Fotostation Users......

[jennifer_durand]

I have decided to find myself a good image archive system and someone recommended Fotostation.

Does anyone have personal experience. I have noticed that many PN subscribers use Lightroom.

I am looking for quick and easy access to images and something I can grow into.

[ellis_vener_photography]

I've got Fotostation and its very very good ... but I use Lightroom day in and day out. The workflow is just smoother --especially the archiving and the vastly improved capture sharpening in V1.1 has now taken another big hunk out of what I have to do in Photoshop.

 

Yes there are other raw development programs ranging ranging from marginally to slightly better raw processors on the market -- the best of which is Raw Developer, followed by Bibble Pro, followed by Apple's Aperture, followed by Capture One. And there are the camera maker specific programs like Nikon Capture NX and Canon's DPP. I've got all of these too -- but I've just flatten gotten tired of learning one workflow after another for what are in the end are small gains for the way I work and the kind of photography I do (general professional and commercial work: portraits, architecture, products, people) and the investment in time to really learn and master them. I'm a professional photographer, not a professional software learner or armchair nitpicker.

 

For archiving I also have what was iView Media Pro, Hindsight's Stockview and Inview programs and a custom built (but lightweight) application built in FileMaker Pro but as I said above, Lightroom is it.

 

But that is just my opinion.

[jennifer_durand]

Thanks Ellis,

I need a dedicated archival system only. I use the RAW file developer recommended for my

camera and like you my interest is in photography not new software. I am an advanced

Photoshop user and don't want to start a brand new learning curve unless necessary. If it

works I rarely change it. My photographs are becoming very difficult to find so I believe its

time for a change.

[ellis_vener_photography]

"My photographs are becoming very difficult to find so I believe its time for a change."

 

I have spenta lot of time over the past year dealignwith exactly that proble. last Amrch I started with tens of thousands of images -scans, photoCD scans, as well as images shot with digital camerasspread out over 6 250Gb hard disk drives and umpteen CD-Rs and DVD-Rs, Some were even on ZIP and SyQuest drives. after about fifteen months of intensive work locating, renaming and embedding keywords and meta-data, The problem has just about been completely solved. There are a few fragments that remain but the library structure has been built and tested for rigor and the virtual shelves and catalog of both new and older material have been filled in a way that retains the rigor but is flexible enough to continue growing.

 

What really helped was finding and starting to implement Peter Krogh's advice in "The DAM Book" ( http://www.thedambook.com ). Eventually I ended up with a filing and naming system similar to his but mroe tailored to the needs of my library, and I use Lightroom now instead of what was iView Media Pro 3. Still,, my advise is that before you buy any more software, get a copy of "the DAM Book"