Photoshop history logs - detailed metadata

[Colorblind]

Hi, I was having a discussion where I suggested our Studio people to implement the use of detailed Photoshop history logs saved as metadata inside the file. I find it to be a great tool to track changes made to an image since, in our regular workflow, different people can make changes to a single file before this one gets used in a layout. The answer I got was that it may slow down the editing/saving process of the files and create bigger files. Since it's only metadata, I don't think it would use much more memory/processor when actually working on an open file and I don't think it would add much to an image file size. Any thoughts, opinions?

 

[leonardr]

Hi, I was having a discussion where I suggested our Studio people to implement the use of detailed Photoshop history logs saved as metadata inside the file. I find it to be a great tool to track changes made to an image since, in our regular workflow, different people can make changes to a single file before this one gets used in a layout.

Good call! It's great stuff and I wish more people would use it.

The answer I got was that it may slow down the editing/saving process of the files and create bigger files.

Clearly, these people don't get it .

Yes, the files will be larger. But compared to the HUGE size of the images that I am sure are being created, the metadata won't really make a dent.

It will have (practically) zero impact on file opening, editing or saving.

 

[ripit]

Colorblind, could you expand a little on this? where do i find theses history logs and what information would you like to see your studio to log?

 

[Colorblind]

Yes, the files will be larger. But compared to the HUGE size of the images that I am sure are being created, the metadata won't really make a dent.

It will have (practically) zero impact on file opening, editing or saving.

Thanks for jumping in Leonard (I was kind of hoping for this). That confirms what I thought. And once again, it's such a great tool to track down the history of changes that were made to a file. I actually wish other Adobe products such as InDesign would implement that.

 

[Colorblind]

Colorblind, could you expand a little on this? where do i find theses history logs and what information would you like to see your studio to log?

The way I understand it is, if enabled properly in Photoshop preferences (see attached), you can track the whole file history log in terms of opening, saving and detailed manipulation history, just by going in the history pane of "File info" menu. I think that info can also be accessed via Bridge. See attached for an overview of the info it can provide. That kind of info can be very useful for billing purpose, file integrity check when re-using the file, mistake tracking and so on. I think (someone correct me if I'm wrong) it will only log changes made from someone's computer if that preference is enabled locally.

 

[leonardr]

I actually wish other Adobe products such as InDesign would implement that.

Actually, all of the original members of the Creative Suite + the video suite, all support it. It was a key feature introduced across the suite in CS4.