Metadata pros and cons

[Pixl8tor]

Do you add additional metadata to your images?
If yes, can you tell us what and why you add?
If no, do you have reasons why you don't?
I'm trying to determine if it is worth my while.
Thanks for your imput

[Shadowman]

Metadata is useful when transferring data digitally, it can provide capture settings that would otherwise be lost; however it can be stripped when certain software packages are used. I find it useful when analyzing images uploaded for critique; especially if the uploader has questions about focusing/ image softness, lens quality, otherwise I have to rely on the uploader providing camera settings which sometimes they may not remember.

[Manfred M]

The only thing I add is my copyright information. If I were selling my images I would definitely add my business information and keywords for search engine use.

[Pixl8tor]

Thanks John,
I was thinking more about additional information like, location, event, category etc.
Bill

[Shadowman]

Thanks John,
I was thinking more about additional information like, location, event, category etc.
Bill

Bill,

Sounds more like you are thinking about GPS, tagging, comments. Still useful but may only be relevant to you, you could also catalog folders etc.

[Manfred M]

Bill,

Sounds more like you are thinking about GPS, tagging, comments. Still useful but may only be relevant to you, you could also catalog folders etc.

John - it's a LOT more than that. Have a look at the IPTC standards handbook. It is data attached for professional licencing as well as driving keywords used by search engines. As I suggested in #3, this is very much associated with commercial images.



http://www.iptc.org/std/photometadat...ion/userguide/


http://www.useplus.com/index.asp?

[Geoff F]

I include the GPS data on most images plus anything which may be of interest in the future. In particular, with my wildlife images I add location, species and date plus anything else of interest. Then repeat the location, species and month as keywords so I can easily find images of a particular species or location when I need to retrieve that information. At the end of the year I collate my wildlife photos into a file for each location and give a copy to the wildlife group which manages each area.

Keywords make that task much easier.

Other information may include a list of names for any known people in a shot or anything which is relevant but I probably won't remember it in a few years time.

I do a lot of work for my local history society, such as scanning old images, and often think it would have been wonderful if the Victorians and Edwardians had been able to record this information; so now we wouldn't just be recording images of unknown people. Occasionally someone wrote some information on the back of an image, but not very often.

[Mike Buckley]

Based on a survey that was conducted in the forum dedicated to using my cataloging software, I tag my images with a lot more keywords than what most people do. That's mostly because I enjoy creating slide shows. So, as an example, I may want to create a collection of images made in a horizontal orientation that are colorful, that display a circular shape and are rated with five stars. It's really easy to search for all images that have all of those characteristics.

I also add copyright information and minimal contact information. When the image is a studio shot, I'll add the description of the setup so I can refer to it later when making a photo with similar challenges and appearance. I also add information about a subject that has sentimental value, such as the pertinent information relating to a bottle of wine, which would include perhaps who gave it to us, the special occasion that we drank it, who we drank it with and even the food we paired with it.

About deciding whether cataloging images is worth the time, I always recommend that anyone who can always quickly find whatever images they are looking for when using a system of physical folders has no need for a catalog.

Fortunately, the process of cataloging my images is every bit as enjoyable to me as the process of capturing and post-processing them. So, I would add that if you also enjoy doing it, you may need no other justification.

Because all of my images are so carefully catalogued, I frequently use my catalog to answer questions my wife and I have because I know my catalog makes it possible to come up with the answers in only a matter of seconds. As an example, we might see on television a waterfall in Iceland we've been to and can't remember its name. I'll quickly conduct a search of my catalog of all waterfalls in Iceland, find the pertinent waterfall and look up its name in the metadata. As another example, just yesterday we saw a photo on television of a person at the base of a giant Sequoia tree. I remembered making a similar photo and was just curious to see how similar it is. I conducted a search of all images of a giant Sequoia tree and seconds later realized that my image really isn't all that similar. That's something I would never take the time to look up if I didn't have my images so carefully cataloged.

[Shadowman]

So Bill wanted to also know if there were any cons, I would think photos of personal property might also reveal its location and also if images were uploaded to the cloud give others precise times of your actual location.

[Manfred M]

So Bill wanted to also know if there were any cons, I would think photos of personal property might also reveal its location and also if images were uploaded to the cloud give others precise times of your actual location.

Which is why I do not add the personal contact information to the metadata. I don't want people to find me.

If I were a business and had a business address, phone number, email address, website, etc and wanted to be found (so someone could buy my services or buy my work), I would add this information.

[Mike Buckley]

People who feel concerned about providing information they don't want the public to know would consider using only the first name of people, especially children. Naturally, any such information could be eliminated. Another alternative is to use cataloging software that allows you to store a tag at your discretion only in the catalog; it is never embedded in the physical image file. That method makes it possible for the user to look up information that others can't look up.