As a photographer, you can have access to manage the samples directly in Kelvin, to help you to work even more efficiently. This article will guide you through the setup, explaining sample management, how to choose and change samples in Kelvin, and the settings available for customizing your workflow.
What is Sample Management?
Sample management refers to the process of tracking and validating the physical samples used during a shoot. In Kelvin, this means associating specific samples with tasks, ensuring that the correct sample is used for each shot, and updating the sample's location as needed. Effective sample management helps streamline the shooting process, reduces errors, and ensures consistency across shoots.
Choosing a Sample in Kelvin When you select a sample in Kelvin, you are specifying which physical sample is being used for a particular task. This is important for maintaining accurate records, updating metadata, and ensuring that the right sample is on set and ready to be used.
Kelvin Sample Display
After scanning a barcode, on the right side, you will see comprehensive sample information directly in the task display. This includes:
Sample Code
Sample Size, if applicable
You can also easily view and change the sample properties associated with a task by directly clicking on the sample code. This action will open a screen where you can:
View sample information (if available):
Check-in Status
Location and Sub-location
Container
Sample Properties
Edit sample information
Select a different sample if needed
Note: You must have Edit rights on Products and Samples to change the properties.
Kelvin Sample Management
By default, the Kelvin Sample Management feature is enabled. With this, Kelvin will update task data with the sample used for capture. If you disable this option, the rest of the settings will be hidden.
Disabling Kelvin Sample Management is not recommended for most studios - it prevents Kelvin from storing the Sample Code for Photography, which may affect reporting. For others whose process needs outweigh the reporting benefits, Sample Management may be disabled entirely.
Require sample selection
If you enable the “require sample selection” setting, Kelvin will require you to confirm which sample is being used for transfer.
When this setting is enabled, you must select the sample before transferring images to the next step.
When this setting is disabled, you can transfer the images as usual without selecting the associated sample:
If you scan a product code that has multiple samples in the same job, you will not be prompted to select the sample.
If you scan a product code that has multiple samples that are pooled from different jobs, you will be prompted to select the task.
If you are using the paste list option, where product codes have samples pooled from different jobs, the product codes are orange to show that you will need to select the job they are from.
Learn more about Sample Pooling here.
When no samples are selected, there will be an event log showing ‘Shoot sample not captured: Disabled by User’.
Automatically Detect Sample
Kelvin can help users select the best sample automatically, reducing manual effort needed by teams on set. This is most helpful for studios that receive multiple samples per product and regularly build shot lists based on the Product Code.
Here’s an overview of the available options for sample detection:
Don’t detect sample: Kelvin will not automatically select any sample, and the user will need to manually select the sample in all cases.
Sample location, then checked-in status: Kelvin will look at all of a Product’s sample, and then:
If a sample happens to be in the same location as the Kelvin Computer Location, it will be selected.
If there are no samples at the same location, but there is a checked-in sample, Kelvin will select it.
If Kelvin cannot find an appropriate sample to select, the user will have to select it manually.
Checked-in status: Kelvin will look at all of a Product’s sample, and then:
If there is a checked-in sample, Kelvin will select it.
If Kelvin cannot find an appropriate sample to select, the user will have to select it manually.
Location updates
In order to put control into the hands of your studio team members, Kelvin can now be configured to only update the Sample location once certain actions are taken.
Kelvin will update the location of a sample to Kelvin’s current location when one of the following actions is performed:
Manual select sample
Scan barcode
Load shot list
Transfer assets
For example, say your Studio pastes a list of product codes into the Kelvin Shot List.
If the list of pasted codes is perhaps generated from a rack of products that have already been brought to set, you may want these samples to automatically update to the Kelvin Computer Location once the Shot List is loaded. Then, ‘Load shot list’ option would work well for this case.
Alternatively, if the list of product codes has been pre-planned and it’s not guaranteed that all samples have made it to set, you may not want “Load Shot List” to update the Sample Location automatically, you can select ‘Manual select sample’ or ‘Transfer assets’ instead.
Note:
The location update will run only once based on whichever of the above-selected actions happens first.
For example, if you select Scan barcode and Transfer assets, the location update will run when the barcode is scanned, it will not run again when you transfer the assets.
Container location conflict
When a selected sample is assigned to a container that is scanned into a different one, please select the preferred action.
Note:
If Location Updates is disabled, the Container location conflict will be hidden.
If Require Sample Selection is disabled, then the sample location change will not happen.