There are four phases of digital imaging workflow, capture, ingest, works in progress, and archive. Understanding this file lifecycle is key to an efficient workflow.

Currently there are no permanent solutions for storing digital content. No media lasts forever, and file formats become obsolete. Migrating your digital images to new media and converting to new formats is a necessary process.

The whole concept of having backup is to make sure that you can restore all of your data. Be sure that your backup system actually works before you need to put it to the test.

Internet backups are a great idea- but are they useful for people with lots of data- such as photographers?

Making use of and preserving metadata is not that difficult, once you understand where it lives, how to move it from place to place, how to back it up, and how to attach it to images.

Rating is the evaluation of images based on relative quality. They are useful for finding the best images in your collection and knowing which images to focus your work on.

Global positioning system data can be added to image files to provide precise location information. Location information is one of the primary metadata tools that can be used to identify photos.

The full name is Extensible Metadata Platform. Its an open standard for processing and safely embedding metadata in a wide range of file formats and includes Parametric image editing instructions along with proprietary metadata.

The IPTC Photo Metadata Standard is what most of us think of when we think of photo metadata. It is the most commonly used schema for describing images and image ownership.

Catalog software is a powerful tool for image management- learn how to get the most from it.