Many projects I work on are benefited by my single file philosophy. It’s a simple guiding principle which is often missed in digital imaging workflow. Multiple files are unnecessary when the project can be contained in a single file. I much prefer to have a multiple layer single file open in Adobe Photoshop for may projects. I also prefer a multi-page Word Document for a single project in Microsoft Word.

Using multi-page and multi-image files requires some rethinking of computing technique. Outputting Photoshop layers as individual directive files is necessary. Also, jumping to pages via links is necessary in Word. Most necessary program processes are very close to one of these two techniques. Once you have these two skills mastered then you’re ready to start using the single philosophy.

The use of multiple files comes from a day when programs could not open and operate on large files at once. That day is over and very large files are very accessible. Sometimes it’s just helpful to gang things up into one large file.  If you want to see it all at once and work on it all simultaneously, then get it all into one file.

The fewer files you have to mange the better off you are…that’s a fact.  However, there are many reasons to keep multiple files!  Be smart about when you use multiple files VS a single file with layers or a multi-page Word Document.

Think about the way you can delete previous e-mails and save one if all the copy has been included.  This is the bases of the single file philosophy of digital asset management.  Fewer files are rapidly becoming the workflow for digital imaging.  At the forefront of this movement in digital imaging is the DNG file format which is incorporating multiple versions of the imag rendering instructions.  That’s right there’s’ all kinds of ways to interpret the original camera data and rapidly there are more and more ways to save that data in a single file.

I expect there to be more ways to navigate through the mass data in larger files in the future.  When doubling computer resources, why not double file size?  And wile we are all doubling things, think about doubling viewing space.  Our eyes have incredible ability to send tuns of data to our brains, so generally looking at more data at once is a good thing.  I can’t live without two high resolution 30 inch monitors.

Edward Tufte can explain viewing realestate far better than I can.  His books on visual information are amazing and his lectures are equally charming;  a must see for creative professionals.

Please consider the single-file philosophy of digital asset management and workflow whenever you working with similar files.  I think you will find  it useful in many cases.

Here are three Top drives for mainstream digital imaging workstations.  Non of these come as standard equipment in off the shelf systems, but replacing drives in older machines with these will breath new life into them.

OCZ Z_Drive P84 and M84  PCI-E  SSD RAID

I love the speed and ability to migrate a PCI-E Raid Card to another machine.
I like SSD for Boot, Program, and Cache files, but the cost is overwhelming for storage of large file archives.

OCZ’s Site

Check Price at My Digital Discount

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WD Velociraptor SATA 6.0 10,000 RPM Drive

It’s currently the fastest SATA spinning disk drive.  I’ve been successfully running Raptors and Velociraptors in SATA Raids for many years.  I use  Velociraptor drives  for large collections of working files.  I keep the images that I’m currently accessing on a Velociraptor RAID 0.  This dangerous but fast RAID is backed up  automatically nightly and periodically manually.

Check Price at Newegg

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WD Caviar Black SATA 6.0 Dual Processor 32GB Cache Drive

These drives come in 500 GB, 640 GB, 1T and 2T.

I like the WD Black drives for a number of digital imagining tasks; primarily storage of large groups of files that are worked on periodically.

These are good get SATA 6.0 drives for the price.   SATA 6.0 isn’t generally necessary, but does  offer  small advantages for building raids.  SATA 6.0 is backward compatable and the current prices at NewEgg are the same for WD Black SATA 6.0 OR SATA 3.0 drives.

Bench Tests at Toms Hardware

Check Price at Newegg

I’m frequently asked to deliver IPIX files for real estate virtual tours.  IPIX previously had a very unfriendly licensing structure for their Interactive Studio.  There was a “Project License” that lasted a month or a yearly subscription.  After some lengthy discussions, they offered me a license in perpetuity and are now selling the software for a one time price.

The IPIX Real Estate Wizard is a very inexpensive and easy and  to use system that combines two circular fisheye images.  You can purchase a set of 5 Keys for $20 which will unlock the software for five images.  A fair price in my opinion.  However this did not work for me because I use a much more complex system to create a better virtual tour.

My system for creating IPIX VR tours combines 25  full frame fisheye images for each view.  The images are made vertically on a Really Right Stuff nodal point tripod head. The head  wasn’t “really right”  for a Sigma 15mm fisheye, so I cut off the front with a hack saw.  There are five stops in my sequence and each

Today, there are numerous ways to stich and deliver 360 virtual tours, but if you need to make an ipx file for real estate clients who use iPix, Interactive Studio or the Real Estate Wizard are your only options.

HDR and Photoshop

HDR (High  Dynamic  Range Imaging) can be daunting to start with, but once you start you’ll never stop.  There are very few times when I don’t shoot an exposure bracket  so that I have HDR options; even handheld.  I don’t always merge the images into a 32bit file, but I usually combine bracketed exposures in some manner to expand and manipulate dynamic range.

Digital Imaging author and trainer, Colin Smith, has a number of tutorial videos out that are a good place to start your HDR training.  He did the tutorial videos for Photomatix, which is a must have application for HDR.  Colin’s PhotoshopCAFE website has lots of other useful digital imaging videos.

ImageNest- Mac Printing Layout Software

ImageNest Discount Coupon:

Use this link and coupon code:
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ImageNest is a software Rip for Mac printing that does printing layout and a number of other picture layout tricks very well.  ImageNest works on all printers with Mac drivers : Epson, HP, Canon, etc.  We reviewed  the first version of BlueCubit’s ImageNest here.  There  are so many new printer layout features in ImageNest 2.0, that the new printing layout features deserve  a  review.  I think this is the perfect  iPhoto printing utility.  Apple’s iPhoto printing leaves a lot to be desired, and Bluecubit gives iPhoto users the image layout tools they need for picture printing.

Product manager, Joshua Lubbers has graciously offered to give a 10% discount on all of Bluecubit’s Mac Image Layout Printing  software.

Use this link and code: ImageNest Discount Coupon Code: 10dis

ImageNest 2.0 Top 5 New Features

DNG Printing- ImageNest can easily print outstanding contact sheets from all the major file types, but it really shines for DNG printing of contact sheets.  DNG files have an adjusted JPEG file imbedded in them along with the RAW date and XMP data.  When you make edits to the RAW image in an editor such as Adobe’s Lightroom and push those edits into the DNG file, the adjustments are saved as XMP Data and A JPEG is created.  ImagNest is one of the only ways to access and print that adjusted DNG Jpeg preview.

Metedata Annotations- If your contact  sheet printing, then you likely need to print text, file numbers, names, dates, location or other metedata.  A contact sheet isn’t of much use without the information you need to access the file you or your client want to use. ImageNest allows you to print metedata on all four sides of each image in the printing layout.   Printing text metedata  in the layout is a major power feature that is useful in so many ways.

PDF Creations- Layouts aren’t just for printing, they can be saved as PDF files.  This is an absolutely killer feature of ImageNest. After spending some time creating a wonderful layout of your pictures, you can save it as a PDF.  Contact sheets with file numbers and metedata annotations can be emailed for review.  Because the layout or contact sheet is in a PDF, viewers with Adobe acrobat can put notes about the files they like on the PDF and return it to the photographer.

Image Borders (Frames)- Image frames allow you to layout pictures with borders.  The picture borders can be different  colors and widths.  Image frames are a simple way of really dressing up a print layout.  I regularly use them when  on black and white image layouts.

Soft Proofing- This is a professional  printing feature that armatures could use as well.  It’s designed to help professional photographers who need to soft proof for CMYK printers, but it’s also useful for proofing machine prints.  If your having prints made on a Fuji Frontier or Noritsu machine printer like Costo & SmugMug uses, then you need a way to check color and density before you send the SRGB  files.  The profiles for these printers are available through drycreekphoto as well as most major print vendors.  Imagenest can be used to layout images for these services too.

Those are the five major new features of ImageNest 2.0.  Version 2.0 also has a much improved interface with many improvements under the hood.    64 Bit processing is enabled, but many Mac printer drivers are not running 64Bit yet.  ImageNest is committed to speed and will likely be using CUDA multicore GPU Image processing in their next major release.

This is defiantly the simplest picture layout RIP on the market.  It’s a simple to use  Mac printing layout utility that really doesn’t have a competitor.  under the hood  ImageNest comes in a number of versions based on the size of the layout or printer.

17 Inch $199
24 Inch $399
44 Inch $599
Wide Format $799

Use this link and code for a 10% ImageNest discount:

ImageNest Discount Coupon Code: 10dis