Lightroom Keyword List Project

2016-02-22T19:00:00.000+02:00

Keyword list hits version 2.0

Give enough time and things will change. And it sure took more than enough time, but changes have arrived for the project. As I posted a few days ago, there have been some rather big updates in the lists, as well as in the blog itself.

First, about the lists...

The lists are now separated in to two main categories: The general list and the specialized ones.

The general list, which is basically the foundation list, has beed restructured to assist the user to tag appropriately his images. The new structure guides the user by having all the keywords divided in 5 distinct categories. For the most basic keywording process, simply try to provide an asnwer to each one of the parent categories. By giving a "who", "what" and "where" asnwer, you already have a good basis, and by adding "attributes" and "photography" related terms, you can achieve having a solid set of at least the most important keywords, added to your photos.

The new structure of the Foundation list

The specialiszed lists, have not been updated, but rather grouped together, to differentiate them from the general list. I understand that there are users who will want to use them. Feel free to check them out and see if they somehow fit in your photographic subject matter. But otherwise, the foundation list should be more than adequate.

The blog...

To help with the use and adoption of the lists, I did some clean up to the main blog pages.

A useful user guide, asnwering most of the common questions one might have can be found in the new FAQ page. I added screenshots where possible and things should be rather straight forward. If you do feel that anything has been left out though, you can let me know in the comments.

Get the List, will take you to the page where the lists are sorted and available for download.

The project has always been and remains completely free. This is best described in the License page, where you may find further information on how you may use the content provided here, for your own purposes.

So...

this pretty much sums things up. I would like to believe that all the changes have been for the better, as the project is more coherent and mature now, both in what it offers and on how it brings the information forward for the user.

As usual, if you do try things out and find some hiccups here and here, please let me know in the comments.

Till next time...

2016-02-10T23:06:00.001+02:00

Just a heads up. The foundation list has now reached version 2.0. The file has been uploaded and you can get it from the usual place.

However, details regarding the changes will be available as soon as time permits.

Cheers.

Some restructuring and an update

2016-02-08T22:52:00.000+02:00

Update: A small bump to the version of the foundation list. I just replaced the "#" system with a "~" at the beggining of the keywords. Makes typing easier and mistakes are avoided.

Housekeeping was long overdue, but I finally managed to make some time for it. Let's see...

The Foundation List

There have been some minor changes in the Foundation List. I think that the new version, is more streamlined and cleaner than the previous one. Some stuff have been merged from separate lists, while some categories which were basically blank in the past now include generic entries. Basic colour keywords added, some rather common animals and stuff like that.

Finally, some spellchecking corrections were made and some keywords were re-structured and now belong to different categories.

Download the latest version (1.5)

Foundation List 1.5 has a simplified structure

Specialised Lists

Basically, the project now offers two types of downloads. One general list (named the Foundation list) and some specialized ones (bird species, colours, etc). The two are not meant to be used together, at least not right out of the box. But I am more than certain that for 9 out of 10 people, that will not be an issue.

The user guide has been updated to reflect those changes, so do take a look there for more thorough explanation of the tweaks and how they might affect you.

And some things cancelled...

I was planning on releasing a Location list (at some point in my life at least...), but the truth is that ever since Lightroom introduced the map module, this seemed to be redundant. So, despite having done some work on that front, I decided not to waste any more time on that.

Regarding Downloads...

2013-12-31T13:27:00.002+02:00

I have been getting requests through mail from people to share the lists with them.

The Google Drive permissions for the .zip files have been set so, that you can download them at your will. No need to change any settings and no need for you not to get the list.

Remember, you are not supposed to edit it within Drive. Just download it and use it as you will, from your pc.

If, however, you are experiencing difficulties, perhaps the unicorn broke the Web again. Let me know in the comments below and I will talk to the Elders of the Internet and see if they can mend it.

Happy New Year to all :)

Some issues...

2013-12-29T19:36:00.001+02:00

Seems that some of the comments can not be accessed since I switched the G+ comments system on.

Will try to see if I can bring them back. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Update:

Looks like I can not access the missing comments. If you have been affected by this, the only way I can see to restore communication, is to post your comments again. Sorry folks.

Birds 2.0

2013-12-27T14:33:00.002+02:00

After a long time, the project does have something new to offer. Although it may not appeal to every photographer, it will probably excite snappers who are into nature photography and birding.

For some time now a list with bird names was provided. This, was created through harvesting various wikipedia artciles and although quite large, it was far from complete, or even correctly structured. However, at the time it was the best that could be offered, since I lacked both the time and knowledge to improve it.

Some time ago, IOC (International Ornithological Committee) released their work on birds species, under a Creative Commons licence. I considered this as a great opportunity to create an extensive and far more well built list, than I could ever have done on my own.

Appending the new entries into the existing one was simply impossible. Therefore, I decided to create the new one from scratch. The resulting file is a derivative of the Master File, as it is provided by IOC. I did remove some entries based on practical criterias. The subspecies have been removed to make things more manageable and a few entries belonging to "Uncertain Families" were left out.

Fast forward a few months and the list that you can get today (Birds By Common Name 2.0), includes no less than:

40 bird orders
230 bird families
10.456 bird species

So, if you feel like you have nothing to shoot, here is a project for you to keep you busy. In fact, here are 10.456 projects, if you are up to it.......

'Till next time.

Photo by George Koklas CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

Body Parts Keyword List

2012-12-09T21:24:00.000+02:00

Body Parts

Update: The Body Parts list has been merged with the Foundation List

A small addition to the keyword lists offered so far, for us Lightroom users.

Today I am releasing a small list which includes keywords regarding human, animal, insect and plant parts. The list counts 81 keywords, including synonyms. Although not a huge addition, these keywords had gone _MIA_ when the Foundation list was originally released, so thought it was about time I fixed that.

Although this list is more like a patch for the Foundation List, it will be available as a separate link. If you do decide that you want to download it and you are using the Structured List workflow, simply add it as a Top Level keyword section, along the other Foundation List sections.

In other news...

As I have shifted to a Hybrid List workflow approach, I have discovered more than a few "holes" in the lists. I have been patching, fixing and adding keywords. However, it will be simply impossible for me to track the changes back to the Structured form lists.

Therefore, I am considering to make available my Hybrid List of keywords and keep on developing that from now on.

What does that mean for you? It means that the Structured forms on the blog, will still be available for you to download, as always. New and existing lists will be introduced and updated in the future. However, the Foundation List, will most likely have to enter a complete freeze state, simply because it is impossible for me to keep it updated. You can get it as it is, if you want, but the Hybrid List will be the one getting any future updates.

Till next time...

Download the Body Parts List

Canidae Keyword List

2012-11-25T13:18:00.003+02:00

New Release

We 've got birds. We 've got cats. It only seemed fair that I 'd throw a few puppies and relatives in the mix, don't you think?

After popular demand (hmmm...) I added to the downloads section, a list containing keywords that include wolves, jackals, foxes, domestic dog breeds and the likes of them. As it stands, the list contains no less than 583 keywords, including synonyms.

If you have adopted the structured keyword list form, you should nest the canidae list under:

Animals --> mammals --> canidae

If not, then I am sure you already have figured a different workflow for yourselves and already know what you are doing ;)

News and Progress Updates

On other news, I would like to share with you that I have adopted a hybrid style for my keyword structures. Like I have told so many times before, there are no rights and wrongs when it comes to workflow. Just what works best for you.

Also by doing so, I managed to find some gaps in the keywords offered in the foundation list. I should probably release a patch for it, but at the moment it only a handful of keywords and I am more than sure you will be able to figure it out yourselves.

The next release will most likely be a location list for the United States, in the form of:

Continent --> Country --> State --> City

Finally, I have composed a small list of body parts (animal, human, plants, etc) that are currently missing from the foundation list. This small patch should be out by next week, but don't take my word for it ;)

Till next time, keep adding those keywords!

Efficient Keyword Techniques: Part 3

2012-11-18T14:11:00.001+02:00

A while ago, we discussed the main two methods to deploy and use your keywords within Lightroom. The Flat list vs Hierarchical Structure. We saw the advantages and disadvantages of each method and how you could implemented them in your workflow.

So you probably went ahead and made a choice over these two. But what if you tried them both decided that none of them was just right for you? What would you do then? Give up on adding keywords? Hardly...

The truth is that there is a third option when it comes to planning your keyword approach in Lightroom. One that may not be a pure method but it does use the best of both worlds.

Welcome to the Hybrid List.

The idea is that while you appreciate the pros that nesting and categorizing your keywords provides to you, you simply do not have the time, want, or care to go through that process, for every single word in your list. On the other hand, neither can you stand the mess that a flat list brings with. The truth is that some keywords may be worth more when used in hierarchies, while others may only slow you down, trying to sort them out.

In pure photographic fashion, lets see if we can find the Golden Section for this problem. An idea I have been playing with lately, would be to keep Names separated from Plain Keywords. For example, you could have hierarchies in which you kept stored your model names, friends, relatives etc. I do not think that looking for Chris next to car would be much of a help to you. But if you kept Chris with John, Angie and Peter, sand-boxed away from sword, child, laugh and kiss, you would make your life that much easier.

Names of course do not apply only to people. Species names should be kept in separate hierarchies too. Your animals list with birds, cats, dogs and so on, should live in a different world from the rest of the keywords.

And what about the rest of the keywords? Well, this is where the hybrid fusion happens. Add a Top Level category i.e. Normal Keywords, or something like that and throw in anything that is not a Name, in there. This will have the speed and benefits of the flat list, while taking out some of the frustration of going flat all the way.

Hybrid Structure Sample

You will be able to add new keywords on the fly, without really worrying about planning ahead, choosing categories and making sure there are no conflicts. The Hybrid solution only requires that you keep Names (Species, Person, etc) distinctly separated in hierarchies and anything else in flat category.

Although the project does provide the Lists in a complete hierarchical fashion, there is nothing stopping you from re-shaping the lists and converting them to a hybrid form. Hierarchies do allow for easier developing and sharing for the project. I have to admit though, that while working within Lightroom, the Hybrid approach is simply too easy and intuitive to ignore.

If neither Flat nor Hierarchical Structures cut it for you, then perhaps it is time to try merging them and see if it does the trick for you.

Till next time...

What would you like to have next?

2012-11-14T20:52:00.000+02:00

Although the nature of this blog does not guarantee frequent posts and interaction, I like to make some sparkles of communication now and then, just to make sure you guys know the project is still here.

First of all a small progress update. All the lists are finished. Work done. Thanks everyone and so long!!! Nah, just messing with you people ;)

Progress has slowed down a bit, due to free time getting limited dramatically over the past few weeks. What does that mean? Well, not much. Just that future updates will probably take longer to get released, that is all.

Currently, I am adding synonyms to the Birds List, primarily because it does not require any further planning and, although tedious and repetitive, it has to be done, as far as I am concerned. However, I am not quite sure where I want to go next. Let me rephrase that. I know where I do not want to go. I do not want to do plants / flowers / trees because frankly I haven't been able to figure out how to make use of the available info on the web yet.

So I have been thinking that instead of creating any random list, I would ask for your opinion on the matter? What list of keywords could you use? Where would you like the project to focus its efforts next?

Share your ideas and hopefully I will be able to start working on some of them.

ps If you know flowers and trees, let me know, I could use some hints. Really!

Foundation Keyword List is out

2012-10-09T01:26:00.000+03:00

Time to break the radio silence everyone!!!

It is with great pleasure that I give to you the Foundation List ver 1.0!!!

The list contains no less than 1592 keywords, including synonyms. And if you add to that, the other lists that are available through this project (birds alone are near 4000 keywords), I think we are doing pretty well overall ;)

What can you find in the Foundation List? Well, the Top Level Categories, so far, are:

Animal
Land
Water
Thoroughfare
Transportation
Concept
Element
Event
Time
People
Photography
Natural Phenomenon
Celestial Body
Structures & Architecture
Material
Art
Object
Age
Gender
Number
Sport
Action
Profession

There are one or two things that you need to know for the structure and notation used throughout the list however, so I suggest you jump to our brief guide, before start tagging your photos. Nothing fancy or difficult. Just want to make sure we are all on the same page ;)

What is also important to know is that the Foundation List is the basis, as the name suggests, on which all the other major lists can be bolted on to. In example, the Birds List is a separate list, which you may, or may not want to add to the Foundation List. Adding and removing stuff to your liking is really easy. That said, the more you add, the more solid and complete your Foundation List will become ;)

Are we done though? Of course not! There are many things coming in the future. Most of the updates, if not all, will work through the modular form of the list, so it should be relatively easy to update later on. What we would like to add next, are:

Food & Drinks
Location
Way more of our friends from the animal kingdom
Flowers & Trees

and many, many more....!!!

As always, your feedback is important for the project. So, download the text files, import them into Lightroom and see how it works for you. If you have any usability suggestions, any problems, or if you stumble across errors and mistakes, please do let me know.

Without further delay, hit the links and grab it while it is hot people!!!

Download the Lists

Update:

I have uploaded version 1.0.1, which is mostly some minor error corrections. Also minor updates to the other lists have been made, to conform with the new process, introduced in the Foundation List (hashtags, etc).

Work Progress on Keyword Lists

2012-09-26T00:08:00.001+03:00

The past few weeks I have splitted myself among various tasks. Not the best approach, but writing endless keywords, after keywords, after keywords, on the same subject, is not exactly the best way to have fun ;)

So, a small catch-up post really, just to let you know what I 've been up to and assure you that we are alive and on track!

The Birds List is progressing. Slowly, but it is. I am working on what I call Version 1.2 beta, which is my development version and you will not find availabe online. Of course, if you want to take a peak I would be more than happy to share. The work involves some cleaning up on minor mistakes of version 1.1 and mainly adding the synonyms to each bird name.

So far, I have completed 12% of the list, give or take. The scientific name is always included and also any other name that may be available on Wikipedia. I am sure that most of you will want this version over the one that is already available on the download section. However, I can't really say anything more than that it will be ready when it will be ready. If you are too anxious though, to have the thing done, you can always work along with me on your free time. Even 10 birds per day would be a great help to the project, so think about it!

The Natural Formations List is pretty much finished. However, there is still some checking that needs to be done, so I am not pulling the "preview only" label just yet.

The Foundation List has been reshaped to mirror the changes and advancements of the other lists. It acts as a tracker for what has been done so far and provides clues for the proper addition of the external keyword lists. Moreover, I have added some keyowrds there, that will probably get exported at the later stages. Right now I have added "thoroughfares" and "transportation". Of course keep in mind that at the moment this is not for every day consumption and should be considered as a preview only.

As the project progresses, it becomes more and more obvious that there are keywords that one can not simply nest under a category. Birds, mammals, buildings may be quite straightforward. They do require time and effort but you really know where a cat or an eagle belong in a hierarchy. That said, there are keywords that are not that easy to catalogue. Where does a wooden log belong? What about a pencil? Oh wait, I have a photo with bubbles! What about that? And don't forget that hook.......

See what I mean? If I asked ten people about the aforementioned keywords, I would probably end up with 10 different answers. And most likely, 70%-80% of them, would have second thoughts about their asnwers. Right now, I am inclined to throw everything under a "things" category and be done with them. But I am positive that there has to be a better answer. I just haven't figured it out yet. That is where you guys (and gals) come in. That is the pivotal point, at which you can help the project.

What is really important to me is to get some feedback from you. I need your proposals, suggestions and opinions on whatever you may think that needs to be re-designed or added to the mix. Even if you do not use the lists for yourselves, your help could prove of great value for the project. So, if you do have some spare time, take a look at the lists and let me know what you would change or what else would you like to see there!

Till next time...

Felines Keyword List

2012-09-21T21:22:00.001+03:00

One more post, one more list. Today I have added to the download section of the blog a keyword list for all your felidae needs. I am sure that your Lightroom catalogues are stuffed with furry cat photos, so it may be useful to you ;)

From the modest Aegean Cat to the fast Cheetah and the mighty Puma, this list has them all. At least I hope it does! The count is about 240 keywords give or take, including most of the synonyms available for each breed and species.

I am having a really hard time finding a consistent recipe, when it comes to species and upper case letters. The approach I chose to follow is similar to that of the "Birds" list:

Every keyword starts with lower case letter ie feline
If a breed / species keyword describes a family, it starts with a lower case letter ie lion
If a keyword refers to the name of a specific animal type, it starts with upper case ie Aegean Cat

Now, I know that some of you might agree, while others will not. However, I have to figure out a way to keep things within certain rules and this is one way that personally suits me. That said, if you feel this is too much for you to bear, you can simply download the list and change the case of the letters in Excel or Word to your liking.

So waste no more time. Hit the links and tag those trouble making paws right away!

ps Let me know if the domestic cat breeds should have the term "cat" at the end or not ie American Bobtail Cat

Not Jaguars...

Efficient Keyword Techniques - Part 2

2012-09-16T22:00:00.000+03:00

In Part 1 of this series, we talked about structuring options for your keywords. Efficient keywords though, do not begin nor end with hierarchies. If you really want to make your keywords work for you, there are other factors too, that need to be taken under consideration.

Controlled Vocabullaries

Part of your approach towards a better key-wording system could be the use of a controlled vocabulary. What such a list really does, is that it offers to the user a pre-canned amount of keywords, covering various topics, in an extensive way. By using the pre-selected keywords it includes, you make sure that all your photos are tagged in a consistent manner, while you avoid contamination of your keyword list by duplicate entries, misspelled terms and indirect repetition through synonyms.

Where can you get a controlled vocabulary? Well, for starters, you can always use the lists that the Lightroom Keyword List Project offers ;) If you want more, there are many places scattered in the web that provide such lists. Some worth checking out are (not free):

So controlled vocabularies are all you will ever need, right? Well, not exactly....Although a CV is indeed a great tool to use for tagging your photos, there will be times that it will fall short in one way or another. Why? Well, it is rather simply really. Unless, you are putting together a Dictionary, it is not feasible nor practical for a project to include every single word. And since every person will have different needs and topics of interest, there will always be keyword sets, that will need to be added. A "bird photographer" and a "nuclear power plant photographer", will probably have different keyword needs ;)

So lets see how, you can create or expand a controlled vocabulary.

Be consistent

Ok, I can not stress this enough. Whatever you do, however you choose to do it, always, always, do it the same way!!! Here are some fields that you need to pay attention to:

Singular vs Plural

Birds and bird are not the same. Well, for Lightroom at least they are not. Choose one form that suites you, or agrees with a list you have downloaded and stick to it. So if you have birds you should also have cats. Personally, I prefer to use the singular form, but feel free to use whatever makes sense to you.

Left photo by mikebaird - Right photo by Dhaval Jani
released under a CC-BY 2.0 license

Upper vs Lower case

Lower case makes sense here. Unless it is a top level category, which a) will not get exported and b) you wish to visually separate it from the rest, there is no point in using upper case letters. Exceptions include names of people (John Doe), places (Europe, London, etc) or species (Common Ostrich).

Actions end with -ing

Many times, you will want to tag a photo with a keyword that specifies an action. One simply way to make things a bit simpler, is to always use the same form. In example:

jumping
laughing
running
smiling
hugging
driving
etc, etc

Photo by Joost Assink released
under a CC-BY 2.0 license

Keep it simple

Don't go too deep (unless you have to)

Remember, when we talked about hierarchies and how good they are? Well, yeah, as long as you don't overdo it! The point of having a keyword list is to make your life easier and not drive yourself crazy with classifications, taxonomy and categories. My advice is that unless you are specialising in one particular field and you absolutely need to be extremely thorough and detailed about your keywords, do not go too deep into the hierarchies. Try to keep you top level categories simple and flexible.

Keep in mind that you have to categorize terms in a broad way. It is preferable to separate and simplify than to over define. Assume that you have a photo of a city, showing a road. You could set up your keywords like that:

settlement

city

road

village

But what would you do when you had a photo of a road of a village? Would you create another road keyword, within the village category? I don't think so. What would be more practical, would be to simplify. Here is how you could do it:

settlement

city
village

thoroughfares

road

This way you have one keyword (road) which you can assign to multiple things (city, village). The downside is that you have to add two instead of one keyword, but the end result is preferable.

There can be only one

When you start creating keywords, you may fall in the common trap of getting descriptive. A keyword should be a simple, single keyword and not a descriptive phrase. A "cat jumping" is not a keyword. "Cat" and "jumping" however are. So, make sure that your keywords are indeed keywords!!!

Photo by worak released
under a a CC-BY 2.0 license

Conclusion

Keywords can be a great help to the photographer. I am sure that most of us would prefer to get outside and shoot some more photos, than to get stuck in front of a pc and pretend to be getting excited by tagging our pictures. However, the significance of this task will come forward when in ten years from now you will start searching for that photo of your "son's" "birthday", in which he was "laughing". Or when a client asks you for a "panning" shot of a "red" "car", driven by a "woman". Or when...well, you get the picture!

By using this small guide, downloading the free lists this project offers, to either use them or examine them as an example and by being responsible for your own digital assets, I am sure that you will do just fine, walking down the hard keyword path that lies ahead!

Update: There is now a third part to this guide.

Small technical hiccup

2012-09-08T23:38:00.001+03:00

-Update-

File permissions have been fixed and the files should be accessible to everyone now.
Thanks for your patience and feedback everyone :)

-Original Post-

It was just brought to my attention that people can not access the Birds by Common Name zip file, which I have uploaded to Google Drive.
It seems that I have, somehow, managed to mess up the permissions of the file. Although this is only a minor issue, I am afraid I will not be able to provide a fix any sooner than the end of next week.
I will let you know when the file is again accessible through the tubes.
Cheers.

Efficient Keyword Techniques - Part 1

2012-09-05T22:00:00.000+03:00

Adding keywords to a photo catalogue in Lightroom, may seem like a trivial task at first. In fact, Lightroom offers so many ways to accomplish this, it makes it almost a no brainer to just start and throw keywords at your photos. However, apllying keywords efficiently, is almost an art on its own. It is quite common, especially for new users, to start adding keywords to their photographs, only to find out soon after, that their approach was not the best to follow. Of course, soon may be a huge understatement, especially if you discover that you want to change tactics after having tagged a few thousands of your photos.In fact, I have faced this twice so far and I have to tell you, it was no fun at all, realising that my flawless keyword "strategies" needed an overview ASAP.

In this series of guides, I am going to bring forward some potential issues that may arise by following certain tactics. Moreover, I am going to try and highlight some steps that will help you get further with your metadata.

Using a flat vs a hierarchical List

Lightroom offers mainly, two distinct ways to organise your keywords. One is using a straight, flat list and the other is to nest your keywords inside structures.

The Flat World

Using a simple, flat list of keywords is really tempting. It is fast, easy and in fact many photographers swear that this is all that they will ever need. Below, you can see an example of a flat list. All the words float on the same level and have the same significance.

Flat List

As you can see right away, this type of list can get unmanageable pretty quickly. Even with so few keywords, it is a bit of a mess really and makes it hard to track what you are looking for. Of course, you can use the filter box to narrow down results, but what if I am not sure of the keyword I want to add, or just need some ideas about what other keywords would fit in my image? This kind of structuring is not suited to provide you with such aids. I personally believe, that some sense of order does help one keep his sanity when it comes to tagging photos. For example, the fact that Andrea and George are separated by an ocean of irrelevant terms and definition, is bad practice as far as I am concerned.

To see how the list would be used, let us consider the following example. Assume that you wish to tag a photo you shot in Ottawa and has a family member in it, named George. You would start typing, or clicking the following keywords:

George
people
family
Ottawa
Canada
North America

Ok, all set then. Assuming you did not forget to add any of the keywords, that is! So to summarise what we have said so far, using a flat list has:

Advantages

quick setup
time saving (in the short term)

Disadvantages

no structure
keywords are not grouped in any sense
does not provide visual clues as to what keywords to use
all keywords have to be entered manually

Hierarchies Go Deep

The structured list. All the keywords are nested inside categories, following a hierarchy. Searching for terms is easy. I can find all of my family members in a snap, I can choose one of many shades of red in a breeze. No guessing, no searching here and there. And it is easy to look around for categories that might suit my photos too.

Hierarchical List

And now for the important part. Let's try the previous example again. This time, I would add the following keywords:

George
Ottawa

Finished. What about the rest? Not to worry. You see, Lightroom took care of that, for us. That is what users want from software after all, isn't it? To do all the boring and tedious work for them! What happens is, when you apply a keyword, Lightroom will apply the parent keywords too. So, the moment I chose George, Lightroom assigned the keywords that led to it as well:

people --> family --> George

To summarise, using hierarchical keyword structures has:

Advantages

time saving (in the long term)
easy to navigate
relevant terms are grouped together
provides visual hints as to what keywords you may want to use
adds a dimension of automation to the process

Disadvantages

time consuming to set up (compared to the flat list)
requires brainstorming

Which method should I use?

Well, although it is more than obvious to me that using hierarchies in your keyword schema is the best way to go, you should really follow whatever method works best for you. If you do use flat lists and are happy with it, then by all means keep doing so. As a personal advice though, I would urge you to at least try the structured least and see first hand, what it can do for you. I am more than certain that you will be pleasantly surprised by the results and time savings you will get.

Till next time...

Go to Part 2

Colour Names Keyword List

2012-09-04T00:13:00.000+03:00

Fellow Lightroom-ers, remember my last post? Remember how I proudly announced that the Breeds of Cats was next to follow, in the never ending effort of building the Controlled Vocabulary (CVC) List to rule them all? Yeah, well I got a bit distracted.... But trust me, this is nothing new for me ;)

For reasons that are beyond me, I started working on a Colours List. You know, fuchsia, teal, orange. Those kind of names that can get all mixed up while doing keywording in a hurry. But not only did I started working on it, but I have finished a more than decent version of it :) So I just uploaded the text file to my G-Drive: the Colour Names List 1.0 includes:

10 different shades of colours
288 different colour names

Admittedly, the amount of work that needed to be done to get the list ready, was nothing but a mere fraction of the task of organising the birds list. That said, building a controlled vocabulary for Lightroom, will require that we tackle as many categories of keywords, as we can. Moreover, I am thinking of putting together a general keywording guide, so that you will be able to make the most of the lists, whether you end up using them or not. It's not just a matter of getting canned keywords. Is what you do with them and how you may evolve and adjust them to suit your needs.

Enough with the chit chat though! Grab your mouses, or digitisers for that matter, and dash to the link placed below to grab the list and get all those tricky colours in your photo accurately tagged!

Go to the Donwload Page

Minor update

2012-09-03T15:24:00.001+03:00

I just wanted to inform you that I have uploaded a small revision of the Bird Species List for Lightroom. The latest version (1.1) includes minor corrections and consistency checks for plural - singular forms. I also turned the species names to lower case and made them of singular form.

That's all really. Enjoy!

Download the list

Birds by Common Name

2012-09-02T23:46:00.001+03:00

I am more than happy to announce that the first list for all of us Lightroom lovers, is ready and out!!!

Version 1.0 of the Bird Species by common name has just hit the tubes fellow Lightroom-ers and it is there for the taking. I have to admit that when I first started this list, it did not occur to me, just how many birds are there in the world. Too many, I tell you!!! Although, I am certain that there are a few feather friends, that have fled the cataloguing process, I am sure that the list will cover most, if not all of your bird loving needs ;)

Keywords Hierarchy

How many birds are we talking about here? Here are the stats. The Bird Species by Common Name List, as released in version 1.0 includes:

185 Bird Species
3784 Keywords

I tried to keep the list approachable to the average user and thus intentionally avoided to seperate the birds as tto what may looked like "too scientific". However, if "too scientific" is your kind of game, it should be fairly easy to create the appropriate categories and drag and drop the species in them accordingly. If you do decide to follow that route, I suggest you do your changes within the Lightroom application. The interface really favors such manipulations of keywords, in a rather painless way.

Now, why is this version 1.0? What is coming in the future? Right now, I felt it was important to release the list as soon as possible (don't worry, I did check for duplicates though). It is important that the project gets some traction and people actually start finding it and using it. Moereover, I hope that some would like to join the team and contribute in any way they see fit, going on their pace of course.

The way I see it, the birds will have to stay in the ice for a awhile. The list is usable and adding more Lists on other subjects, is a high priority for me. In the future and through small increments, we could add the scientific names of the birds, as synonyms, so that Lightroom would export them automatically. But that is in the To Do List at the moment.

What next? Well, two things. First of all, work will start on the next set of keywords. I didn't really have to think about what that would be. I mean after all these birds, it only seemed natural to me that I had to get even with them somehow. So, what better than a Breeds of Cats list for that ;)

Secondly, work is already happening in the skeleton List, aka the Foundation List. This will continue to evolve parallel to the rest of the projects. Ideas keep flowing back and forth and the list will most likely than not, change quite a bit from what it is right now. But don't worry, I 'll keep you posted on the matter.

Enough said though. Quit whatever you are doing and go grab you list! And if you feel the urge to share with others the glorious news, by all means, do so!!! ;)

Mallard Duck

Less is more...

2012-08-30T13:16:00.003+03:00

...and simpler is better.

So far, the project has been offering two Keyword Lists. a General Hierarchical Keyword List and the more recent, Bird Species List. The seperation allowed me to realise that a modular design approach would benefit the project and the users in big ways. Moreover, the General Keyword List is not as simple as it could be. And being complex, while all you really want is to get those photos out of Lightroom as soon as possible, is not a merit ;)

So I have decided to alter the functionality of the lists. Here is my plan of attack:

There will be a Foundation List. This will be the reformated General Keyword List, stripped of most Keywords and reformated to be more user friendly and faster to navigate and use. The List will host various cateogories in a hierarchical structured form, but the keywords themselves will be provided in seperate modules (see below). Of course, in categories with only a few entries, such as seasons, the keywords will continue to live within the Foundation List, as there is no point in providing seperate ones for such small and basic entries.
There will be seperate keyword list for various topics. For example in the fututre, we could dvelop the following categories: Birds Species, Cat Breeds, Dog Breeds, Flower Species, Countries and Capitals, Buildings and so on.

The user will be able to download the Foundation List and any of the modules he needs for his photography needs. All they have to do is

Import the Foundation List to act as the anchor for all the modules
Import the modules they wish to use and drag them in the appropriate position within the Foundation List (ie Drag the Birds List in Animals --> Birds)

By doing so it is possible to evolve and tweak the Foundation List in a much more efficient way. At the same time the other Lists can keep growing indefinitely, without the need for any significant reformatting.

Modular List Concept

If you have any ideas or suggestions at the matter I would love to hear them. I confident that this approach will make the projects all that more useful to the Lightroom folks out there :)

Bird Species Beta Ver

2012-08-28T13:34:00.001+03:00

After some technical issues that set the work on the list back, I think some good progress has finally been made. The issue that came up was some weird Lightroom, Google Docs and Notepad thing.

To be more specific, if I downloaded the list from GDocs as a plain txt, it looked fine, but it was not fine. Seems that during the conversion of the document the text indents that were created with Tab key in Google Docs, were getting replaced with simple spaces in the downloaded txt file. While it looked ok, Lightroom was not able to figure the structure out and imported the keywords in flat, thus useless. list.

Thankfully, there seems to be a workaround as I posted earlier. Donwload the List as a rich text formal file (.rtf) and then Save as txt, locally on your pc. Everything should work fine. But if it does not, do let me know ;)

So, where do we stand today? Well, there is nothing like numbers that will give you an idea. Up to this moment the Bird Species List includes:

27 non passerines bird species
1519 keywords of various birds

Of course, there are many more coming. The list will continue to grow on the following days / weeks, depending on the time I can give to the project.

Download the List

Birds Keyword List Beta ver

A not so small setback

2012-08-27T12:04:00.000+03:00

I am afraid that Google Drive and PDF text is not working well together. Although the Bird Species List looks fine in Google Docs, all the text indents seem to get lost as soon as I download the file as a simple txt. Given the progress that had been made so far, I would say that this is rather unfortunate. I have found a workaround however, but the original work has been rendered useless :(

Here is the current workflow (my main source is this wikipedia article).

Download the article as a PDF file
Copy small sections of the PDF (usually per species) to a text file created with notepad in Windows
Make all the necessary changes in the text file. Save and exit
When ready open the text file and the Google Docs file and copy the text between the apps

Of course I download a sample text file from Gdocs from time to time, just to be sure that everything works as it should be. Once you get burned......

You can check out the new file, here

Oh well, back to the editing room for me, I guess.....

Update: Seems that this is not going to be easy. If you do download the list, make sure you download as a rich text format file (rtf) and then convert to text file (txt) from your computer. If you download the file directly as a txt then Lightroom does not see the text indents at all, so the structure of the list is gone and you end up with a flat list......The joys of tech...!!!

Text indents are lost when downloading the txt file

Bird Species List - Alpha Ver

2012-08-26T21:53:00.003+03:00

As announced a few days ago, the Bird Species List is under development. After searching for the most appropriate sources, I decided that Wikipedia was good enough to use for material and the license does allow me to use it for free ;)

As usual Google Drive is the tool of choice for all the editing. It makes editing easy, sharing is a breeze and in the rare event that someone wants to edit the list and give me a helping hand, it is really simple for me to set it up ;)

If you feel like downloading the List now, do so. But be warned, it is under heavy construction!!!

Click the link to get the Bird Species List

Flight of the Seagull

Birding update on the way

2012-08-22T09:54:00.000+03:00

Birds by
shutter41 @ Flickr

The next update for the Keyword list will be one for photographers who shoot wildlife and for those who are into birding.

In order to keep the main frame of the List a bit clean, I am considering creating this as a seperate keyword List. Of course there is nothing stopping you from merging the two of them if you wish to do so.

As usual, the List will be ready when it is ready. But, if you know your birds, and wish to help, just ring. I will be inside ;)

License Update

2012-08-21T23:21:00.002+03:00

The porject was from the very beginning released under the open and free Creative Commons license scheme. However, it was initially a non commercial offering, for reasons that seem irrelevant now.

I decided it was time to free the List even more. The main reasons for taking this decision were the following.

Using Wikipedia as a source

More often than not, I use Wikipedia articles to enrich the details and categories of my list. Wikipedia articles are released under a Creative Commons license that does not prohibit commercial application of the material (check the Wikipedia license and TOS for more details). Therefore, the License of my work was in conflict with the material I was using from Wikipedia.

Targeting Lightroom Educators

Professional Lightroom Educators deal with students of all levels, each and every day. They may explain what keywording is and how to use it, but why not raise their game? Why not offer this Structured List to their students as a starting point for them, to experiment with, learn, understand and build upon?

I believe that there is great potential for this sort of use. At the same time, I believe it is a move to the right direction for the project to gain some popularity and attract more people to work on.

However, I feared that a professional might hesitate to introduce material in his / her seminars, that was specifically targeted to non-commercial applications. Therefore, I decided to remove this barrier and take away any possible concerns about this.

So, as of today, the Keyword List Project for Lightroom is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. (for more info, check our License page).

Feel free to cheer about it ;)