Photo Geek - DAM Tips

Photo Geek Tips - Digital Assets Management

Lightroom 2.0 | Adobe's newest version of the popular Windows photography workflow software. Helps to create a photo organization system and provide basic touch up tools. Automatically renames files, organizes folders and adds metadata and keywords as you import photos. Tools to correct white balance, exposure, tone curves, lens distrotion and color casts. Also provides online web galleries. The most appreciated time-saving feature by photographers is the ability to enhance the exposure of batches of photos at one time.


Aperture | Apple's version of Lightroom, suposedly better than Lightroom 1.0. But Adobe has numerous versions of Lightroom ready to be distributed for PCs (with an upgrade every six months or so) to out do their Mac competitor. Aperture is great for Mac users and sets the industry standards.

Photoshop CS3 | Whether using Photoshop Elements 6, CS2 (which I have but have never used) or the new CS3, this is a must for professional photographers. It has a more specified range of features that Lightroom does not. Dodging and burning or example, are not yet available on Lightroom.

Bridge| Used to process RAW photos, this is said to be cumbersome and an unnecessary step. Just download, convert your files (to JPEG), and touch up through Photoshop.

(Thanks for Dave for first introducing me to the term DAM which inspired me to inquire more about these software programs; to AC for my 20 minute Photoshop tutorial; and Nely, Willie and Joan for their perspective on Lightroom. The Hawaii State Library has helpful books on these software programs.)