Keyword hierarchy?

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picturebypatrick

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Hello,
I'm a new member here and was recommended by Kiwi Geoff from nikon cafe. :)

I wanted to ask, anybody here using a keyword hierarchy to organize their photos? If so, did you make it your own or download it from somewhere? Is there a place to get it for free?

I'm trying to organize all my photos in LR and seems like its keyword hierarchy is a good way to organize pictures.

Any thoughts?
 
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Victoria Bampton said:
You'll probably find it better to make your own, depending on the kind of photography you do.
Click to expand...

Welcome Patrick. Lr does make it relatively easy (but not completely painless) to change your structure going forward. It'll be a help to get your system roughly organized before expending a great deal of effort on actual keywording, but don't obsess over it. You won't be totally locked in to your starting ideas.
 
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Brad & Victoria.. thanks for your answers and for the link.
Looks like it's better to have a plan to build our own, then just build it off of that once our photo collection grows. Is that the case with you guys?
 
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The other thought I would put to you is whether you need a hierarchical structure at all, or at least to question how much effort you put into it. If your pictures feature subjects for which hierarchies are available, such as species, there may be lists available. But if you can't get ready-made lists, maybe it's better not to make it a priority to construct them. Instead, make them as and when you need (if at all). You can maximise your metadata entry with metadata presets which include keywords and update other fields in a single swipe. Keywords also have a role for finding images, but smart collections can group images (eg a SC "keywords contains wedding and child" is like a hierarchy weddings/child except you build it when you actually need it rather than speculatively as you would do with HKs). SCs can be included in hierarchical structures alongside much more arbitrarily-selected collections too, and collections also remember output module settings. An alternative POV....

John
 
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I shoot families and members of families in various combinations and a huge variety of different subjects, A keyword hierarchies helped me standardize on a nomenclature so I always use 'michael' rather than 'mike' and I always identify which 'michael' it is, etc. I spent an hour or so developing a hierarchy and then expand it as needed. I know 'barns' are in 'bldgs' and so are 'structural elements' that contains doors, windows, etc.

I also group by scenic, documentary, people, portraits etc.

and by places and events

so I can pick out portraits taken at parades in Washington, DC. or children taken in Chiang Rai in 2''7

It was cumbersome to start because I was adding as much as I was keywording but after the first 3''' images, its a snap because the hierarchy was built.
 
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When I started keywording my photos it was a little daunting but after a while you seem to develop your own system that works for you. One of the beauties of keywording in Lightroom is its adaptability. If you wanted to change the key word Mike to Michael in thousands of photos then you can do so with just a click and single rename.
 
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John, traveler (welcome to the forum by the way) and MarkN all make good points.

I've cobbled my system together from the commercially available CVKC ( I abstracted the chunks I was interested in), a family/friends hierarchy like traveler's, and several categories dedicated to the horse shows I shoot (people, horses, locations, event sub-activities).

As John says tho', don't get caught up in it, or you'll spend all your time worrying about the hierarchy.
 
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