MicrostockGroup
Microstock Footage Forum => General - Stock Video => Topic started by: alno on July 16, 2016, 03:54
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Need some advise on keywording. Let's have a look at a clip of something unusual. For simple example: green tomatoes. It's obvious you add keywords 'green' and 'tomato' ('tomatoes' as well for sites other than Shutterstock). But in this case I guess double keywords like 'green tomato' and 'green tomatoes' will work far better since there are really a lot of footage of red tomatoes with GREEN leaves or GREEN background. Shutterstock and probably some others will delete 'green tomato' as a redundant keyword.
What is your experience in specific keywording?
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Every site is different. Some break apart double terms and some don't. SS is among the best. Fotolia is really bad. If you forgot to put "dog" in a clip with two dogs in it, and just put "dogs", it won't be found with a "dog" search... Useless. And of course you can't change it after upload...
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Keywording 101: Stick to your basic IPTC core metadata procedure then adapt it to which ever site and their quirks may be. Green, Tomato, Tomatoes, Green Tomato, Green Tomatoes...
As mentioned above, various sites seem to do what works best for them and vary greatly in how to actually upload the data. Some sites actually require you to use British English and American English, which is a real pain in the you know what... harbor, harbour.
Also of note, if the photo has one green tomato, the don't use the keyword tomatoes, and if it is a pile of tomatoes, don't use tomato.
And lastly, accuracy, accuracy accuracy. I can't stress this enough. Think like a buyer, and if you want a green tomato and that is what you searched for, you don't wan't to find one red tomatoes. Keyword spam hurts us all.
Also another deal breaker is if there is a tomato in the shot, but it's not what the shot is about, then don't use tomato.
Apart from the the 5 W's - Who, What, Why, When, Where.
I rarely use more than 15-20 keywords and only use more if it really requires it.
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Mostly a Shutterstock user, they don't like that, just the word once, "green" "tomato," extra or unnecessary plurals and combos will just be seen as redundant and automatically deleted. That in mind, I try to tag each thing with 35-45 tags, especially video or timelapse, photos I generally use fewer.