The saga to find a photo tag/search tool

Tagging/cataloguing/labels/ratings/...

The crucial technique is to have a structured set of tags to use and to publish these. I use the list below to do the bulk tagging for each set of photos. This only takes a few moments. Then refine the ratings, and for those more important items add more detailed description/caption information. Thus in a few minutes you can do all of the critical value add - provided of course that you have tool that supports how you want to work.

Publish keywords with photos – this is EXTREMELY useful as it enables anyone searching or browsing your photos to understand how they are managed to helps them to very quickly find content. This could be down as a tag cloud as many web 2 sites do, or as not many (none?) photo tools support this, just publish a list like my examples below.

I have used a structure loosely based on the 5 W's of Journalism Metalogging Guidelines for Captioning and Keywording images in an image database. This helps ensure that the key aspects are considered for each group/photo. It's loosely based on, because as I learnt how to do this, I struggled to put it all together. There are many issues with what I have done below. There are inconsistencies with how items are grouped into the different categories. I even ended up with six categories. But it does not matter, because the use of consistent structure still makes this extremely useful. It will also make it much easier to change if I need to in the future.

There are plenty of other resources for this on the internet, although most focus on story writing, not photos.

You could look to library cataloguing technics to define your own tags/hierarchy.

You could think about adding synonyms as well, but carefully as this gets complex quickly and can break the stored hierarchy, or clutter/break limit of amount of text etc. May just be better to add with published keywords, or advice read published keywords and understand those!

Metacrap web page – brings it all down to earth – impossible to get every one to come with same view, purpose, agree, …. But metadata is still extremely useful.

taxonomy and folksonomy Another controlled vocabulary a Web2 example Authorities About Library of Congress Authorities A thesaurus of more than 600 terms developed by the Library of Congress

still to link: From FSM_issue_011.pdf

Tag Hierarchy
Some tools use tags and labels and ratings and albums and projects and other concepts. These are all stored and used in different ways in the photo and/or only in the tool.

This scheme moves all these into one structure and storage technique. Some categories are not very often used (at the moment) and I am not very comfortable with some - but still there are so very useful.

Use this and the links on the Info Sources page to tailor to suit to your needs. For example if you are not into photography techniques - drop composition, or simplify to only one rating set instead of my ratings that allow each family member to rate each photo, drop projects etc.

Remember over time the importance of tags will change. Eg photos just taken on holiday will have different importance now then in ten or twenty years, or after child leaves home, or ….

This could resolved by noting date of photo (unless date is not accurate because it is an item from the past, particularly if scanned, when the scanned date does not match the event date!!!)

Care with terms like mum/dad – as these may not be relevant for other viewers. Eg in future if grandkids look at photo – should be grand.. I have used them here, because our names are not meaningful to you, but the concept of the structure is ( and this is known to most viewers of the photos - for example they knwo I amd "dad").

Restrict number of tags and control adding or changing very carefully.
In general resist the urge to change very strongly. Also resist adding new tags. I do allow new locations and people to be added, as long as you keep the structure. I will most likely also add to the animals over time, and the Albums and the Projects.

My workflow also has the "refine" step - this is where you add more detailed information - so you can add free form text , and thus you do not need to change the tags. The down side to this is that the free form text is not known to an end user trying to find a photo, so unless you chose the words realy well, or added lots of synonyms, or the tool has built in ability to publish those words, it does help as much. It is still useful but for finding, but more useful to provide a detailed description of the photo.

Why When How What Who Where

I have also added Location (Where) as a seperate category, because it is a major need for me.

These are the core tags. By having the tightly controlled list, then you can focuss your searches and find your photos MUCH easier.

*** add in the comments beside each table form teh xls**

General Tips:

No spaces, or - or _ as seperators. Join ALL letters together.

Because some tagging tools will seperate the words into unconnected jumble.
Because it can make search and browse MUCH harder

Make each tag UNIQUE - else it impact on ability to search
Take care with unique first characters.

I used our initials in several ways, but had to reorganise due to issues with finding due to main search tool used.

Think about impact of on term on others (Got caught several times - See comments under rating & People)
Think about AND TEST, how to search using tag.
Think about exclusion searching (ie this tag but not that tag)

I have made a couple of minor changes below - used dad/mum/daughter instead of our initials - to make the family structure obvious. I have not extended this to our inlaws, but hopefully you see the use or get your own ideas.

Why When How What Who Where

Why	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3
AlbumsCollectionsProjects-AddAsRequired
Composition	Composition
Composition	blurring
Composition	candlelight
Composition	closeup
Composition	firelight
Composition	longexposure
Composition	NightShots
Composition	panaroma
Composition	perspective
Composition	Portrait
Composition	silhouette

Albums etc - this is to allow creation of grouping/s at a higher level, without changing of the tags.
See also the What Project and How ToDo tags below.

Why When How What Who Where

Why When How What Who Where

When	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3
Morning
Noon
Night
Sunrise
Sunset
Spring
Summer
Autumn
Winter

Why When How What Who Where

How (important)	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3
Favourite
Private
Ratings	1Dad
Ratings	2Dad
Ratings	3Dad
Ratings	4Dad
Ratings	5Dad
Ratings	1Mum
Ratings	2Mum
Ratings	3Mum
Ratings	4Mum
Ratings	5Mum
Ratings	1Daughter
Ratings	2Daughter
Ratings	3Daughter
Ratings	4Daughter
Ratings	5Daughter
UnRated
ToDoFlags	Archive
ToDoFlags	Burn
ToDoFlags	Edit
ToDoFlags	Email
ToDoFlags	NewAlbum
ToDoFlags	Print
ToDoFlags	PublishWWW

Why When How What Who Where

See also the Why Albums and What Project tags.

Why When How What Who Where

What	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3
Animals	Bears
Animals	Birds
Animals	Frogs
Animals	Insects
Animals	Other
Animals	Pets
Animals	Pets	Tiggy	Bird
Animals	Reptiles
Animals	Waterlife
Events	Birthdays
Events	Christmas
Events	Festival
Events	Holidays
Events	Parade
Events	Party
Events	Wedding
Misc	Humour
Misc	Oddities
Misc	Sport
Misc	Tests
Projects	Cards;
Projects	Memories
Projects	Scrapbook
Things	Buildings
Things	Transport
Things	Household
Things	Jewellery
Things	Plants
Things	Scenery

See also the Why Albums andHow ToDo tags.

Why When How What Who Where

Why When How What Who Where

Who	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3
People	Private	Family
People	Private	Family	Daughter
People	Private	Family	Mum
People	Private	Family	Dad
People	Private	Relatives
People	Private	Relatives	MaMa
People	Private	Relatives	BaBa
People	Private	Relatives	GH
People	Private	Relatives	FH
People	Private	Relatives	ST
People	Private	Relatives	RT
People	Private	Friends
People	Private	Friends	ofMum
People	Private	Friends	ofDad
People	Private	Friends	ofDaughter
People	Strangers

Why When How What Who Where

Where	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3
Location	Home
Location	Africa
Location	Asia
Location	Asia	Beijing
Location	Asia	Nanjing
Location	Asia	Shanghai
Location	Australia
Location	Australia	Canberra
Location	Australia	Melbourne
Location	NorthAmerica
Location	NorthAmerica	Kent
Location	Location	Seattle

Why When How What Who Where