# workflow challenge



## Newmarket2 (Apr 22, 2019)

I photograph works at museums a lot
I am using a pixel 3 and the default camera app or a Nikon DSLR.  
I upload to photos.google.com (using an app on the phone or a card reader for the Nikon)
I then download images to my windows 10 PC;  and then import to LR classic
My folder hierarchy is   trip>day>museum
When I do this, I first take a pic of the art and then the label.
My gallery has a series of art/label images prior to post-processing
Post-processing is a pain...involving transposing/retyping the name of the work and the artist into the meta data for the art pic and then removing the pic of the label


The challenge to you is to suggest alternative tools and/or workflow to achieve the desired results faster and with fewer steps

I can't wait!!!


----------



## Victoria Bampton (Apr 22, 2019)

Ok, questions:

1. Why upload the photos to the cloud and then download them and then import them? Why not just import directly into LR?

2. Is the benefit of having that metadata attached to the photo worth the time it's taking you?


----------



## PhilBurton (Apr 22, 2019)

Newmarket2 said:


> I photograph works at museums a lot
> I am using a pixel 3 and the default camera app or a Nikon DSLR.
> I upload to photos.google.com (using an app on the phone or a card reader for the Nikon)
> I then download images to my windows 10 PC;  and then import to LR classic
> ...


There are specialized DAMs for museum collections, with custom metadata fields for the description of the work, its creator, procvenance, etc.  Perhaps you would be better served by using one of these DAMs to record metadata about your museum photos.

It's my impression that these are enterprise applications, with the expected enterprise  price tag and complexity.

Phil Burton


----------



## Newmarket2 (Apr 22, 2019)

Victoria Bampton said:


> Ok, questions:
> 
> 1. Why upload the photos to the cloud and then download them and then import them? Why not just import directly into LR?
> 
> 2. Is the benefit of having that metadata attached to the photo worth the time it's taking you?


1.  haven't found a reliable way to move images from the pixel to LR on my pc.
2.  well, that's why I'm asking for better ideas.


----------



## Newmarket2 (Apr 22, 2019)

PhilBurton said:


> There are specialized DAMs for museum collections, with custom metadata fields for the description of the work, its creator, procvenance, etc.  Perhaps you would be better served by using one of these DAMs to record metadata about your museum photos.
> 
> It's my impression that these are enterprise applications, with the expected enterprise  price tag and complexity.
> 
> Phil Burton


Phil,
Some time ago I looked at DAMs and I would agree that they are expensive and complex.
Do you recall any specifics about DAMs for museum collections?


----------



## Umberto Cocca (Apr 22, 2019)

Newmarket2 said:


> 1. haven't found a reliable way to move images from the pixel to LR on my pc.
> 2. well, that's why I'm asking for better ideas.



1. Use LR mobile, one step and pain free!
2. Pass 

Sent using Tapatalk


----------



## Victoria Bampton (Apr 22, 2019)

Newmarket2 said:


> 1.  haven't found a reliable way to move images from the pixel to LR on my pc.


You've tried plugging it into your PC via a USB cable and going through the normal import dialog?


Newmarket2 said:


> 2. well, that's why I'm asking for better ideas.


I suspect with any other choice of app, you'll need to manually type the metadata. If you're not using it to search, for example, you could perhaps use Auto Stack by Capture Time to automatically stack the photo and its label image, so it's still available to look at if/when you need to identify the artwork.


----------



## PhilBurton (Apr 22, 2019)

Newmarket2 said:


> Phil,
> Some time ago I looked at DAMs and I would agree that they are expensive and complex.
> Do you recall any specifics about DAMs for museum collections?


I did not, so I just did this search "Digital asset management programs for art museums" and got lots of hits.  The link for MoMA (Museum of Modern Art, New York, ) was particularly interesting because I have been to that museum several times.  It has a vast collection.

Of course, if the website says something like "Request a sales call," or "Ask us for a demo," and they don't list price, you know it won't be cheap.  One thing I learned from a career in enterprise software product management, it never hurts to ask for special pricing based on your particular circumstances.


----------



## Califdan (Apr 23, 2019)

I have a Pixel 2 and seamlessly move images taken with the phone to my Windows based Lightroom Classic catalog.  I use the "camera" in Adobe Lightroom CC app on my phone which adds the taken images to the Lightroom CC eco system.   This then automatically imports those images (which are RAW files captured with the Pixel 2 in my case) to my Windows catalog where they are placed in a folder in my Windows system and added to a synced collection in my LR Classic catalog.    Whenever I see such images in this default folder or collection I use LR to just drag them to the folder I want them in on my desktop system.

If my LR classic system is running, the images appear in my desktop LR Classic catalog within 1 a minute or so after the image is captured on my phone.    Also, if desired, you can have images taken with the standard camera app on the Pixel also follow this process but I choose not to do that so that snaps I take with the default phone app stay just on my phone and snaps I take with the LR app wind up in my LR Classic system a few minutes later.

I don't have a solution to your other problem, but I believe there are OCR (Optical Character Reader) apps available that will translate text seen by the phone camera into plain text which should be able to be pasted into the image in the Title or Caption field of an image and that info will sync with LR Classic.      See:    The Best Mobile Scanning and OCR Apps     or   Top 5 Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Apps And Software   for review's of such apps.

Hope that helps.


----------



## Dan Marchant (Apr 23, 2019)

Newmarket2 said:


> 1.  haven't found a reliable way to move images from the pixel to LR on my pc.


Plugging it in via USB is the obvious way. 
Airdroid AirDroid - Android on Computer would be another option, or
Dropbox - add the files to dropbox as soon as you finish shooting and they will likely be synced to your PC by the time you get home.


----------



## Califdan (Apr 23, 2019)

just ran experiment.  Took photo with the camera icon in the LR CC app on my Pixel 2 phone.  42 seconds later it appeared in my Lightroom Classic Catalog on my desktop.  No other steps involved.   Then dragged images in LR Classic from folder "LR Mobile Captures" (my default location for images originating in the LR CC ecosystem) to the folder of my choosing.


----------



## Newmarket2 (Apr 23, 2019)

Califdan said:


> just ran experiment.  Took photo with the camera icon in the LR CC app on my Pixel 2 phone.  42 seconds later it appeared in my Lightroom Classic Catalog on my desktop.  No other steps involved.   Then dragged images in LR Classic from folder "LR Mobile Captures" (my default location for images originating in the LR CC ecosystem) to the folder of my choosing.


This answers 1/2 of my problem...frankly, the easier one.
But I do appreciate it and will now start using LR CC on my pixel


----------



## Newmarket2 (Apr 23, 2019)

EVERYONE;
Does anyone use Lens?  Might that identify a work of art and add the meta data?


----------



## Califdan (Apr 23, 2019)

Newmarket2 said:


> This answers 1/2 of my problem...frankly, the easier one.
> But I do appreciate it and will now start using LR CC on my pixel


I think looking for a good OCR app for the phone will solve the 2nd part of your problem.  Use the app to convert the  image of the label into text, then paste that text into the Title and/or Description field of artwork image on the phone.  That info should sync back to classic.


----------



## Newmarket2 (Apr 23, 2019)

Califdan said:


> I think looking for a good OCR app for the phone will solve the 2nd part of your problem.  Use the app to convert the  image of the label into text, then paste that text into the Title and/or Description field of artwork image on the phone.  That info should sync back to classic.


Great minds think alike.  That's what I've been doing.
It would be nice to store the image of the label in a metadata field for the image.  
Best alternative would seem to be stacking the 2. 
Any way to execute a series of steps with a single click?  like a macro?  Because I always shoot the art and then the label, this theoretical macro would select one image and the next one and stack them with the image on the left on top.


----------



## Califdan (Apr 23, 2019)

Look at the "Auto Stack" feature in LR Classic.  what you do is select a bunch of images and then execute the auto stack tool.  The dialog box for this tool allows you to specify a time span  (eg 15 seconds) and it will automatically stack images taken with 15 seconds of each other.  So if you take the photo of the artwork then immediately take the image of the label those two images should be within a short time of each other.  You may have to experiment a bit to ascertain what time interval to specify.


----------



## PhilBurton (Apr 23, 2019)

Newmarket2 said:


> Phil,
> Some time ago I looked at DAMs and I would agree that they are expensive and complex.
> Do you recall any specifics about DAMs for museum collections?


I found a reference that may help you.  Search on "VRA Core."


----------



## Roelof Moorlag (Apr 23, 2019)

I'm using a free OCR engine and call that from Lightroom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfI6UYsaNvI
I wrote this (dutch) blog about it: Tekstherkenning (OCR) in Lightroom


----------



## Newmarket2 (Apr 24, 2019)

Roelof Moorlag said:


> I'm using a free OCR engine and call that from Lightroom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfI6UYsaNvI
> I wrote this (dutch) blog about it: Tekstherkenning (OCR) in Lightroom


Pretty much what I've been doing.   But, your example is for a whole page and I'm just grabbing title and artist, which makes the overhead of snipping, pasting, OCRing, copying and pasting (twice) a bit tedious.


----------



## Newmarket2 (Apr 24, 2019)

Califdan said:


> Look at the "Auto Stack" feature in LR Classic.  what you do is select a bunch of images and then execute the auto stack tool.  The dialog box for this tool allows you to specify a time span  (eg 15 seconds) and it will automatically stack images taken with 15 seconds of each other.  So if you take the photo of the artwork then immediately take the image of the label those two images should be within a short time of each other.  You may have to experiment a bit to ascertain what time interval to specify.


Califdan, you are a font of great ideas!  I had no idea, but would certainly try it.  This could help a lot!  and even more so when I am keeping the time limit in mind as I walk around and take the pics!


----------



## Newmarket2 (Apr 24, 2019)

Anyone know of android picture taking apps that support voice commands for setting image capture size?  
In museums I shoot RAW but when I then use the pixel for shots that don't need many pixels....it's a pain to tap to change and then !remember! to return to RAW.


----------

