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Key Wording in Light Room


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Probably covered in the old forum but can't find it here!

 

I'm just getting to grips with LR4 and have started to add keywords within the database. When these images are uploaded to Alamy all of the keywords appear in the lowest category. When dealing with batches in Alamy you lose this stuff when going generic changes, e.g. to location etc. The alternative of working on each photo individually gains the benefit from the transferred keywords, but loses out on the other fields so I am not sure that there is any advantage. I guess I could save the keywords to a word file for each sub batch, but this is becoming complex.

 

I have seen reference to a keyword plugin for LR, does this address the problem, or is there a better way? 

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Not 100% sure I follow you. Keywords from lr4 go into the bottom keyword section. Just type in the most important in the top block.

 

Here is what i do:

1) select the whole batch and drag into the batch area below.

2) make any global changes needed, for me that is # of people, releases and license

3) never touch keywords in batch mode!!

4) clear the batch and now do your keywords individually

5) location info and caption should flow through from lr4

 

Hope that helps

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Another alternative (and one I use) is buy the alamy lightroom plugin that allows you to upload / download metadata. It's not made by Alamy but it is very handy (see link below)

 

1 - I then upload all files to Alamy without any keywords and then add them there with the 2.4 manager system.

2 - Once done and they are present in the Alamy search engine (available to buy) go to the plugin, select the files in lightroom that you have just keyworded at Alamy.

3 - Under the library module, select "Export" and choose the Alamy Fetch Metadata. Make sure the settings state replace keywords IPTC data and select "Selected Files" only. If you select all it will update your entire collection.

4 - Sit back while it updates all your files. This includes the following headers. Description, Keywords, Alamy Essential Keywords, Alamy Main Keywords, Link to Alamy File, Alamy Reference and licence type as well as some other key Alamy data.

 

The reason I add the data at Alamy and not in lightroom is down to the issue you highlighted. When you keyword in LR in bungs them all in Comprehensive. If you download the metadata with this plugin it adds the specific Alamy fields for keywording etc but also takes the contents of the two fields (essential and Main etc) and adds them to the main keyword field.

 

After this, the only thing I have to do is update the Headline field before upload images to my website with correctly synced keywording. I got the plugin here.

 

You can trial the plugin for free but it will only update about 3 files at a time.

 

Hope this helps

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I have considered the plug-in but have not tried it yet as I was concerned that it makes changes to the LR database.  I send images to other agencies, not just Alamy so I was worried that the keywords would be altered in some way that would make sending the image elsewhere difficult.

 

I have a few questions about the plug-in if you don't mind? 

When you fetch the keywords from Alamy are the keywords then added to the LR keyword database? 

Are the Essential and Main keyword fields not available in LR?  I mean could you not type them into the those fields in LR and then set the information up to Alamy?

I would think one of the big attractions of the plug-in (at least to me) is adding all the keywords in LR and then sending them to the proper spots in ALamy, if it does not do this I think I'll just stick with doing it with Manage Images 2.4

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Thanks for the info on the Plugin Duncan. It sounds that it might do the trick. However, when I followed your link it implied that you had to upload from Lightroom, while I normally do a bit of fiddling about in PS prior to uploading.  Is there a work around for that?

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My workflow with the plugin is slightly different.

 

1. I upload jpgs as normal.

2. Once they have cleared QA, I use the plugin fetch tool to link the lr database to the Alamy files.

3. In LR I edit the Alamy data, psydos etc. The main and essential keyword fields are just text strings in the plugin, are not sorted and not treated as keywords.

4. Once I have competed the Alamy data, I copy / paste the ess and main keywords to the lr keywords (via text pad to change spaces to commas). This then allows searching on the keywords n LR and also ensures they are added to images that maybe uploaded to other places.

5. I send the data back up to Alamy and then images are then ready for sale.

 

 

The plug in data is separate from the main lr key wording system, which is why I do the copy/paste bit. All the other data is treated as external plug in data and does not alt any other fields.

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I have considered the plug-in but have not tried it yet as I was concerned that it makes changes to the LR database.  I send images to other agencies, not just Alamy so I was worried that the keywords would be altered in some way that would make sending the image elsewhere difficult.

 

I have a few questions about the plug-in if you don't mind? 

When you fetch the keywords from Alamy are the keywords then added to the LR keyword database? 

Are the Essential and Main keyword fields not available in LR?  I mean could you not type them into the those fields in LR and then set the information up to Alamy?

I would think one of the big attractions of the plug-in (at least to me) is adding all the keywords in LR and then sending them to the proper spots in ALamy, if it does not do this I think I'll just stick with doing it with Manage Images 2.4

 

When you fetch data from Alamy the keywords from essential ad comprehensive are added to your Keywords section of the LR database. You can chose not to overwrite though.

 

You can send keywords from LR to Alamy but it seems to want to put them in Comprehensive and from there, you have to move them to either main or essential. I would prefer to be able to add keywords in LR and for them to go to either essential or main as required..... maybe they might do this in the future or, it might not be possible..... not sure.

Thanks for the info on the Plugin Duncan. It sounds that it might do the trick. However, when I followed your link it implied that you had to upload from Lightroom, while I normally do a bit of fiddling about in PS prior to uploading.  Is there a work around for that?

 

You don't have to upload images via LR, I always send them through the upload feature with Alamy. The plugin has three options. 1) upload images 2) upload Metadata and 3) Fetch Metadata.

 

Like yourself, I sometimes tweaked images in PS first and, more importantly, I like to QC the jpgs before they go :-) don't want a 30 day sin bin for something LR has done wrong!

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You can send keywords from LR to Alamy but it seems to want to put them in Comprehensive and from there, you have to move them to either main or essential. I would prefer to be able to add keywords in LR and for them to go to either essential or main as required..... maybe they might do this in the future or, it might not be possible..... not sure.

 

 

As I said above, the plugin has 2 additional fields: Main and Essential keywords. I add these in the Plugin in LR and upload them....

 

Actually, one of the most important aspects of the plugin (which I and others forget) is that the filenames in the LR database must be able to be matched to those on Alamy. I.e. your Alamy files cannot have a different naming convention..

 

When I export my JPG's from LR, the exported files are the filenames prefixed with an ALA, i..e. 2013_05_25__JEB5993.NEF is exported to become ALA_JEP_2013_05_25__JEB5993.JPG. The plugin can match this ok.

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 I'm wondering if anyone has tried OnAsia's Image Keyworder software. Does that program allow you to keyword then upload everything so I don't need to copy and paste after QC? If so maybe I can just bypass LR when key wording.

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I gave it try this weekend, so far it is working well. It does require some changes in workflow but I think it will save me time.

 

Biggest problem was that at some point in the past I decided it would be smart to change the file name on export. This caused the plugin a lot of trouble and I ended up having to manually match about 1500 files. Not fun. As Julie mentioned above it is important to have the file name the same in both LR and Alamy.

 

So far my workflow is:

1) prepare the file in LR including keywording using the LR hierarchal keywords, caption & title

2) upload to Alamy using the plugin

3) after QC run a fetch to get the Alamy ID into the LR database

4) in LR set the pseudo, #people, releases, etc

5) enter the keywords in the essential and main fields using the LR keywords as a guide

6) run a set command to send everything back up to Alamy

7) all of the LR keywords will be in the comprehensive section except that the plugin seems to delete any from there tbat were entered in essential or main.

 

The only thing that concerns me is how to set the license, I have both RF and RM files and you cannot set the license in the plugin.

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