something else... not sure where he is at with this at the moment...

Its a crazy project!!!!!!!!!

amy

[Craig B]

Where are the images coming from, just out of curiosity? Do you have an in-house photographer?

[yma123]

Images are coming from all over the place... CD, from other design agencies, some from photographers that have taken various shoots for annual reports or product launches...

I work for Boral... a big Australian construction compnay... I work in-house for Boral & have been here for 5 years... we have truck loads of images... heaps of divisions in the company...

We have a massive server so these images are being uploaded to that & keywords & metadata is being applied...

amy...

[PrintDriver]

Check out Cumulus Data Asset Management.
It's too much for my inventory but if you really mean "massive", it might be worth scoping out.

[yma123]

thanks... i will... I think our server is a terrabyte... or something like this!

[garricks]

Bringing this thread back to life briefly to ask you all what you use for image management. We have a mixture of in-house photography, stock images and illustrations that need to be indexed and tracked. We're currently using an older version of Extensis Portfolio server. I'm going to look for Cumulus; does anyone else have any suggestions? Much appreciated!

[budafist]

We don't manage our images. They are all separated into their respective customer/job files.

[urstwile]

We do that as well, buda.

[budafist]

We do that as well, buda.

Oh good. Glad we're not the only ones.

[urstwile]

I've toyed with the idea of looking into something different, but we've always managed with our system, so it hasn't been a major focus.

[garricks]

We're also looking at Picturian (http://www.picturian.com) (which looks promising), Final Cut Server (when it becomes available), and something like "capture" (It's what MLB uses).*

We keep images with their respective jobs, but we keep the originals in a library on a server. It's becoming unmanagable--difficult to find images using only Bridge. Much of this library never had key words assigned, either. Blech.

*And, BTW, I have no connection to any of these products.

[urstwile]

Let me know what you come up with, I do actually toy around with various thoughts about this stuff, primarily because we also have very frequent requests from the account service department and others to provide them with "the image we used on that gizmo a while back, do you remember" kind of situations. I've often thought some type of image library software or other scheme would be well utilized where I work.

[fingerPrint.Design]

We store all our images on an Xserve, each client has their own iPhoto on that server then inside that they have different albums.

Hold down option and click on iPhoto to start, then you locate the client's iPhoto you need to open and click it. Pretty nice.

[budafist]

I guess being being an inhouse designer you only really have 1 client so having an image library would beneficial.

Having an image library when all your clients are different (like ours) would be a disaster. Just imagine how many files we have called productshot1.jpg or something?

[urstwile]

Well, see, that's the thing, Buda. It takes someone to organize all of those images, in a way that works for everyone. Do I want to do that? Um, no. Even though I'd be the best candidate to do so, but I think I'd prefer reading about the history of socks over doing that as part of my job description.

[budafist]

The history and adventures of socks that go missing via the dryer would be interesting I'm sure. :)

[urstwile]

Way more interesting than organizing an image library, most definitely! :)

[budafist]

Oh wait, I could organise an image library if I was an inhouse designer for a really innovative food magazine :D

[urstwile]

http://i31.tinypic.com/dhbvk3.gif

You kill me Buda. :D

[budafist]

That wasn't a comedic statement. It's the truth! :D Though I am glad to be of entertainment to you Urst.

[urstwile]

I know it's the truth! That's almost funnier to me. :D (((hugs)))

Consider it an endearing trait. :)

[Eggles1]

I'm the sole inhouse designer for a dental supply company -- not nearly as exciting as food. And I have literally 1000s of images to try and manage. In the 3 years I've been here, I have tried various approaches, and none of them have been perfect. On the one hand, I need to have high-rez CMYK versions for use in print projects, and the product managers want low-rez RGB versions for their press releases and powerpoint presentations.

After our most recent 200+ page product catalogue was produced (happens every couple of years) I made high-rez PDFs of the the catalogue, divided into sections corresponding to the printed version and made CDs. I also produced some guidelines on how to use the Snapshot Tool in Acrobat Reader to extract reasonable quality pics of whatever product they were after. It works reasonably well, but of course for newer products not yet in the catalogue, requires me to make one-off versions on request.

If I had to share my high-rez image library with anyone else, it probably wouldn't work. Too many of the images are not named with something that means anything, including the ones taken by our freelance photographer. Each time I come across a new image, I try to name it with a name that means something, and to file it in one of the subfolders I have created in the image library. Subfolders may be created according to manufacturer, type of equipment, etc. This is once down to the 'Products' folder of the image library. There's also logos, backgrounds, drawings, non-product photos, signatures etc etc. It's overwhelming really.

[garricks]

Well, see, that's the thing, Buda. It takes someone to organize all of those images, in a way that works for everyone. Do I want to do that? Um, no. Even though I'd be the best candidate to do so, but I think I'd prefer reading about the history of socks over doing that as part of my job description.That's me in my department, too. The problem we have now is the lack of keywording. And a system to track which photos have been recently used, so we don't have competing business units using the same images.

Thanks for the feedback! (and the foodback LOL :D ). I'll post more as we move forward. I think if I was in charge of a food image library I'd always be hungry...and always eating! :)

[budafist]

I'll post more as we move forward. I think if I was in charge of a food image library I'd always be hungry...and always eating! :)

Well that would be nothing new with me :)