Keywords and Categories

[drews578]

I am seeking a little advise:confused: .

Is there some sort of Lexicon and/or defined Hierarchy for photograpy categories and keywords (brings me back to biology class with Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species :) )

What is the difference between keywords and categories? It seems for me they end up being the same words. What is the most effective way to be utilizing/inputing this metadata? My question is not how to input the data but rather what guidelines should I use for what words I input.

Any helpful links out there about this subject?

Thanks everyone!

Drew

[Citizensmith]

Huh?

[dispatchermike21]

Wow thats really cool, now in english please.

I think your asking about catigories? people or glamour... landscape or nature right? it's somewhat subjective but you wouldn't put a boat in people or your girlfriend in nature ( I hope ). is this what your looking for?

[drews578]

I am curious if there are any defined categories, and sub-categories to use when classifying photos.

What is the difference between categories and keywords.

It just ssems to me that having a defined (universal) way would improve searchabilty in image databases. It would be the same no matter who the photographer.

Is this any more clear?

[Moppie]

Im not aware of any formal system of catorgrisation for photography, unless the pro's have a secret system.


You could try creating one, but how would you classify a photo of a car on beach with the sun setting behind it, a naked man and women having intercourse on the roof all be watched by a pigion?

[thomascanty]

I think he's talking about the "Categories" IPTC field. I don't use it though, so I can't answer his question.

[Pekka]

What is the difference between keywords and categories? It seems for me they end up being the same words. What is the most effective way to be utilizing/inputing this metadata? My question is not how to input the data but rather what guidelines should I use for what words I input.

Some explanations:

Category:

- A Category is the name for a collection of items that are related in some way.

- A classification assigned to an item that indicates the higher level grouping to which the item belongs.

Keyword:

- A significant word in the title, abstract or text of a work; some periodical indexes identify keywords in a separate data field, so that they can be searched without searching the full text of the document.

- A significant word in the abstract, title, subject headings (descriptors), or text of an entry in a bibliographic database which can be used as a search term in a free-text or natural language search.

- An essential or definitive term that can be used for indexing data, for later search and retrieval.

For example: you have a photo which belongs to categories "music" and "people" and "concert". As keywords you might add "radu lupu, berlin philharmonic, abbado, beard, steinway, rehearsal, backlight, bartok, smile".

[drews578]

Ok.... makes sense... thanks for the info!

Since we have this disscussion going... what method (software) do you all use to edit your data?

I am currently using PS CS.

Drew

[thomascanty]

Since we have this disscussion going... what method (software) do you all use to edit your data?

I use BreezeBrowser to edit the IPTC fields. I don't use them all, though. I guess I probably only fill in about a third of the fields.