In my leisure time, I shoot a photo for stock photography. I do it just for my own pleasure, not for a high income. When I want to assign the keywords to the photos, it seems to be a daunting task. It is a time-consuming process. With the help from the controlled vocabulary keyword lists, photo keywording is easier than ever before.
In terms of image files, the controlled vocabulary is a standardized, predefined word lists used as a keyword, which contains subject, heading, and index to describe the content of the photographs. It is the way to control the keywords we use in tagging our photographs.
The file format of controlled vocabulary is just a text file in the UTF-8 format. You can create your own controlled vocabulary using normal editor application with showing hidden characters like tab and space. There is no need to create a file from scratch. You can download the free general list or the foundation list from the Lightroom Keyword List Project at lightroom-keyword-list-project.blogspot.com. Although this list contains about 1,7xx words but you can modify it by adding some more words to the file.
For stock photographers or people who prefer the pre-defined keywords over 10,000 words or people who do not want to waste their time in making the lists by themselves, there are many vocabulary keyword lists available on the market. The price range is between $50 to over $100.
I use 2 controlled vocabulary lists: ‘Photo-Keywords’ and ‘Controlled Vocabulary Keyword Catalog’.
In comparing these 2 lists, I have chosen many of what I feel are the facts and features that I use them with ‘Photo Mechanic’, not Adobe Lightroom.
Though I use Lightroom for photo organization and image processing, but when assigning keywords to a photo I do it in Photo Mechanic. In my opinion, Photo Mechanic is the best application dealing with keywords, especially the controlled vocabulary keywords or hierarchical keywords.
Website:
The website of Photo-Keywords (PK for short) is photo-keywords.com
The website of Controlled Vocabulary Keyword Catalog (CVKC for short) is controlledvocabulary.com.
Price & Version:
PK: $49 including 1 year of free updates. PK has 119 different versions and the price is the same ($49) for each of the 119 different versions.
The main difference between the versions are geographical entities, British English or American English spelling, historic sites, natural sites, etc.
In buying the product, first, you have to choose the Region by selecting from World or Africa or Asia or Europe or North America or Oceania or South America or UK.
If you choose North America Version you have to select a version list of: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Canada, Canadian & US Cities, Canadian, Mexican and US States, Colorado, Connecticut, Countries-US States, etc. With a system like this, it’s no wonder there are 119 versions!
In my case, I chose Asia, then I had to select a list of Asian States. I did not select Israel or Japan or Philippines or Singapore or South Korea.
If buyers want special versions that contain more than 1 countries or states, the owner (Tim Markins) will prepare that custom list for buyers who paying additional cost starting from $5 to $15.
PK works for applications like Lightroom and Photo Mechanic. If buyers want to use with Adobe Bridge, Aperture, BreezeBrowser, or FotoStation, they have to modify the list by themselves. But the information on how to modify the lists is published on the PK website. Basically, you have to delete either all the curly brackets or all square brackets in the UTF-8 text file.
CVKC: $69.99 for a 1 year subscription version and you will receive periodic update notifications. After 1 year, if you want to renew the subscription, you have to pay $20. If you do not renew the subscription, you can still use the CVKC. The license is issued by individual, not product; so it means the subscription grants buyer access to all versions of the CVKC.
CVKC works for the following applications: Aperture, AtomicView, Breezebrowser, Bridge, Daminion Server, FotoStation, IDimager, Image Info Toolkit, iView Media Pro/Expression Media/Media Pro, Lightroom, Photo Mechanic and StockView.
Each version of CVKC has been formatted specifically for each application. The format for each application is similar but not identical. There are some slight differences mostly in terms of file format which including or excluding all curly brackets or all square brackets in the UTF-8 text file.
If you buy CVKC for Photo Mechanic you can download the CVKC for Lightroom and Bridge and for other applications as mentioned above without additional cost. The owner of CVKC is David Riecks.
Category
PK:
Using intuitive groupings with 7 categories, consisting of Who, What, Where, When, Why, How and Specialist.
WHO (is in the image)?
Subcategory is: Age, Body Build, Body High, Body Length, Body Part, Body Pose, Eye Color, Eye Type, Facial Expression, Hair Color, Hair Style, Skin Type, Gender, Ethnicity, etc.
WHAT (is the subject in the image)?
Subcategory is: No. of Main Objects, Object Group Nouns, Architecture, Arts and Crafts, Communications, Elements, Entertainment, Fashion & Clothing, etc.
WHERE (was the image taken)?
Subcategory is: Geographic, Seas and Oceans, Bays and Gulfs, Lakes, Celestial Feature, Land Feature, Marine Feature, etc.
WHEN (was the image taken)?
Subcategory: Time & Date, Season, Celebration, Events, Religious Ceremony, etc.
WHY (was this image taken in the first place)?
Subcategory is: Activity, Adjectives, Business Conceptual, Getty Conceptual, Emotional, etc.
HOW (was it made)?
Subcategory is: Predominant Color, Background, Composition, Newscode Scene, Exposure, Focus, Format, Framing, Image Type, Lighting, etc.
SPECIALIST
This subcategory is just the empty heading. You can modify it by yourself or free download from the provided lists such as Birds of North America, Amphibians of the World, Birds of the World, in the PK website.
CVKC:
CVKV has a different concept in categorizing the keyword groupings. The following is the 30 categories in CVKC:
– Activities/Action
– Agriculture
– Animals
– Architecture
– Arts
– Business
– Categories
– Charactoristics
– Concepts
– Education
– Entertainment
– Environment
– Equibment – Objects
– Fashion
– Food
– Government
– Health
– Image/Color/Style/Format
– IPTC – Genre
– IPTC – Scene
– IPTC – Subject
– People
– Plants
– Research
– Sciences
– Seasons
– Sports & Recreation
– Time of Day
– Transportation
– World Regions & Countries
Number of words
PK:
37,590 words (Asian States version), the file size is 774 KB.
CVKC:
11,990 words, the file size is 173 KB.
Synonym
PK:
The total number of words in PK is 37,590 words and 777 of them are synonyms. So it means 2% of total words are synonyms.
PK does not use many synonyms. The owner defines the synonym in the strict sense as “two words that can be interchanged in a context are said to be synonymous relative to that context”.
CVKC:
The total number of words in CVKC is 11,990 words and 2,040 of them are synonyms. Therefore, 17% of total words are synonyms.
It seems that CVKC attaches importance to synonym. Therefore, searching for keywords in Photo Mechanic, you will find more similar words in CVKC.
American or British English?
PK:
In PK keyword list are American and British English spelling. It depends on the area that the list covers, one is chosen as the primary English, and the other is used as a synonym. My Asian States version has American English spelling, but a synonym is British English.
CVKC:
All words are American and British English spelling as well. But American English is the primary language, British English is a synonym.
I don’t have a software that can identify and count the numbers of British English in both lists.
Searching and applying Keywords
Searching for keywords is one of the strongest points of Photo Mechanic.
In Photo Mechanic I use Structured Keywords Panel to search for keywords. I can search and apply keywords from one menu: Structured Keyword Panel. I can preview what keywords will be added in the photograph. I can select and deselect the keywords that I want and I don’t want. The Structured Keyword Panel facilitates me to find a hierarchically arranged set of keyword categories and allocate to subcategories or certain keywords.
The picture below showing keywords of the general list of the Lightroom Keyword List Project. (I use the general list to avoid the copyright issue of both PK and CVKC.)
Opening the Structured Keywords Panel and find the keyword that I want. In this case I type happiness (circle 1), then the search will show words starting from the headings – ATTRIBUTE. Then the sub heading – Emotion, follows by the keyword – happiness and synonyms – cheerfulness, happy, joy. In circle 2 you can see the words – happiness, cheerfulness, happy and joy. I can select all words and click either ‘Add path’ or ‘Add keyword’, then all keywords will transfer to the collection field in circle 3. (The green text is synonyms.)
This is how to use the Photo Mechanic in applying keywords in the list to your photograph by just typing only 1 word – happiness.
PK:
The PK list contains 37,590 words. When searching for keywords, a chance to find words is high, but a chance to find many similar words and synonyms is low. If I search for the word – happiness, I will get only one word – happiness. This may due to the owner’s concept in creating the list by not filling a list with un-needed keywords.
Another example, if searching for a word – dog, I will find only one word – dog. But if I search for dog breeds like ‘Fox Terrier’, I will find the words: Mammal, Dog (Canis Lupus Familiaris), Fox Terrier.
CVKC:
CVKC contains a smaller number of 11,990 words in its list. But when searching for keywords, a chance to find many similar words and synonyms is high. If searching for the word – happiness, I will get many keywords: concepts, concept, conceptual, emotion, emotional, emotions, happy, happiness.
Another example, if searching for a word – dog. I will find these words: animals, animal, creature, creatures, zoology, pets, companion animals, domesticated animals, pet, dog, doggie, doggy. But there are no dog breeds in CVKC.
Final Word
After using 2 products in Photo Mechanic I found that using PK and CVKC complement each other. In Photo Mechanic you can differentiate keywords from PK or CVKC easily because PK has numbers in front of its main categories. Please look at the picture below:
Another point when searching for keywords in Photo Mechanic, to avoid the overflow of keyword flooding, I have to tick ‘exact match’ as appeared in the above picture.
By combining 2 products, I have altogether 49,580 words in my lists! Furthermore, in Photo Mechanic I can easily add on my keywords on the fly by right-clicking in the columns and selecting ‘Create child item’ or ‘Create Synonym’ or ‘Create sibling item’. It’s not necessary to modify by adding the words in the UTF-8 text file. My whole lists will be more than 50,000 words soon!
Which one is suitable for you? You have to take not only the list itself but also what application you use into consideration. Using the lists in Photo Mechanic and in Lightroom may have a different result. Dealing with keywords may vary from one application to another.