Image edI t ourviewingoptionsdependonhavingadevicethatcan display 1's and 0's as an image. Gone are the days of holding a transparency or negative up to a light box and seeing an image. Despite the difference between virtualandreal,thegoalsforeditingdigitalandanalog remainthesame: edItINg CHeCKLISt · Choosethebestimages. edItINg BeSt PRaCtICeS When we consider editing workflow Best Practices, theyareminimal,butveryimportant,especiallyforthe rawworkflow. · XMPsupport · Workportability Themostimportantstandardisthatthesoftwareused foreditingmusthavefullXMPsupport.Theabilityto read and write XMP is required for metadata tem- plates,andthe0­5starratingssystemhasbecomean editing standard. XMP support also provides work portability. Edit Tools and Setup When we worked with film, setting up for editing involvedturningonthelightboxorgrabbingtheflash- light magnifier and grease pencil. With digital, setup involveschoosingasoftwareapplicationthatgivesus thosesametools: · Avirtuallightbox · Amagnifiertocheckfocusanddetail THE VIRTUAL LIGHTBOX · Trashthelosers.(Becarefulhere.Sometimesabad imagemayhavesomethinginitthatyoumayneed laterwhenyougettotheretouchingstage...oryou justmightneedthatlighterordarkerexposurefor HDRblending.) · Ratetheimagesthatyoufeelareworthkeeping. · Organizethekeepersusingcriteriaconsistentwith theneedsoftheassignment. · Makesuretheimagesareidentifiedwithcopyright andcontactinformation. In the film era, we had to live with the fact that a dupli- cate could not retain the exact quality of the original. Even 4 × 5 copies of 35-mm slides or negatives, though extremely good, were never perfect, and cost prohibited copying more than a few images from a shoot. One major advantage of digital photography over film is the potential to duplicate the originals quickly with an exact copy. Be sure to embed all your metadata during ingestion and editing to give your files maximum portabil- ity and longevity 144 · Awaytoapplyratings,labels,andmetadata · Awaytotrashbadimages · Speedandefficiency · Awaytoorganizeourimages Theleastefficientplacetoeditimagesisontheback ofthecamera.Itisalsoadangerouspracticetodelete imagesoffthememorycard.Abattery-powered,por- tableimagestoragedeviceliketheEpsonP-700mul- timediaPhotoViewersisabetterdevicetouseinthe field. Since these viewers are essentially hard drive devices,whenyoudeletephotosfromthemyoudonot