Midwest Book Review said
THE DAM BOOK: DIGITAL ASSESSMENT MANAGEMENT FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS is a powerful digital photography coverage in its updated second edition covering the foundations of photography asset management, from how to file and protect to how to re-use photos. From creating order in a large image collection to understanding image file manipulation and storage, using directory strategies, and naming files, THE DAM BOOK should be in any photographer's library.
Christopher Shain said
This book is an absolute must for any photographer wanting to manage the archive of imagery that we are all producing - being able to manage your images is the key to survival. The book goes through very detailed explanations of the 'why' and then goes into detail with the 'how' - Peter Krogh's book's have given me plenty of really good ideas and practical solutions to DAM. Its a reference book that will sit very comfortably between your 30" calibrated monitor and the stack of external hard drives.
CS
John L. Hemingway said
Several reviewers here have already described the contents of "The DAM Book," so there is no need to repeat all that. I simply want to reinforce what others have said about this book: It truly is essential reading for anyone who must manage a large collection of digital image files.
Digital image files: That last word is important. The book is aimed at photographers, but it is not about making photographs. It is instead about managing the files that become photographs. Krogh divides these files into three types -- ingestion files (transferring files from camera to computer, initial batch processing), working files (further subdivided into original and derivative files), and archive files -- with each file type posing distinct management problems and therefore requiring distinct management strategies. These strategies must in turn be integrated into an effective, comprehensive DAM system. As Krogh puts it, the "prime directive" when deploying this system is not to lose the files along the way.
Krogh provides clear, well-organized discussions of these problems and alternative strategies. He is thoroughly familiar with the practice of photography and with computer technology (both hard- and software), bringing the two together so that even a slightly technophobic reader (like me) can understand why and how integrating DAM practices into the workflow will benefit her/him as a photographer.
Krogh makes a point of emphasizing that DAM is not simple, that understanding it requires an effort, and that implementing it can be challenging. All of this is true, but fortunately for the reader, Krogh has considerable ability as a technical writer. He takes care to include background information necessary to understand the strengths and weaknesses of currently available DAM technology and alternative DAM strategies. The technology will change, of course, so Krogh emphasizes forward compatibility as an important element in any DAM strategy, positioning the photographer to respond to those changes more effectively. In his view, among the rewards for implementing a good DAM system is having to do it only once.
Krogh has his own definite preferences regarding technology and strategies, but he is careful not to impose these on the reader. He does something else instead, something different and better: He educates the reader so the reader can make her/his own informed decisions. This is a difference that makes a difference, raising Krogh's book above all those dumbed-down "how-to" photography cookbooks that crowd bookstore shelves. We need more photography authors willing to follow this path.
"The DAM Book" (2nd ed.) addresses very real issues and does so exceptionally well. The book will most benefit professional photographers and collection managers, but there is a great deal of value for semi-professionals (that's me) and serious amateurs committed to developing their craft. Highly recommended.
William F. Bogle said
Peter Krogh has completely revised his seminal book on Digital Asset Management. In the time since the last book, new programs, new concepts and new resources have appeared. At the same time, digital images and files continue to grow larger, filling our hard drives faster, and further pushing the need to store and organize these digital assets in a careful and efficient manner. This is not a mere "update" of the first book, but a complete revision, with current references to hardware, software, and issues the growing files and folders of images that have to be sorted.
Peter's writing is straight forward, informative, and filled with helpful advice. He explains all types of efforts, storage, programs and solutions. It is not a "do it my way" or else, but a careful and reasoned look at all of the options, and pros and cons of the same.
I look at the book as my primer on security and peace of mind. As he and most people note, it is not if your computer will crash, it is when a hard drive may fail. I loved his comment that when writing the book, he had his laptop fall off the desk, and he had to go to his clones and back ups in his hard drives to restore it. This book will give you the plan and ability to do this for your files and images.
Read this book a couple of times. It takes a while to get the whole picture, and what might work for you, and then keep it close as an essential reference.
We spend thousands of dollars on new cameras, lenses, cards, paper and ink, and in the end, what we really value the most is the image, and need to preserve the same. We all want to have the ability to find and print the best, or locate the shot of Cousin Joe when we need to. No longer must you search through boxes of negatives or prints, or try to recall what year and what date you took it, and hope that you put it away in the correct order. This book will help you organize your photographic life.
I cannot think of a photography or computer instruction book that was more helpful or better written than this book. It neither speaks down to to the beginner nor fails to challenge the expert. Buy it, read it, and refer to it.
Bill Bogle, Jr.
Conrad J. Obregon said
Amongst serious photographers, two kinds need to read this book: those who never read the first edition of "the DAM Book"; and those who did. Quite simply, this is essential reading for serious photographers.
Digital Asset Management is the process of storing and recovering digital photographs. It's the nature of digital photography to create lots of images. How does one find them? The folder, no matter how cleverly named, is the digital equivalent of the shoe box. If you filed something under the subject of the photograph, it became hard to find if you only could recall, say, a date, unless you had some sort of cross reference file. You had to rely on memory, and even for young'ons that can sometimes be a problem, to say nothing of old timers. Computer data bases are great for this, but there are all kinds of tricks to using them effectively.
Then there is the fact that sometimes even computers fail. It always astounded me that folks were willing to trust something like a disk drive, where one of the descriptive statistics is "mean time to failure". Read your warranty and you'll see there is no guarantee that covers precious data.
That's where Peter Krogh comes in. He's thought a lot about this and gives the reader the benefit of his thinking from the simplest one-man set up with a backup drive and a DVD burner to elaborate networked computers with problems created by multiple people working on many files simultaneously.
For readers of the first volume, much computer technology has changed. When the first edition was written there was no Lightroom with its integrated solutions or blue ray burners. I remember paying $800.00 dollars for cataloging software and several hundred for a CD burner! There are cheaper solutions available today, and as a result different workflow practices that better utilize the equipment available.
Krogh emphasizes that many of the solutions he discusses may be overkill for the individual non-professional photographer, but the points he makes are to be considered in deciding what kind of DAM system you want. For example, getting a blue ray burner may seem extremely expensive today, but recognizing that blue ray or something similar will be available more cheaply means that we should develop a system that can incorporate the change when the better technology is appropriate.
Along the way, Krogh scatters tips that people with better developed asset management schemes will be happy to learn about. For example, Adobe Bridge, while allowing you to add metadata with your copyright information still has no way to fill in the small field that says an image is copyrighted. Krough provides a little XML (I think that's right) that one can add to one's preset to deal with this problem.
For most photographers, reading the technical details of an asset management system is nowhere near as interesting as capturing images or even jockeying Photoshop around. Still if you do all that work and you can't find the picture, you won't be happy. I won't say that Krogh impressed me with the second edition, but halfway through I ordered another back-up drive.
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