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Keywording
 

Independent information   


Carole Gomez has written this some time ago for Dreamstime:


The power of words
So, you’ve nailed the focus and exposure. You’ve mastered the composition and spent a while in the digital “darkroom” fluffing and preening your shot to perfection. It’s time to send your fabulous image to make its way in the world. Like every anxious parent when a child leaves home, you’ll want to have equipped it with all the necessities to help it become a success. That means keywords (for your images, obviously not for your children. Your children will probably just need occasional food parcels and relationship counselling).

Don’t wave off your lovingly crafted image only to have it consigned to the stock abyss. A little time spent on keywording will give your shot the exposure it deserves.

Firstly, what’s the point of your shot. When you took it, what purpose did you have in mind for a designer to use it?. Having your target audience in mind will help to inspire your keywording.

Secondly, and very importantly, keep your keywords relevant. Keywording isn’t a word association game!. You have a shot of a dog who you consider to be part of your family? Good for you, just don’t even think about including “family” in your keywords. Have a shot of a dog with a tiny figure way off in the distance who you know is a woman because she was much closer when you started to set your tripod up for the shot?. Nice, but don’t put “woman” in your keywords. Take a look at every word you’ve chosen and put yourself in the designers shoes. If they type in “woman” they are looking for images with a woman as the subject. The chances that your dog shot is so mindblowingly fantastic that they forget they wanted an image of a woman, are remote. If an object isn’t in the shot, it shouldn’t be in the keywords. Did I mention that if an object isn’t in the shot it shouldn’t be in the keywords? And that it is important?! Good. Poking the designers with the sharp stick of irrelevant keywords is bad for everyone.

So, where do you get your relevant keywords? A thesaurus is a great help when you’ve run out of ideas, or if English is not your first language. If you don’t own one, there are lots of free on-line versions. I like this one http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki and I also sometimes just use the thesaurus that comes with MS Word. We all need a little memory jogger for the important (but relevant) keywords we might have missed. If English is not your first language, you should be careful with synonyms and antonyms. Antonymns can sometimes be useful, but they are the opposite of the word you searched for. For example, hot is the antonym for cold – but it might still be useful if you are keywording a thermometer.


What if English is your first language? Don’t think you’re getting off easily! .Which version of English do you use?. American English, as well as being used in the United States, is taught in as a second language in many countries (Eg : Russia, Japan, the Philippines among others). British (or Commonwealth) English is used across the United Kingdom and many other countries (Eg : much of Africa – including South Africa, Pakistan, India, Malta, Australia, New Zealand).

So, which version of English is the designer searching for your image using?! ? It’s a good idea to cater for everyone and include American and British words and spelling. To save extra typing, I’m going to refer to these as USA & UK from now on. No hidden Commonwealth agenda in that, it’s just easier on the fingers.

Maybe you know the basics. In case you don’t, the general spelling differences are :
Words ending ise in UK will end ize in USA (eg, realise / realize)
Words ending our in UK will end or in USA (eg, humour / humor)
Words with different meanings are more interesting than the spelling bee stuff. This list might come in handy one day… Tell a UK model that you want to shoot her in pants, you’ll get more than you bargained for if you’re a US English speaker!

Autumn Vs fall: Autumn UK is referred to as fall in the US. There, I started you off with a nice easy one.
Biscuit Vs cookie: A US cookie is a UK biscuit. To make it more confusing, a biscuit in the US is a little like a savoury scone in the UK. Hope you were all paying attention, can you guess which version of English I use from the way I spell savoury?
Bonnet Vs hood: The bonnet of a car UK is a US hood.
Boot Vs trunk: The boot of a UK car is a US trunk.
Chemist Vs pharmacy : A UK chemist is a US pharmacy (although UK does use pharmacy occasionally).
Chips Vs fries, crisps Vs chips: UK chips are US fries (although the UK does also use the term fries, but only for skinny chips, the fast food kind. (Oh, come on, don’t pretend you don’t know what they are!). Confused yet? Well, to make it worse…US potato chips are UK crisps.
Christmas Vs Holiday: See entry under holiday, bellow.
Coriander Vs cilantro: UK coriander is US cilantro. Great for garnishing all those yummy food shots.
Dummy Vs pacifier: UK dummy is US pacifier.
Flyover Vs overpass: UK flyover is US overpass
Football Vs Soccer: A complicated one! UK football is usually US soccer, but very occasionally it means rugby. US football is always referred to as American football in UK
Fringe vs Bangs: UK fringe (hair) is US bangs
Gas – surely the most complicated?: US gas is UK petrol (for filling up the car). UK gas is a fossil fuel in gaseous state used to heat & cook.
Holiday Vs vacation, Christmas Vs holiday: UK holiday is US vacation. Note that holiday is not generally used in UK to signify Christmas. Hence, holiday decorations (US) are Christmas decorations (UK). So holiday images in the US will mean Christmas images. But holiday images in the UK will mean travel destinations/beaches!!
Jumper vs sweater: UK jumper is US sweater
Knickers Vs panties: UK knickers are US panties. But, see pants for very important pant related information!
Lift Vs elevator: UK lift is US elevator
Lorry Vs truck: UK lorry is US truck
Nappy Vs diaper: UK nappy is US diaper
Pants Vs trousers: UK pants are US panties. But, US pants are UK trousers! Could be very important when directing models…
Post Vs mail: UK post is US mail. So post box Vs mailbox. Also, in UK you would open the post (open a letter), US is open the mail.
Ring Vs band: UK wedding ring is US wedding band
Rubbish Vs garbage: UK rubbish is US garbage or trash.
Shop Vs store: UK shop is US store
Tap Vs faucet: UK tap is a US faucet
Trainer Vs sneaker: UK trainer is US sneaker
Transport Vs transportation: Depending on the search engine, you could have this covered with the root of the word. But UK public transport is US transportation. Transportation in the UK has nasty colonial connotations (apologies to Australian readers!)


There are many more. Visit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_differences.
It’s a great resource for making sure you’ve got both types of English covered, whichever type you use.



 
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