My Digital Photo Organization: Principle 5 – Add Metadata

Intro: This post is #5 is a series I am writing about my digital photo/file organization processes. In previous posts, I covered 1) how I gather my photos into one place, 2) how I name my files, 3) how I backup my digital photos, and 4) how I establish a structure for my files. Here, I share why metadata is important to me and how it can help you create a robust, searchable, and browseable digital photo collection.

I love talking about metadata because it truly is the backbone for a robust organization system of your digital image collection. My #1 priority in choosing a photo organization software relates to how it handles metadata.

What is Metadata? Metadata refers to information ABOUT the photo – all the things that describe it and help identify it. Much like how a library catalog record describes a book so that you know what it is about. Some metadata is automatically added by a smartphone and/or digital camera and/or scanner when you capture a picture and some metadata can be manually added and/or edited by you.

I ALWAYS add metadata to my photos and if a photo organizing program cannot meet two basic requirements I would not use it. My personal requirements are:

• #1 – all the work that I do to describe my pictures must be exportable so that my work is not lost should I decide to stop using that program. Wouldn’t it be unfortunate to spend hours adding metadata only to have it for naught if a switch in software programs is made? It would just be tragic to me.
• #2 – upon export, the metadata should be applied in a way that meets industry standards. There are standards for photo metadata that have been around for decades. Every photo organization software program makes its own decisions on how much they will follow those standards. I like using photo management programs that adhere well to industry standards.

Anytime I start learning more about a photo organization program I consider those two requirements first.
You may wonder — what’s the big deal about metadata and why does it matter? Here is why it matters to me.

What does metadata do? When you add metadata, it makes it easier to find any specific photo in your collection because you can search by words that you have included in the description you write. There are many possible fields of metadata you could add and I have personally chosen to limit myself to just a few primary fields. The ones I most often manually add or edit are:

• File name – as I’ve posted about before, I have a specific way I name my digital files.
• Description – a narrative summary of what the photo is about; I usually try to focus on the who, what, where, when, and why.
• Date – extremely useful for getting your photos in chronological order. Pictures taken nowadays with smartphones and digital cameras have it automatically. For older pictures that I scan, I add it manually – even if it’s just an estimate. The file naming conventions I use allow me to have a structure even for “approximate” dates.
• Keywords – usually either single words (e.g., “Weddings”) or short phrases (e.g., “Health and Fitness”) you can put on your photo. As a genealogist, I also use keywords to label family members (e.g., “Martha (Walker) McNair”, “Barfield Koonce”). An important tip when applying keywords is to come up with a list that you choose from and use over and over again. Your list can evolve over time, but consistency is key. If you choose the label “Weddings” – always use it and not the variant “Wedding.” Picking keywords involves some planning as you get started.

I use Forever as the main component of my photo organization systems. It unequivocally meets my 2 stated criteria above and has many features that make photo management and long-term preservation a breeze. I’ve written previously about why I chose it. Below, is an example picture from my collection in my Forever account that shows some example metadata.
I have named the file, added a description, specified a date (it is approximate), and added tags (aka keywords). Note – you will want to read the description of this photo. It’s a perfect example of telling the story behind our photos and involves me as part of it 😮!

I like to think about it this way – writing descriptions helps you in searching across your collection as you will be able to enter any word that you have in your description and find your photo. If I am looking for the above picture of my mother, I could search for the words “farewell”, “pregnant,” or “womb” as these are all words that appear in the description and I’d get right to it. And of course, writing a description provides the opportunity to tell the story.

Keywords are great because they help not only when you search your collection, but they also help in browsing your collection. In my photo management program, I can select the keyword “Work,” one of the keywords I have on the above photo, and see every photo I have tagged “Work.” All of these pictures relate to the work environment for me and/or members of my family. Using the tag would help me avoid photos I may have where the description includes a phrase such as “my daughter works on her latest art project.” Using the word “work” in that context is different than pictures relevant to an employment/work environment. I like being able to make these types of distinctions.

Think about a site like Amazon – you can both search and browse it. For example, you can search for a specific item, like “external hard drive 2tb”, or you can select “Shop by Category” to navigate your way to the “External Hard Drives and Storage” category and then browse them all. Isn’t it cool and powerful to have BOTH options available to you? That is precisely what happens when you use metadata such as descriptions and keywords when organizing your own digital images; you get added power and value in your collection. To quote Phoebe Judge, the host of “Criminal“, a podcast I’ve been listening to a lot of lately, “I think that’s smart.”

Given all this, my professional background (i.e., my day job) is in information science & organization. I probably tend to geek out a bit more on this stuff than the average person. However, if I could offer one piece of advice when it comes to organizing your photos with metadata it would be to at least get the dates and the descriptions in – that alone will give you great power in finding exactly what you want in your digital collection.

Applying metadata can be done in many different ways and by many different programs. However, they are not all equal. In an upcoming post, I’ll share tips for how to differentiate between programs that implement metadata standards and those that do not.

Meanwhile, if you want to apply metadata to your photos and would like some help establishing a plan – contact me & let me know!