solutions wanted Looking For A Solution For A Non-Technical Artists To Manage Photos

[greenbox]

Hi,

I'm maybe overthinking this, and hoping for insights or a solution from the forum.

The situation: a fairly non-technical artist whose artwork I have been managing manually for years. I am moving and unable "on call" for her but will be able to check in monthly.

Three things need to happen:

• storing info about the art (paintings, prints, sculptures)
  
• providing download and access to photos she takes
  
• storing high-res and color-corrected copies of photos
  

I'm thinking I can make a Filemaker database for the first part, which would include lots of metadata about the work, who bought it, # of prints in edition, etc.

I could teach her to use iPhoto for the second need of easily downloading images from her camera.

For the third need, I could develop a manual process of wisely naming directories and files on the harddrive to organize the "perfect" images. So if ever iPhoto became corrupt there would be a source for all the good images.

Here's what the process would look like.

She could download her images to iPhoto, and tag them as artwork. From there if she wants to do some adjustment herself, or email them to people she can. So she can be somewhat independent.

But then occasionally I would go in and work with any new images she has added since the last time I worked with her. I would pick the best images, wisely name them, store them, etc.

And then I would update the Filemaker database -- in Filemaker I think I would only need to have one representative image in the layout, and then have a link to the directory where the highres images live.

Seems complicated. Is there a better solution?

[greenbox]

Did I post to the wrong part of the forum? If I did, please let me know. Or if this is just too off-base, you can tell me that too....

[Genx]

Just hard to tell what your actual question is... Is there a better solution? .. probably not. It's obviously not a good idea to use FileMaker as a primary file store for high resolution images so iphoto and the directory structure idea in case of corruption is a good idea..

[Fenton]

The data iPhoto stores about the pictures, as well as the path to the full size and thumbnail images in iPhoto are in its AlbumData.xml, which is in a known location in the users Pictures/iPhoto Library. The syntax of the XML is the Plist format, which is common all over OS X. It is a bit "abstract", if you're used to regular "business" xml, but not that hard to work with.

You can import that data into FileMaker, using an XSL stylesheet. The fact that the Plist is abstract means that a single call can get all the data elements of the Master Image List. There's other data in the AlbumData.xml also, re: albums, etc.. But I'm not much of a photographer, so I haven't gotten into that.

You can create a calculation in FileMaker to show the images. You could use AppleScript to show each image's file, or do whatever with it, while leaving it within iPhoto's organizational structure. I'm not really sure how you'd do multiple albums, etc.. I've only got about 15 photos in iPhoto, and I only use it to mess with xml and FileMaker.

So basically you could let iPhoto hold and organize the images, import the data iPhoto has about them, and use AppleScript to copy them (or whatever). You could use AppleScript to open them with other graphic applications, if you wanted to.

If you don't know any xml, this may sound difficult. But the basics are not that hard.

iPhoto_Import.zip

[greenbox]

Thanks for the responses.

In answer to the first, yes, the question is, is there a better solution? I just would hate to be missing some easier and more long-lsating solution....

In answer to the second, that's an interesting idea to draw data from iPhoto, but I don't really think I need to do that. I won't have entries in FM for each of the iPhoto images, and it's unlikely that there will be much data that I need, with the exception of the location of the image, which is an interesting idea.

I will think about this some more.

Thanks!

[Tanner]

I have done some photo/document storing apps in the past. I could probably alter one to these needs. The tough part would be sending something to and from iPhoto but could probably be figured out. At the very least I might be able to use applescript to achieve this. Would this be something that you would want to pay for or are you just asking for suggestions?

-Tanner

Thanks for the responses.

In answer to the first, yes, the question is, is there a better solution? I just would hate to be missing some easier and more long-lsating solution....

In answer to the second, that's an interesting idea to draw data from iPhoto, but I don't really think I need to do that. I won't have entries in FM for each of the iPhoto images, and it's unlikely that there will be much data that I need, with the exception of the location of the image, which is an interesting idea.

I will think about this some more.

Thanks!

[Fenton]

The problem with dealing with other people's files, especially non-technical people, is that you have no control of where they put their files, especially if they want some kind of custom structure, which they create. The advantage of storing it within iPhoto is that it: 1. Organizes the photos, and 2. Has a document which says where they are, and some other info about them.

You could on the other hand, let them create whatever file structure they want, outside of iPhoto, then dynamically read the files within it later. As long as you know the folder which encloses this (mess), you can read them. However, if someone moved a file from one place in the structure to another, you'd have a hard time seeing that file as the same as one you had the path for in FileMaker.

I've actually thought of a way to always be able to find a file, on a stand-alone computer, no matter where someone put it later. Which is to create an "alias file" of the original file, capture its name into FileMaker, and store them all in a single folder which you know the path to. An alias file is small, and always knows the path to its original file. I don't know how well that would transfer to another machine however. You could however at any time run an AppleScript routine to fetch the original paths and store them as text in the database. AppleScript is pretty fast at this stuff. I would think of it as a way to "back up" the paths at that particular time.

It is too bad that FileMaker cannot take advantage of aliases' ability to dynamically find files natively. On of the drawbacks of "cross-platform" is "lowest common denominator" features sometimes. But this would be a way to do that.

P.S. If they move the original file, FileMaker will no longer show the image; that fact remains the same. But since the alias file knows the location of the image, you can just run another Insert step, and re-insert (or reset) the alias file into the container field. When you Insert an alias file, FileMaker (or the system) sees it as the original file (at its new location).

[greenbox]

Thanks for the input! I think my original idea was not so terrible after all.

[greenbox]

Is there a way to import an individual image into a FM record while capturing filename and path?

----

I tried out a solution, and realized I have a bit of a problem. I am using the alias idea by the way!

It would be SIMPLEST to start a new record by importing a folder of images, and adding metadata about each image. Because then I could take advantage of Filemaker capturing the filename and path info and not actually embedding the image in the database.

BUT

Sometimes I might already have the metadata for a record, and simply want to add an image for that. I don't know how to do that.

The templates I have seen either give you the option to Import a Folder (which does what I said above) or to Import a Picture, which seems to put the image in the db, and doesn't save filename and path. With the alias idea, I suppose I don't feel as worried about adding an actual image into the db, but it would be nice to have the path and filename handy.

[Valdrin]

Hi,

I'm maybe overthinking this, and hoping for insights or a solution from the forum.

The situation: a fairly non-technical artist whose artwork I have been managing manually for years. I am moving and unable "on call" for her but will be able to check in monthly.

Three things need to happen:

• storing info about the art (paintings, prints, sculptures)
  
• providing download and access to photos she takes
  
• storing high-res and color-corrected copies of photos
  

I'm thinking I can make a Filemaker database for the first part, which would include lots of metadata about the work, who bought it, # of prints in edition, etc.

I could teach her to use iPhoto for the second need of easily downloading images from her camera.

For the third need, I could develop a manual process of wisely naming directories and files on the harddrive to organize the "perfect" images. So if ever iPhoto became corrupt there would be a source for all the good images.

Here's what the process would look like.

She could download her images to iPhoto, and tag them as artwork. From there if she wants to do some adjustment herself, or email them to people she can. So she can be somewhat independent.

But then occasionally I would go in and work with any new images she has added since the last time I worked with her. I would pick the best images, wisely name them, store them, etc.

And then I would update the Filemaker database -- in Filemaker I think I would only need to have one representative image in the layout, and then have a link to the directory where the highres images live.

Seems complicated. Is there a better solution?

What is the artiest's workflow like? iPhoto is ok for some things, but Aperture is really a much better way to go for people serious about their photography.

If you do go with Aperture, there is a free Aperture to Filemaker plug-in made by Ubermind, but it seems that it is not working well with Snow Leopard and Aperture 3. I have heard that the Troi File Plug-in can be used to access Aperture files and I have been meaning to give it a try, but have not done so yet.

If you stick to iPhoto, Bento is really something to consider. It is not filemaker pro, but it integrates with iPhoto and can handle basic database needs.

[greenbox]

thanks for the suggestion

the artist is serious about their artwork, but not serious about photography about their artwork, so though the Aperture/fm solution sounds intriguing, I don't think I need to move up to Aperture. Not yet anyway.

I will look into Bento...but don't own it, so if I can do it with FM, i think I'm better off.