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Erin · Admin Joined: 03 Mar 2005 Posts: 434

In an effort to improve the accuracy of our searches, I'd like to pass along some keywording tips to you all. If you notice that you have been (most likely unintentionally) adding unrelated keywords, we ask you to help us with our auditing process by gradually removing irrelavent keywords from your images. (NOTE: Your image will not go back into the Queue if you only remove keywords)

1 - Concentrate on adding as many accurate keywords as possible - rather than as many as you can think of. The first thing you should do is determine what the subject of your image is - or the theme your image portrays. Include keywords that relate to this subject only. Don't include keywords of items in your picture that are not part of the overall subject.

For instance, lets imagine you are uploading a portrait of a family in a park. The clear subject of this image is the family, of course. In the background there are lots of trees, a fence, a running dog, and a lamp post. You would NOT want to include "trees, fence, dog, or lamp" in your keywords - just because they are in the picture. A buyer searching for an image of a dog would wonder why a family portrait shows up in their search. Yes, there may be a dog in the distant background, but its not the subject of the picture.

2 - Please do not include in your keywords: Your name, Your model's name, or the location in which the image was shot. If you took at picture of a woman riding a bicycle down a trail (that looks like it could have been taken anywhere in the world), please don't include the name of the state/province/country it was taken in. If designers search for "Denver", they want shots around the city - not shots of a man playing pool in a club located in Denver - that could be essentially located anywhere for all we know ;) On the other hand, keywords should include location with a city scape or brand location. For instance, a view of toronto, or venue view New York casino.

Exception: Always include, personal names, city, state, and date of editorial images. For instance, a picture of Bob Hope, in Las Vegas, 1985.

3 - Be careful when using keywords like: Background, Abstract, Interior, Exterior, Design, Miscallaneous, Art, Concept. A picture of a city should not include "abstract". A picutre of a light blur however, could include abstract. Backgrounds should be limited to images that will primarily be used for a background - as in a wallpaper or presentation. For example, you would not include background as a keyword for a still-life image of a bowl of fruits.

"Interior" should only be included in images of the interior of houses, buildings, offices, and churches as well as isolated furniture and domestic still life. Just because an image was taken indoors does not always make it an interior shot. For example, you would not include "interior" in an image of a flower macro that was taken indoors. A newly furnished home, however, would include "interior".

Please take these tips into consideration and have a second look at your keywords ;)

Thanks!

Erin =)

slovegrove · Joined: 06 Jan 2005 Posts: 156 Location: Australia

I would like to say that I disagree a little with the idea that you should not put locations in your keywords. Using the example above(Item 2), if I am a designer working on aproject about "Denver", I would find it useful that lifestyle/local "color" shots came up in my search. It is not always the case that clients want pics that are instantly recognisable as a specific location, so if they do want a generic pic, they still want to know that that "man playing pool" actually was in Denver. Saves them getting their butt kicked when someone recognises that their generic lifestyle pic included in their Denver brochure, isnt actually shot in Denver!

rodehi · Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2005 11:09 pm

Then why didnt you ad New Zealand to your sheep photo? ;)

slovegrove · Joined: 06 Jan 2005 Posts: 156 Location: Australia

Because it wasnt taken in New Zealand! I think you have missed the point. Of course there are some generic images, like a pic of sheep, where there is no scenery, where a photographer might well degrade their sales potential by indentifying the location. It shouldnt make any difference to a client, if the sheep species is appropriate for their location, then a sheep is a sheep. My point was that in many instances I would think that it was vital for a client to know where the picture was taken, and that I dont agree with a blanket direction not to put locations in keywords.

deegolden · Joined: 14 Mar 2005 Posts: 60

Sometimes I can't even come up with 7 keywords! I usually search for a similar photo already on the site and look at the keywords. I often see lots of keywords I don't think apply, but often I can pick up a few that do apply to my photo.

As a designer looking for a photo one of the biggest time wasters was fighting with keywords to narrow down the search to what I was actually looking for. Even when I specified not to find certain keywords I'd still get images that did not apply to my search. (At the $$$ sites, like Getty, Veer, etc.)

I even called the stock agencies asking for help and they usually told me they were trying to work on making keyword searches easier.

So now that I'm on the other end I'm torn between putting down only accurate keywords (and not getting up to 7) and the worry that not using enough keywords means my photo won't show up in a search.

What I do now is put in my keywords, then at this site I can click on the keywords used and pick out the ones that are bringing up photos that do not apply to my search and putting them in the "except" or "not" area. It's still a lot of work, but it helps narrow the search.

I'd love to see an area with several photos with proper and improper keywords for each one, it would help me as a photographer -- and as a designer next time I have to search for a stock photo.

I see a lot of conceptual keywords being used, and I think that is the most difficult for me to come up with.

CarolinaSmith · Joined: 11 Apr 2005 Posts: 200 Location: USA

IMO,

Seems to me that keywording in a state name, especially in nature shots, would be helpful.

If a buyer looks at a photo without looking at the keywords and says 'This works', then it doesn't matter that the keyword, Colorado, is in the keywords.

But if a buyer looks at a shot and thinks a locale is better suited to the client in his/her area (let's say, Colorado), then the locale with indigenous flora and fauna might win out, and the buyer didn't even have to be an eco expert.

Another thing, I think brand names in the KEYWORDS should not be looked down upon... Even though logos are removed... example, you have a shot of a stick shift or car interior of a BMW... I don't see how BMW in the keywords violates anything. A buyer may be looking for a car interior that conveys success, wealth, luxury, and you said it with one keyword, BMW (if in fact you shot the interior of a BMW).

The keywords are to help BUYERS... so as long as it is not false or spamdexing, what's wrong with the truth since it can help a buyer hone in? When products change so fast, I believe identifying them in the keywords or description can only be doing the buyers a favor, so they know they are staying on top with their picks, or purposely wanting something older/retro.

You can see 'BMW' for example on iStock keywords and Corbis, i.e., at other macro and micro agencies.

Information is power and the power to choose. I believe it enables the buyer to make the best choice, and we should give the buyer valuable information. This is not the same as spamdexing, IMO.

painkiller · Joined: 30 Jul 2005 Posts: 58

really this post made very clear about keywords...thanx...

http://shutterstock.com/gallery.mhtml?id=5840

painkiller · Joined: 30 Jul 2005 Posts: 58

thanx guys..but u havnt said anything about the description i hav 2 give...n about category....should i include the objects in my pic in keywords..?

http://shutterstock.com/gallery.mhtml?id=5840

explorenorth · Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 11:38 am

>>Please do not include in your keywords: Your name, Your model's name, or the location in which the image was shot.<<

As a photo buyer as well as seller, I want to tell you that that is NOT true. I can remove information from another photographer's description, but I can seldom add any information to it. If I'm doing an article on a cruise up Tracy Arm, Alaska, those are the images I'm looking for, not generic glacier shots. ONLY images concisely titled that way will be dowloaded for further assessment. One of the huge problems at SS for photo editors is the vague or incorrect titling of many images. Far worse is the keyword spamming that is so common - I just came across a whole album of Alaska images that included such words as "tropical" in the keywords, and another that had included most of the "Top Keywords" in his own. That sort of thing hurts us all, because buyers will just go elsewhere to find their images.

Murray
ExploreNorth.com

visual28 · Joined: 13 May 2005 Posts: 63

As you all know there is no way you can please everyone. I think SS like every other stock company is trying to do the best they can based on user feedback. It's all anyone can do right? For me as a designer, I too look for broad topics when I have a creative block. I live in Sacramento CA. and sometime I want to use a local image of something but I don't know what. Searching for "Sacramento" is how I stumble on a real gem that I would have never looked for directly. Point is, as mentioned above it's easier for a designer to narrow their search than it is to add keywords to a file. Now. Don't get me wrong. If there is a photo of a cookie on a plate isolated on white, cmon.... you don't need it there. Environmental images, nature images, parks, beaches, landmarks, etc I think is perfectly acceptable. Seasonal Images just the same. Believe me, Fall in Sacramento looks a lot different than Fall in New York.

Some designers know exactly what they want and perhaps they are the ones that are fussy. Or perhaps the obesity epidemic is spreading to peoples fingers and they are just getting to lazy and don't want to type the words "AND" "OR" "NOT" hehe. just joking guys don't flame me. But on the real. In my opinion it's better to have some extra room in my search than it would be to not find what I am looking for, especially when I wasn't sure what I was looking for in the first place.

choca · Joined: 30 Sep 2005 Posts: 120 Location: Berlin, Germany

Hi Painkiller (what a nick!)

I think you should really add "perú" and "cuzco"
to your Cuzco Photographs.
I mean, that's travel photography, and if somebody wants to do some advertisement of Peru, he won't find your pics.
Let's say, if I take a pic of a meadow, or bricks is not important if I took it in germany, India, America, or France...
But the photos you took it is very essential to add the country and the citys name, cause the city is the main object! (hey, cuzco is not a village!)

Namaste
MAria

whiteway · Joined: 18 Dec 2005 Posts: 5

While my ID is being checked over, I have started keywording a few images, at the same time checking the keywords on photos that are already uploaded just to see how things work.

I noted the recent advice, but I take a lot of natural history photos, and the location needs to be included. Location matters to potential users, too, so I hope that this information will not be disallowed.

Searching might be improved if it was possible to use phrases as well as single words. As far as I can see, '17th century' is not a valid keyword / phrase, although one can get by with '17th-century' - useful if the potential user thinks to include the hyphen. On the other hand, if you are keywording 'Palais de Chaillot', what use is 'de' as a keyword?

Roger Whiteway

GeneralE · Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2005 10:39 pm

You can always put location info in the title/description field rather than the Keyword field if it's really necessary to understanding the photo.

For example, a detail shot of a ship might have keywords like:
Ship
Freighter
Harbor
Cargo
etc.

and a description like

"Closeup of freighter in Boston Harbor"

karimala · Joined: 04 Sep 2005 Posts: 2117 Location: Sacramento, CA

whiteway · Joined: 18 Dec 2005 Posts: 5