There are three types of keywords:
1) Content of a photograph
2) Life of a photograph
3) Workflow tracking
Keyword Type #1 -
Content of a Photograph
Most of your keywords will be about the content of your photographs.
Journalists write the who, what, where, when, and why of a story.
The same questions can guide your choice of keywords that describe
the content of your photographs.
Keyword Type #2 -
Life of a Photograph
You can also use keywords record the "life" of your photographs.
What has the photograph "done."
You can create keywords for the "events" in your photographs
life.
Was a photograph:
• Exhibited?
• Printed 20" by 24"?
• Stored in box #32?
• Licensed to so-and-so?
• Published by XYZ?
• Sent to Aunt Louise?
Keyword Type #3 -
Workflow Tracking
You can keep track of where a photograph is in your workflow with
keywords.
For example, you could have a keyword rfp, ready-for-printing.
Click rfp, and all of the photographs ready-for-printing will appear.
There are two keyword panels, Keywording and Keyword List.
They perform one or more of these actions:
• Add a new keyword and apply it to photographs
• Apply an existing keyword to photographs
• Display all of your keywords
• Remove a keyword from photographs
• Delete a keyword from Lightroom
As you can see below, their functions overlap—confusingly.
| Add a new keyword &
apply it to photographs |
• Enter in field
|
• Click plus icon
• Right click & select
|
| Apply an existing keyword
to photographs |
• Click the keyword
• Drag it to the photographs
• Drag photographs to it
|
• Click the left box
• Right click & select
|
| Display all of your keywords |
• No
|
• Yes
|
| Remove a keyword from photographs |
• Highlight it, right click it,
& select Cut
|
• Deselect the white checkmark
• Right click & select
|
| Delete a keyword from Lightroom |
• No
|
• Click minus icon
• Right click & select
|
As you use keywords, the functions of the two panels will become
more clear.
Let's look at the first keyword panel.
Go to the Library module, in Grid view.
Open the Keywording panel.
There are three sections.
Open the sections by clicking the tiny black triangles.
Section #1 - Keyword Tags
Make sure the menu at the top of this section is set to Enter Keywords.
There are two fields.
The one on top is larger than the field below.
If the photograph already has keywords, they appear in the larger
field.
The smaller field is for adding new keywords.
To add a new keyword:
1) Make a virtual copy of a photograph for experimentation.
2) Enter a keyword in the smaller field.
3) Press Enter.
The keyword shifts to the larger field.
The keyword icon appears on the thumbnail.
4) Insert a comma, and then add a second keyword.
Always use commas between keywords.
3) Press Enter.
Section #2 - Keyword Suggestions
Lightroom suggests keywords in this section.
The suggestions are based on the keywords applied to the photograph,
and to other photographs taken at about the same time.
Click on a suggested keyword to apply it to the selected photographs.
Section #3 - Keyword Set
Keyword sets make it easier to apply keywords.
If you've just imported photographs of a wedding, open the wedding
keyword set.
You won't have to wade through unrelated keywords.
Lightroom provides three sets: Outdoor, Portrait, and Wedding.
There's also a Recently Used set.
Let's say you've been editing photographs of hawks flying in thermals.
You've applied keywords to the hawk photographs.
These keywords are now in Recently Used.
You can save them as a separate set.
Do the following.
1) Go to the Keyword Set section of the Keywording panel.
2) select Save Current Settings As New Preset in the menu.
3) Enter the name for the keyword set.
4) Click Create.
The Keyword List panel contains all of the keywords that you've created.
To add a keyword "under" another keyword (a "sub" keyword), right click on the keyword,
and select Create New Keyword Inside "x."
There are two main ways to retrieve photographs using keywords.
Retrieval Method #1 - Library Filter
The Library Filter is above the work area.
If you don't see it, press \.
Do the following.
1) Click Text.
2) Change Any Searchable Field to Keywords.
3) Change the selection in the next menu, as needed.
4) Enter keywords.
5) Click None to collapse the Library Filter.
Retrieval Method #2 - Keyword List Panel
Open the the Keyword List panel, and click a keyword.
Keywords can be applied when you import photographs.
In the Import window, open the Add During Import panel and enter
keywords.
To delete a keyword, do the following.
1) Go to the Keyword List panel.
2) Select the unwanted keyword.
3) Click the minus icon at the top of the panel.
Note that all of the keywords in the hierarchy below the unwanted
keyword will also be deleted.
For example, if you delete Solar System, below, all of the keywords
below it will be deleted.
Universe
Milky Way
Solar
System
Mercury
Venus
Earth
United
States
NYC
{New York
City}
{Big Apple}
Mars
Jupiter
Uranus
Neptune
Purge Unused Keywords
At the top of your screen, go to Metadata > Purge Unused Keywords.
Spend some time thinking about a hierarchy of keyword categories,
subcategories, and keywords.
What words will come to mind—a year from now—when you're searching
for a photograph?
You may want to create the hierarchy in a text file which can be
imported into Lightroom.
The Excel worksheet below . . .
Excel Worksheet
. . . looks like this when imported into Lightroom.
Keyword Spreadsheet in Lightroom
Note how the keywords are alphabetized.
The sequence of the planets from the sun wasn't maintained.
To order keywords, you can number them.
Keyword Spreadsheet in Lightroom with Numbers
Create the Hierarchy
You can use a text editor, such as Notepad (Windows) or Textedit
(Mac).
However, use Excel.
Excel is part of Microsoft Office (Windows) and iWork (Mac).
If you don't have Excel, download
OpenOffice, a free open-source
suite of programs.
There are several advantages.
You can:
• Format text by size and color.
• Create borders around cells.
• Drag text from one cell to another.
• Go to the Data tab and click Remove Duplicates.
• Go to the Review tab and click Spelling.
Do the following.
1) Open a new spreadsheet.
2) Create a hierarchy of keywords.
3) Save the file as a .txt file.
4) In Lightroom, at the top of your screen, go to Metadata > Import
Keywords.
"Special Effects"
You can use curly brackets {} to denote
synonyms.
In the above example, {New York City} and {Big Apple}
are synonyms for the keyword NYC.
Use brackets [] to prevent a keyword from being exported.
For example, you may not want to export keywords
of the names of people.
Look for Existing Lists
You may be able to download free keyword lists related to your photographic
area of interest.
For example, a travel photographer could search for:
Lightroom keyword list library catalog
travel photography import.
Nick Potter offers
several keyword
lists for a voluntary donation.
If you're listing your work with a stock agency, download their keyword
list.
You can buy a keyword lists for Lightroom, such as
Controlled Vocabulary
and Keyword Catalog.
Adapt the following steps to your needs.
1) When importing, apply the keywords that apply to all of the photographs.
2) Go to grid view in the Library module.
3) After import, you may sort the photographs into collections.
As you do so, apply the keywords related to the collections.
4) Open each collection—or—click Previous Import in the Catalog panel—and
look for distinctive photographs needing more unique keywords.
"Alien" Keywords
If you import photographs from sources other than your camera, the
files may have keywords.
These keywords may appear in Lightroom along with your keywords.
All of the Above
When you apply a keyword to a photograph, all of the keywords above
it in the hierarchy are also applied.
For example, let's say you apply the NYC keyword.
Universe
Milky Way
Solar System
Mercury
Venus
Earth
United States
NYC
{New York City}
{Big Apple}
Mars
Jupiter
Uranus
Neptune
In the interest of having less clutter, only the NYC keyword you've
applied is shown.
But, all of the keywords above it, are applied as well.
Universe
Milky Way
Solar System
Mercury
Venus
Earth
United
States
NYC
{New York City}
{Big Apple}
Mars
Jupiter
Uranus
Neptune
The keywords further up in the hierarchy have been applied by Lightroom,
but are not visible.
These hidden keywords are active when you search with keywords, however.
To see the hidden keywords, go to the Keywording panel.
Open the menu at the top of the panel.
Select Keywords and Containing Keywords instead of Enter Keywords.
But, you can't enter keywords where you could before, the larger
field on top.
You have to enter them in the smaller field.
Synonyms in Lightroom are a time saver.
You take a keyword, such as NYC.
You attach synonyms to the keyword, such as New York City and Big
Apple.
Universe
Milky Way
Solar System
Mercury
Venus
Earth
United States
NYC
{New York
City}
{Big Apple}
Mars
Jupiter
Uranus
Neptune
Now, whenever you apply NYC to your photographs, the synonyms are
applied automatically.
Click NYC, and you get
NYC as well as
New York City and
Big Apple.
Transfer Photographs
From an Old Keyword to a New Keyword
Let's say you want to transfer photographs with the keyword NYC to
a new key word, New York City.
Do the following.
1) Go to the Library module in Grid view.
2) Open the Keyword List panel.
3) Locate the keyword that you want to transfer to another keyword,
such as NYC.
Transfer Keywords
4) Make sure the white checkmark is selected
on the left side.
5) Move the cursor to the right side and click the white arrow that
appears.
All of the photographs with the NYC keyword appear in work area.
6) Press Ctrl + a to select all of the photographs.
7) Move your cursor over the new keyword, New York City, and click
the empty checkbox on the left side to apply the new keyword.
8) Go back to the NYC keyword, and click the white checkmark on the
left side to un-apply the keyword to the photographs.
There are plug-ins for keywords, such as:
Adobe - Photoshop Lightroom 3: Plug-ins
Jeffrey Friedl's
Blog » Jeffrey's Lightroom Goodies (Plugins and Tools)
