Iview Media Pro 3 for entire workflow???

[bconfer]

I currently use Portfolio 7 for cataloging my work. After reading Peter's DAM book, I'm considering switching to iView Media Pro and have not yet used the program. I just read the "iView & Photoshop" pdf from the iView website. Reading it gives me the impression you could use iView for your entire workflow. Has anyone here tried to do that? Does it work? If not, what breaks the workflow?

[crashbowman]

I have started using Iview for just about all of my workflow.  Peter uses bridge before Iview because he can make raw adjustments and convert to DNG there.  I think this is a good workflow if you shoot only RAW or are able to make raw adjustments immediately.

Lately I have been doing this.

1)  Transfer files to hard drive.
2)  run them through the DNG converter ( I shoot sports and RAW/JPG and have found that while returning from an event I can have this running on my laptop while driving home). 
3)  Then rate, apply keywords, catalog, etc. in Iview
4)  Then I do raw editing if I need.

The main thing that I think will prevent using Iview for everything is RAW/DNG work.
If I switch to RAW/DNG only I will probably use Bridge in that gap as well.

John

[peterkrogh]

If you shoot only JPEGs, then you can get away without using Bridge at alll, and this is what I would suggest.  Do your renaming, metadata template, and rating in iView.

If you shoot RAW, and always have perfect exposure and WB, then you could run through the DNG converter and skip Bridge.
Peter

[danaltick]

Except you wouldn't get the filmstrip mode offered by Bridge for rating..correct?  I kind of like using that mode when rating.  I also use IFC in Bridge for doing the renaming.  It would be kind of nice though if there was a standalone version of IFC.  I always have to make sure I don't point bridge at my IFC workingfiles directory or it will create those cache files there which interfere with IFC.

Dan

[peterkrogh]

The standalone version f IFC is called Photomechanic. ;-)
It works much better but costs $150.

iView will also do all that, if you wish.

Peter

[danaltick]

I think I'll live with IFC and iView then ;-).

Can you tell me how to do this IFC-type substitution in iView:
           
        _<var filename[4,8]>

I will probably just use iView for my personal compact JPEG shoots then and by-pass Bridge all together.

Thanks,
Dan

[peterkrogh]

Dan,
Check out the documentation for a full explanation (Shayne updates the PDF document as more featurws are built out, so you may want to re-download).

In Batch rename, The Search and Replace function does this.  On Nikon, I would fill out the top area with name and date info, and in the Search and Replace I search for _DSC and replace with nothing.
Peter

[danaltick]

I've got the rest of it figured out.  It's just the 4 digit sequence number that I need to substitute in.  I will check the documentation on the search-and-replace regular expressions.

Thanks,
Dan

[dhachen]

After reading Peter's book I adopted the Bridge-Adobe DNG Converter (ADNGC)-iView workflow, but discovered the power of iView to do almost all the steps, including renaming with Peter's conventions as Peter discusses in this thread.  \

The one thing iView can not do as far as I know without a script is convert to DNGs. As Peter notes in this thread, if you need to adjust white balance and exposure levels then you may want to use ACR (within Bridge or Photoshop) before putting images into iView. 

The question is what does Adobe's DNG converter do when it converts the images.  Of course it does not alter the raw data, but in the instruction file does it set auto exposure levels like ACR can do?  My tests indicate that the converter does reset exposure levels, but I am not sure about this.  If it does, then converting to DNGs with the DNG converter stand alone program is the only thing you really need to do outside of iView. 

Of course one can always open the images in ACR after they are cataloged in iView and then reprocess them for white balance and exposure adjustments.  iView will update the jpeg previews if you have specified preferences correctly. 

So basically the whole process can be done very efficiently within iView.  Of course, as Dan notes, you don't have the Filmstrip work setting within iView, but you do have the Lightbox which has two great features for rating -- the side-by-side comparison of up to 4 images and the magnifier to check out the focus of high detail and small items.

[pvonk]

I wonder how much things will change once Lightroom comes out of beta?  Would it make sense to use it as the RAW processor and then iView as the cateloger?  

[peterkrogh]

I think you would want to first bring any RAW files through Bridge to confirm or adjust exposure.  You would want to apply Camera Raw Defaults to any images that don't require a change in ACR settings, so that the current settings will be embedded by the DNG converter.

I suggest that while you are in Bridge, making these settings, you would also want to, at least, Rename and add Bulk Metadata.
Peter

[mas]

 :-\What is IFC?

I've been using photomechanic for ingest and like it way more than IView for that one job.  I also like it better for emailing photos; iview never quite gets the job done.  Photomechanic is very useful for getting Bridge's sidecar files converted to something Iview will understand.

I occasionally try Iview for everything, but for now cataloguing is all it seems to handle.  Hell, it's been doing that since version 1; there really is little improvement in it as far as what it actually does.  It is far from intuitive.  It crashes all the time.  Having those two different panels (info and organize) is totally confusing.   Still, it's the best of the catalog programs.

mas

[mikewren]

:-\What is IFC?

It is far from intuitive.  It crashes all the time.  Having those two different panels (info and organize) is totally confusing.   Still, it's the best of the catalog programs.

mas

IFC = Import From Camera.

I agree 100% about iView.  It sucks, compared to everything else out there.  The Info/Organize panel layout drives me nuts.  I always feel like I"m clicking 5 times more than what should be needed.  Completely unintuitive.  Even after daily use for the past two months, I feel like I'm fighting the interface... maybe I'm just spoiled by the maturity of Adobe products (except Bridge).