Photo tagging keywords

I use aperture and downloaded a set of keywords from the net and imported them in. Had to remove some (american) keywords but the more keywords the merrier. I tested the system by picking various images from memory and see if I could find it easily.
 
I try to keep the number of keywords I use to a minimum, that way it's easy to remember them. You cam always assign more than one keyword to help identify an image.

I looked at downloading sets of keywords, but I found I didn't want the majority of them so I simply used my own. I also use specific descriptions as file names to help sort images for example the location. These are then filed in a year and shoot folders . This then allows me to use more general keywords. Lightroom then allows me to search any of these parameters .
 
Hoping this thread is not to old.

TurnipFarmer I would love to see your list

I am playing around with lightroom and thought downloading a set of keywords and categories was the way forward. I got a great set from BigSunPhotography and have used it to go through quite a few images.

I have however now hit a stumbling block, its more conceptual. In tagging the photos I have (none of which are any good just holiday snaps I am playing around with in LR) I also created many that did not fit into the hierarchy, and conceptually I cant wrap my head around where they should go..

The question is, does this mean that ultimately the list is not working for me? anyone looked at bigsunphotography list and had similar issues, should I just create my own?

Anyone want to help me try and get it sorted? :)
 
Lot depend on why you are keywording.

Just for yorself to find images , then a small nummber should be ok, if your doing it to post on the web and to help others/companies search, then the more the better, so long as they are relevant to the image.

For yourself, and you want to find all your football shots and not your rugby shots, then one keyword 'Football' would do the job.

To help others search, then Football, sport, goal keeper, Manchester city, liverpool, anfield, and so on.

Keywording is the one thing that is poor in Aperture, as I understand it in Lightroom you can do hierarchical keywording so that if you enter say Old Trafford, it would automaticly add Man Utd, football, Manchester, England and so on.

If your looking for list of keywords and are prepared to pay then Controlled Vocabulary sell 11,000 terms organized in a hierarchical structure.
 
Thanks acetone

to clarify where I am at and my struggles, it is mainly for myself at the moment but I have learnt from experience that with these sort of things it is better to lay a good foundation to start with as its often more difficult to change at a later stage.

I think the difficulty I am having is in deciding where new keywords I have added should go when using the previously mentioned list I imported from bigsun. I guess its just the way my brain works, until everything clicks into place I struggle with things.

By way of example.. I have a picture that incorporates a bunch of bananas hanging from a banana tree. Now in the list I have, neither banana(s) or banana tree existed so I have added these. However Should I tag this as banana which is in the hierarchy

'food & bevarages > fruit'

or as banana tree which is in the hierarchy

'plants > tree'

another example would be photos I have of a Fort and Ruins, again the keywords did not exist for this already so LR created these, but where to put them in the hierarchy. Looking through I can see there is an architecture category which lits things like churches, gazebo, building so I think ok put it here. So the structure would look like

What > Nouns > Architecture > Fort

But then I notice that there is also

What > Nouns > History

and this gets me thinking, hmm well it is a historical building so should fort be listed under here and not architecture.. Its at this point my head explodes, I get in a muddle and lol shut down the pc and walk away.. I am probably over thinking it all and it may be best to just wipe the list and start with my own very simple list that I truly understand. but was jsut after a time saving place to start.

Oh one more thing.. lets say someone took a photo from a boat of land, maybe some mountains and bit of coast, but that contained a large portion of sea. is this a landscape, or seascape? similarly what would be the definition of a cityscape?

Cheers all
 
Peoples needs vary and tailoring it for your own need is the best way to go.

For me I do not like replicating keywords in different hierarchy categories if I can help it.

As for your fruit question my hierarchy is such that I can choose fruit and type with or without the tree in the hierarchy .

PS all my main catagories are not exported as keywords.

140085378.jpg


140085245.jpg
 
Paul, thanks for the reply. Do I understand you correctly that in my example you would just post it as Banana, and would not bother with Banana Tree or have I totally missed the point or would you end up selecting or would all three keywords end up as being tagged. ie. Fruit, Banana, Tree
 
No you are correct, but my point is to have less confusing categories .

I would tag it as "banana" and "fruit" all of which reside in the flora category, then add the tag "food" from my descriptive category.

After all most people including punters that wanted to see a picture of a banana only would type in banana fruit and not food and beverages.

Really categories are there for your convenience so the simpler and easier it is for you to remember the better.

That really is the thing with keywords every ones needs and way of doing it are different.:)
 
Also dont forget you can also auto-tag parent keywords. So from the image above, once strawberry is selected, fruit can also be added automatically (and Flora not). Have a look at the options when you edit a keyword.
 
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