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"iView media is a program for making catalogues that help you to organize an finde your files easily; it is designed for photographers, filmmakers or musicians that work with a lot of material. iView media has the capacity of handling up to 8000 files per catalogue in its regular version. It is very easy to use, you just have to drag the folder or folders to a window that shows its contents, in which the images, files or audios appear either as a list, as icons or one at a time. The images can be seen up to a 2000% and the video or sound files start playing with a single click.
The catalogue keeps a link with the original files without the need of having it stored in the same place as them. By not working directly over the original file , but with a pre-visualization copy instead, the system allows to copy, move or delete images from this window without having to localize them within the hard drive. You can make audio-visuals, contact sheets, print either in low or high resolution, make back-ups in a different folder, CDs or DVDs. You can also write reports about the material.
One of its most interesting possibilities is the capacity to create web galleries without knowing HTML. Each image appears as an icon, that has a link to see it enlarged in another window. One of the program’s qualities is that it allows to import directly from a digital camera, but has the disadvantage of not being capable to read NEF files, such as the ones generated by Nikon. It can read the metadata attached to the digital camera files, and it allows to add on more information to facilitate file searching using specific terms by the author of the file or the file organizer. The program only takes up a space of 3MB in the hard drive and can read, among other types of files, JPG, TIFF, Photoshop, bmp, flash , mp3, AIFF. Quick time movies, Windows’ AVI and DV files. But it cannot read NEF, raw, postscript and PDF files.
There are two versions of iView media, the regular and Pro. The Pro Version has the capacity pf managing 128, 000 images per catalogue and features many more functions, the capability of importing more types of files, make more sophisticated audiovisuals and web galleries with more options than the regular version. This version is intended for its use by production film companies, press agencies or newspapers not really for freelance photographers. However, a large individual photo archive might require such a powerful organizing, search, and presentation tool. The program is featured in English, French and German, you just have to visit www.ivew-multimedia.com and buy it for US$49.00. You download it and the license is sent vie e-mail. The Pro version goes for US$199.00. Let me tell you about an experience we had. In Pedro Meyer’s studio we had to edit thousands of images of the record he made in the 80’s of the presidential campaign of the Mexican ex-president Miguel de la Madrid. I had to edit a sample of the project with no less than 300 images to show it to other editors. I received the folders with hundreds of digitalized images, using iView media, I opened windows and quickly stored them in different folders by just clicking the mouse. I was able to select 300 photos out of 5000. I copied them to a specific folder in which I stored the catalogue, which could be shown as an audio visual and was uploaded to deliver it to another editor, without altering the original folders and images. What would happen if I should receive a call by an editor or simply I wished to find one of my images at this very moment, but I had no idea where it is stored because I don’t have any kind of a catalogue that can help me to find it among the hundreds or thousands of images I capture every year? The photographer’s tasks also include filing and making back ups and catalogues. A picture that cannot be found is a like a picture that never was taken, and the time we spend looking for it also means that many images will not become a photograph. Tools such as iView media allow to optimize the creative process of the photographers by helping them to organize a photo archive. Mariana
Gruener |