Basics: about metadata and keywords

I guess it'll come as no surprise that I love shooting and editing pictures. And in this day and age, it's really useful to know how to present your images on the net too. I want people to find our images relatively easy. 

Almost everyone searches the net using Google. So let's look at that first. If you search for Hamperium, you'll find quite a lot of our images:

In order for Google to be able to present you with your images, you've gotta add keywords to your images (tagging).

One way to do that is add them during the import in Lightroom. But before you do that it's most practical to a preset with your information and copyright.

Click on a photo in your libary and click on Metadata

Click on the small arrows next to 'preset' 

Choose 'edit presets'

Fill in the following fields

Now save the preset by click on the arrows next to preset Custom and choose 'Save current settings as New Preset..'

Give your preset a name and voila! You're done! 

Now you can add keywords during the import of your pictures in Ligthroom. Choose the pictures you want to import and - before you start - look at the right side of your screen. Here can you find the section 'Apply During Import': 

Here you can add your copyright by selecting the metadata preset (the one you created before) and you can add keywords to your file.

Fill in other fields like the destination of your files and start the import. When you look into the Libary and click on a photo, you can see that all the information is actually in the image. 

The copyright information: 

The keyword:

By clicking on Add the keyword, you can modify the keywords if needed.

It's also handy to know that you can look into all the info of your picture in your finder (Mac): 

Adding those keywords facilitates your search in Lightroom. The keyword list gives you an overview of all the keywords you used. By clicking on a keyword you'll see all the images tagged with that keywords. 

Or you can look for one specific keyword:  

One more thing: 

You also might want to check your image online to see if it's got all the data in it. 

First export your picture. Then go this website. Here you can upload a picture and check all the information that comes with it.

 

Drop the image and check the information:

Believe me, it's worth the effort to incorporate this in your editing routine. It saves you from having to 'stamp' every image you lay out with a clearly visible watermark. And it greatly facilitates the search for your cool pictures on the net.  

Don't forget to follow us on Facebook or 500px.