Best practices

Preventing duplicates and overwritten images

• Before uploading an image, do a quick search in DAC to confirm the image has not already been uploaded. If you see it, unless you’ve modified the asset in some way, there’s no reason to upload it again. This helps prevent duplicate images in the system.
• File names should be unique. When adding a new asset, ensure you are using a prefix in your filename to make the asset name as unique as possible.
  • Our professional photographers are instructed to use the year, their initials, location and date (example format: 2020RSP_BTEC_060220_) to ensure the filenames are unique.
  • Note: if the asset’s filename is not unique (i.e., Logo.eps or Logo.jpeg), the new asset will overwrite the existing one, so it is critical to use specific, unique filenames.

Metadata

Metadata are the terms we use to describe an asset and its status for use by the company. DAC is searchable by this metadata. It is critical that we include accurate and complete metadata with every asset uploaded or we cause more work for administrators and potentially put the company at risk. 

Required fields

• Copyright owner – Who is the owner of this photo?

• If the owner is an ExxonMobil employee, the field can read “ExxonMobil”
• If it is a purchased stock image, name the organization it was obtained from and its status. (some are already available in the pulldown menu. i.e., Getty Images, Royalty Free; Getty Images, Rights Managed) 
• If it is a licensed stock image (rights managed), describe the origination AND click on the licensed check box.
• The licensed checkbox triggers DAC to automatically delete the images once the license expires (which you will need to enter)

• Country – Include the country of origin of the asset. Can include multiple countries if appropriate.
• Location – This field is more specific than the country. How does the company refer to this location?  Baytown Refinery, Dallas HQ, FPSO Liza Destiny, offshore Guyana, Clinton Labs, etc.

• Keywords – Think about keywords as how you might describe your asset to someone who can’t see it. There are no limits on number of keywords, so please include any and all information you have - both technical and visual. 
  • Technical references – what am I seeing from a technical and operational standpoint? Boiler #3, project Insight, catalyst loading, employee at work, storage tank, PPE, etc.
  • Visual descriptors – day/night, male/female, lights on, blue sky, orange coveralls, deepwater, white hardhat, red logo, etc.
  • Where is this asset being used? Page 27 2019 Summary Annual Report, Instagram March 2020, homepage exxonmobil.com, corporate.exxonmobil.com/Energy-and-environment/Looking-forward/Outlook-for-Energy, can put the actual URL

Other important fields

• Model’s name – If there’s an “easily identifiable” person, employee or otherwise, we need to know their name.
  • Model release forms are required if a person is featured in a photo or video. Employees are not required to sign a model release, but it is recommended that they do (covers the company legally if the employee leaves the organization). The release can be loaded as an asset; you can then use the field “Related assets” to attach to the actual asset.
• Job identifier – This field is here to provide a way to find a group of assets from a single job or project. The idea is to have an agreed upon single, searchable term that would allow users to see every asset created for a specific photo session or project.
  • P&GA provides a specific tag (i.e. 2019URCRS for a photo project at URC, 2019ClintonRS for a visit to the labs in Clinton, etc). When this field is filled, it becomes a both a searchable keyword and a filter that can help users see everything from a particular shoot.