Keywording your photographs: A beginners guide to finding your photos years from now
I thought I better do a little post about a subject that all photographers should be very aware of but one I found quite a nightmare to find a nice solution to. The problem is what to tag your photos with. Sounds simple doesn’t it? Maybe it is for you but for me I would always tag a photo how I thought, and then later want to find it again and realise I hadn’t quite done it right and couldn’t find the photo. Other times I would labour over it so much I’d give up or just put one keyword like “House” and be done with it.
I did however stumble upon a post on the world wide web about a year ago that solved all my problems (I can’t find it any more, so thanks to whoever was the original author). It’s a simple solution but hasn’t failed me yet. Let’s start with an example.
On the surface I might keyword this with Bath, Cody, Deidre (The name of my wife). Now this might work for the obvious, but if I was later trying to find pictures of my son in the sink I may miss it. Also, if I was looking back for photos that we had in this house I’d miss it too. What about black and white photos? Or photos with mirrors? Or night photos?
So to cover my bases I use the tip. It suggests you just simply remember these six words – WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY and HOW? Now they might not all apply to every photograph but they should cover all your bases should you need them. Let’s look at the picture and see what I’d end up with.
WHO
Who is in the pictures; the actual people’s names or titles. Well it has my son Cody and wife Deidre, so Cody, Deidre are the starting two. I may if I’m feeling anal, add Wife, Woman and Son, Boy.
WHAT
This category means both the physical objects and actions in the photograph. Here the obvious would be Bath, but look deeper. If I keep telling myself “What is here?” and “What is happening?” I might then add Sink, Mirror, Reflection, Holding, Yawn, Clasped, Washing, Naked, Water, Baby, Toes
WHERE
Where was the photo taken. Expand this from the immediate vicinity to wider areas in case later you need to find all photos in that area. In this case it could be Inside, Sink, Bathroom, Home, Street Name and even City if you wish. Sink here doubles up but that’s fine, only use it once. At least you haven’t missed it which is the main thing.
WHEN
This is for time related key-wording. In this example I would use 3 Months and Night. Of course the obvious ones would be for special occasion photos like Easter, or Mum’s Birthday.
WHY
This one relates to the event itself and why you’re taking the photo. Here it’s obvious – Bath Time, but other photographs might be Graduation, Birthday, Family Portrait. These ones often sound like “What’s” but I use “What” to be the actual things IN the photograph. Of course, feel free to do what you want.
HOW
Probably often left out a lot but this one can help describe something about how you took the photo. Maybe something like Aerial, Helicopter, Underwater, Tilt/Shift or in this case if I really had to (I probably wouldn’t) I would say Black and White, Handheld
So in the end if I could keyword this photograph with:
Cody, Deidre,
Bath, Sink, Mirror, Reflection, Holding, Yawn, Clasped, Washing, Naked, Water, Baby, Toes,
Inside, Sink, Bathroom, Home, Street Name,
3 Months, Night,
Bath Time,
Black and White, Handheld.
Remember it’s up to you what you consider important for your photos, but I find it an invaluable guide for my keywording.
May you never lose another photo again!
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