Guide for absolute beginner

[tjmillar]

I'm looking for a guide to getting started. I've created the database, now I need to assign keywords and categories and whatever else I'm supposed to do to thousands of images.

I have a date-based folder structure but no keywords or labels or categories. Everything I can find in help is about the specifics of how to do that, and about what is possible once I've done it, and how to use the database when it's finished. The quick-start guide, for example, is mostly about keyboard shortcuts, which I'm sure will be great when I know what I need a shortcut for. But I need something much more basic that all that. Right now, at the absolute beginning, I don't need a shortcut because I don't know where I'm going.

I'm not looking for an answer to a specific question, mostly because I don't know enough to know what question to ask. I need a magazine article, or a video tutorial about the first steps in building a useful and comprehensive keyword/category structure. I'm worried about starting to work through my folder structure and assigning keywords and categories and then realising I've got something wrong or forgotten some important keyword and having to go back through all the images and start again. I'm worried about what I don't know enough to ask about, or to that I don't realise is something I need to learn.

There is so much detailed, specific information here, but I have no way of knowing how to work out what's important to me as a beginner and what I can leave till later. I'm sure there's good information in the forums but when you don't know what you're looking for there's no way to find it inside a huge pile of information that I don't need yet. I did find a link to a youtube video here https://www.photools.com/community/index.php?topic=902.0, which is pretty much the kind of thing I'm looking for. Very basic overview and first steps for someone who doesn't know where they're going or what questions they should ask.

Does anyone have any links like that to articles or reviews or videos about getting started for absolute beginners?

[Mario]

Hi, tjmillar

welcome to the community. A quick tip: If you split your text into several paragraphs, it becomes much easier to read. Such a long text, all in one paragraph, is hard on the eye.

I'm not sure that any tutorial I could write could help you to find the best keyword structure for your files. Do you manage family photos? Are you a stock photographer or professional photographer? Do you manage scientific info and need a taxonomy?

There are many how-to articles out on the web about how to structure images by keywords. There are even books about this. And any of these methods can be applied in IMatch. Or make up your own schema, whatever fits your needs.

Whether you like a WHERE|WHO|WHEN|WHY|WHAT keyboard structure or need something really 'deep' like a controlled vocabulary, I cannot tell. IMatch can handle all approaches. If you manage family images, you probably get by by structuring your images by time, location, person. Maybe event. Or you have a completely different way to look at your collection. It's impossible to give general advice.

Changing keywords in IMatch is easy and fast. Replacing keyword A with B, or moving images within keyword hierarchies as well. Since IMatch does by default not write-back changes to your image files immediately, all these operations are performed in the database and are such real quick.

Some pointers:

http://www.controlledvocabulary.com/imagedatabases/

This guy has apparently never heard about IMatch (or another DAM) because he says that LR is the only program to setup a proper keyword structure (Hah!) but he has some very useful info collected about keywords :

http://www.organizepictures.com/2010/04/efficient-keywording-controlled-vocabulary

Read these sites or do a search on your own. When you have an idea about how you would like to structure your files, just start to do it. Or ask more questions and we will try to help you to get you started.

[tjmillar]

Thank you Mario, much appreciated.

The second of those articles you linked is excellent. The principles of keywording that are discussed seem obvious and critical, and is exactly the kind of essential information I knew I was lacking when I wrote my post. It's also a good article in regard to leading me to other information about how to proceed.

I appreciate that Imatch is versatile and that changes can be made as I go - but still I would like to get as much right as I can when I start.

I also appreciate that my query is kind of impossible to answer with specifics. Everyone's structure is going to be different. That's why I suggested articles or reviews rather than asking a simple question. It occurs to me now that seeing some case studies of different work-flows and database structures would be useful.

That said, I do now have some more specific questions: keywords or categories? I believe I understand the basic differences between the two - but not the reason I would use one or the other or both. When I get started on my virgin database, do I assign both categories and keywords as I work through the folders? Isn't that twice as much work? Do I do perhaps set every image to a category, and then use the category filters to set keywords? Or the other way around? Or are there reasons I might only need keywords, or only categories?

I apologise for the obtuse questions. It seems like an enormous workload in front of me (tens of thousand of images), and it's daunting. I don't want to spend hours and hours going down the wrong road. I'm very glad to know that if I DO do that, Imatch can fix it ... but I'd rather use the right road.

Thanks again for you patient reply and for the links

Tim

[Carlo Didier]

The question between categories or keywords (or both!) is quite difficult to answer. It surely depends a lot on your workflow and what you are using your photos for.

If you sell photos or put them in stock photo agencies, keywords most probably are a requirement. In my own workflow, I don't use keywords at all, only categories, but that's my special case. I have no need for keywords for myself as my category structure does everything I need/want. (Actually, I tried putting keywords on images once when I tried a stock agency but just couldn't come up with the right ones, so I gave up on it).

Keywords usually get written into the metadata in the files (because that's where it is expected to be found by others when you give them your images), whereas categories can be written to the files, or not (as in my case).

Some also have a categories-only workflow, but write certain categories as keywords into the files upon batch export for certain purposes.
It all depends on your workflow and where (or by whom) your images will be used.

[herman]

This excellent thread has a lot of thoughts on this topic click here.

[tjmillar]

Thank you!
I will search the forums based on those replies.
When I click the link I get this: The topic or board you are looking for appears to be either missing or off limits to you.

[BanjoTom]

Herman, I too found that the link you provided to an "excellent thread" for this purpose did not work.

[Mario]

The link should work now for all users.