Posted under Stock Photography
Key wording, I hate it , you hate it , everyone hates it but it is a fact of life if you want your images to be found. Did you know there are some really good tricks to make key wording your images easier? First I will provide some generic tips for key wording , then some specific tips for key wording on Kachoozie.com.
So here is the flow of how I deal with keywords, first I use Lightroom for my workflow this helps to organize your images, and put them in batches. You can also use Apple’s Aperture, it really is personal preference, both programs can be downloaded for free, and used for 30 days so I encourage you to download them both then decide, which program works best for you.
Once a shoot is complete, I import my images into Lightroom, I have a preset that will add things like my studio name, and copyright info to the files automatically. I import the files into a folder called staging, once the images are there I sort them by type, so some go to stock , others go to my portfolio, then finally I sort some that will end up in photo stores like Zazzle, Cafepress, and Printfection. I also reject any that are not in focus, or the lighting is off. The rejected images, I simply delete them from within Lightroom.
After I have done the initial sort, I further sort the images into batches like dogs, trees, etc, I put them into separate folders to keep them together, so in other words I will have a folder in Lightroom, called dogs. Once I have all the images sorted I go to Google’s online keyword tool and type in the relevant terms to get the keywords. There is a way to check keywords from other sites, so you may want to try that as well. Google has recently updated the interface, so I typically go back to the old interface, since you can get your keywords and download them easily, you can do this in the new interface but I just prefer the old one. When the keywords come up, I select download into a .Csv or .txt file, and when I download the file I open it in Excel, to edit out words I may not want. When finished I save the file to my desktop, and open up Lightroom, to import the keywords. From within the Library in Lightroom, select Meta data from the drop down menu, then import keywords, and find your file you saved on the desktop. When the keywords have been imported I type in a search term, into Lightroom’s keyword suggestions, and all the keywords I just imported come up, over time you will build your keyword list, and for many images will not have to go to Google to get the keyword suggestions. There is also a website you can subscribe to called controlledvocabulary , it is pretty cool service and will provide a jump start for you in Lightroom as far as keywords go. One thing to remember is the keywords you import are a part of your catalog in Lightroom, so if you have multiple catalogs, you will need to add the keywords again, there may be a way to add keywords from other Lightroom catalogs, I just have not invested the time to figure it out.
Once you have selected the appropriate keywords in Lightroom, for the image you are working on, you can select other like images, and sync the meta data to the other images, this is where I add things like categories, and titles to the images. When the images have all been key worded, I upload them to my portfolio website, and or iSyndica. Since the keywords have been previously added in Lightroom, they will be attached to the images when you upload, you may have minor tweaks but it should not take too much time to adjust them. If you do not use iSyndica, this method still works for uploading directly to stock photo sites.
Now for the Kachoozie portion, when all my images have been uploaded to my portfolio site, and to iSyndica, I also export the images to a folder on my desktop, I name the folder something relevant to the batch I am working on. I login to the Kachoozie photographers section and select batch upload, there is a way to use FTP, however; it is not quite ready for others to use, I will add a blog on that once that is ready. In the batch upload menu, I select the folder I created on my desktop and begin the upload, ( Tip- If you click the upload button again it will give you the upload status, and will let you know the files are uploading). When the files have completed uploading, select the import photos link, this is the important part, since you have previously key worded the images in Lightroom, the keywords are there, however ; they just don’t show. Select the category for the images, and click upload near the bottom of the page. That’s it, your images will be in the queue waiting to be processed with all the keywords, and the categories attached.
Hopefully this process helps make a difficult task of key wording, much easier and less time consuming, This process may or may not work for you, so if you have suggestions please be sure and post them here or on Kachoozie.net FREE Electronic Software Delivery at Adobe.com
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Tweets that mention Working with Keywords | Kachoozie Stock Images -- Topsy.com on 20 Aug 2010 at 3:49 pm #
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MANAGING YOUR IMAGES AND NAMING FILES | Kachoozie Stock Images on 20 Aug 2010 at 4:59 pm #
[...] Now that you’ve whittled down your 500 shots from your jaunt to Paris, you need to put them in their appropriate place. How you organize your images is up to you, but you do need to create a system and stick to it. Here is a snap shot of how I do it. This system works for me. Under the pictures folder I have categories as well as folders with the name of the shoot. These are the projects I’m still working on. They might still need to be edited, delivered to the client, or are awaiting a model release. Whatever the reason, I know that I’m not finished with them. This way I can see exactly what projects I need to work on: Alyssa, San Juan Island WA, and Xagave. When I am finished, they go into a category folder and then sub folder, or into another folder called finished projects, where it awaits being transferred to my external hard drive to be archived. The finished projects folder is for images I don’t need to access frequently (e.g. my portfolio or website) and therefore don’t need to be taking up valuable space on my hard drive. And speaking of backing up, you need to have a specific day (for me it’s Sunday) to back up your files. The second part of organizing your images is to fill out the meta data for every image. Meta data makes an image or file more search able by you and the search engines. This information is invaluable and is a necessity. Your computer and search engines (when you upload images) crawls the meta data, archives it, and catalogs the information. Here is a snap shot of the meta data form in Adobe Bridge. This gives you an idea of the completeness of the information you can attach to a file. You can create a template with information that doesn’t change (creator, phone number, website, etc., and apply it to every image and then just fill in the fields which do change (keyword, description, location, etc.). [...]