As you collect volumes of KPT Power Photos, the success to utilizing them will be in the management of your collection. With that in mind, PhotoSpin and with HSC have bundled with this product a browser version of KodakΓÇÖs Shoebox, a premiere image data management program. A lot of thought and work has gone into the production of the keywording strategy. A short explanation of that strategy will go a long way in helping you to define keywords for image searching within our database. We welcome you to purchase the full version of Shoebox so that you can manipulate and customize the data to work best for you.
KPT Power Photos was keyworded through the group effort of 10 people all from different occupational backgrounds, ages, and educational levels. The experience itself in accumulating words for describing images has taught us that each person perceives the world around us in a very different way. We welcome any input you may have in helping us to better create database keywords for your use. Please feel free to contact us at the addresses listed below. We hope our searches will match your perception of these images and help to inspire you in your creative endeavors. Most important though... have a lot of fun creating with Power Photos... weΓÇÖd love to see what you do with these images... send us a copy or drop us a line. Thanks for purchasing Power Photos!
Now... about keywording...
We used the ΓÇ£natural languageΓÇ¥ approach for freely assigning terms to images. This is a very simple approach and probably the most all encompassing. We simply looked at an item then assigned keywords that ΓÇ£naturallyΓÇ¥ occur. We arrived at the terms included in our database by asking ourselves ΓÇ£What is this an image of? What is this image about?ΓÇ¥ Keyword searches will call up images of a wide range. With Shoebox we have the ability to narrow that scope through ΓÇ£BooleanΓÇ¥ searching. Boolean searching works great when searching the database for items with overlapping attributes. For example, all pictures with keywords of ΓÇ£flowersΓÇ¥ or all ΓÇ£verticalΓÇ¥ pictures will come up entirely different. Not all of the vertical images are flowers and not all of the flowers are vertical. But, when overlapped the ΓÇ£andΓÇ¥ searches for only the items that have both terms and begins to limit the scope. The ΓÇ£orΓÇ¥ search retrieves all of the items that contain either keyword, which will result in a much larger choice of images.
As your database grows, the search parameters, ΓÇ£containsΓÇ¥, ΓÇ£ends withΓÇ¥, ΓÇ£equalsΓÇ¥, etc. will become even more useful. With a full version of Shoebox, you can add special notes to the captions as well as your own keywords. This is definitely an ongoing process. Keep in mind that sayings, phrases, descriptions, names, have all been used in the keywording process. If your search comes up empty then try going into the database and looking up an image that is similar to what you are searching for. Under the Index, go into the keyword field and scroll through the keyword choices to see if any of the words listed there help bring up more images within your search.
A second option called ΓÇ£user fieldΓÇ¥ which is a little more tightly defined is another way to search the database. In this field are choices for very specific categories of images that we have defined for you. The following list will give you a better idea of our thinking behind this particular process:
Category: General category of image. (food, people, environment, objects etc.) ItΓÇÖs important to note that for the most part ΓÇ£objectsΓÇ¥ are images that are intended to be ΓÇ£dropped intoΓÇ¥ a background and usually have the masking channel already included in the file so that you can simply select the object and not its background to cut and paste for easy imaging. We wanted this to be as friendly and fast for you as possible.
Gender: What can we say? Identifies the gender of people if they exist in the image. If itΓÇÖs not an image of a person then, ΓÇ£noneΓÇ¥ is listed.
Color: Predominant and significant colors in image. ΓÇ£AllΓÇ¥ refers to most of the spectrum. ΓÇ£MultiΓÇ¥ refers to many of the colors of the spectrum and ΓÇ£MultiΓÇ¥ with colors added as well refers to multi-whatever colors are also added (i.e. multi, brown, red... means varying shades of those colors.)
Copyspace: Images that have an open area of approximately 25% or more , anywhere with the image, for copy. ΓÇ£ObjectΓÇ¥ in copyspace refers to the image being able to be ΓÇ£cut outΓÇ¥ from background as well as having virtually no color in background for wrapping copy all around.
Orientation: Horizontal or Vertical refers to the whole photo, not its content.. If itΓÇÖs an object the orientation relates to the position of the ΓÇ£slideΓÇ¥ itself.
Setting: General description of location (desert, forest, water, etc.)
Time Frame: The chronological ΓÇ£feelΓÇ¥ of the image (day, night, dawn, dusk, etc.).
Title: Several word description of item or the name of the people, place, or thing.
Filename: The filename happens to be a number. It appears below the thumbnail. This is for easy identification. If you keep the image number handy, just type in the number when searching the database and the image pops up. This is the quickest way to access a specific image. The first two digits relate to the volume number. The second three are the specific image within that volume.
Rules are always a pain but, we found in our many hours of creating this database that for the sake of consistency, the best way of entering data was to simply turn on the ΓÇ£caps lock.ΓÇ¥
Again, any questions or comments, feel free to contact us at PhotoSpinΓäó or HSC. We value your input immensely.
To order your first set of five volumes in the Kai's Power Photos series, call 1-800-472-9025.
