Working the files ...
Saturday, May 29th 2010 @ 12:23 PM (not yet rated)
So it's Memorial Day Weekend and I'm sitting here in our nice large set of rooms at the Westshore Motel on Oregon's beautiful Central Coast ... and rather than being outside playing on the beach just down there out our front door, I'm "working" image files. Ain't that a photographer for you!
This is what it looks like in Lightroom when I do tagging or Key-wording using this software. By the way, "tagging" is the word used by most software intended for amateurs for the same task "pro" software more commonly calls "key-wording". Why two different words for EXACTLY the same thing? Good question ... go ask someone who knows! 
Note the features I point out with little balloons ... a navigational panel, the way the "Active" or selected image has a brighter surround than non-active or selected images, the tools for either creating new tags or choosing from ones already in use (wise whenever possible!), and the section for full listing of all the various Metadata fields that goes on for a ways. Most software that can do this task has similar "panels" as gee, the tasks are essentially always the same!
Most people shooting family stuff for fun will only need to use the basic tagging/key-wording section, though I STRONGLY suggest creating a "basic" metadata template that can be applied to all your images, that at least sets some kind of copyright ownership so your pics don't end up used for things you never dreamed of. Like an ad for a weight-loss program or hotel reservations!
If you look at the key-word panel on the right side of the image, you'll note that I've got a lot of words entered to describe this one image. MOST of those were actually applied to a group of photos, and only typed in once. Many were selected by clicking on words in a list, or even using "Alt -> {number}" key-board combinations to select words from a list.
I tend to do more specific tagging than many people, but ... well, I AM a bit of a detail-driven person on that Autistic/Asperger's spectrum, so you would be quite normal (and therefore excused!) if you only put in the names of people involved or say a word about the location or event.
Neil
