The guidelines cover Digital Asset Management, Color Profiling, Metadata, and Photography Workflow. Version 4.0 of the guidelines represents the industry consensus as of Sept 22, 2008. The guidelines were prepared by the UPDIG Coalition, with the help of many digital imaging professionals, software vendors, and hardware manufacturers. The UPDIG Coalition is dedicated to promoting standards for photographic digital imaging.
Here are the Main Principles
- Digital images should look the same as they transfer between devices, platforms and vendors.
- Digital images should be prepared in the correct resolution, size and sharpness for the device(s) on which they will be viewed or printed.
- Digital images should have embedded metadata that conform to the IPTC and PLUS standards, making them searchable while providing relevant rights and usage information – including creator's name, contact information and a description of licensed uses.
- Digital images should be protected from accidental erasure or corruption and stored carefully to ensure their availability to future generations.
As I guy with 10,000 images catalogued, there is even a couple of photographs in there, the importance of good meta-data practices is something I am keenly aware of. It must be a part of your basic work-flow; after import and culling, you tag! Then and only then do you process. It's a habit I, you, we, must all practice. Swing over to UPDIG and the IPTC to get a fuller understanding.
I am sure there will be a day when I can import the RAW file and the system will analyse the content of the image and tag it for me, but until that day comes, I shall keep working and plugging in the data the old fashioned way.
