Zephyr's spin on Yidiyu's Technology

Photo management software review

The intention of this software review is not so much to compare one product to another, as there are plenty of sources of these already, but rather to match a common set of user needs to appropriate and affordable software solutions.

Context
The context of this “set of user needs” is set within the small to medium organizations or units with in the Northern Territory, where the project team will usually be 3 to 7 staff and focus will be on supporting the team to develop multimedia educational resources. In this environment the project will usually be limited to six months duration and a relatively small budget. I work as an external facilitator and assist in project design, equipment acquisition, training, evaluation and reporting to management and associated funding bodies. The team is typically inexperienced with graphic or multimedia software projects, maybe using PC or Mac based systems (sometimes both) and individual computer skills will vary from very limited user experience to management style use of computer systems, such as MS office and small in-house databases.

So why does such a context matter?

In this sense it is always easy to recommend the professional industry-standard software tools such as Adobe CS3, Final Cut pro and so on. These types of programs are very powerful, quite expensive and probably will not be used after the project is completed. It is typical that project like this will sit as pilot satellites of the main day-to-day activities of the team, so the largest limitation will be both time to learn new software solutions (which in some cases includes learning a new operating system) and to achieve usable outcomes that support and add value to the main objectives that the team has identified. For example, the production of a small educational training video, or a visual slideshow presentation system that is quick to learn and can be included in their day-to-day work flows and educational program delivery.

Project scope
For this example the project is very much as stated above, with a focus on digital photos, audio capture and the use of music to create simple engaging multimedia presentations to be used in a educational context. The participants will be using both Mac OSX and PC windows based systems.

Products developed will be delivered via digital projectors, on screen presentations and be repackaged for iPod and web based delivery.

Suggested software and why

Photo management
Objective – To have a simple cross platform photo management system that allows the user to perform functions such as: photo storage, photo editing and creating slideshow style presentations.

Software looked at:
Adobe Lightroom 1.1 – Approx A$150.00 per licence
Lightroom 1.1 has a good range of photo management, editing and publishing options and is also cross-platform. The best features of this program is that it contains many of the photoshop style photo editing features, whilst being simpler to learn than photoshop. So allows for most functions to be completed in the one program, and this can be done in RAW format if desired.

The outputs in Flash, HTML and also as PDF slide shows is very good, with the one exception that outputting a slideshow as a PDF does now permit the inclusion of music in the file. Music can be reattached, but this requires a full version of Acrobat which is an additional expense and another program to learn.

From a photo management point of view the lightroom file system is clear and simple to follow with folders in date format, which allows for easy access to files for transfer between different machines and programs.

iPhoto – free with OS X but not cross platform.
As a free consumer level software iPhoto is good for general use but has some significant limitations for use with in an organisational context.

The main function the iPhoto has been useful for is the creation of slideshows with audio attached and outputted as a quicktime file. The quality is great and with the help of a conversion program then files can be re-processed into other view formats.

The main limitation (or maybe I should call it an annoyance) with iPhoto is the file management system, which creates a complex structure of folders and sub-folders and it near impossible to access without exporting out from iPhoto itself. This is a major limitations that might require sharing resources and / or accessing files to transfer quicly and easily to PC platform machines.

Recommendation:
Lightroom 1.1 for all photo-management, on-computer slideshows, outputs as HTML and Flash templates in both PC and Mac from this program is great.

iPhoto – For slideshow on computer and as quicktime file is still the best free product result on the market.

Audio Capture
Objective – Easy capture of audio and transfer to editing / music / audio programs

Capture:
For this level of product development than capturing sound onto a mp3 player, such as an iPod is great, easy to transfer to computer in useful file formats. Usually need to by a separate mic which cost $110.00 (example is Belkin mic for iPod)

Software looked at:
Audacity – It works, it is free and with a few plug-ins then it can output to useful file formates.

Soundtrack is great if the user is operating at the level of Final cut express, which now has soundtrack as part new version of final cut express.

Recommended – Audacity or soundtrack.

File conversion and multi-user multi-formate access
Objective – A simple cost effective solution for file conversion, especially Quicktime files to other media player formats.

Software looked at:
Quicktime Pro – different to quicktime player, which is free, the Pro version has the ability to convert file formats easily. Although there are several free products that will do this, I found that for the $60 price tag it was money well spent.

Recommended – Buy Quicktime Pro if you have not got it as part of the Final cut Express or Pro package.

Technology

Our LearnScope project has assisted us in aquiring the services of a technical e-Learning specialist - Zephyr L'Green. Zephyr has been proactive and very instrumental in assisting our team to ensure we have the right "tools' to make this project work.

Welcome to the team Zephyr and thanks for all your assistance to date.

Welcome to e-Learning @ Yidiyu Blog

Hi everyone,

This project will assist with the e-learning initiatives within the Northern Territory Police Indigenous employees.

We have big plans to create photostories, learning spaces within our Janison LMS and learn heaps along the way.

Please check out our project on the NT Learnscope Wiki at http://ntlearnscope2007.wikispaces.com/NT+PFES

Have a great day.

Kym