Graphical File Revision Control for Non-Techies?

EagleEyez asks: "Packages like Subversion and CVS are great for code and version control for programmers and developers, but what about for design and creative teams? I'm trying to help my company streamline part of the creative process, but haven't seen a software package that does version control, check-in/out, e-mail notifications, etc. that is specifically tailored toward images and basic HTML content. Full fledged document management tools might work, but they seem a bit much and tend to focus more on office docs. Does anyone have any recommendations?" There are a few projects moving in this direction, they just may not be as usable as some would like. More detail in the full article.

Photographers (those using digital cameras or film photographers who edit their photos on computer) might also find revision control useful. From bmcent1: "As an amateur photographer seeking a way to better organize files, it occurred to ask Slashdot: 'What methods are digital photography enthusiasts using to organize the torrent of files that build up over time?' I'm a huge Linux fan, and although I use Photoshop, I would like to use a Linux storage server as the back end and could use Linux EXIF/IPTC tagging tools such as XnView to help organize if they perform as well as commercial products like IMatch.

What tools do you use? How do you manage your workflow and the files that build up as a result? I shoot RAW and keep the original. Post processing usually produces a .PSD file and then any crops are kept separate in case I want to adjust and reprint later. This means a minimum of three files per image and more if I have different crops.

Have people successfully used versioning file systems like EXT3COW or revision control systems like Subversion as an aid to their digital photography workflow?"

Alienbrain

[LightningBolt!]

Often used in game development for asset management. Commercial.

http://www.alienbrain.com/ [alienbrain.com]

It's got a nice gui which has preview functionality for many standard audio/video data formats. As a programmer using Perforce at the time, I was never a huge fan of it. But it seemed the artists and game designers were able to use it fairly effectively.

Re:Tortoise

[AKAImBatman]

I have been told that SVN is good at handling binary files. So TortoiseSVN can conceivably work for keeping track of photographic image files. That being said, I'm not really sure if it's the best solution for something like that. My first thought would be to develop a Content Management Database of some sort that would keep track of the image information, as well as link all the associated images into the same record.

e.g. You'd probably want to keep the PSD "negative", JPG distributions, and PNG thumbnails all in a single unit, with the information about the image applying to all of them. A CMS could conceivably be designed to do this, but I don't do professional photography, so I don't know of any CMSes like this offhand.