How do you categorize your photographs?

[Polarigel]

This is not a technical question. Maybe it's off topic, but I didn't find any other place where I could ask.

I just started with iMatch and never used any image database before. I'm not an avid photographer, but I somehow i managed to collect more than 15.000 photographies on my harddisk. A lot of them are geotagged with GeoSetter, but that's it. I'm looking into iMatch because I want to find some easy way to find all images of aunt Mary, or all climbing photos of my friend Peter and so on.

I reckon it would be wise to make a list of keywords before I start to categorize my images. I searched the net, but didn't find categorizing examples that fit for the garden variety holiday and family-event photographer. I want to keep it simple, with as few keywords and hierarchicals steps as possible.

I thought of something like that

• Person: Mary, Peter, ...., group A (subcategory with person X, Y), group B (subcategory),..., unknown
• Plant: Tree  (subcategories), flower (subcategories), leaf, mushroom, ....
• Animal: Jellyfish, dog, bear, ...
• Landscape: Mountain, beach, river, lake, ocean, town, road, rock,....
• Building: Indoor, cabin, house, window, door,.....
• Object: Car, stone, kayak, bicyle...
• Events&Activities: Birthday, wedding, hike, climbing, padling, sunset, fireworks, ...

Does this seem reasonable to people who do have experience categorizing pictures? Or can you give me examples how you categorize your images?

Thank you
Polarigel

[Richard]

I reckon it would be wise to make a list of keywords before I start to categorize my images.

Keywords and Categories are two different things. You can assign images to Categories that do not have Keywords. You can also assign Keywords to images that are not categorized.

If you make images public and those images contain Keywords, you will share what may be private information. Categories are kept in your Database only and are as private as your computer is private.

I use Categories to answer the five Ws (Who, What, When, Why, Where). Thus Mary and Peter would fall under "Who". A tree would fall under What|Plant|Tree. A mountain would fall under What|Nature|Mountain. A building under What|Man made|Building. A birthday under Why|Event|Birthday. If you have a picture of Mary and Peter on a beach as the sun is setting, that image might be under Who|Relatives|Mary, Who|Friends|Peter, What|Nature|Beach, What|Nature|Sunset as well as other Ws.

Keep in mind that one image file can be assigned to many categories with no changes to the image file. If you add Keywords, those changes are added to XMP which may be embedded in the image file and thus increase the file size.

Also remember that Categories can be combined to produce new Categories: like Friends AND Beach should you need to check certain classes of images often.

[jch2103]

As Richard says, Keywords and Categories are two different things with different implications, such as for image sharing. You may want to consider which properties you wish to keep private (i.e., only as Categories in the IMatch database) and which you'd be willing to share with the broader world for images you e-mail or post on the internet, etc. For example, you may be unwilling to share name information but be quite happy to share more generic groupings.

Along these lines, if you geotagged images with Geosetter to include Country/State/City, you may find that the IMatch Sample Categories are already populated for you, as an example of data-driven categories.

To your broader question, yes it would be useful to come up with lists before you start. Of course, you'll likely find you want to refine your lists as you progress. Fortunately, IMatch makes it pretty easy to change things if you want/need, so you're not locked in.

[lnh]

For keywords there are pre-made "controlled vocabulary" lists which could be a starting point and often address the 5 W's. You can import these into the IMatch Thesaurus which is a super tool for keywording. Do some Internet searches on the subject and there are several OK free lists which serve as starting points for your own personalization. Some say they are for Lightroom, but they import into IMatch just fine. There are also extensive lists for sale.

Even if you keyword and end up with metadata in your file you'd rather not share, it's easy to either clean out keywords and other metadata, or not propagate them in the first place for an image version for sharing to others.

[Mario]

I think a good starting point is

http://www.photo-keywords.com/

The sell keyword lists, but the basic info on their web site is worth a read whether you intent to buy or not.

David Rieks' site http://www.controlledvocabulary.com/ with a massive and well-ordered controlled vocabulary. Available in my formats (IMatch can import the LR format into it's thesaurus, unless David has changed it).

There is of course an official standard which is mandatory for some institutions and companies.

And if you trouble Google, e.g. with

free controlled vocabulary

you'll find plenty of free vocabularies to give you some ideas. The IMatch Thesaurus is pretty flexible and can import many formats, and you can create the formats it supports for input easily from other formats, even if you have to use Notepad to change them a bit. The IMatch help lists all supported formats.

[Mario]

I've just posted a corresponding entry on the photools.com Facebook Page with some links to free vocabularies you can download and import into the IMatch thesaurus. Like/share this post.

[Polarigel]

Thank your all for your input. I will have a closer look at that.

I don't want to be locked into a database software (even if its iMatch ). So I  will write all metainformation into the images-files and won't keep "private" information only in the database.  Images I post on my blog or in social networks must not contain metadata of course.

And there actually comes a technical question: Is there any easy way to remove all metadata from a single picture or a group of images? And how can i find out that all metadata is gone?

iMatch seems to duplicate metadata and write them to diffent XMP/ IPTC-fields, to make completely sure that they can be read by any other software out there. That's a good thing. But some of the fields don't show up in other software i tried (Geosetter, TotalCommander with user defined columns). I'm wondering whether software (for example FastStoneImageViewer) that claims to do that- really removes everything. How do I find out (other than checking every single image in the metadata viewer in iMatch)?

[Mario]

Categories are stored in the IMatch database, not in the image file. This makes categories both a lot faster, more powerful and easier to use than keywords.

For your purpose, you should work with keywords only, because these are stored inside the image. The special @Keyword category in IMatch combines the strengths of both approaches. Check out the help on @Keywords for all details.

And there actually comes a technical question: Is there any easy way to remove all metadata from a single picture or a group of images? And how can i find out that all metadata is gone?

Use the Delete Metadata preset in the IMatch ExifTool command processor. Use the List Metadata preset to see all data contained in a file.

iMatch seems to duplicate metadata and write them to diffent XMP/ IPTC-fields, to make completely sure..

IMatch manages, maps, copies, duplicates and propagates metadata according to the rules defined by the Metadata Working Group. This, for example means, that some metadata tags appear multiple times (in XMP or IPTC/EXIF) and many, many other things. That some data does not show up in other applications may depend on many factors: inability, no support for MWG, incomplete metadata support, ignorance, preferences chosen by the programmer (Adobe applications hide lots of metadata, for example), Windows Explorer shows a weird mix of EXIF, XMP and proprietary Microsoft metadata, ...

[PaulS]

One thing to consider, is that it may take you some time experimenting to find the hierarchy that is right for you.  Since Keywords are written to the image file, if you spending a lot of time rearranging your Keyword hierarchy, your files could be modified many times, which could also impact performance.

You can postpone the writing of keywords while you are experimenting by deselecting "Write-back changes to metadata immediately" on the Preferences - Background Processing tab.  With this setting, keywords updates can still be written manually by selecting the yellow pencil on the image or by choosing one of the Metadata Write-back options from the Commands menu.

[Polarigel]

Thank you all! I'm impressed by the support I get here. The ExifTool command processor was exactly what I was looking for.

[CollieDog]

I've just posted a corresponding entry on the photools.com Facebook Page with some links to free vocabularies you can download and import into the IMatch thesaurus. Like/share this post.

Regarding the use of controlled vocabularies, I created my own list based on the open source list provided here: http://lightroom-keyword-list-project.blogspot.ca/

I found the author's list very useful and easy to expand upon. My own list includes a "Social Science Concept" category which allows me to include concepts like conflict, cooperation, festivals, patriarch, status of women, poverty, religion, social cohesion, urbanization.

I have found that adding keywords and forcing myself to think of the categories, has been very helpful in building a better understanding of the concepts and framework that are hidden in my photos. Simply put, its been helpful in building theory- much like creating a mind-map.

[ubacher]

I have spent a lot of time thinking through my category hierarchy and refined it over the years.
But first a few suggestions:
Start using categories and NOT keywords.
This way it is trivial to make changes in names or organization.
In a few years time (when you system of categorizing has settled) convert your categories to keywords (which then writes them out
to each individual file)
I, like you, used keywords in IM3. When I switched to IM5 I quickly learned and switched from keywords
to categories. It was quite a job but I do not regret it.

To start, always include a (sub) category "Other" for all cases where none
of the existing categories will do.

=======================================================================================
Here my hierarchy of categories:
CONTENT: The subcats here describe the content of the image (what is on it)
In general I want every image to have at least one category in this tree assigned.
   ACTIVITY: Mostly to record images associated with particular hobbies.
   ANIMALS: The usual
   ARCHITECTURE: Depends on your interests
   PEOPLE: Family: Ours, Hers, Mine,
           Nonfamily: Friends, Model, PublicFigures, ..
   SCAPES: Landscape, Cityscape, Mountains, Stilllife, Gardens ...
   THEMES-TOPICS: ArtsandCrafts,Christmas, Curiosa, SunandSky, FogRain, Food,.....
   THINGS: I have here: Parkbenches, Clocks_sundials, Signs, Cars, and other
              things of which I tend to take images
   WHATITSHOWS: the LOCATION categories tells where an image was taken, this category
             shows what places are photographed. My location can be "Bighill" but I take
             a shot of "Myvillage" below. Or I could be in "Myvillage" and take a picture of
             "Bighill"
             I use this to easily find images which show mountains and lakes in my region.
            
EVENT:   The usual: Parties, Weddings, Funerals, Parades, ExtremeWeather-Disasters,
   
LOCATION:
   by Continent, Country, Region
      getting more specific the closer to home I get.
     Includes a category HomeandGarden
SHOOTINGCONDITION:
   Here I have NIGHT, STUDIO, RAIN, FromHighUp
   and I include the 4 SEASONS
SOURCE-PHOTOGRAPHER
   Here the main subcategories are SCAN, OtherFotographer, Internet
STYLE:
   MultipleExposures, Silhouette, Reflections, Distortions, Shadows..
TYPEofFOTO
   This I use to indicate that an image is part of a panorama or a panorama,
   a Left or Right stereo image etc, Part of an HDR Series, A Collage, A sequence,
   Many of these I use in scripts to automatically group and process images.
WHEREUSED:
   These categories I use to keep track of images that I have used in books, given away,
   displayed, submitted,.....
WHYTAKEN_WHATFOR:
   Here you can record for what client or for what purpose you have taken images. Or mark images which are part of tests or experiment.
   I also have a category here called DOCU, mostly used for images of signs which document other images.
WORKING:
   Categories of temporary nature - used only when "working" on images.
   Some which tend to get used a lot: DeleteCandidate (Images which after a certain date can be deleted)
   "To B Processed", "To give Away", "For Printing"
   ================================================
   
You could have even one higher level named "MustHaveOneofThese" where you group those categories
of which each image should have at least one. However with the flexibility of IM5 you can just set up a filter
to find images missing "mandatory" categories.

Hope this will help you!

[Gerd]

Hi,
because it is so easy to move/create/rename categories, I have started with a default built-in in IM years ago and modified to my own requirements.

I don't care about special ready-made ones.

[P.Jones]

I have spent a lot of time thinking through my category hierarchy and refined it over the years.
But first a few suggestions:
Start using categories and NOT keywords.
This way it is trivial to make changes in names or organization.
In a few years time (when you system of categorizing has settled) convert your categories to keywords (which then writes them out
to each individual file)
I, like you, used keywords in IM3. When I switched to IM5 I quickly learned and switched from keywords
to categories. It was quite a job but I do not regret it.

At the moment all my photos have @keywords, but I'm thinking of changing over to using categories instead.

Is there a way of importing all my @keywords into categories.

[Nytewulf]

You can copy the categories under the @Keywords parent category (highlight all the child categories > right click > clipboard> copy) under a new parent category that isn't data driven (right click > clipboard> paste) -- this will create a category that isn't data-driven for each keyword (with the files already assigned).  It's then a simple matter to then organize them the way you want and create whatever hierarchy you want.

John

[Ferdinand]

this will create a category that isn't data-driven for each keyword (with the files already assigned)

And you can convert this to a normal category, rather than a data-driven category, by right clicking on the top data-driven level level and from the advanced menu selecting "convert to normal category".  You'd want to do this before you started any reorganisation.

[Nytewulf]

And you can convert this to a normal category, rather than a data-driven category, by right clicking on the top data-driven level level and from the advanced menu selecting "convert to normal category".  You'd want to do this before you started any reorganisation.

When a data-driven category is pasted under a normal category, it's automatically converted to a normal category.

John

[Ferdinand]

And you can convert this to a normal category, rather than a data-driven category, by right clicking on the top data-driven level level and from the advanced menu selecting "convert to normal category".  You'd want to do this before you started any reorganisation.

When a data-driven category is pasted under a normal category, it's automatically converted to a normal category.

That's only half-true.  You are correct that an @Keyword hierarchy when pasted like this converts to a regular category.  But a non-keyword data-driven category doesn't - it needs to be converted to a regular category in the way I described.

[Lincoln]

David Rieks' site http://www.controlledvocabulary.com/ with a massive and well-ordered controlled vocabulary. Available in my formats (IMatch can import the LR format into it's thesaurus, unless David has changed it).

I can confirm the controlled vocabulary keyword list LR version imports perfectly into iMatch 5.126

[P.Jones]

this will create a category that isn't data-driven for each keyword (with the files already assigned)

And you can convert this to a normal category, rather than a data-driven category, by right clicking on the top data-driven level level and from the advanced menu selecting "convert to normal category".  You'd want to do this before you started any reorganisation.

Thankyou both will try it out later today

[P.Jones]

You can copy the categories under the @Keywords parent category (highlight all the child categories > right click > clipboard> copy) under a new parent category that isn't data driven (right click > clipboard> paste) -- this will create a category that isn't data-driven for each keyword (with the files already assigned).  It's then a simple matter to then organize them the way you want and create whatever hierarchy you want.

John

Hi John
Tried this and it works fine.

[P.Jones]

this will create a category that isn't data-driven for each keyword (with the files already assigned)

And you can convert this to a normal category, rather than a data-driven category, by right clicking on the top data-driven level level and from the advanced menu selecting "convert to normal category".  You'd want to do this before you started any reorganisation.

Hi Ferdinand

Tried this but the "convert to normal category" is greyed out.

See attached.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[P.Jones]

this will create a category that isn't data-driven for each keyword (with the files already assigned)

And you can convert this to a normal category, rather than a data-driven category, by right clicking on the top data-driven level level and from the advanced menu selecting "convert to normal category".  You'd want to do this before you started any reorganisation.

Hi Ferdinand

Tried this but the "convert to normal category" is greyed out.

See attached.

Just bumping this up to see if ' the "convert to normal category" is greyed out' for anyone else and whether I should report it as a bug.