Tagging in Photoshop PS CS2 - help please!

[Peter Jordan]

When preparing images for upload I develop RAW files in LR5.7 and finish them as TIFFs in PS CS2.

 

I prefer to add tags at this stage, rather than when the image has passed QC.

 

I keep a spreadsheet with details of every image with caption, tags etc.

 

In the spreadsheet I separate the tags using commas, and multi-word tags with Quotation marks and commas.

 

When I copy and paste the tags into the "keywords" box in PS CS2,  all is well until I "OK" the file properties box to close it.

 

Then PS CS2 instantly removes my quotation marks, and turns the commas to semi colons.

 

The semi-colons seem to work like commas as tag separators so single word tags are OK.

Tags with more than one word lose their quotation marks become single tags and have to be corrected later.

 

I am at loss to know why PS CS2 does this, especially as, immediately below the "keywords box" is the text "commas can be used to separate keywords"!

 

Can anyone help please?

[Betty LaRue]

Unless I'm mistaken, you are trying to tag in the style before the new AIM. Even in the old style, quotes were added after upload, during the prep. 

Commas have always been turned into semicolons in Bridge. I assume that's what you mean when you say PS. I do all of my tagging in Bridge. I separate single tags and phrases by commas, which when saved, turn into semicolons. That has always been so, and it doesn't matter whether you are copying from a spreadsheet or doing it directly.

In the new AIM, it is not set up for quotes. Everything separated by commas at upload and attached to the image are entered as separate tags in AIM.  You emphasize them by making the most important ones supertags.

I hope this answers your questions. If not others will.

Betty

edited to add....drop the quotes. Separate your phrases like this:

bird,birds,small brown bird,English Sparrow,sunny day,    and such. The phrases separated by commas will stay as phrases after upload.

[Bryan]

Can't answer your question directly Peter, as I only occasionally add tags in PS CS4 as an afterthought, but I do my main keywording in LR6. They always transfer across as required to the new AIM. 

 

Is there a reason why you don't do this?

[Peter Jordan]

Betty,

 

Thanks for that, I have just uploaded some images where the single word tags are separated by semi-colons, and the multi-word tags are also separated by semi-colons and no quotation marks.  From what you say, it should work out OK. . .

 

Bryan,

 

I have thought about doing the tagging in LR5.7, and wondered if anyone does it that way.  I will look up how to do it and give it a try.  I fear that the little boxes in LR might be fiddly things to work with.

 

All,

 

I am still trying to find an effective way of tagging in the new AIM.  In the old system with space separated keywords it was easy to open up a similar image and copy and paste the keywords.

[Betty LaRue]

26 minutes ago, Peter Jordan said:

Betty,

 

Thanks for that, I have just uploaded some images where the single word tags are separated by semi-colons, and the multi-word tags are also separated by semi-colons and no quotation marks.  From what you say, it should work out OK. . .

 

Bryan,

 

I have thought about doing the tagging in LR5.7, and wondered if anyone does it that way.  I will look up how to do it and give it a try.  I fear that the little boxes in LR might be fiddly things to work with.

 

All,

 

I am still trying to find an effective way of tagging in the new AIM.  In the old system with space separated keywords it was easy to open up a similar image and copy and paste the keywords.

Yes it was easy to do that. What I do now with a set that shares the same tags is this. 

In Bridge, I select the multiple similars. Once I do that, I enter tags and all of my tags apply to each of those selected images.  I save them, then deselect. Then check and add anything that may apply to only one image. 

For instance, same scene, but one's a horizontal, one a vertical.

In the new AIM, if you know you have an old image you want to apply the tags to a new image, then upload the new with no assigned tags, otherwise, blank. Find the old, select it along with the new one, then click on the tags you want assigned to the new.  Trouble with that is that new image still on your hard drive has no tags. That's ok if you don't have multiple agencies.  But if you do, you don't want to tag it multiple times.

Betty

 

[Peter Jordan]

Betty,

 

Yes,

 

I had thought about transferring tags by opening a new image with an old one that has nearly the right tags, but as you say, your copy of the image has no tags, and worst still for me I have no tags to put in my spreadsheet.

 

An 11 year old spreadsheet with all that caption and keyword information, on nearly 12,000 images, is worth keeping up to date. . .

[Bryan]

15 hours ago, Peter Jordan said:

Bryan,

 

I have thought about doing the tagging in LR5.7, and wondered if anyone does it that way.  I will look up how to do it and give it a try.  I fear that the little boxes in LR might be fiddly things to work with.

 

All,

 

I am still trying to find an effective way of tagging in the new AIM.  In the old system with space separated keywords it was easy to open up a similar image and copy and paste the keywords.

 

I find LR very easy to work with for keywording (and I find LR generally difficult!). It's a database program as much as a raw converter, and they have put a lot of thought into this aspect of the application. For example you can easily copy and paste between images, or add single keywords from existing images ( those words not shared are marked and you just remove the mark to share), while, once you have established a set of keywords, the software will (unobtrusively) try to second guess what you want to type etc. I find it much the most user friendly aspect of the program.

 

Once you have a set of images with keywords, you can readily search by keyword.

 

There has been quite a bit of discussion on how to copy between images in the new AIM, it's not that easy. You can have two instances of the software open at any one time and copy individual keywords across, or, if, and it's a BIG IF,  you can find and open the two images in one instance, then the job is easier. Generally I find it preferable to do the work in LR and just fine tune in AIM.

 

 

[Peter Jordan]

Bryan,

 

Thanks for that, I should give tagging in LR a try.  It just does not seem to be a natural  way to work for me, because I like to do the tagging last and it is not uncommon for me to start working on an image in LR and then abandon  it for some reason when I get it into PS.

 

Does the LR keywording function use the same convention as the new AIM, with commas separating words or groups of words?

[spacecadet]

19 hours ago, Bryan said:

 

 

 

There has been quite a bit of discussion on how to copy between images in the new AIM, it's not that easy. You can have two instances of the software open at any one time and copy individual keywords across, or, if, and it's a BIG IF,  you can find and open the two images in one instance, then the job is easier. Generally I find it preferable to do the work in LR and just fine tune in AIM.

 

 

As an aside, and probably very obvious, you can ctrl-click multiple subs in the left- hand AIM pane. So if you know the sub with the target keywords, you can just select the two subs.

[Bryan]

3 hours ago, Peter Jordan said:

Bryan,

 

Thanks for that, I should give tagging in LR a try.  It just does not seem to be a natural  way to work for me, because I like to do the tagging last and it is not uncommon for me to start working on an image in LR and then abandon  it for some reason when I get it into PS.

 

Does the LR keywording function use the same convention as the new AIM, with commas separating words or groups of words?

 

Yes!  When you type a word, or phrase, and press return, it inserts it in alphabetical order within the other keywords, separated by a comma.

 

 I typically batch keyword in LR, you can select as many images as you want. First apply the generic keywords, e.g. UK, and then select smaller batches e.g. Durham, and then finally individual images e.g cathedral tower. Very efficient.

 

You can also apply the caption in LR, in which case your images go on sale immediately they pass QC, but you then have to remember to go back and highlight the important tags and provide information about numbers of people etc. I have forgotten to do this once or twice, so now don't provide the captions in LR.

 

 

 

[Craig Joiner]

3 hours ago, Peter Jordan said:

It just does not seem to be a natural  way to work for me, because I like to do the tagging last and it is not uncommon for me to start working on an image in LR and then abandon  it for some reason when I get it into PS.

You can always re-import your tiff/jpegs into LR once finished in PS and then add the keywords. Then just export as jpegs from LR and upload to Alamy.

 

[Craig Joiner]

Just to add, one of the great things about keywording in LR is that it remembers your keywords so that when you type those same keywords into new images it offers up the keywords previously used as you type which can speed up keywording and helps eliminate (or at least reduce) typos. At a more advanced level You can also add pseudonyms to keywords so 'Beech Tree" could have the pseudonyms 'Tree', 'Beech', 'Fagus sylvatica' and these pseudonyms are automatically added to the exported images and will all appear in AIM as tags. Then there are keyword hierarchies which can be useful too...

[Peter Jordan]

Craig,

 

You inspired me to spend a while looking at how to add keywords in LR, and I can see that there would have been advantages to it if I had used that method from the beginning, or even when I started using LR in 2010.  As it is, with 12,000 images approaching I have no real chance of ever having the benefit of having a major part of my collection tagged in LR.

 

I still find the new AIM to be a cumbersome tool for doing tagging, but with the help from this thread, I am finding new ways to do it.

[fotoDogue]

10 minutes ago, Peter Jordan said:

Craig,

 

You inspired me to spend a while looking at how to add keywords in LR, and I can see that there would have been advantages to it if I had used that method from the beginning, or even when I started using LR in 2010.  As it is, with 12,000 images approaching I have no real chance of ever having the benefit of having a major part of my collection tagged in LR.

 

I still find the new AIM to be a cumbersome tool for doing tagging, but with the help from this thread, I am finding new ways to do it.

 

Jim Keir's Plug-In , Alamy-Lightroom Bridge,  allows you to download your keywords from Alamy and match them up with images cataloged in Lightroom.