File names

[DArmour]

Hi, does it matter what your original file names are when uploading images?

[Allan Bell]

Everybody has their own ways of naming files so no it does not matter.  The most important is the caption you give to an image. It must describe the image accurately.

Then keywording or tagging after that.

 

Allan

 

[DArmour]

Thank you Allan 😀

[ReeRay]

3 hours ago, DArmour said:

Hi, does it matter what your original file names are when uploading images?

All your images are captioned as "A" with merely 3/4 keywords! You need to address this and be a lot more informative if you wish buyers to find your work.

 

Describe in the caption the image, (who, where, what, when, why, )

 

Apply all relevant Keywords, and include elements of the caption in the super tags

 

Hope this helps

Edited December 22, 2020 by ReeRay

[spacecadet]

3 hours ago, DArmour said:

Hi, does it matter what your original file names are when uploading images?

I'd go further- so far as to say IMO you may be in breach of  contract with such inadequate captions!. Your images will certainly never be found as they are.

Edited December 22, 2020 by spacecadet

[M.Chapman]

5 hours ago, DArmour said:

Hi, does it matter what your original file names are when uploading images?

 

No, but I seem to recall seeing that only alphanumeric characters are allowed (although I have some with - and + in the names and they seem to be OK).

 

Mark

[Nick Hatton]

Don't think it matters at all, but be aware file names do count when you do a search on your own images in the image manager.

Edited December 23, 2020 by Nick Hatton
spelling mistake

[DArmour]

On 22/12/2020 at 13:58, ReeRay said:

All your images are captioned as "A" with merely 3/4 keywords! You need to address this and be a lot more informative if you wish buyers to find your work.

 

Describe in the caption the image, (who, where, what, when, why, )

 

Apply all relevant Keywords, and include elements of the caption in the super tags

 

Hope this helps

Thank you, I'm very new to this so help is much appreciated.

 

[DArmour]

On 22/12/2020 at 14:10, spacecadet said:

I'd go further- so far as to say IMO you may be in breach of  contract with such inadequate captions!. Your images will certainly never be found as they are.

Could you explain how I would be in breach of contract, I'm still very much in a learning period.

 

[spacecadet]

s4.10 of the contributor contract. My emphasis.

"You will ensure that all Metadata including without limitation captions, keywording, descriptions and Pseudonyms, rights management or other information pertaining to the Images is and will remain accurate and factually correct

[Steve F]

1 hour ago, DArmour said:

Could you explain how I would be in breach of contract, I'm still very much in a learning period.

 

 

Hi David, welcome. Have you come across this:

 

https://www.alamy.com/contributor/how-to-sell-images/captions-and-keywords-for-images/?section=8

 

"Before you start, think about the potential use of the image and what it’s likely to be sold for, the more accurately you describe your image, the more visibility it will have in customer searches, which will significantly increase your chance of making a sale."

 

There are 233 million images on Alamy. You are also competing with all the images on other agencies. When a client does a search for images, they will be using using the Google search engine, the search engine on Alamy - some sort of search engine. Keywording and captioning is key to making sure your images will be found. You can have the most amazing images ever, but if you have no caption (what is with 'a'??  ) and only a handful of keywords, they will never be found and hence, never sell. The captions are searchable as well as the keywords.

 

Imagine you're a client and there's a bunch of images appeared in front of you during an image search. You hover over images of interest to read the captions - you come across 'a' as a caption and you move swiftly on.... Pretty much guaranteed!!

 

Have a look at some other contributor's captions (right click on the number under their name in the Forum). There's also a bunch of posts in the Forum on captioning and keywording.

 

Oh, and re. the contributor contract, this is on the first page:

"You will caption and keyword (tag) your Images"

 

Arguably putting 'a' as a caption is not providing a caption.

 

Stephen

Edited January 5, 2021 by Steve F

[DArmour]

Thank you Stephen, that's great Ill have a look thorough that link. 

 

I actually didn't realise a lot of the captions had only 'A' I'm addressing that now. 

 

Again thank you for your help.

 

David

 

[Bill Kuta]

When you're using AIM, take care that you have selected only the images you are working on. It can be easy to accidentally leave some selected that you don't want to edit. There's a button near the top to de-select all active images.

[DArmour]

Thanks Bill after a full day captioning images yesterday that's what I realised lol

[TeeCee]

Also worth checking your spelling BTW. Your first image you've listed "Gardiners Cottage" - it's Gardeners Cottage on the Wynyard Hall website. Anyone searching for Gardeners Cottage will never find your image with the current caption - plus, remember to add Gardeners Cottage into your keywording too.
If there is one lesson worth learning as you start out, it's that captions and keywords are (at least) as important as your image - they are the only means by which any buyer will find your pictures. Ensure they are 100% accurate and do not contain any irrelevant words or phrases, and you'll do fine.

Tony

[M.Chapman]

Another thing that's useful is to adopt a file naming system that generates a unique name for each jpg you submit so you can always track back to the original RAW, TIFF or PSD file used to create the image. This can be useful in a number of circumstances.

1) To prove ownership of copyright

2) To produce alternative versions if required. For example I've been contacted by Alamy before to ask if I can supply a higher resolution version of an image to a customer.

3) As editing tools improve it makes it easier to produce enhanced versions in future if required.

 

Mark

[meanderingemu]

17 hours ago, Bill Kuta said:

When you're using AIM, take care that you have selected only the images you are working on. It can be easy to accidentally leave some selected that you don't want to edit. There's a button near the top to de-select all active images.

 

also take care that you are paying attention to what you do, don't work when distracted as your attempt to add a Variation of a Keyword of the images you had not, could lead to you changing the Caption and each images to that word, and frantically have to go through 122 images to get back the caption from original before server updates, and paste it back....  

not that anyone would ever do that.🙄

[Normspics]

I think I have been wasting my time by writing unique descriptive titles for all my Alamy files. I do have descriptive captions and keywords but it seems I could get away with leaving the title as the camera file #. I thought the file title was searchable too.

[Betty LaRue]

50 minutes ago, Normspics said:

I think I have been wasting my time by writing unique descriptive titles for all my Alamy files. I do have descriptive captions and keywords but it seems I could get away with leaving the title as the camera file #. I thought the file title was searchable too.

Pardon my ignorance. Tell me how a buyer searching for picture of a big toe would find yours unless you have “big toe” in the caption along with tags which would bring the image(s) closer to the first pages? Just having “big toe” in the tags might put your image far enough back in the search to keep it from being seen by an impatient buyer.

And how would a buyer know your file number to put in as a search term?

Edited January 6, 2021 by Betty LaRue

[Normspics]

7 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

Pardon my ignorance. Tell me how a buyer searching for picture of a big toe would find yours unless you have “big toe” in the caption along with tags which would bring the image(s) closer to the first pages? Just having “big toe” in the tags might put your image far enough back in the search to keep it from being seen by an impatient buyer.

And how would a buyer know your file number to put in as a search term?

 

I said file title not caption

[Betty LaRue]

Just now, Normspics said:

 

I said file title not caption

Hit me with that hammer again. Maybe I’ll read it right! 😁

[Normspics]

21 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

Hit me with that hammer again. Maybe I’ll read it right! 😁

 

Be careful big toe and hammer not a great pairing Lol  😀🔨

[Betty LaRue]

1 hour ago, Normspics said:

 

Be careful big toe and hammer not a great pairing Lol  😀🔨

ouch!

[MizBrown]

Captions are your chance to do more than simply give the location.   The standard for captions is to cover who, what, when, where, and why.   Location should  be part of the caption, not all of it.   Lake District in what season, which area, who is that person in the photo, etc.?   Sometimes, people search by location, sometimes they search for particular places in particular seasons.  The caption shows up on a search mouse-over and should have a bit more detail about the photo, up to 150 characters.