Yair,
Thanks for the comments. I have not used iViewMedia/Expression Media, since I tested it quite a while back. The idea of being able to launch a processing app, like C1 or something else with a right-click does not seem unreasonable. However, it will only be able to launch if the cataloged file is also reachable on the network. That is fine, and that is how Aperture and I guess LR also works. So if your file storage is connected and reachable, I can understand being able to access. But my impressions of EM is that it just catalogs things, including files you may have stored on CD/DVD, so if you were able to see the image in the catalog, you could only launch it if the full file is accessible. EM is only a catalog with great sorting and metadata management. Does not store the actual image files, but only thumbnails, or maybe smaller screen resolution images at best. No issue there, but I think it important for folks to understand the differences between it and something like Aperture or Lightroom, where the files may be stored for direct access PLUS the catalog searching, ranking, etc., that goes into the metadata part.
The second part is much, much more complicated, I think. If one has the RAW file presently in LR or Aperture, and has several versions, such as B/W, sepia, high contrast, etc., associated with the RAW file (saved only as instruction sets for the tweaks), how would those be found outside of LR or Aperture with EM? Unless they are exported as a tiff, PSD, JPEG or something else as a completed file and placed in the EM catalog as a separate entry, it would require EM to be able to enter the LR or Aperture library structure and "read" not just metadata, but processing data information strings also, or at least the thumbnail created for the preview image. That part seems a bit more difficult to me....doable, but not at this point.
So, if one did have a lot of images processed in LR or Aperture, for example, they would need to output all of those (including variations or versions) as at least thumbnail versions to be ingested into EM for cataloging, no? Right now, that is a lot of work, requires creating and exporting a lot more larger files to someplace so they can be cataloged in EM. So, if the "right-click" was used on an image in the EM catalog to say launch that image in C1 to process or tweak, for example, EM would have to be capable of launching the other app where the original may be located also. Not trying to make this too complicated, but this sort of underscores the differences between just a catalog, and an integrated asset management/processing/out tool.
Right now, EM may be the most powerful cataloging tool, that can point to stuff stored over many places....something LR and Aperture do not do quite as elegantly or powerfully right now. But LR and Aperture have the ability to use RAW files as is, allowing users to make a lot of adjustments and tweaks to many versions, but not having to create completely finished files for each, which can start to take up huge amounts of storage. C1 does not have that capability yet, so every iteration of a file has to be output as a separate file of significant size in most cases if they are tiff or PSD files. And that kind of file handling works well for EM as its catalog. They are two different ways of doing things, and I am not seeing an easy way to possibly integrate them at this point, even though some of us do use multiple tools, or have fairly large collections of stuff done in other tools (LR or Aperture), that would need some easy way to be pulled into EM for use of EM as the powerful catalog, maybe with some future option to shell out to other apps for processing or output.
Just would like to see some sort of roadmap for how things may work, as committing to this is not a trivial task. If EM would be able to read all the metadata and files now associated with say my Aperture Libraries, WITHOUT my having to export each version as a separate file just to be cataloged in EM, I could get a lot more interested.
LJ
