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Keywords & Organizing Images

Lesson 17 from: Adventure Photography Pro

Alex Strohl

Keywords & Organizing Images

Lesson 17 from: Adventure Photography Pro

Alex Strohl

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Lesson Info

17. Keywords & Organizing Images

Staying organized as your photo archive grows is an essential skill. Learn how to properly keyword & organize your photos when importing them to Lightroom.
Next Lesson: Commercial Grading

Lessons

Class Trailer

Intro

1

Workshop Intro

03:18

Foundations

2

Gear

12:14
3

Gear - My Camera Bags

08:00
4

Mastering Camera Settings

07:41
5

Blue Hour, A How-To

10:45
6

Photos That Move Us

07:19
7

Visual Storytelling 101

07:51
8

Endurance In A World Of Sprinting

06:27
9

Keeping Your Ideas Fresh

08:31
10

Building Your Story Arc

06:44
11

Shooting More: Action Plan

02:01
12

Conveying Emotions

07:52

In the Field

13

The Assignment: Himalaya Pre-Pro

12:08
14

In the Field: The Himalaya Defender Shoot

20:29
15

The Assignment: Canon Pre-Pro

10:25
16

In the Field: Canon USA Shoot

15:06

Editing

17

Keywords & Organizing Images

06:42
18

Commercial Grading

04:47
19

Masking & Radial Filters

12:33
20

Perspective Correction

05:39
21

HDR (Hand-Held)

03:37
22

Black & White Edits

07:00
23

Before & Afters

01:33
24

Moody Grading

13:15
25

IG Export Settings

04:00
26

Web Export Settings

02:44
27

Clone Stamping & Patch Tools

05:51
28

Grading in Lightroom

06:45
29

Hand-Held Panoramas

03:41
30

Radial Filters Pt 2

02:38
31

Delivering Files to Clients

12:33
32

Archiving & Organizing Images

10:15
33

My Favorite Software

03:44

Business

34

Let's Talk Business

01:03
35

Building A Desirable Portfolio

11:17
36

How to Contact Clients

12:00
37

Prospecting: Finding Brands That Fit You

04:16
38

Getting Clients To See Our Value

10:16
39

Paid to Travel the World

14:48
40

The Art of Making Moodboards & Treatments

08:09
41

Keys To A Fulfilling Career

07:40
42

Three Things You Need To Know Before Pitching

06:19
43

Finding Your Value Proposition

08:02
44

Media Kit: A Walk Through

08:06
45

How I Built My Audience

07:46
46

Social Media Landscape

07:32
47

Module Recap

03:08

Bonus - Everything To Know About Filters

48

Do You Need Lens Filters?

09:36
49

Filters in The Field

12:40

Bonus - Find Your Path

50

Find Your Path

07:44

Bonus - How To Print Your Work

51

Why Print or Sell Photos

23:21
52

Preparing Photos for Print

06:44
53

Reviewing Major U.S Printers

06:57

Lesson Info

Keywords & Organizing Images

(calm music) This is an episode about keywords and why you need them. If you already use keywords with your images, you can skip this one. But if you've been toying with the idea and the power of being able to find your photos easily on your computer then this is your episode. So I started introducing keywords into my workflow in and I'm very glad I did because it makes, again, life easier and accessing images way easier just using my finder and a keyboard. Here are a few ways you can do keywords. So there's the live method. So meaning whenever you run an import of your photos into Lightroom, you keyword groups or individual photos with the same subject with the right keywords. For example, all the portraits of your girlfriend or husband with their name, right? The issue with that is that it takes a lot of time because you have to come through each photo that you're importing with your card or on your drive. And you could come through each to see if the subject is really in the phot...

o. And then you're just like Adam or whatever. I recommend this if you shoot very few photos or have massive amounts of free time, but I don't think actually the payoff is worth the time investment to keyword every single photo individually. The other way that most people do is keywording an entire import or memory card, meaning you can go and shoot, for example, in the Maroon Bells of Colorado, shoot some ice climbing, okay? Then when you come back, you keyword the whole thing at import with Colorado, Maroon Bells, ice climbing. Who was the ice climber, what's their name? What time of the year? What month? What season, was it the winter? And what year, right? At least what matters that you pick a way that your brain thinks about photos. So for me, my brain thinks about activities about seasons and years. If your brain thinks about photos in different ways just use these to find your images. That's actually the method I've been using to keyword all my photos. It's still pretty broad, but it works charms when trying to find photos quickly. And the best part of that is that they're all easily searchable in the finder of the Mac. So I can look at images on a whim. Let's do a dummy import and play with the keywords. Okay, so I've made a dummy catalog on Lightroom and I'm gonna import some photos into it right now. Right. So this is from a shoot in Jackson in Fall of 2019. So I can drop that into Lightroom Classic. And right here, things get pretty simple, keywords. What am I seeing? You know, I've shot a defender, I've shot the Teton. So I'll just keep going. Wyoming State, Jackson the city, Teton National Park, defender, Land Rover. I'm seeing this guy here. So I'm gonna just put friends, just means that there's humans in the photos. Keep going, see what else I got. What's a common set of words that can match the whole set? I think we're pretty there. 2019. Fall. And I think we're good like that. That's how simple as I treat the keywords. Anyways, you just import, and whenever you export a file as a JPEG, it will have these keywords embedded. So I can search now these photos, I can go into my exported folder. Where my photos are, I can just type Jackson and find these photos, just export it. That's the beauty of keywords. Continuing the series of keeping your files organized and the flow that is relaxing and easy to use, I'm gonna show you how I organize my photo folders. In my previous workshop, I talked a bit about this. So if you need a refresh, feel free to watch it. If you have never seen me talk about this, (hands clap) let's stay together. So we're now inside the Raid. As you see, I keep everything classified by years. From 2014, 2019, anything before 2014 is stored in external drives that are in the gear room. I just don't have a lot of use for it. I don't access it really often. The photos are a bit more questionable, but the fresher stuff is here. And let me show you, for example, how I keep 2019. So I'll have its things said as three things, adventures, commercial, and then portfolio is my catalog portfolio that I told you about earlier. The catalog that I use to make my master portfolio with all the images from 2018, with the ratings kept and all the meta data kept. So let's go to adventures, for example. So here's what I've been up to in 2019. So I go with regional place, okay? Baldface, which is a ski lodge in British Columbia, okay? And then inside that folder, I have all my images. All the rows are here. And then in here again, I have my Lightroom catalog. So I just keep the Lightroom catalog for every shoot. We just open it here. We find the photos and we can just hit raid it. And it's all in there. Now, I'll have to back up this now. Okay, so this is all the adventures. So country, season, country, season, et cetera. Commercial is the same thing. It's client and then season Slovenia, (indistinct) Poland. So this is the best way I've found to keep my files organized. I do manual imports. Meaning when I get a memory card in, I'll throw the memory card manually into the folders. I don't use Lightroom to import because it works with dates. I know a lot of photographers that work with dates. You know, that date, this is the photos on that date, but my memory doesn't work like that. I don't remember what day it was when I shot something. However, I remember going to Iceland in when it was the winter, that I remember. So I've just done a system that reflects how my brain thinks about things, same with keywords. So just make sure, you don't have to use this technique that I'm using. It's not the best one. It's just the one that works for me. So make sure to use something that works with the way you think about your photos, right? What do you remember most who you were with, where you were, what date it was? Once you answer that, then you can build your own flow. But really the point of this episode is for you to build this flow and to show you how I built mine.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Workbook
A Note From Alex

Ratings and Reviews

Jon
 

Not What I Was Expecting Let me just start by saying that the workshop was very good. There were lots of things that I learned and many insights I took away. Perhaps the greatest bit of wisdom imparted to me was not anything Alex said but how he approached every subject he talked about. I felt that he was talking to me as a friend, very personal and open book. This was both a blessing and a curse as the course tends to meander around and is not as structured as others I've taken. Alex's passion for the highest quality, and craftsmanship in every aspect of his business, is very evident. From the premiums he charges, to the attention to detail in client deliveries. This is where my review is going to give some hopefully constructive criticisms. For someone so focused on a premium experience I was a surprised to find the course a bit sloppily assembled, and the videography and editing lackluster. This is coming from a videographer and someone with a lot of experience in online training. A few short examples to illustrate my point include: repeating segments of the edit (in some instances the exact same segment), poor framing. Colors changing between cuts, and my biggest pet peeve, not leaving photo examples on for long enough to see them. These are all small things, but they add up, and along with the topics meandering, left me a bit disappointed. I'm curious who you would say this class is aimed towards. Amateurs, mid-level, or experts? The assumption of who you are addressing changes throughout the course. I feel like with a bit of work from an instructional designer, and some editing cleanup, you could help hone this course to be one of the best out there. I feel like I need to do a more in depth review than will fit here, to actually explain this well. Let me know if that would be helpful to you. One other note: When I signed up for a workshop on Adventure Photography, I honestly thought it would be more field focused. The field examples were all shoots for products, and not shoots documenting an adventure. I guess I had just hoped to learn that side of the storytelling process more. Getting into the nitty gritty of being wet, cold, and dirty, and still shooting bangers. The section on filters (going out and building the snow cave) was more what I thought this course was going to be. Anyhow, with all that said, I still found it valuable and worthwhile. To summarize, the course feels a bit unpolished and in some ways unfinished though there is still great value. I've taken Jimmy Chin's Masterclass on adventure photography and it felt very structured and highly polished. I purchased "Adventure Pro" on the "finish in a month" discount. I would have felt ripped off if I had paid full price with the course in its current state. Thanks for reading and I hope my criticisms come as helpful. As I've already mentioned I'd be happy to further elaborate.

Topher Hammond
 

One of the best photography investments I'm only 1/4 of the way through Alex's course and I feel like I already have a loose plan on how I can move forward in my own career as a photographer. I felt like my work was lacking a specific feeling. The way that Alex articulated ideas on how to convey emotion in your imagery and building that overarching story arc for your own life narrative were super helpful to focus on how to make my work better. Super looking forward to the rest of this course. Thanks Alex and team!

Sergi Mas de xaxars Rosell
 

Great Workshop I learned quite a lot with this workshop. Because I'm in the industry for 5 years now, there were a few things I already knew. On the other hand, Alex showed me different and more effective ways to improve my business. I like the way he gives the lessons, always in a personal and close way. This is the knowledge I wish I had when I started. Totally worth it!

Student Work

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