Photo database / Google image search

[brucehughw]

Hi, everyone.

This is more of a software/process question. I'm working on a photo series, which I hope to eventually exhibit. As I work the series, I'll be seeing what sort of photos and effects others have used and think about adapting them to my material. I'm always seeing new images and frequently get new ideas. How to keep track of all this material? For example, if I see a photo by Jane Smith and categorize it as a pictorialist genre and also see that it's low key and a portrait - well, I'll want to flag Ms. Smith's photo as such. Then I'll want to later locate Ms. Smith's photo and all the other photos that I've called "low key." Can anyone recommend software (hopefully free) for easily adding new references to other photos? I'll be making up my own genres (or using established ones) and tags as I proceed (low key, portrait, etc.), and it would be great to have these easily available as I enter in new photo information. I don't necessarily want to enter a jpg of Ms. Smith's photo, but rather a link to it.

On a related note, has anyone submitted their own photo and done a Google image search? Say I take my photo of a foggy hill - it would be cool to see what others have done with similar subject matter.

Thanks, Bruce

[xpatUSA]

Hi Bruce, haven't "seen" you in a while.

My many images are scattered all over my HD and I still don't use a cataloging function and don't intend to.

The answer to your dilemma is to start adding meta-data to your masterpieces - in addition to what your editor provides. For that, I use PhotoMechanic -costs money-. I prefer to fill out the fields for IPTC especially the multiple keywords field. Whether Google Search accesses IPTC I don't know.

https://iptc.org/standards/photo-met...hoto-metadata/

https://iptc.org/standards/photo-met...google-images/

I also use free XnView for searching on my HD because it is much better than PhotoMechanic in that regard. XnView can also add IPTC meta-data.

Caveat: Quite a learning curve especially for the best choice of keywords but well worth it in the end.

Only today I needed to find images shot by a Sigma SD9 and of flowers ... easy peasy.

Good luck with the enterprise ...

[brucehughw]

Hi, Ted.

Thanks very much for your suggestions. It's not so much the metadata or keywords with my photos (by the way, I use LR and downloaded an amazingly comprehensive list of keywords in a hierarchy, which works very well). Rather, it's finding photos that have something in common with my photos, or at least the keywords / tags that I've assigned to my photos. If I come across an image that I like and want to remember for future reference, I don't necessarily want to import it into LR and apply keywords. I'd prefer to tag it with some other program. Now suppose I've done this with a lot of images, and I want to see which of these images have something in common with one of my LR images. I'd like to enter my LR keywords into a search window and get a list of matches. It sounds laborious, but if I could streamline the tagging part of the found images, the rest is just a simple search.

Bruce

Hi Bruce, haven't "seen" you in a while.

... Only today I needed to find images shot by a Sigma SD9 and of flowers ... easy peasy.

Good luck with the enterprise ...

[xpatUSA]

Rather, it's finding photos that have something in common with my photos, or at least the keywords / tags that I've assigned to my photos. If I come across an image that I like and want to remember for future reference, I don't necessarily want to import it into LR and apply keywords. I'd prefer to tag it with some other program. Now suppose I've done this with a lot of images, and I want to see which of these images have something in common with one of my LR images. I'd like to enter my LR keywords into a search window and get a list of matches. It sounds laborious, but if I could streamline the tagging part of the found images, the rest is just a simple search.

Bruce -assuming that you are "coming across" photos online- are you wanting to somehow tag them online or would you be downloading them to your machine and tagging them there?

If the former, I don't know of any app that can do that and the thought that someone could change tags on one of my images online is a tad bothersome.

If the latter, XnView may still meet your needs. It can search a folder and all sub-folders therein and then put up thumbnails in a sort of contact sheet view which is kind of like a "list of matches" ...

... while in the "PHOTO" folder, I searched on the IPTC keyword "family" and got five results from it and all sub-folders. You can view each in full size and scroll back and forth with a couple of arrows ...



Not sure I'm fully understanding your needs right now ...

These may or may not be of help:

https://www.hobo-web.co.uk/definitiv...ant-meta-tags/

https://www.wordstream.com/meta-tags

https://support.google.com/webmaster...er/35624?hl=en

Feel free to discuss further - I am interested.

[brucehughw]

Hi, Ted.

Thanks for the continued suggestions and interest. I installed xnview (standard version), and am impressed at how it behaves like a really fast file browser for images. Thus far I'm unable to edit any of the metadata. I assume that's where I'd place my keywords. I tried with both .dng files and .png files, and the edit IPTC data was greyed out. Do you have any suggestions for that?

Also, I'm not sure if I'll be using xnview to add keywords to my own images. I'm happy with how LR does that, and i'm reluctant to alter any .dng or .psd files, lest LR complain when I try to load them. But I do see a potential benefit in downloading images that I'd like to keep track of for future reference, tagging them, and then finding them. I think my vision of having AI or google magically take one of my images and find similar ones that I could riff on - well, that vision is probably a ways off. But a simple means of keeping track of interesting images, that's appealing.

Thanks again, Bruce

PS I pasted a small screenshot into this post, where I'm trying to edit the metadata. When I click on what seems to be a link for the screenshot, it's really slow loading. Do we still need to create a tinyurl for images? I haven't been on this site in a while.

[xpatUSA]

Hi, Ted.

Thanks for the continued suggestions and interest. I installed xnview (standard version), and am impressed at how it behaves like a really fast file browser for images. Thus far I'm unable to edit any of the metadata. I assume that's where I'd place my keywords. I tried with both .dng files and .png files, and the edit IPTC data was greyed out. Do you have any suggestions for that?

Oh dear, I didn't know you were using DNG, PNG, PSD. That complicates matters considerably. I naively commented assuming JPEG or TIFF.

OK, I opened up XnView for the purpose of adding IPTC stuff to a DNG, PNG, JPEG and a TIFF. Found that XnView does not edit DNG or PNG -just as you found- although it will open them for viewing. It does edit JPEG or TIFF IPTC -not much use to you it seems.

I usually edit meta-data with PhotoMechanic -it's quicker and easier. I found that it can apparently edit DNG and PNG IPTC but (always a but) XnView Search only found IPTC in one of them. To be honest, I didn't know that either DNG or PNG even support embedded IPTC -we live and learn.

So, having strayed briefly into the elephantine world of Adobe (DNG, PSD), I must quickly exit and return to my Adobe-free computer. Sorry to have raised your hopes and wasted your time.[/QUOTE]

[xpatUSA]

I usually edit meta-data with PhotoMechanic -it's quicker and easier. I found that it can apparently edit DNG and PNG IPTC but (always a but) XnView Search only found IPTC in one of them.

Bruce, here is the DNG opened in XnView having had IPTC stuff added by PhotoMechanic:



XnView showed the PNG in the contact sheet view but right-clicking and selecting 'properties' brought up a dialog with no IPTC or EXIF tabs, unlike the DNG above. Basically,If you work in PNG or search in PNG files, XnView is obviously no good for your purposes, sorry, and I doubt that you'll suddenly convert all your masterpieces to JPEG or TIFF so you can use it.

[brucehughw]

You didn't waste my time at all! I learned a little about some new software and new tagging techniques.

Changing the subject (but only slightly), I tried using Adobe Bridge for adding keywords (BTW, I didn't realize you were sort of anti-Adobe.) Anyway, Bridge makes it easy to add keywords. Indeed, it will even import a hierarchical list of keywords and then one can pick from them. I thought -- great, I'm getting close. I then imported some photos from my phone into iCloud and Bridge was able to see them and add keywords. I thought I found my solution - I can photograph images for inspiration (say at a gallery) or import stuff from online (again, for inspiration) and keyword them. But it s.l.o.w.l.y dawned on me that all this could be a big time sink and not do much to advance my photography. In the research world, one needs to be very thorough in citing other work and saying how one is building on it. In the photo world, curators like to know about influences, but it's really the artist's own take/vision/talent on something that matters. So this is a very different scenario. I can be a good photo researcher and be very diligent about tracing influences, or I can try and be a good photographer and put my time and energy there. I think I'll do the latter. So thanks for your suggestions and sharing your knowledge. For now, though, I'll put aside this notion of creating a catalog of my inspirations and then drawing from it. Thanks for helping me figure that out.

[xpatUSA]

... But it s.l.o.w.l.y dawned on me that all this could be a big time sink and not do much to advance my photography. ... So this is a very different scenario. I can be a good photo researcher and be very diligent about tracing influences, or I can try and be a good photographer and put my time and energy there. I think I'll do the latter. So thanks for your suggestions and sharing your knowledge. For now, though, I'll put aside this notion of creating a catalog of my inspirations and then drawing from it. Thanks for helping me figure that out.

You're most welcome, Bruce. As to a big time-sink, you got that dead right!