Lightroom (LR) Keywording Structure

bcap wrote in post #3524741
Thanks Al,

Question though. What if you have, say, 500 photos. Wouldn't that take a while?

You can use the Paint tool for those too. Or if all 500 are to have a core set of the same keywords, select them all, apply the keywords, hit enter, which commits the keywords simultaneously to all selected images, then deselect and continue custom tagging. I managed to tag 90 images in about 10 mins with a core set of about 10 keywords, followed with selecting batches of half a dozen images to a dozen for custom tagging (different groups at the same event). 10 mins total.

EOSAddict wrote in post #3523846
I have not looked at Sets, I just use the heirarchy and have not come across any limits there yet.... Having used this structure for a couple of weeks now I have found nothing new that can't fit into this structure.

I'm starting to think the same way -- thanks for that.

I think so, but certainly if you do a full catalog export and there is at least one image in every tag, your structure is preserved when you import into another PC.

Basically I took my old tag structure, exported a full catalog to my laptop and worked on this whilst I was away... when I reimported the new structure back onto my PC the old tags were there but empty and you can delete them simply from the metadata menu in Library.

stasber wrote in post #3524811
You can use the Paint tool for those too. Or if all 500 are to have a core set of the same keywords, select them all, apply the keywords, hit enter, which commits the keywords simultaneously to all selected images, then deselect and continue custom tagging. I managed to tag 90 images in about 10 mins with a core set of about 10 keywords, followed with selecting batches of half a dozen images to a dozen for custom tagging (different groups at the same event). 10 mins total.

Yes,

I forgot to add that the new paint tool is a huge improvement in 1.1 and great for batch keywordking. But actually, for a batch I tend to shift or ctrl-click and then add from the LH pane.

EOSAddict wrote in post #3525296
But actually, for a batch I tend to shift or ctrl-click and then add from the LH pane.

That's the bit that annoyed me - I click on a keyword with 20 images selected and it changes the view to find matches already containing that keyword. Had to undo and then r/click (using the mighty mouse ) to apply them to my selected 20 images. Did that a few times - gotta adopt new habits!

Yeah,

I tend to right-click a lot anyway so it wasn't that difficult for me. I still get caught expanding heirarchies when I click the word and not the arrow - doh!

One other thing I quite like is if you select a bunch of photos, all the keywords in that selection are listed in the RH pane. Any that are not in all the selected images have an * next to them.

Click into this box and delete the * and, hey presto, that keyword is on all the selected images

I have a question... are you doing all this in Collections or in Keyword Tags? I'm a bit confused at the difference between them and how each one is meant to be used...

thanks

jnev wrote in post #3543960
I have a question... are you doing all this in Collections or in Keyword Tags? I'm a bit confused at the difference between them and how each one is meant to be used...

thanks

Collections are like custom folders, where you can have any (collection) of photos you like from your catalog. You can drag the same photo into as many collections as you like - it will not take up extra space on the hard disk (you could call it a latent copy - like a virtual copy in that the image is not physically reproducced, LR just remembers where you've put it). If you modify a photo in one of the locations (say flag it green), all copies of that photo wherever they are, will be modified the same.

The photos themselves will be keworded depending keywords you applied to them in the Library module. Every new keyword you add, is added to the Keyword list on the left. If the keyword already exists, it increases the number beside the keyword, so that you know how many photos use that keyword.

I think the Collection idea is cool - I'm starting to make some temporary Collections for my workflow and just move the images about between them as the photos move from one stage to the next. I also have Collections for clients - so that I know exactly to whom I sent which images (such as Promoter, Media, My Website). And virtual copies are great for this, as I can make a different copy for each client - copyright notice, keywords, caption, watermark - which are all diferent depending on what the image is for.

jnev,

Pretty much what stasber said, I'm doing this all in tags as those get exported with the image and form part of the IPTC data set. Collections only exist in LR, but like stasber, I use collections to manage my workflow.

I also REALLY wish you could select collections and tags not either/or!

If you assign keywords describing country, city, place, and so on for each image...do you also enter this information into the IPTC metadata in the location and caption fields?

It is obvious that some attributes (i.e. Lens, Aperature, Date, Time, etc.) belong in ITCP and that other attributes describing the content belong in a well organized keyword catalog. However, there is a decent amount of overlap between the two. Therefore, do you repeat this data where necessary or ignore the IPTC fields for the most part (other than copyright info)? I am starting my keywording from scratch with over 3 years worth of images to go through and I fear that I will need to adopt a 2-pass system, one for keywords and one for IPTC.

Thanks,

Bryan

digitalmedia wrote in post #3620054
If you assign keywords describing country, city, place, and so on for each image...do you also enter this information into the IPTC metadata in the location and caption fields?

I just leave the location data in the IPTC metadata; after all, that's what it is there for. I use the keywords for subject matter and people.

Quick question, before I start this whole catalog'ng process in LR. I want to know if this is the right way of doing things or am I being redundant?

1. Extract the images from the CF/SD/Mem stick, etc.
2. Take that folder and put it somewhere on your HD? Preferably somewhere you store all your pictures (EHD, 2nd HD, etc.)
3. Naming conventions? Just leave the name of the images the way they are and let LR do the changing of the name?
4. Catalog using LR/Elements keywords, etc.

My old way was the following (don't laugh):

1. Extract Images
2. Rename each image based on what they are (Italy1.jpg, Italy2.jpg, etc.)
I sometimes can be more specific (Rome1.jpg, Rome2.jpg)
It would obviously be in their respective folders (Italy/Rome/etc.)
3. Now laugh.

Not much cataloging but they are "somewhat" organized.

Sorry this whole catalog'ng just opened up to me when I bought a DSLR. lol

Question for Al...

Say you take a trip to China (for example) and collect photos of random people, street vendors, etc. Do you sub-categorize them as "unknown" within your people category or do you sub-categorize within Urban Life as "people"? Also, if you duplicate the word people (one as a top level and the other as a sub-category within Urban Life) won't that cause problems? Would you then need to find a different word to describe the people, like "humans"? It sounds silly but it confused my when I was looking at your screenshot.

Thanks,

Bryan

Nortelbert wrote in post #3620111
I just leave the location data in the IPTC metadata; after all, that's what it is there for. I use the keywords for subject matter and people.

Does anyone else find it useful to have location data in keywords instead of (or in addition to) in IPTC? Can you cross reference between the two (i.e. search for all instances of "Amanda" in "London")?