geoff s Posted November 17, 2014 Share Posted November 17, 2014 Came to keyword an image of a girl on mobile phone in Edinburgh. She looks to me like on of the many tourists in the city from the far east....but , not to put too fine a point on it, I don't know if she is Chinese or one of a dozen different nationalities. What is the acceptable description ? 'Oriental' sounds a bit colonial to me and 'asian' a bit generic. She may be from Aberdeen of course which adds another question - is it ' of ......... appearance' ? What would you include in your keywords ? Geoff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 17, 2014 Share Posted November 17, 2014 I only would keyword ethnicity if I knew their ethnicity, not if I was guessing..... hence only do it for model released work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
losdemas Posted November 17, 2014 Share Posted November 17, 2014 I only would keyword ethnicity if I knew their ethnicity, not if I was guessing..... hence only do it for model released work. Ditto Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SShep Posted November 17, 2014 Share Posted November 17, 2014 No help for deciding on an individual, but Alamy's suggested terms are here: http://www.alamy.com/contributor/help/recommended-keywording-terms.asp Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Brooks Posted November 17, 2014 Share Posted November 17, 2014 What is the acceptable description ? 'Oriental' sounds a bit colonial to me and 'asian' a bit generic. She may be from Aberdeen of course which adds another question - is it ' of ......... appearance' ? It's a logical question but I wouldn't do it, unless you have both a model release and a clear understanding with the model. From the location I would assume she is a Scot. My wife is a third generation Canadian of Japanese heritage. She always self identifies as a "Canadian". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pearl Posted November 18, 2014 Share Posted November 18, 2014 What is the acceptable description ? 'Oriental' sounds a bit colonial to me and 'asian' a bit generic. She may be from Aberdeen of course which adds another question - is it ' of ......... appearance' ? It's a logical question but I wouldn't do it, unless you have both a model release and a clear understanding with the model. From the location I would assume she is a Scot. My wife is a third generation Canadian of Japanese heritage. She always self identifies as a "Canadian". I can't claim to be an expert but my understanding is that ethnicity and nationality are two different things. Pearl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted November 18, 2014 Share Posted November 18, 2014 I'd leave it out of the caption but would want to have a relevant keyword. Many more Chinese travel now so it could be quite topical. Perhaps we could offer an opinion of you'd care to share. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 18, 2014 Share Posted November 18, 2014 I'd leave it out of the caption but would want to have a relevant keyword. Many more Chinese travel now so it could be quite topical. Perhaps we could offer an opinion of you'd care to share. It's dangerous territory to be making assumptions about ethnicity or nationality and that being used as part of the wording for a file...caption or otherwise. Extreme case but AGEfoto (the agency) also ended up in court IIRC (Alfonso mentioned it on Yammer). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/greece/7890262/Greek-man-wins-175000-over-Turkish-yoghurt-picture.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert M Estall Posted November 18, 2014 Share Posted November 18, 2014 If you don't know for sure, keyword as vaguely as possible. Goes for any ethnicity . Or leave it alone! You just about never know when you are going to offend someones sensitivities, and the consequences of getting it wrong can be serious. You might get your face rearranged or your financial situation altered. It's just not worth it for a few extra views. Oriental , asian, afro, afro-american, latino, are all cop-outs but might more often fit with actual searches by clients You can get it wrong identifying animals or plants. They can neither read nor sue! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CLSI Posted November 18, 2014 Share Posted November 18, 2014 Setting aside (temporarily) the issue of whether you might offend someone, the best keywords to use are generally those that the customers use, and for that I turn to the list Alamy posted (linked to by SShep above). Legally, I suppose you might run into trouble if the subject of the photo considers the label to be derogatory or libelous. My guess is that you're pretty safe identifying a woman who might be Chinese or Japanese as "Asian," and that will help customers looking for racial diversity (and who don't necessarily care what part of Asia the subject's ancestors came from, or whether she herself is an immigrant) to find your photos of her. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted November 18, 2014 Share Posted November 18, 2014 When I lived in Saigon I learned to tell the various ethnic peoples from one another. I can still do that today, but no one is a 100% accurate at a glance of a passing stranger. As I recall there were a half-million ethnic Chinese living in the sister city of Cholon during the war. (That number seems high?) There were a lot of Japanese reporters. There were over 30 tribal groups living in the Central Highlands, each with their own look and culture. The Hmong, found in Laos and along the Vietnamese border, were sometime called "Miao," which is an insult in Vietnamese. It's complicated. Then there are the Eurasians, those of mixed race. I would feel comfortable calling all and any of these people "Asian." I would use "Oriental" only when referring to rugs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted November 18, 2014 Share Posted November 18, 2014 OP, Ed's your man then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoff s Posted November 19, 2014 Author Share Posted November 19, 2014 thanks all, will stick with 'asian' as per Ed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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