Help with DAM software

[Mark_Milstein]

Hi,

Does anyone know of a "web-based" cataloging or browsing software (like Photomechanic or Fotostation)?

Both of these programs are resident on a specific PC, and only allow the person sitting in front of the computer to work on a specific photo or file.

I wonder if there was a software package that could be seen via a secured website that would allow multiple "editors" to come on and view images, add IPTC data -- or even change it -- and move those images to different folders or subfolder.

Any ideas would be welcomed.

Thanks.

Mark Milstein

[Robert_Smith]

Try Image Folio that might do what you want

Rob

[Mark_Milstein]

Robert,

We're using ImageFolio as our web portal. Unfortunately, it only allows users to edit the IPTC fields of one photo at a time. Very time consuming when we need a product which can handle 100s or thousands of photos at a time.

I need something like Fotostation, a product which allows batch processing -- which is web based.

Thanks.

Mark

[BobSmith]

I have ImageFolio and Lightbox Photo. Lightbox is miles ahead of ImageFolio though probably still short of what need. Lightbox will let you apply IPTC to an entire folder of images at once as well as edit individual images. What it can't do that locally hosted DAM software does is edit a selected group of images within a directory. The Enterprise version of Lightbox is designed for a situation where multiple photographers are contributing/editing the database of images. As such it has more features for managing such things than ImageFolio does. Development and support at ImageFolio seems to be dormant at best.

Bob Smith

[Mark_Milstein]

Thanks for the extra information. I will absolutely checkout Lightbox. It sounds interesting.

As for ImageFolio, we are using it to host around one million images, and it certainly has its drawbacks. On the other hand, while the responsiveness of its tech support has been awkward, once they get into gear things seem to work smoothly.

We've had them custom build about five macros in the past four years. What's your experience with them?

Mark

[Mark_Milstein]

I had a chance to see the LightboxPhoto site. Interesting, and it actually led me to wonder whether they could solve another one of my issues.

We take in about 2000 new images each day. To re-index them to our 700,000 image plus general archive takes 24-30 hours using ImageFolio. That means we can only do it once a week (normally on Saturdays) when few clients are searching.

Am I right to understand that LightboxPhoto can actually add the IPTC data and keywords embedded in a photo and make it searchable to clients seconds after it's been added to the archive?

Can it do this to 2000 images at one time?

Thanks.

Mark

[BobSmith]

You're on a much different level of usage than I am. I've been running a Commerce version of ImageFolio for something like three years with about 30K images currently in the archive. I use it to archive images for my commercial clients. They can access private pages and view proofs archived from shoots do for them. They can search and order from older sessions and get additional copies (for a fee) of images they've already purchased but may have lost or damaged.

Imagefolio has been pretty much flawless in terms of operational stability for me. I have it on an in-house OS-X server. I assume you must be running a MySQL version. I'm not. The Commerce version has not been updated at all during the time that I've been running it though Biz Design has occasionally made noises about something coming. Nothing ever seems to. I've basically resorted to hiring someone that knows perl better than I to do minor mods that I've needed.

I learned about and purchased Lightbox (Enterprise) based on posts on Imagefolio's own forum. Those posts are still there... months later. That doesn't tell me that Biz Design is terribly interested in the ImageFolio product. Here's an example. There are many other similar threads.

I'm still working on setting up my Lightbox Photo site so I'm no expert. But so far I'm very impressed. All of their software is php and MySQL based so performance is quite good. I've only played around with relatively small test sites so far so I have no great concept of how it will handle large numbers. My sense is that it should do well. On one test version I managed to import my entire Imagefolio library in a few mouse clicks. With a little better planning I can see how I can move the whole library over without too much effort it that's what I choose to do (I probably won't for other unrelated reasons)

Be sure to email Lightbox for an admin demo. That's the part that sold me. Also look closely at some of the sample sites running their software to get a better feel for the possiblities. The developers are quite responsive to pre and post purchase questions. Describe exactly your concerns to them and they'll give you straightup answers. Pretty much what I did and it's how I ended up buying into it.

Bob Smith