Within the Renaissance MIS, we track the items (products) supplied to us for photography, separately from images.
This is so that the item (product), can have statuses such as 'Supplied to ec2i', 'In Studio' and 'Returned to Client'.
Typical image statuses are 'Photographed', 'Retouched' or 'Approved' and we can apply these statuses on an individual image basis, so it might be that an item of clothing supplied for photography has three shots taken of it and at anytime you can see via the system, which stage each file is at in the approval cycle.
The screen grab below illustrates how two of the items have three images associated with them and the other two items have two images associated with them. Note, how you can see the statuses for both the items and images.
Although the system is very flexible in that an image can be called something that does not relate directly to the item name, typically the images are named the same as the item with a suffix denoting the type of image it is. In the example above the extra shots are called _folded and _detail, but they could be as simple as _1 and _2.
Items can be booked into the system manually using a simple form one at a time, but they can also be created by importing spreadsheets. In both the form and the spreadsheet importer the user is given the option to create additional images with a suffix or prefix of their choice.
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This screen grab, shows a typical relationship between an item and its associated images.
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Metadata:
We also have the ability within the system to import metadata and associate it with each item. This is normally at the same time the products are supplied to us, but can be before or after. Where this really is of benefit is that if the metadata is supplied before the images are shot, as each one is processed, the metadata is set automatically. This saves enormous time when a shoot is spread over several days, because the import is only done once and the moment the images are processed, because the metadata is set automatically, the images will instantly be returned in search results.
The important thing to note in the above paragraph is that the metadata is set on the item, which means that each image associated with that item will have the same metadata.
The format of the metadata spreadsheet is very strict.
- The first column must contain the exact name of the item as it exists in Renaissance. (this is absolutely vital)
- The subsequent column headings should match the the names of the metadata fields in Renaissance DAM. However if you make a mistake with those, you are given the opportunity to map the correct fields to the relevant columns during the import process.
- If you are importing metadata for date fields, the cell type should be text and the data in the following format: 31/08/2017
Once the import is complete, a report is displayed on screen showing any anomalies.
Special note for 'Model' shoots
Whilst the normal and recommended practice is to create the items and images in Renaissance before the shoot from a shoot list, sometimes that isn't practical on a model shoot where shots can be decided on the spur of a moment.
The system can be setup to accommodate this type of scenario, in that the workflow will automatically 'book in' the products for you, but because no items exist when an image is processed, the system can't use the same logic that is shown above when creating the items.
Instead an item is created automatically for each image as it's processed with exactly the same name as the image, so a file called 'S_M02_0133_DEWBERRY.tif' will result in an item being created called 'S_M02_0133_DEWBERRY'.
This means that if metadata is required, the spreadsheet must contain a row for every image / item, even though the metadata itself may be the same.
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