Open Tech Lab #1 – Every Photo Leaves a Trace

5 Minutes read time Restoring and Reconstructing the Scene with Metadata Exif data has always mattered to me, it's like photo's DNA. Years ago, when I opened someone else’s photo, the first thing I did was check the metadata. I still do. It always tells me something. The camera model and lens reveal the tools...

Working With IPTC: Photo Viewers Across Platforms

5 minutes read time And this time no code, no scripts, no terminal windows - just basic photo viewers and editors everyone knows, yet still searching as if it were a database. Same destination, different route. I wrote that a short while ago, and it stuck - not because terminals or scripts are bad, but...

The Same Destination, a Different Route

After looking at the statistics and reading the few reactions that did came in yesterday, something became clear: my “tutorial” missed its mark. Not because it was wrong, but because the path I chose simply isn’t a path everyone wants - or feels safe enough - to walk. That’s not a problem, just a signal....

If You Can Type and Press Enter, You Can Do This

Disclaimer: If You Can Type and Press Enter, You Can Do This Well, this morning I published an article (two in fact), and normally that’s followed by comments, replies, or the occasional email landing in my inbox. This time, though - or rather, because of the absence of any reaction at all - something became...

Making IPTC Searches Visual on Windows

This article is a direct continuation of the earlier Linux example.The logic and workflow are exactly the same: search IPTC metadata embedded in the files and immediately turn the results into a visual selection of photographs. The only difference is the platform. Where the original article used a small Bash script on Linux, this one...

Making IPTC Searches Visual on Linux

Windows users: there is a second article that builds directly on the explanation in this one, showing how the same script-based workflow can be implemented on Windows. macOS users work in a Unix-like environment and, if they choose this kind of workflow, can usually adapt the Linux version with only minor changes. The Terminal Problem:...

From Metadata to Results: My First IPTC Search Script

8 minutes read time This first part covers a simple script that creates a list to help you locate the photo you’re looking for. In the second part, we’ll turn that search into a visual display in your favorite photo viewer, so you can pinpoint the right image more easily. The next video gives a...

I don’t use DAM software – my photos are the DAM

6 minutes read time A Digital Asset Management (DAM) system is supposed to organise and remember your photos for you - I just chose to let the files do that themselves : IPTC as Database: No Catalog, No Problem Where Does the Meaning Live? At its core, most DAM software does the same thing as...

When Photo Management Starts Shaping the Flow

7 minutes read time The diagram above isn’t meant to represent reality as-is. It’s simply there to show that my old RAW+JPEG approach, combined with a more or less (un)structured flow, made storage feel a bit chaotic. Coded file naming helped, but it didn’t go nearly deep enough in terms of structure. The new workflow...