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How to improve discoverability of a photograph


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21 minutes ago, Inchiquin said:

OK, I can now confirm definitely that in the case of a single image, discoverability has no effect on its search position. I chose an image with 25 tags, 5 of which were supertags, and orange discoverability, and searched on two of the supertags. I then added tags to give it the full complement of 50 and made 10 of them supertags, which turned it green. I waited two days (to make sure the system was updated) and searched again on the original two tags. The position was unchanged.

 

What I don't know (and I have no intention of finding out by experimentation) is whether the proportion of green images in your collection influences your Alamy rank.

 

Alan

 

Thanks for nailing it.

Seeing your method in black and white like that it's blindingly obvious- how could tags not searched on affect position? It would make a nonsense of search if they did.

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25 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

Thanks for nailing it.

Seeing your method in black and white like that it's blindingly obvious- how could tags not searched on affect position? It would make a nonsense of search if they did.

 

That's why I was puzzled and a little alarmed when Elaine seemed to be suggesting that might be what happens.

 

Alan

 

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I have a shot taken from the balcony of a restaurant and flying in the near distance is a pileated woodpecker. It has come up a few times under keyword searches for the bird, along with close-up and telephoto shots by others which are no doubt what the buyers are looking for.

 

Maybe 'pileated woodpecker' is a relevant keyword, since there's one in the photo, but that relevance is marginal. It is excess discoverability, and I'm going to remove it. (Actually, I had already removed the tags but forgot to take it out of the caption.)

 

Anyway, now I'm thinking of relevance as not just technically accurate, as in the case of the woodpecker, but probably of interest to buyers who search using that term.

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On 12/9/2017 at 11:21, Reimar said:

Bill, photoshop used to have a nice buffer that retained keywords, titles etc., that I could import to the field in a new image with one click.  CC doesn't have that anymore, and I miss it.

 

I would like to find this function in Bridge, although so far the text in Bridge is so small on my 4K monitor it may not be usable.

When I am in filmstrip mode, I see a long list of keywords in alphabetical order on the left that appears to be all the keywords in the folder.  Pressing Ctrl - I just gets me the same functionality as photoshop.  Where is this "keyword panel" you speak of, and how does it work?

 

As you can see I don't use Bridge much except to find images in my collection.

Thanks.

I still use Bridge to set up named templates for oft used subjects. Bill’s method only confused me, (seems too convoluted) but then, I’m easily confused!

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3 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

I still use Bridge to set up named templates for oft used subjects. Bill’s method only confused me, (seems too convoluted) but then, I’m easily confused!

 

Also a Bridge user.  Templates make it much easier.

 

Jill

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Think of the keyword catalogue  as an upside down forest.

 

There is a tree for locations. There is a tree for architecture. There is a tree for plants. There is a tree for animals. There is a tree for geology. There is a tree for history. There is a tree for time. There is a tree for image treatment. There is a tree for weather. There is a tree for whatever you decide to add to the keyword catalogue.

 

Click on a subkeyword at the end of a branch and it zips up the branch to the trunk taking every other subkeyword above it.

 

For instance: Image of people walking in autumn beside a swan in Grenadier pond through the forest in Toronto's High Park.

 

Click on subkeyword phrase GRENADIER POND on the LOCATION tree and you get Canada; Grenadier Pond; High Park; North America; Ontario; park; Toronto

 

Click on subkeyword SWAMP on The ENVIRONMENTS tree and you get:
marsh; pond; swamp; water

 

CLICK subkeyword PIONEER on the HISTORY tree and you get: historic; history; pioneer

 

Click on subkeyword CYGNUS BUCCINATOR on the LIFE tree and you get animal; bird; Cygnus buccinator; Olor buccinator; Trumpeter Swan; swan

 

Click on the subkeyword EXERCISE on the LIFE tree and you have: exercise; hike; hiking; people; person; walk; walking

 

Click on the subkeyword CHANGE on the TIME tree and you get: autumn; change; color; colour; fall; season

 

Click on CAROLINIAN FOREST on the ENVIRONMENTS tree and you get: carolinian; carolinian forest; eastern deciduous; eastern deciduous forest; forest 

 

In Bridge these keywords accumulate in the Keyword metadata so with 7 quick clicks you have the following 39 keywords in the file’s metadata:

Canada; Grenadier Pond; High Park; North America; Ontario; park; Toronto; marsh; pond; swamp; water; historic; history; pioneer; animal; bird; Cygnus buccinator; Olor buccinator; Trumpeter Swan; swan; exercise; hike; hiking; people; person; walk; walking; autumn; change; color; colour; fall; season; carolinian; carolinian forest; eastern deciduous; eastern deciduous forest; forest

 

Save the file or multiple selected files in Bridge and upload to Alamy. In the new AIM select the supertabs and answer the questions.

 

I might also decide to add ; people walking; autumn colour; autumn color; autumn colour; to the keyword catalogue for next time. I would also add them to the 39 keywords for this particular image, making a total of 43 keywords.

 

It is important to note subject trees are separate. Therefore I could click on the subkeyword EXERCISE on the LIFE tree and have: exercise; hike; hiking; people; person; walk; walking; added to keywords for a hiking image taken in California.

Edited by Bill Brooks
mind boggled
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3 hours ago, LawrensonPhoto said:

Once its all setup its sooo easy to use. 3 clicks 25 keywords it can't get any easier than that.

I will say it takes a long while to setup and tweak, imo it's been worthwhile.

I’m sure it is. But when I tag an image for the very first time, say a particular paper wasp, all I have to do is go to Tools > create template. It puts all the tags in I just applied to that image into the template.  Then I’ll take out only tags specific to that image, like “door frame”. Title it with common and Latin name and save.

 

Next time I’m preparing to tag that particular paper wasp, I click on Tools>Apply Template. Navigate to the template and click on it. All the tags are applied to the new image. Save. So that is also 3 clicks. And is extremely simple to set up.

All the templates in the list are in alphabetical order making them easy to find.

Betty

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20 minutes ago, Bill Brooks said:

Think of the keyword catalogue  as an upside down forest.

 

There is a tree for locations. There is a tree for architecture. There is a tree for plants. There is a tree for animals. There is a tree for geology. There is a tree for history. There is a tree for time. There is a tree for image treatment. There is a tree for weather. There is a tree for whatever you decide to add to the keyword catalogue.

 

Click on a subkeyword at the end of a branch and it zips up the branch to the trunk taking every other subkeyword above it.

 

For instance: Image of people walking in autumn beside a swan in Grenadier pond through the forest in Toronto's High Park.

 

Click on subkeyword phrase GRENADIER POND on the LOCATION tree and you get Canada; Grenadier Pond; High Park; North America; Ontario; park; Toronto

 

Click on subkeyword SWAMP on The ENVIRONMENTS tree and you get:
marsh; pond; swamp; water

 

CLICK subkeyword PIONEER on the HISTORY tree and you get: historic; history; pioneer

 

Click on subkeyword CYGNUS BUCCINATOR on the LIFE tree and you get animal; bird; Cygnus buccinator; Olor buccinator; Trumpeter Swan; swan

 

Click on the subkeyword EXERCISE on the LIFE tree and you have: exercise; hike; hiking; people; person; walk; walking

 

Click on the subkeyword CHANGE on the TIME tree and you get: autumn; change; color; colour; fall; season

 

Click on CAROLINIAN FOREST on the ENVIRONMENTS tree and you get: carolinian; carolinian forest; eastern deciduous; eastern deciduous forest; forest 

 

In Bridge these keywords accumulate in the Keyword metadata so with 7 quick clicks you have the following 39 keywords in the file’s metadata:

Canada; Grenadier Pond; High Park; North America; Ontario; park; Toronto; marsh; pond; swamp; water; historic; history; pioneer; animal; bird; Cygnus buccinator; Olor buccinator; Trumpeter Swan; swan; exercise; hike; hiking; people; person; walk; walking; autumn; change; color; colour; fall; season; carolinian; carolinian forest; eastern deciduous; eastern deciduous forest; forest

 

Save the file or multiple selected files in Bridge and upload to Alamy. In the new AIM select the supertabs and answer the questions.

 

I might also decide to add ; people walking; autumn colour; autumn color; autumn colour; to the keyword catalogue for next time. I would also add them to the 39 keywords for this particular image, making a total of 43 keywords.

 

It is important to note subject trees are separate. Therefore I could click on the subkeyword EXERCISE on the LIFE tree and have: exercise; hike; hiking; people; person; walk; walking; added to keywords for a hiking image taken in California.

 

I wish I had thought about all of this sooner. I probably should have placed more emphasis on setting up keywords before uploading to Alamy,  but the urge to get photos on the system got me carried away. Having put off the task of organising keywords, it’s going to take a very very long time. So, if you’re newer than me to Alamy, take the advice about keyword hierarchies now ;) I have already spent hours on it and the list doesn’t seem a lot shorter!

Edited by Sally
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  • 4 years later...

This is an old topic but one which I'm sure that newbies (like me) will search for.

 

I have found in my first week of posting on Alamy that the green bar or discoverability gauge is a useful indicator as to whether or not you've filled out as much information as you can.

 

Check the following:

1. Your image has a caption that is descriptive. Not too long say 5 words or so.

2. Have you entered relevant keywords, and at least 30 or more to give a wide spectrum to catch your audience. Watch your spelling as Alamy's system won't correct it.

3. Select 10 of the above Keywords as your best and most likely chance of drawing in that client. You select them by clicking the little star on the entered keyword. The keyword then becomes promoted to a 'supertag'

4. Next to 'Mandatory' there is a tab labelled 'Optional' . At first I was missing this other page and so not entering enough data and my discoverability was poor even with a maximum number of keywords.

Fill in as much of this page as necessary but especially the location of where your image is shot and the date (if not automatically entered from your image data).

Don't forget to identify how many people are in the shot, and actually tell the system there is '0' if it's a photo of animals or objects etc without people.

5. Select a category for your photo and if relevant a sub category.

 

Having discovered all this in my first few days, I now get a full green scale on all my submissions, however I have no doubt that this does not guarantee results, i.e. downloads. Keywords are the big thing here.

 

Hope this helps anyone new to Alamy. Good luck😊

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53 minutes ago, Steve_B said:

Fill in as much of this page as necessary but especially the location of where your image is shot and the date (if not automatically entered from your image data).

Don't forget to identify how many people are in the shot, and actually tell the system there is '0' if it's a photo of animals or objects etc without people.

5. Select a category for your photo and if relevant a sub category.

 

Having discovered all this in my first few days, I now get a full green scale on all my submissions, however I have no doubt that this does not guarantee results, i.e. downloads. Keywords are the big thing here.

Well, the green bar may in fact adversely affect your results if you have entered keywords that aren't strictly relevant even though they may in theory describe something that can be seen in your picture. 

 

The Location is not searched by the Alamy search engine but it is displayed to the buyer and, as has been pointed out recently, will be indexed by Google because of that. It is also used for the Location filter in the sidebar so make sure that you include either UK, Europe, USA or Australia in the text string if that is relevant to your image. 

 

The default for People is 0 and No Model Release, same for Property.

 

Very debatable whether Primary & Secondary Categories are used at all but no harm filling them in I suppose, better to be safe than sorry etc.

 

You should pay particular attention to the 'Sell for Editorial only' check box as only images marked as such will come up under the Editorial search, however that may or may not be a good thing, they will still come up under 'All images'. Check it if the location or subject is at all sensitive with respect to permissions.

Edited by Harry Harrison
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No no no no no no. Getting the full green bar with lots of views that don't result in sales is very counter-productive. It will hurt your rank. Put as much as possible in the caption as it is very heavily weighted in the order of search results. Make sure everything is relevant applied to the main subject. Sorry. To be fair, the rest of what you have said is helpful.

 

Paulette

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On 16/09/2022 at 11:17, Steve_B said:

Check the following:

1. Your image has a caption that is descriptive. Not too long say 5 words or so.

2. Have you entered relevant keywords, and at least 30 or more to give a wide spectrum to catch your audience. Watch your spelling as Alamy's system won't correct it.

Hmmm, don't know why you think the caption should be short. It's searchable.

Note that here, on Alamy's official tutorial, there are far fewer than 30 keywords. However, arguably they should have added a few more e.g. Phascolarctos cinereus in the Koala photo.

 

Edited by Cryptoprocta
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