A N Ov E RvI EW O F WO R K F L O W C Om P O N E N T S A N D P L A N N I N G · Capture · Output · Creative These points may vary depending on factors such as captureformat,softwareused,andwhodoesthefinal file preparation. Since sharpening is an inherently destructiveprocess,howitishandledintheworkflow isacriticalissue. Metadata Image files without metadata are just a pile ofpixels. --BruceFraser imagefiles.Concernsaboutembeddingmetadatainto proprietaryrawfileshaveledsomesoftwaretoattach ratherthanembedXMPmetadata.Theattachedfiles arereferredtoas"sidecar"files,andtheyareessentially adigitalversionofcaptionsandinstructionsthatwere oftenattachedtoanalogfilmorprints.Realproblems can arise when a file has embedded IPTC (IIM) format, embedded XMP format, and an attached sidecar file. Different software applications may read the metadata in different order or may not recognize XMP data at all. Understanding and avoiding these confusion points and collisions helps keep the work- flow efficient and maintains metadata portability for yourfiles. Some software circumvents the issue of embedding metadataorattachingmetadatatorawfilesbykeeping themetadatainadatabase.WhenMetadataislocked upinadatabase,itwillnottravelwiththeimagefile. Yourworkisnotportabletootherapplicationsoreven (veryeasily)toothercomputers. Wesayusersbeware! File Delivery Filedelivery,thehandingoffofdigitalimagefilesfrom persontopersonanddevicetodevicecontinuestobe achallengingaspectofdigitalphotographyworkflow. Itrequiresunderstandingandproperlyapplyingallthe concepts of digital photography--that is, color man- agement, file formats, resolution, sharpening, and metadata.Filedeliveryrequiresanaccurateandconsis- tent workflow and clear communication. The image receiverneedstoknowtheprecisestatusoftheimage fileintermsofitscolorprofile,resolution,sharpening, and applied metadata. Much of this information can (andshould)beincludedintheimagefileasmetadata. The challenge is for the receiver of the image file to know how to find and interpret this information. Although no one called them metadata, captions or labelsattachedtoslidemountsorbacksofprintswere just that (i.e., information about the image).The dif- ferencenowisthatmetadatacanbe"embedded"into theimagefile.Convenientasthisis,perhapsnoother aspect of digital workflow is more confusing. Under- standingmetadatainvolveslearningsuchacronymsas IPTC, IPTC Core Schema, PLUS, XMP, and IIM. Additionalconfusioniscausedbythefactthatalegacy metadata format known as IIM is gradually (but not universally)beingreplacedbyXMPformat. Often confusion arises over which metadata fields to use and when. See the Ingestion section (chapter 7) forwaystohelpthinkaboutandcreatemetadatatem- platesandaddresstheissueofthemostcommonlyused fields.Thissectionwillalsoshowthevalueofautomat- ingthisprocess,dependingonwhichingestionprogram youdecidetouse. AnotherissueisthatXMPmetadataisusedtoprovide processing instructions (parametric image edits) for 32