Future Proofing and Metadata

[r.e.]

I scan each negative that I decide to keep and then add data to the scan about when the negative was made, subject, camera, lens, film, exposure and where the physical negative is located. The physical negatives are stored in PrintFile sleeves and are numbered sequentially starting with the number 0001.

This means that I am completely dependent on the database to find a given physical negative and for information about that negative. Consequently, I maintain two copies of the scans/metadata on two different hard drives and keep the hard drives in two different buildings.

I use Adobe Photoshop's scheme to input the information on the negatives, which is based on standards set by the International Press Telecommunications Council and the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative. The scheme uses Adobe's Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP). Adobe has published a royalty free public license to use this platform. See Creative Commons's view on the license: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/9435

I am working on the assumptions that Adobe's metadata platform will be readable for a long time to come and that it will be easy to import the data into any successor scheme, whether created by Adobe or someone else. This assumption is based on the increasingly widespread use of the platform by media organizations and by the film and sound recording industries.

Are my assumptions well founded or am I being complacent?

I've thought about using Excel, which I'm sure will be readable and importable for a very long time, but Adobe's XMP platform is convenient and provides functionality that Excel doesn't (e.g. attaching the metadata directly to the scan).

[Preston]

My thought is that XMP and IPTC will be around for a long time to come, since so many DAM applications rely upon these standards. Also, digital cameras and some scanner drivers append EXIF meta data to the files they produce, so when one imports their images into a DAM application this data is included.

I have my scans and various versions of each neg/transparency backed up on a network and an external drive. The other piece that gets gets a couple of backups are my database files, since regeneration of the catalogue would be serious pain in the wahoo.

--P

[Jack Dahlgren]

Since you have physical negatives and storage for them just print a report from your database and stick it with your negatives. Keeping things in the same place is always a good idea in case your computer dies/is stolen/ruined in flood...

[Preston]

"Since you have physical negatives and storage for them just print a report from your database and stick it with your negatives."

Great idea, Jack!

--P

[r.e.]

Since you have physical negatives and storage for them just print a report from your database and stick it with your negatives.

I'm mostly concerned with the long-term readability and manipulation of the database; i.e. ensuring that it can be read and searched according to keyword. I've been working on the assumption that duplicate external hard drives, kept in separate locations, is sufficient to protect the data itself on a day to day basis, but maybe I should also maintain a hard copy. I don't want to even imagine the events that would require reliance on the hard copy

[Jack Dahlgren]

I'm mostly concerned with the long-term readability and manipulation of the database; i.e. ensuring that it can be read and searched according to keyword. I've been working on the assumption that duplicate external hard drives, kept in separate locations, is sufficient to protect the data itself on a day to day basis, but maybe I should also maintain a hard copy. I don't want to even imagine the events that would require reliance on the hard copy

I don't want to imagine it either, but think about making it easier for the future archeologists.

Of course I shouldn't speak as I don't even label my negatives. Ultimately if no one remembers what they are, then why would anyone care about them?

[Lenny Eiger]

I've thought about using Excel, which I'm sure will be readable and importable for a very long time, but Adobe's XMP platform is convenient and provides functionality that Excel doesn't (e.g. attaching the metadata directly to the scan).

If you can hold on a week or so, I'll be releasing our app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. (It's in beta.) It's called PhotoToolsPro and has a very extensive Note-Taker function. Handles Trips, Sessions and Photos. You can keep track of Name, Date, Neg# Camera, Lens, Film&ISO, Holder & Side, a Manual exposure - or Zone 3 reading, Zone 7 reading, Reciprocity, Bellows and Filter Adjustments - and resulting fstop and shutter speeds, Development in N+ or N- numbers, a Reference shot, Notes (text and voice) and a GPS tag. If we forgot anything, there are two custom fields you can add.

There are tons of prefs you can add, including you cameras, lenses and film, default values, preferred fstop on the lenses, and zone system controls (what you consider to be N), etc. You can rename most everything, calling "Trips" Adventures or whatever you want, etc.

It also has a vibration sensor so you can put the iphone on the camera and you can tell if there is too much wind or other vibration to take a photo...

I'll be posting something when we release... keep an eye out for it.

Lenny

[r.e.]

Lenny, I don't know anything about the standards for iPhone, etc. applications. How is this going to work technically? Are you using XMP or something else? Is it basically an XMP editor? Is there going to be a version that can be run on a desktop computer, Apple or Windows?

There is a programme that I use to attach metadata to sound files, XMP based, that does the kind of thing that you are talking about, and it has significant benefits re creating your own fields, etc.

[Jim Bradley]

As a quick check I opened an .xmp file from an image I processed in PS CS2 from a digital camera in Notepad. It is all text base, "human readable" (ie not machine data) similar to xml.
This means that as long as there is a copy of the spec a (semi) decent programmer can write code in the language de-jour to extract the information and manipulate (ie write to a database)

JGB

[r.e.]

... I opened an .xmp file from an image I processed in PS CS2 from a digital camera in Notepad. It is all text base, "human readable" ...

That is good to know.