Widen’s latest version of Backdrop™ is here with our Summer Release!  What’s new?  Well, first and foremost is its plug-in integration with Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom™2. The new Backdrop feature enables users of Lightroom 2 to upload images to Backdrop directly from the Lightroom digital photo management application. The export plug-in provides users with the ability to login to the Backdrop site, choose an upload profile, and specify the desired size and quality of the images to be uploaded.

In addition to this, we’ve added to ability to print images along with comments (which also lists author of the comment(s)) individually or in batch.  Reporting functionality has been enhanced with reporting for uploads and orders.  Need a certain layout for contact sheets?  Now you can create dynamic contact sheets – you pick how many images (columns and rows) you want per page.
 

Need to search on a specific date range for uploaded photos?  Backdrop now has the ability to search photos by upload date.  We’ve also added the ability to rate photos using a star system (hey, nice shot – I’ll give that 4 stars) – and users can search by the rating (I ONLY want to look at images with 5 stars).

Backdrop is a web-based image management application for creative professionals that provides photographers with the ability to route images to reviewers for comments and approval. Its configurable workflows eliminate time-consuming tasks and provide a high degree of workflow flexibility, as well as seamlessly connect with the Widen Media Collective® digital asset management system.

DEAR DR. DAM: My name is Sarah and I work in the marketing department for a large manufacturer. We have several divisions, make hundreds of products, and therefore have accumulated many product photographs over the years. I have a big problem with the images being scattered across many different locations.

We have images on servers, desktop hard drives, intranet sites, and hanging file folders full of CDs - it's a giant mess. I never know exactly where to look. When I think I have an idea of where they're at, it seems like it takes me hours to get to them. It's an absolute nightmare when salespeople call in needing images right away and I can't find them. It's embarrassing! So much time is lost just trying to get a handle on all of my images. Please help me!

DEAR SCATTERED ASSETS SARAH: I understand exactly what you're saying. Having your assets scattered across many sources can be very stressful for your marketing efforts. Lost files are worthless to you and often lead to a duplication of efforts. Repeat photography and color work become unnecessary sunk costs. The stress, along with time and money lost, can be avoided by using a digital asset management system to centralize and manage your images.

I recommend working with Widen because they make a complex process very simple. Widen is a hosted provider who will walk you through the entire process to get you up and running painlessly. Their customers say that their application is very easy-to-use and requires little user training.

I like to periodically expose some of the actual stories that take place with clients looking for ways to get control of their brand assets and rich media.  This was my original intention for Dr. DAM.  Does this sound like you?

We recently had a discussion and demo with the creative director at an advertising agency seeking help in managing two terabytes of data stored on local hard drives and CDs.  They currently use FTP sites to distribute digital assets to clients, but they're getting complaints that this isn’t meeting their needs.  The current processes are not user friendly, assets aren’t globally accessible, they’re grappling with multiple file formats and all of the files are too large to email at 70MB+. 

Like many agencies working with big companies, they have an enterprise client that has turned to them for help in building a web based DAM system to manage their brand assets.  The client needs to allow people from multiple departments all over the world to access current assets, add metadata, share, send and download images, store displays, banners and other marketing resources. 

Other “must-haves” for the client include:

• Branded site to meet corporate branding standards
• Full reporting and tracking of asset usage
• Simple ability to upload assets, add metadata and structure content
• User permissions to control who sees what

Since many ad agencies do not have the time or resources to take on enterprise digital asset management software implementations nor is it within their area of expertise, it’s becoming more common for agencies to turn to a hosted service or SaaS provider for help.  If you’re interested in Dr. DAM’s recommendation… trust the experts.

I just read a great article about how photography studios should ‘farm things out’ to become more profitable, less stressed, and overall more productive.  Brilliant!  The author of “Farm It Out,” (PDN Online) Sarah Coleman, discusses how once photography moved to digital, photographers started doing more and more work.  Retouching images, tweaking color, storing client images, burning CDs and shipping them to clients – the list goes on and on!  These secondary tasks not only take away from spending time shooting images but also take additional time and resources to complete.  By outsourcing things such as these – photographers spend more time shooting – less time doing time-consuming administrative tasks – saving time and money.  By hiring outside service providers to take care of image management and photography workflow – photographers can earn more doing less.  Now who doesn’t want that?

Generally, by hiring a software as a service provider such as Widen to take care of image management – studios find that they don’t have to worry about storage, IT, infrastructure, hardware, etc – which is both an emotional and financial relief.  Backdrop™ helps streamline photography workflows by automating, centralizing, and tracking all reviews, comments, and approvals from anywhere in the world.  By combining this with digital asset management – photographers not only improve their workflow but provide their clients with a secure, centralized location in which they can access their images (by permission, of course).

For studios looking to expand, farming out digital asset management and workflow applications can help move them to another level of business growth.  By utilizing partners who are experts in their respective markets, studios can enhance what they do best and offer their clients the latest technology to outpace their competitors.  What better way to do this than offer your client’s digital asset management and Backdrop for photography routing and approval?