The photographer hands over four hundred files called IMG_2041.jpg. Some of them already sit in three folders on different drives. A buyer asks for “the photos of the new collection, large size”, and you are hunting for which version was the last and whether it may be shown in Australia. If that sounds familiar, you already know the problem a DAM solves.
What a DAM knows about a file
The difference between a folder and a DAM is the information around the file. In technical writing it is called metadata; in plain words it is everything you could write on the back of a print. A DAM keeps it with the file and can search by it.
- The product. A photo is tied to a particular product or variant, so “all the photos of the red mug” is one click rather than a search through names.
- The kind of shot. A packshot, a lifestyle picture, a detail, a size chart.
- Rights. Who made it, what license applies, in which countries and for what use the photo may be used, and when the right ends.
- A text description. A short line that a screen reader and a search on the web read instead of the picture.
- Versions. The original, a cropped copy, a retouched copy, and a way back to an earlier one.
Three jobs a folder cannot do
1. Find by product
In a folder a photo lives where somebody put it. If one picture is needed for the shop and for the wholesale catalog, it gets copied, and the copies drift apart. In a DAM there is one file and many places it is used, and the library shows each of them.
2. Remember the rights
A picture licensed for one season should not still be selling next year. In a folder that fact sits in the head of whoever bought the license. In a DAM the end date is written down, and a good system takes the photo off display when the date passes instead of waiting for somebody to remember.
3. Hand out the right size
A marketplace wants a 2,000 by 2,000 pixel square, your shop wants a narrow strip and a buyer printing a catalog wants the large original. That is three files from one picture. In a DAM you set the sizes for each destination once and the system prepares the right one. For people outside, you make a gallery behind a single link, with a password, an expiry date and a list of the sizes they may download.
DAM, PIM and a cloud folder
A cloud folder stores files and lets you share them. That is good and cheap, but it does not know what a product is. A PIM keeps the description of a product but not the photos as files. A DAM keeps the files and knows what they belong to. That is why the two are almost always used together: the description lives in a PIM, the pictures live in the DAM, and the link between them means a new photo appears on the product page without any copying.
An example: a furniture workshop with six hundred photos
A workshop in Hamburg makes tables and shelves and sells through its own shop and two shops in Germany and the Netherlands. Over five years it has collected six hundred photos: some from a photographer, some taken on a phone in the workshop, some bought from an outside author for an advertising campaign. The bought pictures were licensed for two years, for Europe only.
In a folder that license is an email in the owner’s inbox. When it ran out, the pictures stayed on the product pages and the workshop received a demand from the author. In a library the date and the territory are recorded once, and when it passes the photo comes off display. The rest of the pictures can be found by the name of the table, not by the memory of whoever once made the folders.
Who uses the library
In a small business it is usually three people. The one who photographs uploads the pictures. The one who keeps the catalog attaches them to products. The owner or a manager approves what goes on sale and gives buyers the link to a gallery. A DAM earns its keep when those three no longer have to ask one another where a file is and whether it is the latest version.
What else a good library can do
- Find duplicates. The same shot uploaded three times is found, the best one is kept and every use is moved onto it. This should be reversible.
- Propose a sort. AI can look at a file and suggest what is in it and which product it belongs to. You accept or dismiss each proposal.
- Collect approvals. A photo is sent to a named person, who approves it or asks for changes with a comment.
- Keep the history. Editing never destroys the original.
When you do not need a DAM
If you have a few dozen photos, one person uploads them and you own the rights to every picture, a well-kept shared folder is enough. A complicated library only adds chores: files have to be uploaded, described and maintained.
A folder also works if every file is named by one rule: SKU, shot number, kind. For example MUG-RED-01-packshot.jpg. It costs nothing, and it is the first step you need in any case, even if you move to a DAM later.
Signs that the folder no longer copes: you cannot find a photo in under a minute; the same picture is kept in several places; you shrink images by hand for every marketplace; and you do not know whether you may still use a picture you bought last year.
How to choose a DAM
- Does it tie photos to products and variants, or only to folders?
- Does it record rights and an end date, and what does it do when the date has passed?
- Does it prepare sizes for different channels, or will you do that by hand?
- Can you give outsiders access through a link with a password and an expiry date?
- Can you upload a thousand files quickly, with a queue that survives a dropped connection?
- Can you get the original back and undo a merge of duplicates?
- Can you take all the files and their descriptions with you if you leave?
A checklist before you start
- I know how many files I have and where they are now.
- I have a rule for naming files.
- I know which photos carry restrictions on use.
- I have decided who approves photos before they go live.
- I tried an upload with 50 of my own files.
How to start with a thousand photos
- Week one: gather. Bring everything to one place and delete nothing. Let it be messy, as long as it is in one place.
- Week two: remove duplicates. Exact copies first, then very similar ones. Look at each group before you confirm.
- Week three: attach to products. Best and newest photos first. Do not expect to do everything at once.
- Week four: record rights. Begin with photos bought from outside authors and those with people in them.
- After that, one habit. Once a week go through new files that have not been filed. Fifteen minutes on Monday beats a big clean-up once a year.
Where Keelvy fits
Keelvy has such a library: uploads of files and whole folders, an inbox for what has not been sorted, search by product and rights, rights recorded with an automatic take-down the day after they end, duplicate search and merge with undo, galleries with a password and an expiry date, and review before publishing. The library is connected to the products, so a photo reaches the product page without copying. More in Keelvy as DAM.
Keelvy as DAM
See how it works in Keelvy.