Image size

[lorenza]

Goodmorning everyone

As I said in a previous post it's been about a year since I joined Alamy. I need advice because I'm not sure of my work

I use lightroom for post production and, almost always, I export the photos to the original size (shot with a REFLEX APS - C 24MP) and load at the maximum size: some files reach 12mb and even 20 MB. Am I proceeding correctly?
Also I try to bring the tags to 50, but reading in the forum, I saw that it is discouraged as there is the danger of using tags not very relevant ...

[Colin Woods]

You have no problem with image size. Trying to reach 50 keywords is a big mistake as it will increase your number of irrelevant views. Include directly relevant keywords only (who, what, where, when and why). I have images with just 10-12 keywords. Have a read of this thread http://discussion.alamy.com/topic/9073-how-to-recover-this-situation/ as it contains some good information on keywording.

 

[lorenza]

Just now, Colin Woods said:

Non hai problemi con le dimensioni dell'immagine. Cercare di raggiungere 50 parole chiave è un grosso errore in quanto aumenterà il numero di visualizzazioni irrilevanti. Includi solo parole chiave direttamente pertinenti (chi, cosa, dove, quando e perché). Ho immagini con solo 10-12 parole chiave. Leggi questa discussione http://discussion.alamy.com/topic/9073-how-to-recover-this-situation/  in quanto contiene alcune informazioni utili sul keywording.

 

Thanks Colin, now I'm quieter, from now on I will try not to exceed 25 keywords (less work !!!) Good afternoon (here in Italy it is 2.00pm). Thank you so much!

[Colin Woods]

Lorenza, don't try to achieve any number of keywords. Just type what you see in the image, including plurals and american equivalents if relevant (colour, color etc). If its 10 and they are all relevant, then there are 10. If its 50 keywords and they are all directly relevant than its 50. Don't have a target number of keywords. 

[lorenza]

12 minutes ago, Colin Woods said:

Lorenza, don't try to achieve any number of keywords. Just type what you see in the image, including plurals and american equivalents if relevant (colour, color etc). If its 10 and they are all relevant, then there are 10. If its 50 keywords and they are all directly relevant than its 50. Don't have a target number of keywords. 

 

 

so far I have always exaggerated, I thought that optimizing the image had more value. Of course it is not easy, not being a mother tongue English, find the American equivalent ....

 

[Martin B]

1 hour ago, GS-Images said:

That's fine if you use relevant words only, but never add tags just for the sake of making them "optimised" or "green". It will hinder, not help. Try not to think too deeply about how many tags you add, it's a lot simpler than you may be thinking. Simply type what you see and what an image might represent (like a concept of love or friendship or summer or whatever else).

That is fine for normal people, but I'm slightly OCD, so I have at least get it green on most of my images. A simple subject, like jelly beans on a white background, would be hard to get more than say relevant 20 tags, but with more complex subjects there is often no problem reaching 50 in just a few minutes of typing. Tags should not just be keywords, but relevant phrases as well. If you incorporate phrases, plurals, and alternate spellings, getting the image "optimized" is not always that hard. An example might be an old man in a garden with a water can. You would use old, man, garden, and bucket, of course, but old man gardening and man watering plants are also good descriptive search terms that should be added as tags. Using both noun and verb variants of a word, as in garden and gardening, will also increase relevant and important tags.

[Colin Woods]

Absolutely, but adding keywords just to get into the green is not optimising the image. Its de-optimising it as it will appear in more searches. If it appears in searches that are not relevant to that image then your CTR will take a hit. 

[spacecadet]

I don't think getting too close to 50 is a good idea if you might ever need to add a new set of tags, because bulk deletion is all but impossible in the new AIM, and you can't tell which of a batch of images is the one causing the "too many tags" message.

But optimisation certainly has no impact on rank or sales.

[Colin Woods]

I posted the below a while back and have pasted it in here as I think its relevant in this thread. When I started I used way too many keywords, I put in words that were only tangentially linked to the image. After a while I had a rethink and after consulting this ever generous (if sometimes tetchy) forum, set about deleting rotten images and loads of keywords. The original thread is called "How to Recover this situation" started by KODAKovic  on Feb 1st. The link to this thread is above in my original reply to the OP.

 

 

 

I was in the same situation. I had about 5000 images online and was getting only occasional sales, really poor performance. Every search I tried I was down right at the end. I had a good look at other portfolios that were doing well (from what people reported). I concluded that I had three giant errors in my portfolio - too many similar images, too many rotten images and too many barely relevant keywords. It was a long task but I set about correcting this. I deleted about 1500 images (I cringe now when I see what I uploaded back then) and deleted at least half and in some cases three quarters of my keywords. The only keywords I kept were directly related to what I could see in the image, no general broad keywords at all. I was also guilty, because I dislike keywording, of copying and pasting into batches of pictures too much which only increased the number of irrelevant keywords. It took me a good few months to redo all my images. That was in 2010. Set about a good hard edit now while you have 'only' 3000 images. Directly relevant keywords only and a long detailed caption is my way of working. 

 

[Martin B]

5 hours ago, GS-Images said:

 

 I can understand you wanting to add all sorts of loosely relevant tags to each image.

I wasn't talking about loosely relevant. I was talking about using specific search terms as tag phrases. Take Lorenza's photo of a man watering plants in a garden. Keywords like socialization, people, or ambient are not going to get anyone who needs a photo of an old man in a garden to her image very efficiently. The phrase old man watering plants, or elderly man gardening would be more common search terms, and thus more relevant and important tags. If I was using a search engine to find an image like that, that would be the type of search terms I would be typing in in order to find it. I look at my photos when tagging and try to think of what words or phrases I would use when Googling that image that will actually get me there. Looking at it from the other side makes it easier, for me at least. I'm not saying get to 50. Concise is better, if it is done right, but 50 highly relevant tags is not always hard to get to with complex subjects or scenes.

[Archaeo]

Just one minor point on your "Community Garden" photos. 

Add the term "allotment" - that's the usual term in British English, might help with searches from the UK.

 

Martyn

[Martin B]

58 minutes ago, Archaeo said:

 

Add the term "allotment" - that's the usual term in British English, might help with searches from the UK.

 

 

Interesting. I never would have associated the word with a garden plot. Never heard the word used in that context in the US.

[Cryptoprocta]

1 hour ago, Martin B said:

Interesting. I never would have associated the word with a garden plot. Never heard the word used in that context in the US.

What do you call them Stateside?

 

BTW, I'd think a community garden was different from an allotment.

A community garden is a garden run by a community of people, generally open to all who are willing to participate, (or maybe designated for people with particular needs) and can be any size, according to the land available.

An allotment is an allocated (allotted) plot usually tended by one person, a couple/family or a very small group of friends. Traditionally, the size in the UK was calculated as 'enough to supply a family of four with vegetables for most of the year', but nowadays some allotments are divided into smaller plots to allow for e.g. older people who don't feel able to tend a large allotment.

[Martin B]

1 hour ago, Cryptoprocta said:

What do you call them Stateside?

 

 

Idk. It's just called a rented garden plot. The word allotment is usually used in context of monetary matters or time. It can be something divided up between a group of people by a company or government entity. I guess in some cases that could be land,  but never heard it used in context of a garden plot. As in time, it would be like a teacher allotting a certain amount of time to each student, but that is almost always used in its verb forms: allotting, allotted. Or maybe I just a live a linguistically sheltered life.

[lorenza]

Good morning

Thanks to all of you for your speeches. They helped me have things clearer.
The images I have shown in my portfolio concern a photographic service I have carried out (my personal service) to an area in the outskirts of my city (Trento, Trentino Altoa Adige, northern Italy), owned by the Municipality of Trento, used for vegetable gardens social or municipal gardens. These are lots that are assigned to people who must have certain social and economic characteristics. It is a way of helping people who need it most from an economic point of view and from a social point of view. I'm fascinated by this area and I'll explain why. Every day I go by train to the city to go to work and as this area runs along the railway, I see it every day. It is a very large area divided into small lots and each lot, each square is personalized. Each season is presented in a different way. Imagine a large area where each lot has different colors because the person who grows vegetables, flowers, the small greenhouse, uses different and colored tools. It fascinates me and however I consider it very beautiful and socially useful.
Through the tags I wanted to convey this utility, economic and above all social utility. In fact, it represents a way of socializing for the elderly who spend a few hours working the land and socializing with other elders. I remember talking to them during the moment when I took my pictures and this feeling of well-being I found in each of them.
I wanted to share this thing with you, good day to all.
Here in Italy (Trento - Trentino Alto Adige ... a beautiful region with a fantastic nature) it is eight thirty in the morning and it is Friday ...

lorenza

[spacecadet]

10 hours ago, Martin B said:

Interesting. I never would have associated the word with a garden plot. Never heard the word used in that context in the US.

Well, Alamy is a British company, and you learn something every day.

[Sally]

18 hours ago, spacecadet said:

I don't think getting too close to 50 is a good idea if you might ever need to add a new set of tags, because bulk deletion is all but impossible in the new AIM, and you can't tell which of a batch of images is the one causing the "too many tags" message.

But optimisation certainly has no impact on rank or sales.

Rmleving keywords is easy if you use Alamy-Lightroom Bridge, since you can see all photos with a keyword, then remove it and add others in Lightroom, then set the new metadata in Alamy using Bridge.

[spacecadet]

1 hour ago, Sally said:

Rmleving keywords is easy if you use Alamy-Lightroom Bridge, since you can see all photos with a keyword, then remove it and add others in Lightroom, then set the new metadata in Alamy using Bridge.

I don't.