Where
is that picture?!?
This is the situation: you have finished your
photography assignment and the Art Director approaches you and says: “Hey, I
love your pictures and the way you frame them, I liked one specific image you
did for me last year about this time, the one with the red flowers along the
river bank, can you get me another copy in about one hour. I will use that picture to get you another
job”.
If you have made a habit of tagging your images with
keywords, then you should have no problems finding that image…however, if haven’t
then what are you going to do to find that specific image?
Keywords are a way that photographers can tag images
for reference in finding them later on.
As a photography student you probably will be accumulating images at an
alarming rate as every single assignment would have a minimum of 30-40 images
to be posted. To get that amount of
images, you probably have taken about twice every single time in order to
select the best ones. Entering my fourth
year of studies at the AiO, I have accumulated over 15,000 images during that
time, not all of them for classes, but still that is a lot of images!
It would be a good idea (if you haven’t done it yet)
to start using keywords with all your images and projects. We all use Lightroom, and with this program,
keywording your images is painless. So,
there are several things that you can do to make your life easier with the use
of keywords:
1. You
can assign the keyword during import, that way as you download the images, they
are tagged with the words selected for that specific download. If you forget to do it during import, you can
still do in the library mode.
2. When
assigning key words, use those that are relevant to the images. If you take a portrait of a family on
location, you can use the location, names, date, background, and/or
anything that will go along with the picture.
3. Variety
is key, the more words you use the chances to find that specific image is
higher.
4. Later
on you can search the entire library by simply typing the word.
Want to read more about this, then click here.
How about an exercise (no it is not graded) to
demonstrate what I am talking about.
What key words would you use with the following image?
The keywords I used were: Zilker (location), water,
lily, pink, lily pad, single, side view.
Of course, that means that I have more and that I needed to be precise
(I have 450 images of water lilies). If you used any of the above words, then
you are ready to start using keywords, if you already are using them, then keep
up the good work!
Let me share a cartoon that reminded me that there
is always a bright side to small incidents that can happen to us from time to
time, and yes, this has happened to me!
Until later, drop me a line,
Tuesday Ambassador
