The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers

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Chapter 2, Metadata

generate when you rate, assign keywords to, and group image files so that

you can find them quickly when you’re searching. Typically, this informa-

tion takes longer to assign because it is part of a more complex evaluation

process. In the next section, we’ll take a closer look at these higher levels of

metadata information.

Applying Ratings, Keywords, and Groupings

Ratings, keywords, and groupings are different categories of evaluation that

can be cross-referenced with each other to narrow down your searches to

a small number of likely results. For example, if you are looking for “good

pictures of Josie” for some purpose, your work assigning ratings, keywords,

and groupings can be very helpful.

If you use a comprehensive rating system, the concept of “good” can be

defined by the rating (e.g., “search all three-star or better images”). The

term “Josie,” if it appears in the keywords, enables you to search through

only those images that have something to do with Josie. If you have saved

previous groupings of “good pictures of Josie”—images used in a birthday

slideshow, for instance—you can narrow your search even further. Let’s

examine these tools a little more closely.

Tagging Images for Quality: The Ratings Pyramid

Figure 2-6 shows one visual representation of a collection of images. As

you can see, if the images were not organized in any way it would be very

difficult to find the particular one that you were searching for—a bit like

looking for a needle in a haystack.

Ratings, Keywords, and Groupings

Figure 2-6. Finding a specific image in an unorganized collection is like looking for a needle in a

haystack.

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36

Digital Asset Management

As you can see in Figure 2-7, that haystack becomes a lot easier to search if

it is divided into sections. By making broad classifications of subject matter

(the vertical lines) and adding ratings (the horizontal divisions), you can

more easily find what you are looking for. You can, for instance, search just

your best images (at the top of the pyramid) for a particular photo. If you

find something that’s close to but not exactly what you want, you can follow

that thread downward to see if there is a more appropriate image included

in that subject-matter group.

The most basic component of higher metadata is the rating. Rating is the

evaluation of images based on relative quality. This is what you do when

you look through a group of images and indicate that some are better than

others.

As you rate your images, you are assigning a higher value to better pictures,

and you are making it easier to find the high-value images within the groups

at a later date. Rating an image as superior will make it much easier to pick

it out from amongst its more ordinary brethren during a search.

In general, when you are searching for images, you will first want to look

through pictures with the highest rating. If you are unable to find a suitable

image among those, you can move down the pyramid, broadening your

search to include images with the next-highest rating, and so on. By using

ratings this way, you can instantly reduce the size of the haystack you are

looking through in order to find your needle.

In addition, rating your images will help you ensure that you spend more

production time on your highest-quality images and less time on images that

Ratings, Keywords, and Groupings

Figure 2-7. Dividing up the haystack allows you to more easily pinpoint the image you’re looking for.

5 star

4 star

3 star

2 star

1 star

Neutral

Job A

Job B

Job C

All jobs

All personal

Family vacation

Home life

Personal project 1

Personal project 2

Outtakes

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