Working With Scandinavia Photos–Part 4

In this post, I am going to explain how I chose to break down the photos I took on this trip into smaller groups. As I mentioned in an earlier post of this series, I initially tagged all of my photos and videos with the Photoshop Elements Sub-Category of “Scandinavia 2011” under the default Category “Events”. PSE allows three layers of keywords, Categories, Sub-Categories, and Tags. So, I have one more layer, Tags, that I can use to keep a strict outline appearance to my organization structure. So to begin with, I defined three Tags underneath the Sub-Category, “Scandinavia 2011”. These are the three countries we visited, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. So my Outline or hierarchy of keywords at this point looks like this:

• Events (Category)
• Scandinavia 2011 (Sub-Category)
• Denmark (Tag)
• Sweden
• Norway

This is all well and good, but I seemingly cannot go any lower in detail. True, I could have made Scandinavia a Category, and that would have allowed me to have cities/sites within each country being assigned Tags. However, since any given photo can be assigned multiple keywords (categories, sub-categories, or tags), I don’t have to stay in a strict outline. For example, every picture I took in Copenhagen will be given a Tag, “Copenhagen”. It will also be assigned a Tag, “Denmark”. I am still in the process of defining/assigning these lower level keywords to my Scandinavian photos, but the figure below will give you an idea where I am going.

One could argue that better way to do this would be to make the Scandinavia trip a Category. That would give me the ability to assign countries as Sub-Categories, and cities/sites to Tags. But in my case, I long ago established the practice described above. That being said, there is nothing stopping me from changing my basic approach at any point, or even redoing what I have done for previous trips. However, the important thing here is that whatever structure you do choose to use, the acid test is can you quickly find that one picture you are looking for. I can do that. If I have any idea what I am looking for, I can find that picture in my Catalog within one or two minutes.

Currently, I am working through my Scandinavian pictures, rating them and assigning keywords to them. Some I remember exactly what they are and where I took them. However, I have to admit there are many many photos I took that I cannot remember exactly what I took or why I took them. Obviously, I need that type of information to assign my keywords.

I am using a variety of information to identify my photos. The time stamp on each photo plays a major role here. I am using the tour’s itinerary to correlate with this information. I’m also using Google, searching for images of the many castles, churches, palaces and other landmarks we visited or quickly drove by. Not all of these get a keyword assigned, but I will try to get the major ones identified and tagged. I also use maps. What I am not using are my notes; I don’t have any. I did travel with two friends, Tom and Judy. Judy took extensive notes, which she is going to make a copy for me. She is my ace in the hole to fill in the blanks.

I’m sure I will think of things I left out of this post, and will try to include them in a later one. But in the meantime, please exercise the Like button and use the Comments for any questions or comments you may have.