Pacific Northwest Images

In a previous post I discussed using a commercial application for downloading images from camera memory cards. My gradual (but not complete) switch to Linux is causing me to look for alternative applications that fit my workflow but run under Linux. It’s important for me to find applications that fit MY workflow and down’t require me to change the way I like doing things.

I’ve found DIM to be very capable of handling my image downloads. That’s good news but what’s even better is that DIM is free and it works on pretty much any system that supports the JAVA runtime environment (Apple, Linux, Windows).

DIM scans your camera memory cards recursively so you don’t have to worry about sub-directories being skipped, it will get all of the images. I have DIM setup to use the EXIF data contained in the image files to save each image into a directory on my computer that corresponds to the date the image was taken. DIM can also rename the image file according to criteria that the user sets up but at this stage of the workflow, I keep the camera assigned name. There are so many options for naming and directory structure in DIM that it really should fit the needs of most photographers. One option that I may try out in the future is to have DIM prompt me for a “Job Name” and then append that name to each image filename.

The other option that I use in DIM is to automatically create backup files while it DIM downloads the files from the camera memory card. I tell it to backup the files to a network drive then write-protect those files.

I’m very happy with DIM as my image downloading software. My next step is to find a good image management (RAW and jpg) and cataloging system (let me know if you know of any).

With digital photography comes the opportunity to amass a huge collection of image files. It is just so easy to push the shutter button knowing that you won’t have to pay for the lab processing costs. What we digital photographers seem to forget are the costs associated with handling the many gigabytes worth of data. I believe it is very important to start as early as possible when it comes to proper management of digital images. This is part 1 of a series of articles that I will be sharing on my digital photo workflow. In this segment I will share my first step in going from my camera to my computer.

I will begin by discussing how I arrange my images on my computer. I use a

folder naming scheme that is based on the shooting date. I use the format ‘2006-01-01” so the folders will show up in chronological order in my directory structure. I always keep the original filename somewhere within the filename so my RAW file backup can be associated with my working copy if need be.

Technorati Profile