Tagging photos in Flickr

June 10, 2010

cc licensed flickr photo shared by funkandjazz

As the idea of “tagging” files, images, folders, etc… caught on over the last few years, I’ve embraced it for so many reasons. Instead of sticking a file into a folder, that file could not represent so much more. For students, this could be “paper”, “draft1″, “Sci 302″, “subject”, “term written”, “year”, and so on. The concept of tagging allows the user more freedom with how he or she categorizes and organizes electronic work. While this still has far to go in tagging files inside the OS, the cloud is much more favorable to tagging. While social bookmarking, I will tag various website relatively liberally, but my photos are a different story.

I use Flickr to organize my photography and originally my audience was very limited. I remember one day two years ago I went into my Flickr tag cloud and was mortified by how many there were. I tried to merge tags, organize them, and drop some that didn’t seem pertinent. Looking back I was limiting myself.

But things change. I’ve been shooting more for other people: clients, yearbook; conferences; @dailyshoot; and picture of the day. My Flickr followers has exploded over the last year, too. Recently I wanted to add some photos to a presentation I was creating and couldn’t find this photo of a student I wanted. I knew the shot and knew it was on my Flickr. The boy was in my classroom, sitting at a desk, texting. He had red hair. I searched for “mobile”, “cell”, “classroom”, etc… and did not find the photo. Around the same time I was searching for dance shots I’d taken and couldn’t find them.

My tagging philosophy has now changed. Flickr lets you tag any photo with a maximum of 200 tags and I always wondered who would need so many. Well, I don’t use 200 but I sure use more than I use to. Now I tag photos in several ways. I begin with simple tags that include “Month Year”, then “Year” and then “Month”. Those are always standard for me now. If I can remember the month I shot something, I can flip back to everything from that month quickly. I then tag the event: e.g., “First Friday” or “Boys Varsity Volleyball”. Then I get more specific. For the volleyball example I just mentioned, I’d also include tags for “boys” “varsity volleyball” and “volleyball”. I’d tag those with both teams’ names (if I know them). If I shot it for yearbook, I’d tag it as such so the photo editor can go straight to a tag made just for that event. I am also beginning to tag minor things. When was the last time you needed a shot of a woman wearing a bandana? Today I edited a photo that matched that description and included tags to show that. Also, if the majority of the photo is a certain color scheme (like blues), I also tag it with the color name.

I cannot guarantee that in six months or a year, I will remember how my brain thought that single day when I tagged that shot. But I can guarantee that if I liberally tag my photos, one of the tags I will use to try to find that shot will pull it up from my Flickr.

Posted in photography, storage, technology