Top 10 Perks of DF Studio

With the dawn of digital photography arose a new adaptation of a time old issue for photographers. How to organize and store your images? With film there was at least a tangible object that you could touch and see pilling up on the filling cabinet or endless binders of negatives, to be alphabetized and categorized. With digital, it became even easier to let your images get the best of you, when it comes to organization. The binders turned into CDs and then hard drives…well we are all in luck! Digital Fusion, based in Los Angeles, has been on the forefront of digital capture technology for the last decade and created DF Studio. DF Studio provides a way to upload, store, organize and share your images all online, with multiple points of redundancy and subscription plans to fit any workflow. DF Studio is built by an experienced team of engineers with a track record of successful software developed at companies ranging from startups to Fortune 500 corporations.

Capture Integration is recommending all of our clients to check out this solution. This is valuable resource that could drastically improve the workflows of our clients. We realize that there are multiple avenues for cloud storage, but so many of these platforms leave the photographer hanging – by not including critical features. One of the biggest draws to this service is the compatibility with RAW digital back files. DF Studio is compatible with IIQ files and EIPs. We recommend that you process and upload a screen res JPG. It will not read the Capture One adjustments, so it is ideal to still upload a JPG for proper viewing. The program will even allow you to stack the RAWs and processed files together.

DF Studio also does an incredible job with metadata, which is a common issue with other cloud storage solutions. DF Studio gives the photographer the ability to use a robust keyword system (captions, categories, locations, copyright, etc) and full EXIF data.

We will jump into some of the key features below. There is a demand for this in the professional marketplace, and DF Studio delivers a clean and easy solution that professional photographers should be paying attention to. Fox Broadcasting, 20th Century Fox Television Distribution, A&E Networks, Sony Pictures Entertainment, FX Network, Warner Bros. Worldwide Television, IFC, and many more rely on DF Studio every day for their production workflow, managing millions of photos. If you’re interested in learning more about this software, don’t hesitate to contact Capture Integration to learn about the features and pricing options.

10. Free Trial Period

Start your 15-day trial and select the price level that best suits your needs and requirements. Visit DFStudio.com for pricing information. Once on the “Create Your Account” page, fill in your contact information, check the “Terms of Use” check box to agree to our term and conditions, and you have just created your account! You will receive an email with a temporary password, which you will be able to customize at your fist login. Make sure to keep your login credentials for future use. Your free trial does not require billing information for the first 15 days. When the trial period ends, you will be notified via email to take further action. You may choose to subscribe by entering your billing information or cancel your account entirely. To cancel your account, you may simply stop logging in; the account will automatically cancel itself.

9. Multiple Subscription Options

Not every photographer’s workflow is the same. Neither is the amount of access or storage requirements. DF Studio offers multiple levels of subscriptions scaled to the single photographer to large corporations who need unlimited users and terabytes of storage.

8. Multiple Upload Options

After completing the sign-up process, the below image is the first page that is displayed in DF Studio, with direction to upload your first project. A project is the basic container for a set of images, such as a photo shoot, some scanned images, or any other set of files like video clips, PDFs, etc. DF Studio accepts all file types, including Microsoft Office files. However, a preview image is only generated from picture files and PDFs. The icons associated with their file type will display all other files. Once the upload is done, you may close the upload window and refresh your browser to see the newly uploaded project!

The Other Option available is DFS Speed Link. Speed Link is a stand-alone application, designed for OS X and used for uploading files to DF Studio. It can be used by account holders to upload to their own account, or by non-account-holding photographers delivering to client accounts.

7. No More Hard Drives

The days of storing hard drives are over. If you store your images with DF, you know that they are safe whether its your last big advertising job, or shots from your last vacation. You can upload images in any format. Organize them the way you would like and store them, to either have immediate access or “cold storage” if its something that you don’t need to see right away.

6. Online Access to Your Images from Anywhere

Since DF Studio is a Web/Cloud based storage system. You can access your imagery from anywhere on any computer. You no longer have to have the files with you or access to your personal archive. This allows you to provide images to your clients even if you are traveling and on another shoot. You could log into your account from the hotel business center without anything except your log in info!

5. Multiple Storage Options

When uploading images to DF Studio, preview jpegs of various sizes are created for display in the web browser. These files are referred to in DF Studio as Project Storage. The actual original files that were uploaded are put into Active Storage where they can be preserved as a backup or delivered to clients. Active Stored files may be moved to Cold Storage or deleted to reduce storage use without affecting the DF Studio previews, thus continuing to allow all of the features of DF Studio, with the exception of downloading the original file.

Cold Storage is an alternate form of “archival” storage provided by DF Studio that allows storing large amounts of data in a secure and ultra-durable way at a fraction of the price of Active Storage. Because files stored in Cold Storage are not immediately accessible, Cold Storage is most appropriate for files that are accessed infrequently and where a few hours of wait time before use is acceptable. A common use case would be to store large RAW or hi-res tiff images in Cold Storage. All project information and edits are still available for files in Cold Storage. Even Messengers may be sent for proofing or approval purposes for files in Cold Storage. If you would like to restore the file, a single restore request should complete within 8 hours, independent of the number of files in the request.

4. Ability to Share Image Messengers and Web Galleries

Another feature of DF Studio is the ability to share images with clients and collaborators without the use of direct login credentials. A user can send a Messenger to a client, coworker, or an approving party in order to obtain approvals from or share files with those recipients. It is recommended that account holders communicate with outside parties with messengers to avoid giving those individuals direct access to the account. A Messenger is delivered in the form an email with an enclosed link that walks the recipient through the viewing process.

As well as Image messengers you are able to create web galleries with combinations from different projects. This way you can pull imagery to fit a specific type of client and share them. When sharing the gallery you have the option of different layouts background shades and accessibility levels. Once sent, the recipient receives and email with an enclosed link to what is basically a beautiful website, custom tailored to their needs.

3. Sharing Edits in Real Time with LIVE Messenger

In addition to sharing files, a LIVE messenger will allow two parties to share their edits at in real time. One party must be the account holder, while the other is a messenger recipient. The account holder can perform some edits by clicking the “1”, “2”, or “Kill” buttons located under each thumbnail. With LIVE Messenger, the recipient can make his own edits immediately, and with the click of the Refresh button can view the latest edits from the sender.

2. Redundancy, Redundancy… Redundancy

DF Studio utilizes the Amazon Cloud storage system. This Means that your images will always be safe. The data is not only in the “cloud” but routed though server farms based worldwide. This alleviates the concerns that go along with having imagery on multiple hard drives or servers that can and probably will fail or become corrupt at some point. This system is utilized by some of the largest companies in the world such as Fox Broadcasting, Netflix and many many others.

1. Be Professional

We work in a visual and technological industry. DF Studio is a tool that merges the two and allows you to store, organize edit, and share with your clients. It helps cut down on time added to the post process after your shoot has wrapped. Not only that, it is a tool that not everyone may be using, so in that aspect it gives you an edge over your competitors. You can brand this to your liking. Don’t rely on the sloppy organization of programs like WeTransfer and Dropbox. This gives you and your clients the completed branded experience. Not only is it efficient, but lets be honest – it looks professional! What more could you ask for!

If you’re interested in learning more about this software, don’t hesitate to contact Capture Integration to learn about the features and pricing options.