Lynn Palmer Posted September 10, 2013 Share Posted September 10, 2013 I’ve been posting images to Alamy for a couple months now and I’m trying to make sense of how to optimize my keywording for improved views, zooms and hopefully sales. So far I’ve kept my keywords focused and fairly sparse to avoid coming up in searches that don’t fit the image. I’ve been perhaps a bit too successful since I’m also not getting loads of views and zooms…or sales. I’ve been reviewing My Alamy and find that with few exceptions the majority of searches are simple one, two or three word searches that result in thousands of views. Common words like “race”, “white cat”, “jellyfish”, “animals funny” and “cruise ship” are some of the most recent searches and resulted in over 14,000 views apiece. I gave up trying to find my white cat images after 50 pages so no surprise I wasn't zoomed. One searcher uses a much more complex system, for example “house colorful not fun not bird not food not dish not girl not family not man not woman not cute not animal not dog not cat not child not baby”, but his results also pull up thousands of images so the advantage of such a lengthy search term isn’t clear to me. You can comment on my keywords for any image but if it makes it easier, take a look at my keywords for this image DB6WD9 – RM. It's one of my more sparsely keyworded images. Caption: Man casting rod and reel, fishing from the beach in Fernandina Beach, Florida. Essential Keywords: man cast fishing beach rod reel surf sand sea Main Keywords: Atlantic Ocean surf waves [Fernandina Beach] [Nassau County] Florida USA Location: Fernandina Beach, Nassau County, Florida, USA Also, I'm having a lot of trouble keywording two images, DDGG98 – RM and DDGH8D – RM, since I'm not good with vehicle identifications. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted September 10, 2013 Share Posted September 10, 2013 I think you're mostly on target with your keywording, Lynn. I would add "casting" as well as "cast" to DB6WD9. The sad truth is that stock is a very slow-moving business. Your pictures look good and your keywords look good. The stock industry does not look good. The car? Someone will be in here tomorrow with the answer. Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lynn Palmer Posted September 10, 2013 Author Share Posted September 10, 2013 Thanks Ed, casting and cast make sense so I'll add them to all the images I took in that series. As for the stock business, it's not the only depressed industry at the moment. It's sometimes disappointing but I'm in it for the long haul and will just keep adding to my catalog of images and assume I will eventually reach a tipping point. I picked up a NEX 6 over the weekend that I can carry with me on a daily basis so it will be easier for me to capture those chance opportunities I come across. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted September 10, 2013 Share Posted September 10, 2013 Ah, welcome to the world of NEX. The NEX-6 has been a rebirthing for me. You'll love it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lynn Palmer Posted September 10, 2013 Author Share Posted September 10, 2013 Heck of a lot lighter than the 5DM2 but battery life sucks . I'm uploading a few test images tonight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Coombs Posted September 10, 2013 Share Posted September 10, 2013 I always carry two spare batteries for NEX 6. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted September 10, 2013 Share Posted September 10, 2013 RE the car it looks to be some kind of petrol head's freak conversion, rather than a true vintage. Sorry but I don't know the terminology for this rather weird scene, but, no doubt Google will assist. I wouldn't have mentioned the dice, not big enough to be of interest in my view. Just cause unwanted views. One spare NEX 6 battery is normally enough for me! To be honest I have never ran out of juice with a fully charged battery during a single day's shooting, I clearly don't try hard enough Hardly used my 5DII since buying the NEX. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mirco Vacca Posted September 10, 2013 Share Posted September 10, 2013 The same thing to me Bryan. It also depends a lot on if you are constantly playing your images to watch them. If you shoot most of the time you will be ok. About keywords ..... i dont use to many. I make sure that i have only relevant keywords. On many images i have only 15 to 20 keywords and they resulting high in the search results. It is like a scale. To much or to less will be afecting you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Bell Posted September 10, 2013 Share Posted September 10, 2013 Heck of a lot lighter than the 5DM2 but battery life sucks . I'm uploading a few test images tonight. I think I read somewhere that there was or is a new higher capacity battery for the Nex 6. Allan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lynn Palmer Posted September 10, 2013 Author Share Posted September 10, 2013 Richard and Bryan, I haven't run the battery down yet but I've simply noticed it drains a lot faster than my 5DM2 batteries. As pointed out I can just carry a couple spares. The NEX is sure a lot easier to carry and much more discrete than the 5DM2 so I probably will use it for most of my stock work. I guess my next purchase will be a Sony 55-210mm f/4.5 lens. Philippe, you make good points about Fernandina Beach and the caption. I'll make the change. "Summer holiday" isn't something I would have thought to add since a man wearing shorts and fishing off the beach can be found year round in Florida. Will including it as a search term help me with UK/EU buyers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted September 10, 2013 Share Posted September 10, 2013 Philippe, your English, the craft you use expressing what you're writing, is nothing short of amazing. Well . . . I once successfully ordered a croissant and coffee at a bar in Brussels. Ed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wiskerke Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 The car is not a vintage but a hot rod, probably based on a some sort of Ford, but probably not a T-Ford. Ford afficionados will be able to determine the exact year of the original based on the shape of the grille and the windows. I would say that for US subjects the keywords should be mainly in US-english. If you expect any interest from the UK or it's former colonies, use UK-english. Truck vs lorry; bonnet vs boot; gas vs petrol, those kind of things. There are a couple of really good US vs UK English dictionaries out there. For keywording things that are outside my scope of knowledge, I start with an image search on Google Images. For your car I started with T Ford in Google Images, and noticed that your car does not look like the first half of the page at all, but scrolling down Google shows a car with modern wide tires like yours. It links to an article about rodders or street rodders. Wikipedia directs me to hot rod, when I search for street rodder or rod. Now back to Google images where I go searching for street rod Ford and it turns out it's probaly based on a Deuce Coupe, which is of course the original hotrod made immortal by the Beach Boys as Little Deuce Coupe. And it may well be a kit car (kitcar) that just looks like a real one, because real bod work has become terribly expensive. So now my best guess: a kitcar kit car hotrod hot rod hotrodder street rodder streetrod streetrodder based on a an US USA Ford B 1932 thirties Little Deuce Coupe. In some countries license plate look-up is free, so that's where I would have started normally, but I could not locate a free source for FL plates. wim 36C/96F in Virginia and Maryland today ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lynn Palmer Posted September 12, 2013 Author Share Posted September 12, 2013 Thanks so much WIM. It's definitely a Ford (logo can be seen in a photo of rear bumper) Like you I started with a model T, migrated to a model A but realized the grill was wrong, tires wide and it might be a reproduction, although I think the blue license plates are reserved for antique cars. At that point I ran out of ideas so your help is greatly appreciated. I'll look around for a local car club too, Gainesville is a fairly small town and someone should know the car. Thanks again, Lynn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reimar Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 I do my best to go overboard on keywords, and agree with Philippe about adding generic words like sport and recreation. I would have also added Black, male, African American. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 Hello Lynn, Interesting exercise to see what people come up with in terms of keywording for your sea fishing image: From my point of view I would do it like this (simply my way, not of course likely to be the best!) Caption: Angler fishing with a rod in the sea at Fernandina beach, Florida USA Ess Keys: angler fishing sea beach USA man fisherman rod Main keys: waves surf waters edge america american US united states of america fernandina beach Florida casting reel fishing outdoor activity activities hobby hobbies (whatever season or month it was), coast shore shoreline coastline seashore Location: fernandina beach Florida USA and thats that Hope that helps! Kumar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lynn Palmer Posted September 13, 2013 Author Share Posted September 13, 2013 Thanks again Philippe, Wim, Reimar and Kumar! Between you I've filled up the space for keywords on my images. I still have some work left on the keywords for the old Ford and the motorcycle but I'm in a lot better shape than before. Bryan and Allan, I haven't depleted a battery yet but I haven't attempted a full day of shooting either. It just makes sense to have a spare or two on hand and will get some. Mirco, I generally don't review photos in the camera, rather I wait until I load them into the computer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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