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Nomenclature: Categories and Keywords tags


isaac3d

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I have a question about nomenclature; Keywords and Categories are both tags and both can be nested but is there any difference between these tags other than that they are given a different name? For example "Autumn" or "Skiing" could be categories of images, but they could also be keywords assigned to describe images. Is there a functional difference between the tags Categories and Keywords in Daminion?

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Categories are broad & general, high level views that allow the user to easily identify a particular group of images (or documents).

 

Keywords are more specific, low level descriptions, offering a finer view of what an image (or document) might be about.

 

Read the rest of the article

 

Thanks, that (and the full article) helps to set the background for this issue.

 

The statement that an image will have a few category tags and potentially many Keyword tags is an interesting one and raises a problem I have with Keywords though.

 

In the example on your blog you have a picture which has Keywords such as "arches", "architectural" and "architecture".

Now imagine I have a picture of a building to which I apply the Keyword "architecture", and a week later another image of a building to which I apply the Keyword "architectural".

If after another week I want to search for all buildings and use the Keyword "architecture" as a search term, then I will not find the second picture because it's keyword is not exactly the same.

There can be many such examples; "stones" and "pebbles", "clouds" and "cloudy".

Obviously the answer is to be careful about what adjectives are used as keywords and not add a word that is too close to an existing one.

In the interests of not reinventing the wheel, I wonder if there are existing systems for such categorisation.

 

One other point about Keywords;

If Keywords are nested will searching for a specific keyword find the same keyword used in a different nested series?

 

For example;

Two nested series of Keywords might be:

 

Hair: Brown

....: Black

....: Blonde : Dark

...............: Light

.............: Strawberry

....: Red

and

 

Eyes: Blue

....: Brown : Dark

..............: Light

....: Hazel

....: Grey

 

Now if I search for "Brown" I will surely pick up all brown haired and also brown eyed individuals.

So, in Daminion, is there a way to search for a nested Keyword such as "Hair: Brown: Dark" to pick only individuals with dark brown hair?

Or should the above two examples actually be nested Categories rather than Keywords?

Or should I make Keywords more specific like "Light Brown Hair" and "Dark Brown Hair".... this seems clumsy!

 

It may be in the end that the choice of how to define/use categories and keywords depends on what kind of searches are going to be done.

 

It seems to me that when starting out to catalog a large collection it makes sense to plan out what will be a category and what will be a keyword.

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...

In the interests of not reinventing the wheel, I wonder if there are existing systems for such categorisation.

 

This feature/term will be called Synonyms.

A think about the best way to implement tag synonyms during for a past few weeks.

 

I agree that you need to enter a word like Car just once and other synonyms like:

automobile, automobiles, cars, motor vehicle, motor vehicles should be added (or suggested to be added).

 

Another questions is do you really need to spend your time to fill this dictionary of synonyms manually or use

an Online Synonyms Dictionary as a base dictionary. I found a smart tool a few days ago that might helps to describe the images and it works as a plugin (LR is supported only at the moment).

 

Or may be it's not necessary to add synonyms to images but use them during the search only?

 

Anyway these are just thoughts and I guess we will come to a convenient decision with implementing tag synonyms soon.

 

 

This is a question of What

 

One other point about Keywords;

If Keywords are nested will searching for a specific keyword find the same keyword used in a different nested series?

 

For example;

Two nested series of Keywords might be:

 

Hair: Brown

....: Black

....: Blonde : Dark

...............: Light

.............: Strawberry

....: Red

and

 

Eyes: Blue

....: Brown : Dark

..............: Light

....: Hazel

....: Grey

 

Now if I search for "Brown" I will surely pick up all brown haired and also brown eyed individuals.

So, in Daminion, is there a way to search for a nested Keyword such as "Hair: Brown: Dark" to pick only individuals with dark brown hair?

 

 

Yes, it's possible:

To locate all the images with Brown tag just type in the "brown" word on the quick search text box.

To locate all the images with Hair: Brown: Dark navigate to this tag on the Categories Panel, and check it by mouse.

Now you can see the only images with Hair: Brown: Dark. Then click on the Advanced button. You will see that the Advanced search window were auto-populated according to the current tag selection:

2011-11-08_101458.gif

 

So you can use just a certain tag (contains) or a full path (matches) to a tag (with parent tags) for searching.

 

Or should the above two examples actually be nested Categories rather than Keywords?

 

I guess Hair and Eyes describe details of a picture so it will be better to belong them to the Keywords by my opinion.

 

 

Or should I make Keywords more specific like "Light Brown Hair" and "Dark Brown Hair".... this seems clumsy!

 

This job will be done for you by Daminion. If you will have an image with a tag Hair : Blonde : Light then the program will store it in the file metadata as Hair|Blonde|Light.

 

Another reason to separate items: what if you need to locate just Hair or Hair : Blonde?

 

It may be in the end that the choice of how to define/use categories and keywords depends on what kind of searches are going to be done.

 

I guess micro photo stocks have the best experience here. You can construct your own category structure based on, for example, Fotolia Categories.

 

 

 

It seems to me that when starting out to catalog a large collection it makes sense to plan out what will be a category and what will be a keyword.

 

I guess that the number of Categories should be limited and it's better to have some predefined set of hierarchical categories (that could be expanded later). On the other side the amount of keywords are endless, so it's better to add them when you need to add them.

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Lots to think about here.

I was interested by the notion of a program to generate Keywords. This is of course the alternative strategy; just saturate every image with hopefully relevant Keywords. I can imagine that this is very useful for a person unfamiliar with the content of the collection and is looking to see if there are any images which match what (s)he has in mind. However, if I'm trying to find that particular landscape/nature shot I took a couple years ago... the one with the sun catching that lovely flower just so... Then Keywords like "field", "sun" and "flower" might find hundreds or even thousands of images.

I'm undecided what is the best approach for a collection of personal (as opposed to available on a website)images. Is it better to saturate with Keywords or keep them really restricted and very relevant? Either way presents some problems.

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  • 9 months later...

Hi Mammut,

 

Just discussed with David Rieck, a creator of http://controlledvocabulary.com web-site, about creating a special version of his Controlled Vocabulary (CV) for Daminion. Synonims is a significant part of this CV, and I guess we can incorporate it in the future. But not in the near 3-4 months because our closest roadmap grid is full.

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Hi Murat,

 

it sounds good! In my Lightroom days I created my first own hierarchical keyword structure according to a sample from their site. :) Of course mainly with my own terms (and with dictionary like synonyms).

 

3-4 months is not so long. I'm waiting now for the Custom Tags anyway. :)

 

Thanks and Regards,

mammut

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  • 1 year later...
  • 3 weeks later...

However, if I'm trying to find that particular landscape/nature shot I took a couple years ago... the one with the sun catching that lovely flower just so... Then Keywords like "field", "sun" and "flower" might find hundreds or even thousands of images.

I'm undecided what is the best approach for a collection of personal (as opposed to available on a website)images. Is it better to saturate with Keywords or keep them really restricted and very relevant? Either way presents some problems.

 

I wonder if such a photo might be a candidate for a star rating or even a color code. Or perhaps you could create a tag called "Special".

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