Are keywords in your images important?

Part 1 :

In one word: yes. Before we talk about how and what to use for your keywords first you need to work out your particular situation and what will work best for you.

For instance, if you are just keywording for your own use to find images easily in the future then that makes it fairly easy but if you are keywording for a stock image library, agency, magazine etc you need to be more specific.

Many agencies and stock libraries have specific guidelines and if your images are not keyworded no one will ever fine them, you’ll never make a sale and it’s a waste of time uploading them to the agency. These days it is important to find these guidelines and take note of the length of the captions and the quality of the key words used. For instance a stock library I submit to also has cartoons and graphics in it so the word photograph is very important in that collection of keywording. Many have limits on the number of keywords or total characters (this may or may not include spaces) you can use. If you exceed that then the keywording may be cut off and never be seen.

Take your time when keywording. Research what others have done: what works and what does not. Look at your image if you were a buyer: what would you type into a search engine? This is another reason captioning (which we’ll cover later) is important to be keyworder-friendly. Just because you think it’s a logical process does not mean others will.

Appropriate Photography - have we lost our senses?

By Danielle Lancaster

Every now and then, one of us here has to have a vent. You could call it a verbal vomit and here goes:

Tonight I opened (and to keep the sender unanimous) an email, snail mail, magazine (am sure by now you get the drift). Glaring at me was a fabulous photo of a group of girls from a school here in Australia with the local village women who they had gone to meet on a school trip far, far away from our sunny and ‘luxurious’ Australian shores. For many of us, a trip like this is a trip of a life time.

Now while I am sure many of their parents would look this image and say ‘look at our little darling’ (from the copy editor: OK Danielle, enough tongue in cheek for one blog), I looked at it in horror. Yes the girls looked beautiful in their short, short, khaki shorts and skimpy white tops but not dressed appropriately for visiting the culture they were visiting.

An outfit for ‘Tomb Raider’ or some other Hollywood blockbuster but....DOES NO ONE instruct these girls on appropriate dress when visiting these people?? Call me old fashioned, call me a stick in the mud or whatever springs to mind, but we cannot forget we are fortunate enough for some of us still to see villages like this, experience the time and place of another culture. The more we make them a tourist attraction the more they will become.

I feel the majority of this is total ignorance though I am not sure in the world we live in this should now be an excuse – there is information on every corner, at every news stand and within every click of the mouse button into the wide world of cyber space. It is an aspect we cover in our pre tour meetings for the Buedog Vanuatu Photography Tour and has rewarded our participants no end.

Come on Australia: let’s have some respect, we ask for it here, let’s learn from different cultures and lets all make an attempt to get along for the sake of our planet.

 

Photography - It's Not All Serious!

Hi,

My name is Danielle Lancaster and I am based at Tamborine Mountian, Queesnland Australia. I have been a professional photo/journalist for too long than I care to share with you! However, what I do love is to help people refine their photography skills and be proud of their images and as I travel extensively with my work I'd also like to share with you the special places I have been to and people that I have met.

So my blogs will be on simple photography skills you can put to use and turn those snapshots into something you would like to hang on your wall! And on people and places. I hope you enjoy!

Photography should be fun and sometimes we get so caught up in making the composition, exposure and lighting just right there seems no room for any fun.













It's human nature to 'have a laugh' and people will often do funny things, always when you least expect them to.

Or you can set up your own funny photo - it can be a creative exercise and provide a few good laughs not only looking at it afterwards but doing the photo shoot as well.

As they say a picture can tell a story! Why not give it a try?
For more information visit http://www.blue-dog.com.au/ or to subscribe to our free e-newsletter simply e-mail danielle@blue-dog.com.au