Joseph - I would like to elaborate on my question regarding a keywording strategy. I have developed my strategy around 5 W's for top level hierarchy (Who, What, Where, When, Why, and sometimes How) which seems ok and I am curious about what you have seen work well for you and other pros. Also, does it make sense to include names and places (city, country, etc.) in keywords since Aperture tracks that in Faces and Places?
Hello Steve,
Joseph did cover some keyword tips in his last Live Training Session 006!
My work flow goes as this:
I try to get as many general keywords as I can entered on import. These are usually general location, activity, and maybe gear.
I then use the control bar to add in the keywords. I select as many photos as I can that all fall into that keyword. I use the browser view to select the pictures. I don’t go
overboard in my selection. Maybe 25 pictures max at a time.
Once you get a library of keywords that you like, the control bar will autocomplete for you. If you do end up messing up the key words, you can batch remove keywords by typing it into to control bar and using shift + enter to complete the delete. The trick is that you have to wait until Aperture either autocompletes the word or you have it highlighted.
I haven’t found a faster way yet. You could also use a custom keyword stash on the control bar, and then assign them to hotkeys. I haven’t figured out a standard set of keywords either. I try to be somewhat descriptive, so that it is easier for me to search for something specific.
Leo,
Honestly it depends entirely on your need for keywords. If you shoot stock, then you live and die by keywords, and there are loads of resources out there on how to do that well (I’m definitely not the guy for that!). Personally, I used to keyword like a fiend, and then it just got to be too much trouble. I ensure that my projects are named in a way that I can find them by event, and that I attach location data to them all on import so I can find them by location.
I love Places, and use it, but can’t rely on it because I don’t always get around to tagging things.
I love the idea of Faces, but until it’s about 100x as fast and accurate, I’ve turned it off.
The one thing I do usually keyword is people. Again I’m lax at this, and really need to be better, but it just takes TIME!! Something we’re all short of. I like to keyword people in my shots and even then, really, it’s just for personal stuff. If I can search through ten years of photos for pictures of my kids, that’s wonderful. Photos of a client? Not so much… I can find them by searching for their job number or name and scrubbing through the project. It’s less time for me to do that when needed than to keyword the hell out of my images in case it’s needed. Make sense?
I also stopped using hierarchical keywords because I kept getting duplicates as I moved projects from one library to another. Well, in truth, I haven’t gotten around to flattening them all yet, but really, one day, I will. I promise.
-Joseph @ApertureExpert
@PhotoJoseph
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Steve,
Nick’s right… I hit on keywords in Live Training 006. I somehow missed that in my previous sessions, where it belonged. Hmm maybe I should just do a dedicated Live Training on that.
-Joseph @ApertureExpert
@PhotoJoseph
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Good advice all, thanks.
Steve
Joseph, After participating in and then downloading Live Training 006, I created my own set of Keywords, just like you showed us. I want to create a shortcut to the set but it does not show up when I click on Commands>Customize. Is there a way to customize a shortcut to this group of keyword that I created?
Florian
Florian Cortese
www.fotosbyflorian.com
Florian,
A shortcut to select the set? No way to do it I’m afraid.
-Joseph @ApertureExpert
@PhotoJoseph
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Joseph, turns out I may not need it. Once I have selected the keyword set it keep showing up every time I open Aperture. I’ve tried doing an import and it appears there. so I guess Aperture remembers and keeps it at the bottom for me to use! Hope it stays this way.
Florian
Florian Cortese
www.fotosbyflorian.com
Leo’s question prompted one of my own about Keywords … and since Joseph is not planning to cover this in tomorrows training, I’ll ask it here: How do you work with Keywords (assign/ edit/ search for photos via Keyword)?
I’ve had a trawl through the A3 User Guide tonight and have found more methods of applying them than I knew about:
i. Drag & drop from the Keywords HUD (this is what I’ve been doing).
ii. Applying on import (meaning you have had to have thought about Keywords before you view the images, and want to apply one or more keywords to all of the images - quite macro).
iii. Manually, by typing in the Metadata pane of the Inspector (tedious).
iv. Using Keyword controls in the Control Bar that holds up to 20 keywords (press D for Control Bar; shift D to toggle Keyword controls on/off). Hey - you can use Option 1-8 to keystroke assign them, and shift-click a button to remove the Keyword. A discovery!
v. And finally, copying Keywords applied to an image to another image using the Lift & Stamp HUD.
And then the searching/ using bit is as per http://www.apertureexpert.com/forum-user/post/1220319#post1222068.
So, what method works for you to assign Keywords? All involve an element of effort!
Regards
Steve
Florian,
I just noticed that you can set up a keyboard shortcut to select the next/previous group. There’s actually already shortcuts assigned to it. Check it here: [screenshot]
-Joseph @ApertureExpert
@PhotoJoseph
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Florian,
Good stuff. That’s what we call “sticky”, meaning it’s still there after a re-launch. We like sticky features ;-)
-Joseph @ApertureExpert
@PhotoJoseph
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