Last week I published the first part of the interview I conducted with Hans Fremuth from Metability Software about image metadata. In this section Hans talked about the current state of the image metadata standard development and in particular about the XMP standard developed by Adobe. In addition, Hans provides insight into how he organizes his own pictures on his computer. This article is the second part of the interview.
My favorite Photo & Video store!
Largest selection and best prices! |
My favorite computer store!
Fastest shipping and best prices! |
My favorite web hosting company!
Amazing features at the lowest price! |
From the category archives:
I had the privilege to chat over e-mail with Hans Fremuth from Metability Software about image metadata. He was very gracious not only to answer my questions but also to provide a great history of the image metadata standards available today (EXIF, IPTC, XMP). His long history with file metadata in general and image metadata in particular makes him a great resource for a serious photographer. Hans’ great understanding of the history of modern image metadata standards provides great clarity to his vision about the field of managing unstructured data in general and image metadata in particular. This article is the first part of the interview. 
Some time ago I had the privilege to ask professor and photographer Stephen Cysewski some questions. He was very gracious to include lots of details in his answers. Stephen Cysewski is Professor of Computer Applications, Emeritus at University of Alaska Fairbanks and has been living in Alaska since 1967. 
Since there are so many photographers and photography websites it is very hard to get your pictures noticed on the internet. You may really be a very talented and experienced photographer and you may indeed have many great pictures. But how to you get the word out on the internet? How do you get your pictures noticed? What do you do to have your pictures show up in an internet search like Google, Yahoo or Bing? Fortunately there are some steps that you can take so that your pictures become “visible”. Read on and see what I have found out about making my pictures “visible” on the internet.
It is my belief that while there are general steps in a photographer’s workflow, each photographer will have his/her own workflow customised to fit his or her purpose. That being said, I also believe that there a few questions that each photographer should ask when contemplating changes to their photography workflow. I don’t know about you, but it has happened to me a few times when I read about someone else’s photography workflow and I just quickly adapted it only to find out later that it’s not working that great for me. This forced me to ask some really simple questions before changing anything. ( Photo credit: 
Tagging your images is so cool, compared with using plain old folders…at least that’s what everyone says 
But how do your carefully created keywords get attached to your images? What are EXIF, IPTC and XMP? And most of all…why should you care about all of these acronyms? Understanding the different types of image metadata will help you better manage your pictures.
I have been looking for a long time for some software that would allow me to manage keywords in an efficient manner. What do I mean by efficient? It’s pretty simple: all I want is the ability to group my keywords into categories or domains. For example: I want 
Once you get started with Digital Asset Management (DAM) software you will quickly run into another management issue: your keywords. I believe any DAM software user will eventually ask himself the question: how am I supposed to create my keywords? Reading various internet sources on the subject I usually run into two kinds of advice: some say you should just start adding keywords to your images while others say you should be careful and think through your keywords before creating them. Even though it seems that most advice falls in the first category, I happen to fall into the second category. I do believe that you should be careful when you create keywords primarily because if you create too many, then you will have to manage your keywords as well pretty soon…as if managing your pictures is not enough headache. 
Taking a picture is very simple but obtaining a great picture is a complicated task. Have you wondered what is the difference between a great photographer and a beginner photographer? The main difference, in my opinion, is that a good photographer thinks the picture through before pressing the button. Then he or she uses all those manual features of their camera and they keep touching buttons…it feels like they take forever before they take that picture. The reason is very simple…getting a great picture is a complicated task. On the other hand, I believe that there are some simple steps that can can result in great pictures. Granted, these steps will not put you in the professional category but then can improve your photography greatly.
Creating a strong folder structure is the best way to start organizing your digital pictures. Such a structure can be expanded with the use of tags if needed (see 
If you have been taking digital pictures for a while you’ve probably been forced to deal with organizing your pictures. You have also probably been asking yourself if the method you’re using is a good method. Currently there are two different approaches to picture organization: using tags and using folders. There are a number of software programs that support either or 
This article outlines the steps to transfer pictures from your camera to your computer using the Windows XP Scanner and Camera wizard. It doesn’t cover the steps to transfer pictures using any other software. The Windows XP Scanner and Camera Wizard is the default Windows XP picture transfer capability and it provides an easy interface for transferring pictures. I think that there are better solutions for transferring your pictures but The XP Scanner and Camera Wizard will do the job as well.
Can you really learn how to organize your pictures in just 5 steps? If you have been trying to find a simple way to organize your growing collection of digital pictures, you are probably frustrated by now because everyone seems to have a different method. Why is my method better? Because it is simple ! Yes, I believe it is the simplest and most efficient method to organize your digital pictures…for most people. 
