Digital BW, The Print

Hello Jim,

> I would appreciate hearing the views and experience of users of
image 
> database software such a Adobe Photoshop Album, IMatch 3, ACDSee,
or 
> other programs, pro and con, particularly as an archive for images 
> where the primary manipulation will be done in Photoshop 7.
> How useful?  What is the best choice now?  

I recently installed Adobe Photoshop Album and am extremely pleased
with it.  I was desperate to get my mass of pics, from digicam
snapshots to serious BW neg scans, under control.  The design is
brilliant, in that you can create any number of tags (categories and
sub categories), and assign any number of tags to an image.  Tags can
be assigned to images en masse (to groups of selected images with a
single drag/drop).  Later you can select any tag or group of tags and
instantly see the images belonging to that filter combination.  You
can also select a date range by dragging a slider and instantly see
what is in that range.  It's a great organizer, and also has all sorts
of consumer oriented abilities like creating web pages, albums, slide
shows, etc.  Annotations can be added to images.

While it's a great organizer, it's definitely consumer oriented and
doesn't have any features for the fine art photographer.  If you sell
prints and/or show your work regularly you might want to have a look
at "Itrak" on my web site (there's a demo version).  

Itrak was written expressly for fine art photographers, with special
features for gallery or art show exhibitors.  It uses a "portfolio"
system where each portfolio has a master database of original images,
such as a negative, and a related database of prints made from that
original.  Prints can be assigned to consignment groups going to a
gallery or art show, and reports can be printed with thumbnail images
to be used as an inventory for the gallery owner.  It keeps track of
sales, prices, commissions, etc.  Basically, every negative, and every
print made from that neg, is cataloged and tracked (Itrak -> Image
Tracker).  You can see immediately how many prints you've made and
where they are, whether they sold, who bought them, etc.  There's more
but that should give you an idea what it's all about. 

Regards,
Clayton


Info on black and white digital printing at    
http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm