Features

Key Once and use for years to come.

Once data is keyed it is available for the years to come. This data describes the image for down the road and allows searching for groups of images, viewing this data, and generation of websites which show the photos and their data. You’d be surprised how quickly data can be entered using the “Edit Multiple Images” feature (see below) and Data Templates/Presets. The WebGallery and EmailGallery allows data to be reused by generating web pages and emails that include the photo and part of its data. Of course, having data attached to photos makes them very easy to find at anytime in the future.

IPTC Support

Just about all IPTC data fields are supported. Picks up existing IPTC data as photos are added to the database, and write to the file directly as well. Changes made outside DBGallery are picked up, with any conflicts presented for resolution. Supports editing as many photos' IPTC data as needed. Has a "Differences" button when editing multiple images so existing data across all images can be viewed while editing. Deep under the covers DBGallery utilizes Adobe's XMP Toolkit to do the actually writing of IPTC/XMP metadata to files, providing superb metadata compatibility with Adobe's products as well as almost all other IPTC metadata readers and editors. A set of screenshots can be found here which provides a visual overview of the product's IPTC support.

Data Searching

Search data based on keywords, subject, author, notes, and description, aperture, ISO, country, photographer, etcetera...over 50 fields altogether.

Geo Tagging

Setting geographical location data for a photo is known as GeoTagging.
Reads GeoTag data set by your camera or other software, and also facilitates setting this by simple drag and drop of a marker or directly keying GPS data. Sports an excellent Map View showing photo thumbnails across a GoogleMaps window which may be zoomed in/out or the thumb clicked for a larger view of the image!
See the GeoTagging QuickTour for screenshots of this excellent feature.

Map View: Each photo of New York is shown at it's actual location.
Clicking a thumbnail shows a larger version of the image (in
this case the Statue of Liberty with a grey background)

Logical Views

Logical vs. Physical: A physical view of photos is how they are physically stored in folders (the old way of trying to find photos), whereas logical views are views of photos organized by photo data. They may be organized by camera, year, month, ISO, number of views, and dozens more. There are many interesting aspects to exploring a photo collection this way. View images by camera type, ISO, if a flash was fired, country, photographer, and many more. View by keyword list and look for a given city or country (assuming that data has been keyed). These are just a few of many useful scenarios. Its best to play with the various logical views to feel the benefits.

Build Collections

A fast and convenient way to build collections of photos is through the Virtual Sets feature (sometimes referred to in DBGallery as Handy Collections). At any time you are viewing a photo that you feel would fit into a category or collection of photos, simply drag the image to a Quick Collection. To help grasp more clearly what they are, you may think of them as categories, buckets, holding areas, boxes, file cabinets, film rolls, etc. Because everyone thinks of such collections in a different manner like this, the Basic Configuration dialog allows these to be called anything. I.e. you may change "Quick Collections" text throughout the program by naming it "Film Roll", "Box", etc.

eMailGallery

eMailGallery offers an extremely quick and convenient way to email photos. Advanced options are available such as including the original full size image as attachments along with a smaller image and associated data in the body. eMailGallery is a great way to send photos to family and friends. Include descriptions to give a complete story. Or send a selection of images to clients for review (EXIF data, file info, and any other data may be included in the email).

WebGallery

WebGallery generates a website of selected images. Create a website by searching for and selecting a set of photos for folders and pressing the “Generate Website” button from the main menu. HTML is created, images are copied and converted to the size choosen, thumbnails created, and data is extracted. You’re asked where to create the site and given a few options such as Website title. It includes the option of sending the site’s files directly to the Web via FTP, or, outside DBGallery, this site could be burned onto a CD and given to others who have slow or no Internet access. NOTE: you need you own web space to put the generated files on since DBGallery or GRR Systems does not supply web space. A sample site can be found at: http://www.grrsystems.com/photos/WorldPlaces/

Reports

Given that the system has database core it can generate profession looking reports. The reports included in this version include Counts by Camera, Author, Subjects, Year to Year, and Time of Year, as well as a number of Stock Agency reports (for those that sell their photos).

A sample report: Number of photos taken each year.

Edit Mulitple Images

Enter data for multiple images at the same time. Just took 300 photos for a “Coca-cola” marketing commission? Set “Coca-cola” and other keywords on all 300 photos at the same time. Then select perhaps 50 of those which have a similar attribute and key more detailed data. Then select 4 or 5 that have other similar attributes, and so on.

Photo Central

When needing to find a photo to do something with it such as placing into a Word or PowerPoint document, editing in PhotoShop, including in a newsletter, editing in PhotoShop, or sending print, simply pull up DBGallery, do a quick search, and drag’n drop the photo to any other program. While DBGallery doesn’t attempt to do everything that can be done with photos, it is a great compliment to your photo software toolset and works in conjunction with them: find photos easily in DBGallery and the simply drag and drop them wherever they're needed.

Flatten Folders

A rare feature not often found: when showing a given folder, press “Show Subfolders” and all subfolder images are displayed as if it was one folder. E.g. If a given trip’s images were organized by having each day in its own folder, pressing "Show Subfolders" would show all the trip’s images as if they were in one folder. Or do a search for “Skiing” photos at the root folder and press “Show Subfolders” to have all images throughout the collection shown.

Quick Info Cards

Roll the mouse over a thumbnail in DBGallery to see the image and data summary. One Quick Info Card view is shown here although there are five: Overview(as shown), IPTC, File & Exif, Agency data, and geo-location.

A Quick Info Card screenshot.

View Counts

Keeps tabs on an image’s popularity by tracking how many times it was viewed. One of the search tabs allows filtering based on number of views.

Professional Features

Get Photos and Data to Clients

Use either the WebGallery or eMail capabilities get photos shots to clients. WebGallery generates a website which may be viewed over and over by anyone you let know about the site’s address. Use email generation for a more private showing. Both options include data about the photos. And they’re a snap to generate.

Enterprise-wide Access

The database may reside on a server with any number of workstations accessing the same data and photos.

Architectural Flexibility

The database may reside on one server and the image files on another. The database and file server operating systems can be just about any MacOS, Windows, Unix, or Linux implementation. The DBGallery client does have to run on Windows.

Off-line Photos

Drop CD folders or an entire CD of photos into DBGallery and they’re treated similar to on-line images: search based on keyed data and view the data as well as a small version of the image. The main difference being that only a small version of the CD/DVD/etc. images are copied to the hard disk when added to DBGallery. When viewing the thumbnail image and its data, press “Offline View” and the full image is display (after the CD with the full image is prompted for and inserted).

Stock Agency

Various designs to make stock photography easier:

• Workflow mechanism: Image move from on state to another as it goes from shot, edited, uploaded, approved, etc.
• Search: find photos based on stock criteria. For example, search for all photos submitted to iStockPhoto but not yet approved. Or find all approved photos, or all that have sales quantity greater than 10.
• Reports: extensive reports, including pie and bar charts, such as Approvals/Rejections, and Agency Sales Summary, Sales by Agency w/Photo Breakdown, etc. Reports may be saved in PDF and Excel format.

The tools to simplify and organize the submission process. Eases submission pains and time, meaning photos can be uploaded faster and hence make a little more. It also helps reduce duplicate submissions.

It does take some effort to keep the agency data up to date but it’s well rewarded. Beyond the benefits listed above, the rich search and reporting capabilities puts provides photographers a new level of understanding of their portfolio.”

Some agencies don’t keep accepted/rejected images making it difficult to allow a photographer to know the state of images, or whether some images need to be uploaded or if they’ve already been rejected. DBGallery presents a consistent view of all agencies.