Books/articles I'd like to see

[John Camp]

1. If somebody who can write reasonably well on technical subjects (like Schewe) could write either a book or an extended article on file backup -- RAID systems, etc, and other options -- I'd be eternally grateful. I'll buy the Camera Raw book, but I'm already doing okay there. But backup has me befuddled. And you look at comments in the Managing Megabytes section, and you find people talking about spending an afternoon or a day wading through geek-speak to set up such a system, and even then, they often have problems. I just don 't have the time for that. I would like something clear and simple that would outline the options and the issues and would recommend specific solutions (including manual, move the files yourself options, which is what I'm going now.)

2. It would be interesting if somebody would put together (or to have an extended discussion on) camera set-up ideas, and also a kind of boot-camp on camera handling. The actual physical act of using and handling a camera. What kind of learning routines could you go through that would help you adapt to a new camera more quickly, so you can shoot without taking it down from your eye. The answer to this may seem simple (JUST DO IT), but it's not. Every time you go out, it always seems that you have to do something new, and wind up fumbling around at critical moments.

3. An article on print size.

[Richard Marcellus]

...
3. An article on print size.
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Have you read Alain Briot's article on print size?
[a href=\"http://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/reflections2.shtml]http://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/reflections2.shtml[/url]

Richard

[Rob C]

John, I´m sure you´re far beyond the point of having handling difficulties with cameras, but you have certainly sounded an echo within me.

I don´t change camera that much - but when I think of how easy it was to use Nikons, Rolleis and Hasselblads in pre-digital days, I get a slight anger at the way things have gone. Instinct was all you needed - even focussing the damn things presented few challenges that I can recall. Now, it seems to be a huge problem deciding which part of the auto options available you need, which specific area within the frame you want to make the dominant one - goodness me, what was that all about? Wasn´t it meant to make things foolproof?

For myself, I´ve narrowed it down to two bodies; Nikons F3 and D200. The first needs no manual in the camera case (which lies unused as I seldom venture forth with more than a single lens stuck onto the camera) whilst the digital option is set on matrix and, as all my lenses are manual anyway, simplicity rules. Or at least it would if there was a split-image option. Dream on.

It is sometimes hard to believe that photography is still about pictures; most of the time it seems to be about talking about how to go about actually making one.

I point no fingers - people are free to take from the pursuit what they please, it´s just that it all seems so strange, somehow, the means more important than the end.

Rob C

[rqg]

1. If somebody who can write reasonably well on technical subjects (like Schewe) could write either a book or an extended article on file backup -- RAID systems, etc, and other options -- I'd be eternally grateful. I'll buy the Camera Raw book, but I'm already doing okay there. But backup has me befuddled. And you look at comments in the Managing Megabytes section, and you find people talking about spending an afternoon or a day wading through geek-speak to set up such a system, and even then, they often have problems. I just don 't have the time for that. I would like something clear and simple that would outline the options and the issues and would recommend specific solutions (including manual, move the files yourself options, which is what I'm going now.)
[...]

Have you read The DAM Book – Digital Asset management for Photographers by Peter Krogh? Most of the options and recommendations you are looking for are covered in chapters three and four.

Robert

PS   If you were in Australia, I would suggest you look at my web site.

[digitaldog]

1. If somebody who can write reasonably well on technical subjects (like Schewe) could write either a book or an extended article on file backup -- RAID systems, etc, and other options -- I'd be eternally grateful.

Check out The Dam Book by Peter Krogh.

[John Camp]

Check out The Dam Book by Peter Krogh.
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Andrew, Robert. Thanks for the advice. I immediately clicked through to Amazon to buy the book, but encountered this review, which sounded pretty intelligent (Hope I'm not doing wrong by quoting it):

   
47 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
 Once good, now seriously outdated and needlessly complex, March 1, 2007
By GJ

The DAM Book was probably much needed when it was first published - its publication coincided with a realization by many professional and serious amateur photographers that handling the quickly growing digital photo collections required a sound organizing approach and dedicated software tools. The book aptly points out that dealing with digital image workflow and the resulting file archives is in many significant ways different than dealing with film-based archives. Based on this initial premise, the book offers recommendations on how to organize digital photo studio workflow and filing / archive system.

Alas, the author chose to tie VERY CLOSELY his mostly sensible conceptual framework (i.e., HOW to organize) with very specific software and hardware. Often, more general advice is difficult or impossible to separate from his step-by-step, software-specific recipes. So, unless you use exactly the same software and hardware configuration as the author, much, if not most of this information will be of little use.

Since the book was first published, new, DAM- and photographic workflow-oriented software has become available (Adobe CS3, including the new Bridge is now in public beta nearing its release; and Apple Aperture 1.5 and Adobe PS Ligtroom 1.0 are the new, more workflow-focused tools), and more up-to-date (although dispersed) discussion of problems in question can be found in numerous articles on the web. This makes large portions of the book obsolete, as new tools enable different workflows that may be better suited to many photographers' preferences.

The book has other issues.

First, the author LOVES using technical jargon. While technical vocabulary is appropriate in discussing technical issues, creating new terms and elaborate taxonomies for everything is an overkill. The author's misguided argument for using "controlled vocabularies" (a common term, which he uses in his own, very peculiar way - p. 47) is a good case in point. As Eric Abrahamson (Columbia Business School) aptly points out in his excellent book "A Perfect Mess," organizing is always good in principle, but OVER ORGANIZING by creating systems more complex than it is necessary to get the job done, comes at a very steep price in time and resources needed to maintain the system. Enough said.
<snip>
In summary, you may want to flip through the pages of the book at a local library or bookstore - what's really useful and noteworthy here, can be easily grasped in less than 15 minutes; otherwise, your money may be better spent on a good book focused on the actual software tools YOU are committed to using.

****

So what do you think? The book is a little old now, and I'm worried about the jargon thing. I have to admit that what I'm really looking for is a box that I can plug into my computer and simply backup my stuff automatically. Right now I simply put photos i want to back up in folders and then drag the folders to a small stand-alone drive, which obviously is not a good way to do it.

[digitaldog]

Conceptually, the book still holds lots of value.

For me, it wasn't about following exactly Peter's steps. Its more about understanding the process and coming up with a system that worked for me.

[walter.sk]

...Now, it seems to be a huge problem deciding which part of the auto options available you need, which specific area within the frame you want to make the dominant one - goodness me, what was that all about? Wasn´t it meant to make things foolproof?

For myself, I´ve narrowed it down to two bodies; Nikons F3 and D200. The first needs no manual in the camera case (which lies unused as I seldom venture forth with more than a single lens stuck onto the camera) whilst the digital option is set on matrix and, as all my lenses are manual anyway, simplicity rules.
Rob C
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Rob:  When I first got my Canon 1Dii I felt overwhelmed by the choices, including the custom and personal functions.  Inquiry on several pro forums led to combinations for several types of shooting, and a way to quickly switch from one combo to another.  While the learning curve seemed steep, the help was forthcoming.  I have three basic setups, one for cityscapes, another for bird and nature shots, and another for street shooting. I switch from one to another as needed, but seldom fiddle with individual settings other than shutter speed and aperture.  My camera is simple to use, but different from the next guy's setups.  The point is that I only have changed or selected options that tailor the camera to my possibly quirky needs; I don't touch most of the controls beyond that.  I'm happy that the camera has such a wide variety of choices available such that the few I have made were possible to make.  I am seldom aware of my camera now when I shoot...thechoices are made as second nature.

On the other hand, I remember the shooting and darkroom choices, from film type and speed, grain size, whether to use a warmer developer, polycontrast paper or not, what surface to use, etc.  The varieties of choice have always been there, and people learned what their preferences were and then seemed to forget having had to negotiate the learning curve.

[rqg]

Conceptually, the book still holds lots of value.

For me, it wasn't about following exactly Peter's steps. Its more about understanding the process and coming up with a system that worked for me.
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I agree with Andrew Rodney's comments above. As the author of the quoted Amazon review says, "The book aptly points out that dealing with digital image workflow and the resulting file archives is in many significant ways different than dealing with film-based archives. Based on this initial premise, the book offers recommendations on how to organize digital photo studio workflow and filing / archive system."

Although some of the software mentioned in later chapters of 'The DAM Book' is less relevant now, the strategies presented for building a digital archive, discussed in chapters 3 and 4, remain vitally important. From pp 61,62 ...
. The archive structure you set up today should be scalable in a way that will meet the challenges of decades of storage.
. The directory structure should be simple: quick to scan and quick to add to.
. It should also be easy to determine if a file has been backed up, and easy to restore in the event of a problem.

So what do you think? The book is a little old now, and I'm worried about the jargon thing. I have to admit that what I'm really looking for is a box that I can plug into my computer and simply backup my stuff automatically. Right now I simply put photos i want to back up in folders and then drag the folders to a small stand-alone drive, which obviously is not a good way to do it.

OK, then here's another suggestion. Before you buy 'The DAM Book', read some of the posts at [a href=\"http://thedambook.com/smf/index.php]The DAM Forum, <http://thedambook.com/smf/index.php>[/url]. You will find some very useful information relevant to your question in the Backups and Strategies section. Here's an excerpt from a recent post titled A Summary of My WinXP Backup Strategy ...

I've been getting some requests to provide some more information regarding the strategy I use for my O/S and applications backup, so I will attempt to provide a brief summary of my current setup and what I do.  It is important to have a good solid backup/disaster recovery plan not only for your images, but also for your operating system, applications, databases, catalogs, business files, etc.

Through my own experience, I have discovered that I need both an imaging/cloning application as well as a robust backup utility to fully implement a full proof backup/disaster recovery plan.  Using both types of software, I've found that I can implement an automated backup plan keeping me from losing no more than a single day's worth of work.

To implement this plan, I recommend that you either have two networked PC's or one PC and an external hard drive (firewire, USB2.0, SATA, or eSATA) that stays connected to your PC at all times or at least when the backups are scheduled to occur.  If this is cost prohibitive, you can use a second internal SATA drive for your backups, at a slightly higher risk.  I also recommend that you have another offsite harddrive that you connect for backups on a weekly or monthly basis.  Because these harddrives are not for DAM backups, I've found that 80GB drives are sufficient.  You can purchase 80GB SATA drives today for around $45.

I've found I can implement this plan using GBM Pro v8.0 http://www.genie-soft.com/store/gbmpro.html as my backup utility software and Acronis True Image (TI) 10 Home http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/ as my imaging software.  That is not to say that other applicatons can't implement this plan as well, it's just that these have served me well for the past several years and they both appear to be well supported to-date.

Developing and implementing an automated backup strategy is not easy, particularly for photographers who have minimal IT experience, but it shouldn't be too difficult either. There are many people at The DAM Forum, including Peter Krogh himself, who are very willing to answer your questions.

Robert

[John Camp]

I ordered The Dam Book and will check the website. Thanks all.

By the way, when I ordered it (from Amazon) they recommended other books that I might want, including Real World Camera Raw...the older CS2 Fraser edition. That won't make the CS3/Schewe publisher happy...

JC