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• At other times, the best thing may be to tag the images with a keyword,

open Bridge, select all files that contain that keyword, and batch-pro-

cess them within Bridge.

• And for the power user, there is always the Photoshop “droplet” which

will add some automation to the process.

Outputting Directly from Cataloging Software

Cataloging software can also do lots of the batch-processing and conver-

sions for you. Particularly for DNG files, or any adjusted non-RAW file,

you can typically get a good derivative product. The DNG format is ideal

because it contains that “pretty good print” I have been talking about. If

your cataloging software can use this preview, it can make a fast and accu-

rate conversion of the image file.

Setting up web galleries

I use iView to make my web galleries for client presentation. I have created

a custom template that looks and functions just like the rest of my web site,

so that the user experience is seamless (Figure 7-13). When I run the HTML

Gallery function, I get a result like Figure 7-14. It’s not particularly hard to

set up a custom template if you know a bit about HTML page construction.

If a web designer handles your web site, I suggest that you have him create

a template for you. You can also use one of the several built-in templates,

just like you can in Photoshop.

Using DAM Software on Images

Figure 7-13. My web template—the items such as “(iView:Index)” are “ tokens” that will be replaced

by images or text from the selected files.

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Using DAM Software on Images

Figure 7-14. This is what my web galleries

look like. The page on top is the thumbnail

page, and on bottom is the image page.

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Making contact sheets

All cataloging software can make contact sheets. Although I have not found

any that I particularly like, they do offer some advantages that are not avail-

able when making contacts through Photoshop. The principal advantages

are that you can draw from images that may be widely scattered over your

collection, and that you can save the groupings that you use to make the

contacts. Figure 7-15 shows a contact sheet made by iView.

Creating conversion files

You may want to make a batch of conversion files from a set of images.

Perhaps you want to output a set of 4×6 prints from your vacation, or

Using DAM Software on Images

Figure 7-15. iView MediaPro can make contacts directly from the DNGs so it is both fast and accurate.

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perhaps you want to send some files by email for a client to review. Once

again, the embedded previews in the DNG files make this process quick and

accurate. You can see the options available in Figure 7-16. And once again,

by doing your selection work to identify these images in your cataloging

software, you leverage the value that you are adding to these files. (The big-

gest drawback to doing these conversions here is that you don’t have an easy

way to invoke the Caption Maker script.)

Making slideshows and movies

Bridge has a new slideshow feature built in, and it does a very good job of

displaying your images at their best. There are a few problems with it, how-

ever. First of all, it can’t easily display a slideshow with images from more

than one folder. Second, it can’t export the saved show as a movie. Third,

you may have to recreate the parameters (which images to show, what the

order is) each time you come back to Bridge.

Almost all cataloging applications can also do nice slideshows or movies.

One of the handy things about doing them in your cataloging application

is that you can save the group of images to show as a virtual set, so that it’s

always at the ready. The Export as Movie feature is also very nice, enabling

you to save a slideshow as a QuickTime movie.

Using DAM Software on Images

Figure 7-16. iView offers several conversion options for batches of files.

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