GOOD NOTES = GOOD SALES
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by David Arnold
If you’re going to learn from your photographic successes—and your photographic mistakes—you’ll have to keep a record of all the technical aspects of your shots: film, lens, shutter speed, f/stop, exposure compensation, flash details, etc. And if you’re going to sell your photos, you’ll have to keep track of caption information: where, what, when, who, etc. How can you do all this and still take pictures?
The traditional method is pen and paper. But that’s slow, and more writing means less shooting. My “solution” at first was a 2˝ oz. Sony digital voice recorder hung around my neck. I shot a picture, took just a few seconds to record all the caption and technical information, and later spent hours at the computer transcribing my notes. Then technology came to the rescue: voice recognition software.
Several miniature digital voice recorders can interface with the Preferred version of ScanSoft's Dragon NaturallySpeaking voice recognition program. Record your notes in the field, connect to your PC through the included USB cable, and your voice notes are uploaded to the computer and converted to written text. Version 7, just released in March, is a big improvement over both earlier versions of NaturallySpeaking, and its main competitor, IBM’s ViaVoice. This new version allows dictation at 160 words per minute, and, when used with the included headset microphone, can deliver 99 percent accuracy (one error per 100 words—better than I do when typing). When using a voice recorder accuracy drops somewhat, but—after initial training—is still impressive. And since it learns from your corrections, the more you use it the better it gets.
But getting started takes both money and effort. My Sony ICD-BP150 cost $150, and NaturallySpeaking 7 Preferred Edition runs $199.95 (headset microphone included). While there are less expensive versions of NaturallySpeaking, they don’t support voice recorders. Sony offers both the recorder and software as a package for just $199.95, but without the microphone and with only an electronic copy of the 213-page manual.
ITS MASTER'S VOICE
Once you have the equipment, expect to spend several hours training the software to recognize your voice and vocabulary. When I started using this system, “No filter” came out “Novell to her” one time and “No frills” another, and f-stops were a total disaster. NaturallySpeaking sometimes has trouble with short words, and it doesn't know industry-specific technical terms. However you can overcome these limitations by correcting its errors (after a few times it gets the idea), adding terms directly to its vocabulary list, or creating custom commands.
Is it worth it? Yes. I can pay more attention to picture-taking, yet still end up with much better notes. And if, like me, you haven’t gotten up the energy to enter your full 3,000 keywords in PSI’s PhotoSourceBank, NaturallySpeaking can make the task a lot easier—and one extra sale can pay you back for the software.
But if you’re thinking of going the voice-recognition route, there are some things to be aware of. First, NaturallySpeaking is available for Windows only. However IBM’s ViaVoice, does offer a Mac version. Second, speech recognition is very processor-intensive. NaturallySpeaking won’t even install if you have less than a 500 Mhz. Pentium III or equivalent, with 128 Mb. of ram, but for adequate performance you should at least double those specs. Also, to provide adequate sound quality you’ll need to run your recorder at its faster speed. That reduced my ICD-BP150's 5 ˝-hour capacity to just over two hours.
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"And if, like me, you haven’t gotten up the energy to enter your full 3,000 keywords in PSI’s PhotoSourceBank, NaturallySpeaking can make the task a lot easier—and one extra sale can pay you back for the software."
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Matt Revis, NaturallySpeaking's Product Manager, told me there are three important things to keep in mind if you’re using the program with a pocket voice recorder: (1) Lower expectations. The system works, and it works well, but it won’t give the 99 percent accuracy you’d get by speaking directly to your computer through a headset microphone. (2) More training. Repeat the training procedure, both with the provided documents and by having the program analyze documents you’ve created previously. (3) Microphone position is critical, so experiment. My Sony, for example, actually gives the best results when I talk into the back of the unit (less hiss hits the microphone).
So with some upfront practice and training, both for you and the software, you’ll end up taking more pictures, have more detailed notes, and, consequently, more sales.
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Voice Recognition Resources on the Web
ScanSoft Dragon NaturallySpeaking:
www.scansoft.com/naturallyspeaking
List of voice recorders approved for use with ScanSoft Dragon NaturallySpeaking:
www.scansoft.com/naturallyspeaking/support/compatibility/default.asp
Sony voice recorder/NaturallySpeaking software packages:
www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_BrowseCatalog-Start;sid=H7RdbJ5dUE9dW6DUMGZXZ9FTWM-L-cW4SqE=?CategoryName=pr_p_dragonpromo_pa
IBM ViaVoice:
www-3.ibm.com/software/speech
List of voice recorders approved for use with IBM ViaVoice:
www-3.ibm.com/software/speech/windows/transcription.shtml
ScanSoft Dragon NaturallySpeaking Forum:
http://support.lhsl.com/databases/dragon/webdisc.nsf/
Voice Recognition Forum:
www.voicerecognition.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&forum=Dragon+NaturallySpeaking&number=1
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