Return to Digital Photography Articles
Deciding upon a suitable categorization strategy may seem overwhelming at first, but it isn't. Fortunately, most catalog programs allow one the ability to change the tagging structure very easily. Tags are generally kept in a seperate database, rather than with the individual files (unlike IPTC). This way, you can simply change the structure or names of the categories without having to edit every file in your collection. So, developing your categorization strategy can done over time, increasing in levels as you see fit.
An important thing to remember is that your categories should aim for efficient use of hierarchy. In other words, start with the most general categories and then refine down from there. Only add an extra level of hierarchy if you have more than a few categories at a particular level. It is best to describe this by way of an example.
The category hierarchy should be suited to your particular interests in photography. Obviously, a wildlife photographer will have much greater emphasis on animal categorization than the average photographer.
At the very least, one typically wants to have main categories for people, places and probably events. Within each of these, one can then further refine
The following table shows an extract from a tagging hierarchy, to give an idea of the various types of categories. I am currently using about 270 categories in my database, and many of my photos have a half-dozen or more tags assigned.
| Example Category Structure |
1-Unassigned Images
Collection
_TO_SORT
Cloverdale Rodeo
RallyTour2004
...
Formulae
Rating1+
Rating2+
Rating3+
Rating4+
Rating5+
...
IPTC
State
Edit
Resized
Hidden
Scan
CanoScan 5000F
CanoScan N640P
Photo 10d
Slide
Tags
Events
Birthdays
Fashion
Festival
Holidays
Parade
Parties
Banquet
Club
Houseboating
Wedding
Reception
Ceremony
...
Misc
Humour
NightShots
Oldies
Portrait
Sports
Activities
Biking
Flying
Freediving
Racing
Wakeboarding
Windsurfing
...
Still Life
Test
People
Animals
Bears
Birds
Frogs
Insects
Other
Pets
Cappy
Mr. Honks
...
Reptiles
Sealife
Family
...
Friends
Arnold
Rambo
Cinderella
Spongebob
Strangers
Places
Africa
Asia
Europe
North America
Canada
BC
...
Carribean
Bonaire
Dominican Republic
Jamaica
Hawaii
...
Oceania
South America
Peru
Studio
Work
Cemetery
Projects
Cards
Memories
Scrapbook
Ratings
Rating1-Excellent
Rating2-Great
Rating3-Good
Rating4-OK
Rating5-Bad
ToRate
Things
Corvette
...
|
Examples of special categories I use:
- Unassigned Images - Contains all images that do not have any categories assigned yet
- Collection - A single-use tag, one that is used to keep a set of photos together (eg. a particular event, etc.) that doesn't typically suit the normal hierarchical tagging methods.
- _TO_SORT - Images that have just been imported and not categorized yet. This is the primary means by which I can tell whether or not I have finished adding all of the necessary tags to a file.
- Formulae - Contains the "dynamic categories" supported by IMatch. These are generally temporary "selections" that span multiple tags. For example, I might want to create a category that has all pictures of my wife and I, that are out of the country. It also contains my "ratings selections", which are formulae that show a particular quality rating or higher. So, I can select Rating3+ to show all photos that are rated Rating3-Good to Rating1-Excellent.
- Edit - Used to mark non-originals. Anytime that I create a duplicate from the original and modify it in some way, I tag it with the Edit category.
- Resized - Indicates that an image has been resized from the original. The image might also contain edits.
- Scan - Used to mark any images that are derived from a scan. This includes scans of prints, slides, negatives and even digital photographs of slides.
- CanoScan 5000F - Indicates the type of scanner used to create the scan. Since I don't attach an ICC profile to scanned images automatically, I simply tag them in the database. This way I can always attach my custom profile to the images later.
- Photo 10d - Indicates that the scan is actually a digital camera photo from a slide (an unusual way to scan a slide / transparency).
- Slide - Indicates that the scan is from a slide scanner.
Collections versus Categories
Most catalog programs support the notion of a collection in addition to the usual categories. Collections are often treated by the software as simply another category, but conceptually it is worth treating them differently as a user.
Categories are used for identifying characteristics of each photo. In other words, it answers the usual questions of who, what, when, how, where, etc. The idea is that these tags will be used for general groupings, and applied to many photos over time. Categories are not really intended to be used for one-off events.
Collections, on the other hand, are intended for one-off groupings of images. This is often used for marking photos as being from a one-time event (eg. superbowl_2004, or in a temporary group for further processing (eg. send_to_web, to_print, etc.)
Even though the software treats collections much in the same way as categories, it is helpful to keep the distinction clear. If you find that a category you have created is probably only going to be used once, then this might be better suited to a collection. Dated events usually fall into collections.
Reader's Comments:
Please leave your comments or suggestions below!I hope this mesage get to Pepe, we haven't been in contact in years.
For example, categories in iView seem to be one lever categories and do not have the ability of sub category. Or maybe it does and I can find it.
I am not a professional photographer but I work with professionals and get many images from them. I need a program that can catalog my PSD creation, clients omages and my personal images. By end this year, it might get to ten thoudand.
I have never heard of IMatch amazingly enough and I looked at their web site a bit. I might download their trial version.
I was also thinking of Extensis Portfolio. I know it is very expensive but it costs more to spend time than to pay for a good tool.
So I read some of the articles in this site and I have to say that I am very happy I stumbled on this site. It is very useful. I am always hoping to get a more definate answer on what is best but that never happens...
DO you know if PS Album 4 (or rather Elements 4) is a better product then previous versions in term of performance?
Is Extensis a superior product for organizing images?
You might want to take the opportunity to try out some of these other apps. Unfortunately, I still don't see a perfect app that also has a decent user interface. The problem is that some people need specific features (eg. derivative control, RAW metadata support, scripting, web integration, etc.) that others don't care for and then there is the whole gamut of user interface complexity -- some people don't mind complex interfaces, others need to have something that others in the family can use as well! That being said, Extensis 8 should offer you considerable flexibility over and above what you are getting with the PSE environment. So long as you're careful to test out the export options early on, there is no harm in testing out a couple applications for a period of time to see if it works for you. Good luck!
I have been working with Fotostation. I must admit that I´m pleased, yet I find Imatch cheaper and better in someways. But after overreading the Tutorial i hold a question. Since Imatch work separately from the images does this progam save the Iptc info into the image or only in the DB? For I want to place the pictures in the web and without ITPC data I believe there would be on no use for searching?
Pepe — IPTC information is one of the elements that is directly written into the file. In fact, IPTC info is not cached at all in the database itself, unless one imports the IPTC fields from the files into the database's property fields. So in summary, you shouldn't have any problem with relying on the web-based searching across the IPTC data (if you edited them within IMatch).
While a hierarchical system is nice (and very useful), it isn't strictly necessary. I currently tag my images with keywords that are basically from one long (flat) list. But then again I am content, for example, to just tag the City Name or Location, and not necessarily have additional levels of State, Province, Country, Continent, etc. layered on top. (Of course, the location could be as general as just a Country or something.) Similary, I tag People just using their names. If I decide later I would like a tag like family to select all picture of all family, I would just add the tag family to all those images as well. So the image would have two tags -- family and name.