How do you keyword?

[Drake]

I've never really felt like I needed to keyword my shots because my photo library wasn't very big. Now with a couple thousand images it's still not that big, but I am starting having problems with finding the images I want. Filtering by keywords would really come in handy.

Keywording a few thousand photos seems like a serious time investment so I'd like to get it right the first time and keyword as accurately as possible so I don't have to come back to the shots from the past later. So I am curious how you guys do it. Do you just type a few random words that come to mind when you look at a group of similar shots, or do you have a much stricter keywording procedure, with a complicated keyword tree or something?

 

[KmH]

To a large degree it depends what type of application you use for image retrieval.

An image browser won't be as effective with keywording as a dtatbase manager will be.

Keywording is best done when images are ingested. I have several generic keyword streams on file in my Documents folder.

That said, the subject lierally requires writing a book to cover it completely. Fortunately, someone did write the book: The DAM Book

 

[imagemaker46]

I use "file info" in photoshop to caption and keyword all my images that are going on line.

 

[Drake]

I use "file info" in photoshop to caption and keyword all my images that are going on line.

I didn't mean to ask how you do it technically. I am using Lightroom and are already familiar with how it handles keywords. What I wanted to know is if you have any sort of workflow when it comes to keywording, if you use a specified keyword tree or just random words connected with the images.

 

[photocist]

When I transfer photos to the computer, I put it in a file with the date that I transferred them on. When I upload to flickr, I can just use the upload date to locate the original file in the dated folder. I keep the converted files (from raw) in a folder called "converted" in the same dated folder. Recently I have begun to keep my PSD and JPEG folders containing the edits inside the dated folder. Seems to work pretty well.

For example, if I transferred photos today, the folder name would be 4 22 11, and I would have a folder within that folder labeled "converted," "psd," and "jpeg," each containing the certain file type.

 

[KmH]

I didn't mean to ask how you do it technically. I am using Lightroom and are already familiar with how it handles keywords. What I wanted to know is if you have any sort of workflow when it comes to keywording, if you use a specified keyword tree or just random words connected with the images.

That's what The Dam Book is all about, the workflow, both as general principals and Lightroom specifics. The book also has workflow specifics for using Bridge, and Expressions Media.

 

[Drake]

I didn't mean to ask how you do it technically. I am using Lightroom and are already familiar with how it handles keywords. What I wanted to know is if you have any sort of workflow when it comes to keywording, if you use a specified keyword tree or just random words connected with the images.

That's what The Dam Book is all about, the workflow, both as general principals and Lightroom specifics. The book also has workflow specifics for using Bridge, and Expressions Media.

Thanks a lot, I'll check that out.