Why Photographers Need Effective Digital Asset Management

Efficient management of these digital assets has become essential to maintain an organised workflow, maximise productivity and improve scalability.

Digital Asset Management (DAM) software and services like Lookatme™ can be a game-changer for photographers in simplifying workflows and organising their work. This comprehensive guide will delve into the intricacies and importance of digital asset management for photographers, as well as the key features that photographers should look for in a DAM system.

Overview of Digital Asset Management

DAM is a comprehensive system with robust features that can help users streamline how they store, organise, manage, and distribute digital assets such as photos, videos, and documents. 

With features such as metadata tagging, version control, user access management, and backup solutions, DAM systems enable users to maintain a well-organised asset library, track the history and usage of their assets, and collaborate more effectively with clients and team members. This helps everyone save time and energy and contributes to better working relationships overall.

Importance of Digital Asset Management for Photographers

Photographers can take thousands of shots per session, but often have a relatively short turnaround time to sort, edit, curate and deliver the finished work to clients. As such, a good DAM solution like Lookatme™ can be invaluable in providing a centralised image repository that is easy to access, search, and share, leading to benefits for photographers such as:

Efficient Workflow and Time Management

Without a digital asset management software, photographers can spend a lot of unnecessary time trawling through files and folders if they need to search for a specific image from shoots that were done months ago.

Lookatme™ can eliminate that frustration with features like metadata tags, keywords, and filters to help photographers sort and find their images quickly. If photographers have granted their clients direct access to their assets, then this feature also enables the client to easily locate their images and allows the photographer to concentrate on the creative aspect of their work.

For example, event photographers can tag images they upload for a specific event with the name of the event and perhaps the date. This saves them a lot of time and effort in retrieving, editing, and delivering images taken at that event.

Enhanced Collaboration and Client Interaction

Photographers often work in teams of a few photographers and editors, especially if they have multiple clients to shoot for on the same day and/or a quick turnaround commitment. As such, it is vital for them to be able to keep their digital assets straight – they need to know which images were uploaded from which camera, which folder holds the curated images versus the raw files, and which folders the client can access to review the images.

Centralised DAM software can do all of that for photographers and more. They allow specific roles to be created in the system for various collaborators – be it photographers, editors, designers, or clients – enabling the primary user to denote what actions they can take and folders they can access. It facilitates smoother interactions and ensures that any change is applied across the board so that everyone can access the latest version of the assets.  

For example, photographers can share the edited photos from a shoot to the client by granting them permissions to the correct folder in Lookatme™. The client can then view and comment on the photos, and the photographer can track that feedback in the system to make the changes requested – which the client can then view again using the same link after the photo is updated. 

Secure Storage

It can be catastrophic for photographers if their digital images are lost to unforeseen events such as corrupted or crashed hard drives, accidental and/or malicious deletion, and more – especially as reshoots are very rarely possible. A good digital asset management photography software can provide peace of mind by safeguarding your assets and making sure they can be recovered if the worst happens.

Lookatme™ leverages cloud storage and encryption to provide secure, automated backup solutions so that you always have the originals to fall back on and your creations are properly protected. Additionally, you can set user access controls to outline who can view, edit or share your images in the system.

Intellectual Property Protection

Plagiarism and/or unlicensed image usage are both significant problems in the photography industry and can actively cost photographers a lot of money in lost revenue. For instance, photographers typically charge different rates for their images based on personal or professional use, but clients may think that one rate applies for everything and use the image as they like.

However, a good digital asset management software for photographers can be part of the solution. Lookatme™ manages photographer attribution and image usage rights so that clients are clear on when, how and what these images can be used for. This is especially necessary if you are a photographer that sells rights to images that you choose to take yourself (such as photos of the landscape).

Improved Asset Utilisation

The best digital asset management solutions can do more than effectively store, categorise and manage access to images – they can also simplify work for other creative uses, such as if the photographer also creates or is involved in creating social media content. 

Lookatme™ provides the ability to upload images at full resolution and automatically generates derivatives of those images for use in specific applications or channels. This means that it will keep the original high-resolution version of an image, but also create and format it into other files for use in places like social media channels. This can significantly reduce the time needed to generate and publish a social media asset.

Unlock Your Creative Potential With Lookatme™

Today’s fast-paced, image-driven world means that photographers need to be more efficient than they have ever been to maintain their creativity without being bogged down by administration. That is why a good digital asset management solution should be an essential addition to any photographer’s toolkit because it can help them streamline workflows, enhance collaboration, secure assets and more.

With Lookatme™, photographers can enjoy intelligent and intuitive backend support for their business that frees up their time to focus on what they do best – capturing stunning images and telling compelling stories through their lenses.