ACDSee DAM has anyone experience of using it to create Tags recognised by Alamy ?

[BoBman]

Hi,

I am trialling DAM softwares trying to find one that will catalog all my files, Msoft Office, CAD, Photographs, pdf etc etc, and enable me to continue allocating Keywords that I can search on in the software to find the images, and also embed those keywords into the image such that Alamy picks up on them and creates tags, just as I used to do with Extensis Portfolio until Extensis killed the prog off. (very angry with them indeed as finding an alternative is hell !)

ACDSee has Categories which are confusing the life out of me, as a category in my mind is a sort of folder or case in which Keywords are contained, so one might have AircraftType and within that have Spitfire Hurricane Mustang B17 Lancaster etc etc. Instead I am told by Tech support at ACDSee to right click the Category I have created of AircraftType and choose NewCategory and type Lancaster. or Spitfire etc. Lets call this a sub category. I would end up with 500 sub categories, if there are 500 aircraft types I need to allocate to photos.

 

One then selects a photo of a Lancaster, and ticks the box next to the sub-category of Lancaster, that photo is now with a Category of Lancaster.

 

ACDSee also  has Keywords but I am at a loss to know why can't Lancaster be a keyword.

 

Getting my pic of a Lancaster into Alamy.

 

ACDSee help says :-

You can add information to your images using IPTC and ACDSee Metadata. IPTC information is automatically embedded into your image, while ACDSee Metadata can be embedded into your file, or stored in the database. You can add this information to one or multiple files at a time. We recommend entering and editing metadata prior to processing your images.

To Add Metadata to One or More Files:

1. In Manage mode, select one or more files in the File List pane.
2. In the Properties pane, select the Metadata tab.
3. Enter information into the metadata fields.
4. Click Apply or press Enter to apply your changes.

 

 

I get the feeling I will have to enter all my categories or as I still call them keywords, all over again, unlike Portfolio when the allocated Keywords could be told to be embedded into Metadata.

 

Does anyone know of the steps involved with ACDSee and clarify this process for me as well as enlighten me on what is a keyword and what is not, why is Lancaster or Spitfire not a keyword ?

 

Why Spitfire as a keyword cant be held within a collective set called  AircraftType. I am still mentally in Portfolio mode where their CustomField would have been AircraftType and when the dropdown arrow was clicked on one would see Spitfire, Lancaster, Mustang etc etc.

 

Furthermore if I can have Spitfire or Lancaster as a keyword, as well as other specifics in the picture such as wheel chocks, starter trolley etc and I have allocated such to a photo, is that then termed as ACDSee metadata, such that then when I go tools>embed ACDSee Metadata>to selected files they get embedded and become the keywords in IPTC, I hope so as that saves me typing it all out again in the metadata entry window tech support navigated me to :-(

 

Any help appreciated as I think tech support have messed up in advice here a bit.

 

update...A tricky to follow video seems to show creation of keywords and an option to create a keyword set though no explanation of how though.

For Alamy I would need to have all spellings options for example of Spitfire 1  Spitfire Mk1 Spitfire mark1 Spitfire mark 1 allocated to ACDSee metadata for the photo,  when I just select a single keyword Spitfire Mk1 , so how would I get ACDSee to do that ?

 

BobMan

 

[Vincent Lowe]

Do yourself a favour and have a look at IMatch.

[BoBman]

Hi,

I had tested Imatch last year, mixed results, looked promising but alas some issues... text copied in from my notes:-

Thumbs failure....YES,

_MG_5D_4340.CR2

_MG_5D_4341.CR2

_MG_5D_4341(2).CR2

Yet other progs thumbed these, and these are 3 of a total of 8 cr2 files in the test folder. Added more, prog not seeing 5 cr2 images, very slow, then showed 1, now 3 not showing.

BIG PROBLEM HERE !!! DAMN !

 

Thumbs creation speed slow, compared to others tested.

also couldnt see a way of creating Keyword sets such as Cities or Animals or vehicles.

search on keyword by selecting from list, couldnt see a way at the time.

colours same as pshop...No, cant find colour profile setting to make AdobeRGB though very ‘busy’ preferences area ! also a tad softer as well.

However I would love to overcome these issues as they spoilt an otherwise promising prog.

BoBman

 

[Vincent Lowe]

Mario updates iMatch usually once a month and there has been many improvements and updates since last year - give it another try. If there are problems reading your files send a copy of one of the problem files to Mario and he will have a look, usually very quickly.  See the Community forum.  One thing to note though, from a posting in the message board by Mario - Microsoft includes a set or WIC RAW codecs in Windows, but these do not support all format variants. For example, Canon has produced about 50 different RAW variants, many of them incompatible. All share the .CR2 file extension...
 

Thumbs creation slow - bear in mind that IMatch is not only creating thumbnails but is also importing all the metadata, so once it's finished importing you have 'data driven categories' already filled with camera, lens, shooting data etc.

 

Not sure about keyword sets but there are many ways to speed up keywording - Favourites, Recent, History.  There's also a Thesaurus which can be used to automatically add synonyms, plurals etc.  I keep keyword sets in a separate 'Post-It' notes type program and just copy and paste.

 

AdobeRGB - can't see why you would need colour profiling for a file management program - it's not an editor.  I've been using IMatch for years and never felt the need.

[BoBman]

Hi,

 

I will dl the latest and retest.

 

Thumbs was slow compared to others tested., I presume they are all doing the same thing though.

 

Failure to thumb the CR2 files was not met by the other progs tested, they all had access to what coding they come with and what Msoft had on my PC at the time. All tested same week.

 

I would prefer to have my keywords sets in the program rather than hop in and out minimise maximise or whatever to get to them.

 

I also couldnt see a way of searching on keywords I had allocated to images e.g  dog in Ferrari in London so select from animals set dog, from Cities London and from cars Ferrari.

I simply couldnt even see a way of selecting a keyword from even a massive single keyword list and searching for images with it. Pretty fundamental that ! crucial to use the keyword from the list to ensure correct spelling or term used etc. If the keywords dont even exist in the prog but in e.g. postit notes type prog how will I search on keywords, as progs have it that by clicking on a keyword images with that are displayed.

 

I do want to see the images displayed by the prog same as they appear in photoshop raw converter to decide if an image is useable etc. I am cataloging pre-processed images, so as to later on be able to find images, compare then decide which one to use. I dont want to have to open each one up in photoshop to see if its any good. With Photosupreme it matches the original image, ditto Extensis Portfolio. If its more jaded than the original image that was taken with AdobeRGB1998 on the camera, and viewed in pshop also set to AdobeRGB1998 (which is the profile to use for photography) my thought was maybe iMatch uses sRGB which will give lesser quality colour images. Progs in a workflow for photos should be AdobeRGB1998 throughout, even a scanner.

 

Cheers

 

BoBman

[Vincent Lowe]

1 hour ago, BoBman said:

Thumbs was slow compared to others tested., I presume they are all doing the same thing though.

 

Probably but, as I said, IMatch imports the metadata - if there was a problem here perhaps it would prevent the file from being read even though there is nothing wrong with the actual image.  However, only Mario could answer that if you send him a sample file.

 

1 hour ago, BoBman said:

simply couldnt even see a way of selecting a keyword from even a massive single keyword list and searching for images with it

 

When you import your files into IMatch it creates a category @keywords   Under this category it lists every single keyword that it has read from your files as a separate entry and tells you how many files have that keyword.  Simply click on a keyword and it displays all these files....

 

 

[BoBman]

Cheers,

I was importing photos that had not been keyworded though, from camera, or sourced originally from internet etc. Then after applying some keywords I couldnt see a way of searching on images in my test folders with those.

 

BoBman.

[Vincent Lowe]

Hmmm.. I don't understand why you couldn't search.  When you add keywords in IMatch it doesn't add them to the actual images straight away, they are only held in the database at first (otherwise it slows things down).  But they are added to the @keywords list so are searchable from here even though the keyword isn't actually in the image at this point.  Also can be searched from the 'Metadata Search' filter in the 'Filter Panel'. 

 

When you've finished a keywording session you 'write back' the data, which enters it into the actual images.

 

It's quite a comprehensive program (you can even write your own apps for it now) - I suggest you study the help file (note to self - practice what you preach...)