Project Overview
Background
In August of 2007, the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) was awarded funds by the United States Library of Congress through its National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) for the Digital Photography Best Practices and Workflow (dpBestflow®) project. ASMP assembled a team of experts and thought leaders to research ways to streamline and improve the process, production and preservation of commercial digital artwork. Two important publications have been used in the team’s work:
Digital Photography Best Practices and Workflow Handbook (Focal Press, 2009) by Richard Anderson and Patti Russotti (dpBestflow® Project Director and Contributing Author, respectively). Richard Anderson is a key participant in the dpBestflow® project. The book presents workflow practices for planning, capturing and archiving digital photography.
The DAM Book (O'Reilly Media, 2009): Author Peter Krogh (dpBestflow® Senior Project Manager) is another key member of the dpBestflow® team. His book on Digital Asset Management is an essential guide for photographers moving from film to digital and shows how all the components of a digital photo library fit together into a comprehensive system.
Purpose
The purpose of dpBestflow® is twofold:
- To create guidelines for refined production workflows, archiving methods, and best practices for digital photography based on a variety of capture methods and intended image use. The guidelines will be developed on the basis of research, analysis of software products and other tools targeted at professional photographers.
- To publish the dpBestflow® as a website open to the public. The adoption of the dpBestflow® guidelines will be promoted to the professional photography community and the public through programming at industry trade shows and a nationwide series of training events at ASMP chapters, trade shows, and educational institutions.
dpBestflow.org Content
dpBestflow.org is a rich web resource which includes a series of on-line educational seminars, software & hardware solutions, workflow guides and book references, designed to match a wide variety of working styles. Now, by accessing the web site, photographers and others in the visual arts community have real-world solutions for preserving the quality and integrity of digital images, proven best practices that have been shown to produce superior results, and guidelines for streamlined production workflows.
