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Heidi Dillon
Organizing Digital Photos - Part Three: Creating Tags
Welcome back! Last week I talked about importing your photos from your camera to your computer. This week I'll help you figure out what to do with them once they're there.
Step Three: Creating Tags
Tags (also known as keywords) really have become vital to an organized digital photo system. They allow you to store your photo in one place on your hard drive but be able to find it by looking in many other places! These bits of information are stored in a photo's metadata (background info about a file) to help make it easier to find later.
It's best if you get some kind of framework set up before you start tagging things willy-nilly. The trick to tagging is making sure you have things specific enough so you can find what you need quickly without being so specific that you get bogged down in the process of tagging everything with a million specific tags. Here are some pointers.
The closer something is to you, the more photos you will have of that item and/or the more often you will want to find photos of that item. Make sure you are specific in creating tags for items you are around often and care very much about. Close family and friends, favorite haunts in your area, your child's comfort toy, and the seasonal holiday of choice are great candidates for specific tags. More general tags like "Friends," "Mountains," "Toys," and "Celebrations" will be amazingly helpful in searching also, so don't feel like you're cheating if you add these tags more often than the specific ones. The key is to tag quickly, efficiently, and effectively.
As far as what kinds of tags to create, the Five W's - Who, What, Where, When, and Why – can give you some ideas.
- When – This is already taken care of with the dated folders and the "Date Created" information in the photo's metadata.
- Who – Things in this category can be as specific as a person's name or as general as "Friends." Don't forget pets!
- What – What's in the photo? Toys, computer, shoes, books, phone... anything you interact with is game. Do you take photos of certain things like windows or doors? Tag it here.
- Where – Home, work, school, day care, Paris, grocery store, gym, car, kitchen...
- Why – Why was this picture taken? Birthday party? Vacation? First day of school?
For me, some of the tags I use are Nelly, Dan, Heidi, Biking, Mountains, Skiing, Friends, Phone, Birthday, Moab, Backyard, Milestones, Computer, and Shane.
Once you've got a pool of tags together, consider how you're going to apply the tag to your photos. Many programs will allow you to tag in them, including Windows 7's Explorer, but I would suggest using a program that will allow you to tag within a hierarchy so you can keep your tags grouped together. Adobe's Bridge, Lightroom, and Photoshop Elements Organizer all have this capability.
I have grouped my example tags into this setup:
What> Biking, Computer, Phone, Skiing
Where> Backyard, Moab, Mountains
Who> Dan, Friends, Heidi, Nelly, Shane
Why> Birthday, Milestones
Now, of course, I realize not everybody would group them the same way. Not everybody would use these tags! You might have different groupings, you might have different categories, you might have groups within groups within groups. And that's just fine! Tagging is mostly about making sure things work for you and how your brain processes things. Make sure it makes sense for you, because you're the one using your system, not me.
Once you've got your tag framework set up, you're ready to start tagging and sorting... next week!
- Heidi
Scrap Girls, Etc. is a weekly column pulling bits and pieces from all over Scrap Girls. Stay tuned each week as Scrap Girls' Jane-of-All-Trades Heidi Dillon brings you tutorials, musings, recipes, interviews, design/software tips and tricks, layout walk-throughs, and who knows what else!
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