[shorton]

Hi guys: I'm seeking a solution to my overall workflow. My workflow seems pretty common to me, but I can't find any one product that meets the need. I like a lot of DownloaderPro's features, but I have an issue and want to know if there is a method/workaround.

Here's my flow...I use a D70 and of course CF memory. I typically shoot more than one event between visits to my PC. So I might have a sports event and a dance event, etc. on the same CF card. I:

1. DL the shots for multiple activities from CF to the PC
2. review and delete the "bad" ones
3. import or integrate the "good" ones into a image management package (i.e. Photoshop elements, etc.) This package yet to be decided.
4. edit particularly good shots
5. Make specific selections for sending to disc to have printed by local print shop (i.e. www.wolfcamera.com),
6. make specific selections to downsize and email.

I prefer to download the images (all of them) to the PC for review and culling the "bad" ones, just becasue it's faster than even my Firewire CF reader. I did recently find a IDS and STA based CF reader which may help this flow, not sure about their speeds though.

I want an auto-download program like DownloaderPro, but in auto-DL mode, is there a way for me to apply different activity-based download folder names and/or tag data to my CF card's mixed activity bag of pictures? For example I might have 100 jpegs on the CF card. 25 are a soccer game, 25 a dance recital, 50 a party. They are all sequentially grouped. I might want the target folders (and corresponding IPTC tag data) to be:

2005
- Oct
- - Soccer
- - Dance
- - Halloween Party

But as I understand it, in automode DownloaderPro will put everything into one folder per card insert and subsequent DL. Is that right?

Is it possible to use DL Pro to easily handle this part of my workflow in this manner?

[Nill Toulme]

I don't know of any way to do this in totally hands-off mode (although Chris probably does). I think you could do it with a little manual intervention though. You can set up DL Pro to prompt you for a Job Code and use that Job Code in your folder and/or file naming. And when DL Pro sees a card, it automatically lists the files on that card. You can then select the ones you want to download, and it should be easy enough to pick the ones from each event based on the timestamp. That way you could probably assign a different job code to each batch of files as you download them, which would in turn direct each batch to a separate and appropriately-named folder.

It *might* also be possible depending on your camera to put each event in a different folder ... I don't remember if DL Pro will recognize that or not.

But all this seems to me to be a lot of trouble for something that would be a *lot* simpler if you just changed cards for each event. Alternatively, when I do end up with more than one event on the same card, I find it very easy to separate the events after the fact using my image browser (which happens to be BreezeBrowser Pro), just selecting all the images from one event and dragging them wholesale to another folder. BB Pro is also terrific for the sort of culling you describe, because it gives you a very fast fullscreen sharpened view with ranking.

Anyway, DL Pro has a free trial period, so it's worth giving it a try.

Nill
~~
www.toulme.net

[shorton]

I don't know of any way to do this in totally hands-off mode (although Chris probably does). I think you could do it with a little manual intervention though. You can set up DL Pro to prompt you for a Job Code and use that Job Code in your folder and/or file naming. And when DL Pro sees a card, it automatically lists the files on that card. You can then select the ones you want to download, and it should be easy enough to pick the ones from each event based on the timestamp. That way you could probably assign a different job code to each batch of files as you download them, which would in turn direct each batch to a separate and appropriately-named folder.Manual intervention is OK, but I want to keep it to a minimum.


But all this seems to me to be a lot of trouble for something that would be a *lot* simpler if you just changed cards for each event. Well, the *real* story is it's my wife. Have one of those? They don't do what you always want :). But regardless of what she does, I'm responsibile for getting the stuff onto the PC, organized, and backed up. So I'm stuck withthe problem ;)


Alternatively, when I do end up with more than one event on the same card, I find it very easy to separate the events after the fact using my image browser (which happens to be BreezeBrowser Pro), just selecting all the images from one event and dragging them wholesale to another folder. BB Pro is also terrific for the sort of culling you describe, because it gives you a very fast fullscreen sharpened view with ranking.FInding the events is simple enough with date/timestamps. No problem there. I just want to minimize interfacing when DL'g to PC.

Having in pure year/month folder heirarchy woudl probably work, and simplify at least one step. But I would like to find a smooth process to cull and tag the images.

I had considered using the DL app twice. Once to get them off the card onto the PC in a "temp" location whre I can browse them and cull. Then run the app a second time to ITPC tag them in their respective tags/keywords and move them to a final resting place.

So any (more) detailed suggestions are welcome.

Cheers, Scott

[Chris Breeze]

The quickest way might be to download everything to your PC and then if one card spans several events use a browser like BreezeBrowser pro to split them up and if necessary batch rename and add IPTC data.
Having the ability to have multiple date/time based job codes for one download may work for some situations but I think it would probably add too much complexity without making it much more flexible.