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Andy Schmidt Administrator Posts: 114
7/25/2019
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Dear Paul,
StudioLine’s core concept is that it becomes the storage facility for all your digital images – whether loaded directly from cameras, or from scanned-in from old prints. Ideally, there would be no need to first load them onto a Windows folder, because StudioLine can load them directly from your camera, scanner or memory stick. After loading them into StudioLine, you could wipe your camera or memory stick so that it can be used for the next photo shoot.
Of course, images that you already on your hard disk, prior to installing StudioLine require some special consideration.
>> When I launched StudioLine it for the first time, I imported all my many photos and folders.<<
Basically – there are two ways to “import” images, specially from Windows folders. The Image Archive preferences (on the software’s main menu) control the type of import performed for different sources.
- If you allow StudioLine to “copy” the images to the Image Archive, then your original images now (also) exists INTERNALLY in StudioLine, where each one will be permanently preserved (StudioLine never alters the original). Once you feel comfortable with StudioLine, and realize you no longer need them on their previous Windows folder location, you could delete any duplicates from the Windows folders and free up space.
- However, there is also the ability to NOT copy the images to the Image Archive, but to just catalogue references to the EXTERNAL (Windows) location of the file. This will work equally well, but only as long as you never move or otherwise change the location of these “externally” referenced originals. Since StudioLine has no internal copy, it has to rely on your ability/discipline to keep those files in place. Sometimes, reorganizing disk use, adding external drives, or installing a new Windows can change certain folder locations or disk drives. In that case, StudioLine will assist you with reconnecting to the files at their new location, the best it can.
>> I now see a folder/file structure in the Image Archive that looks exactly like what I see on Windows Explorer. But when I added another folder (with photos) from my camera in Windows, it did NOT appear in StudioLine? <<
Yes, ideally importing your “old” images from Windows is meant to be a “one-time” process, after which you would continue to “grow” your image archive by loading all future photos directly into StudioLine – eliminating the “go-between” Windows folder.
>> What am I seeing when I look at the folder/file panel in the StudioLine Image Archive? Are these the folders and files on my hard-drive? <<
These files are stored on your hard drive but not in any kind of recognizable Windows folders. If you use Outlook or other email software, you might have used systems that represent your “content” in their own “folder” metaphor – but they are NOT Windows folders.
>> If I delete a folder in StudioLine, does it get deleted in Windows Explorer? <<
No, adding/deleting folders/files in StudioLine does NOT touch any of your regular Windows folders and files. These are just StudioLine’s organizational objects that we represent to you as folders, categories, tags, etc.
>> When I see a photo (e.g., a jpg) in StudioLine, what is it physically? Is it the same jpg that's on my hard drive <<
What you see is the (unchanged) original photo, with any edits you made applied only dynamically while you view it. If the image is stored “internally” (was “copied” into the Image Archive) it is completely separate from whatever was on your Windows folder.
- If the image is stored “externally” (was NOT copied, but only catalogued to the Image Archive), then it IS the unchanged original image on your Windows folder (but with any edit’s applied dynamically).
- If an image is stored externally, then an icon below the image thumbnail will remind you of that fact. Clicking on that icon – or using the context menu – allows you to toggle the status of an image, if you change your mind on how it should be stored.
>> Should I see pictures in the Image Archive in their own, unique location, different from the original, with Windows Explorer?<<
Like Emails and Email attachments in your Email software, the StudioLine image archive stores your photos in a proprietary format – not in useful Windows Explorer locations.
>> I am particularly curious about the amount of memory it will require on my hard disk to have duplicates of every photo and video 4.<<
If you allowed StudioLine to copy your images to your StudioLine image archive, then you can decide at some future time to eliminate the duplicates from your old Windows folders.
>> If I modify a jpg photo in StudioLine, is the original (which I see in Windows Explorer in its original location) changed, or is only the copy changed? <<
No original is changed by StudioLine (no matter if it’s kept internal in StudioLine or external on a Windows Folder) – that is the core principle of StudioLine. THAT is why we prefer images to be stored INTERNALLY (copied INTO the image archive), as only THAT will protect you from using less-protective third-party tools and accidentally updating/cropping/resizing the priceless original.
When you use image tools in StudioLine, we remember your tools settings for each photo and “play-back” those settings for you when you view that image in StudioLine (or export, print, share… it). This way it SEEMS as if you modified the image – but you will forever be able to undo any individual change/setting/tool.
edited by Andy Schmidt on 7/25/2019
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