Cataloging non-image files

[rcrigan]

G'day, long-time photog here. I use IMatch to catalogue my digital photos. In addition I have photos on film made before and since adopting digital. I'd like to catalogue these too. Currently they're catalogued in ledger books i.e. by pen and paper, according to film roll number. I want IMatch to show the roll number, date, subject matter and film metadata. I also want to be able to catalogue specific frames according to subject matter and rating. e.g Roll number B171183 may be described as 'Factory 6 refurbishment' and a specific picture on this roll my be described as B171183-27 'guillotine removal' rating 4.
Is this possible without having to make a dummy image for each roll? I understand it would involve inputting the data manually but it would be great to be able to have all my photographs in one searchable database.
Thanks for reading.
Robert, Australia

[mastodon]

That's what I would like to do, too. Cataloging scanned films.
Anybody has a good workflow? In what metadat fileds to store roll data?

[Mario]

In addition I have photos on film made before and since adopting digital. I'd like to catalogue these too. Currently they're catalogued in ledger books i.e. by pen and paper, according to film roll number. I want IMatch to show the roll number, date, subject matter and film metadata

IMatch usually needs an 'asset' to manage. You want IMatch to 'show' that info, but how any where...?
Without an asset (proxy image for each film roll, for example), IMatch can't do really much. This would be more a job for something for list management software like Microsoft Excel, FileMaker or similar...

Do you plan to digitize (scan) your negatives in the future?

One way to handle this would be to create a (simple black) JPEG file and a folder structure on your disk (year / month / roll).
Copy the JPEG ('roll proxy') image into each folder. This gives you an 'anchor' for each roll and an easy way to record metadata.

If you don't want to create a folder structure, you can create one folder with one proxy image per roll (using a file name based on YYYYMM-ROLL) or similar.
Then use IMatch categories to setup a structure/hierarchy that groups/organizes these roll proxies so you can find the info for each roll quickly.

Both ways allow you to use standard metadata for things like title and description and keywords.
And create a per-file Attributes Set to hold details about each film roll, equipment used, number of photos, notes etc.

This organizes your virtual assets nicely. You can search and filter them. Record any kind of metadata you like with Attributes etc.
If you later decide to scan/digitize your films, you can copy the metadata from the proxy image to the actual digitized scan.

[rcrigan]

Thanks Mario, that's what I need. I wanted to avoid creating a proxy image for each roll but I can probably automate most of the work. The image will be a jpg file of the text of the roll number. As I home in on particular frames for scanning the image will be the film's scanned image.
Thanks for the great support.
Robert

[Mario]

If you use the all files in one folder approach, you could use a data-driven category based on the file name to automatically group your files based on year/month.
If your file names use YYYYMM.. or YYYY-MM... you can 'grab' the YYYY and MM parts via the "use part of" option in data-driven cats to create a neat Year>Month hierarchy automatically.
Just as an idea.

[rcrigan]

That's a good idea  Mario. Thanks. My film numbers are of the form Bxxmmyy where B is the film format and xx is an index from 01 for the first film of the month. This will fit in well with your suggestion and I'd prefer to avoid a proliferation of folders, perhaps making one folder for each year.
regards
Robert

[rcrigan]

I'd like to summarise the setup I've implemented following Mario's good advice. I established nine folders, one for each film format/film type combination. e.g 8x10 colour transparency is folder T810. 35mm and roll film black and white negative is BW 135&120, etc. In each of these folders I made dozens of placefolder files consisting of a uniform greyscale jpg, placeholder1, placeholder2 etc. As I transfer my ledger book database to IMatch I rename each placefolder to my film roll number, e.g. to B170693. I then assign categories and metadata to this file.
When I select a frame from this roll for scanning I name the scan B170693-34 for frame 34 for instance. I can then add further categories and keywords as required. This works well for me as the initial setup involves minimal work and I can add each roll to the database as I have the time.
Any comments are most welcome.
Regards, Robert, Australia

[jch2103]

Sounds like a reasonable approach.

As Mario suggested, you can use IMatch categories & attributes as well as keywords to record various metadata associated with each roll. Depending on your needs, that would be an excellent time to record things like film manufacturer/type, camera, etc,, as well as information about the images (e.g., location: country/state/city/location and event/content keyword information (e.g., birthdays/holidays/etc.). Recording them once would allow you to replicate that information to groups of  individual images. You should also plan to record the 'taken' date as well as 'digitized' date, which will allow you to take advantage of the IMatch Timeline view.

Good luck with the project. I know it's a formidable task, so preparing well in advance is an excellent idea.


On a related note, are you using a dedicated scanner or scanning with a digital camera? Some users seem to be pleased with Negative Lab Pro https://www.negativelabpro.com/ for digital camera scans. It's a paid plugin for Lightroom that has a support forum as well as a Facebook user group. My own use of it is quite limited at this point and there are different tradeoffs between using a digital camera vs a dedicated scanner.

[mastodon]

OFF:
Is it possible to use Negative Lab Pro without Lightroom? With a free software?

[rcrigan]

For 135 film I use a Konica Minolta Dimage Elite 5400 II, excellent and ideal for my needs. I don't demand from my 35mm negatives the quality offered by today's digital cameras. These negs were made on fifty year old equipment and for these pictures, fifty year old quality suffices.
For 120 film and sheet film I use a Scanmaker 8700 by Microtek. It has a transparency/negative adapter and scans at 1200 pixels per inch, once again adequate for my needs.

[jch2103]

OFF:
Is it possible to use Negative Lab Pro without Lightroom? With a free software?

No.

[jch2103]

For 135 film I use a Konica Minolta Dimage Elite 5400 II, excellent and ideal for my needs.

I have one of these also. Excellent scanner. I use it with VueScan.