As you start amassing thousands of digital images you’ll want a way to find particular images. Having a sensible folder structure and file naming method can only go so far. Digital image Metadata takes you to the next level of organization.

2 Flavors of Metadata - EXIF and IPTC

EXIF data is all the camera specific info. White balance, exposure and flash info, date and time the shot was taken, and various camera settings like saturation and sharpening.

IPTC data is entered by you. Copyright info, captions, location and GPS data, and Keywords are among the many IPTC fields available.

Keywords give you Search Power

Every digital image can have multiple Keywords assigned to it. That beautiful photo of a rose in your backyard could contain all of these Keywords: flower, rose, red, morning, dew. Use single words or 2 word phrases at the most. You’re not writing a Caption, you’re assigning categories.

Most photo organizers let you search for multiple Keywords. Finding all your images containing "red", "rose" and "dew" is an easy task.

Organizing is Time Consuming

Granted, it will take some extra time to assign Keywords and other IPTC data. It will pay off in the long term. Being able to find images quickly makes the effort worthwhile.

My next post will discuss ways to quickly add IPTC data and Keywords. Stay tuned!