Introduction

Asset capture by means of a regular camera set-up + lights set-up is most commonly used in studios today. We also know that most studios will use some form of a third party software such as Capture One, Adobe Bridge, or similar. One of the most critical use cases are to do tethering and file naming, the principle is that the third party app should manage how to name files and the captured images should then be saved to the computer upon capture. Ideally you capture directly from the local computer.

ProStudio will work independently of any third party software but can also work with any third party software such as Capture One. 

Pre-requisites

For optimal use, we recommend that ProStudio is set up with products and style guides, please see "Import products" and "Style Guides" for more information.

All the products you aim to capture should be in a Work Order and Style Guide views should be attached to each product in that Work Order. Please see Beginners guide, "Planning - Create a Work Order"

The Upload matching rule should also be defined to work with any naming convention that you prefer to use. Please see System configuration, "Asset recognition rule (Upload matching rule)" for more information.

If you are using Capture One, it must be installed and set up according to their guides.

The capture process

Asset capture

Assets can be captured by using a number of different ways and all are compatible with ProStudio. 

This is applicable both; using a normal camera and move the card from camera to computer; and using a software like Capture One to do tethered shooting from the computer.

Asset naming in capture

Naming assets in the photo shoot is one of the key elements in order to streamline the content creation process. ProStudio is optimally used when you can identify both the Product and the View when capturing assets. This means that you need to have a structured and consistent process for asset naming in the capture process. It also means that these identities need to exist in ProStudio, both in the product data for the product and in the style guide for the view (angle).

NOTE: you may have addition information strings in the file name, just as long as they are clearly separated in the name, e.g. either with an underscore "_", or with a minus "-", or other characters that separate the strings. These separators are used to strip the file name in the upload process.

If you use any desk top application (such as Capture One), you must export the assets from Capture One before uploading them. If you use the color labels in Capture One or similar program, the color labels must be defined in ProStudio. For more information, please see advance feature, "Import assets using Lightroom/Bridge/Capture One color labels".

Asset upload

To upload Assets, follow these steps:

1. Log into ProStudio.
2. Select the valid Work Order.
3. Select "Upload Assets".
4. Drop the Assets in the drop zone.
   1. The selected Assets will be displayed on the right hand side of the application.
5. Select the Upload matching rule.
6. Select the Asset category.
7. Set status for the uploaded assets.
8. Select "Create and match selected assets".

NOTE: You can upload a multiple assets in batches simultaneously.

Asset matching

As described above we use upload matching rules to identify the Assets when uploading to ProStudio. The upload matching is configured when we set up the system. 

The matching is done in two steps:

1. Identify the Product - this is done using the product data
2. Identify the View - This is done using the style guide

This Upload matching will attach the Asset to the related Product and View. This makes it possible to validate that you have all the images that you need from the content creation session. 

NOTE: You don't have to match each Asset to a Product and View manually, this is automated as long as you have a consistent naming convention in the capturing phase.

NOTE: You can have multiple Upload matching rules to chose from when uploading, this is to support multiple photo bays.

Asset renaming

In many cases, your e-commerce will require advanced file names to handle the Asset optimally, names that may be tedious and time consuming to manage in the capture phase. For the most part, this means that the work load avfter point of capture may be extensive when the assets need to be renamed. This is usually done with intricate scripts and/or home grown tech solutions.

ProStudio uses "Asset Naming Definition" to integrate these features, simplifying the naming convention. Every existing field in ProStudio can be used to name the Assets. And, if more fields are needed, these can be added through configuration.

Use Product data and Style Guide fields to define how to name assets to your advantage. Please refer to System configuration, "Asset Naming Definition" for more information.