Walking down the memory lane with photographs brings moments of joy and a sheer pleasure to see the generations evolving from baby steps to giant strides and from sheepish grins to guffaws. Even better is the fact to find out the dates and descriptions written behind the old family photos to mark the moments clearly. The tangible prints of old family photos are often marked with the details (about the date, time, people, venue and event)but in today’s time of digital photography, there is no blank space or rather, a back to write it on. It’s still important to label digital family photos.
Nonetheless, labeling is as important as done earlier to keep the collection in an organised manner for future use and of course, for generations to refer to. In genealogical research, it is highly important to label digital family photos in order to identify and relate to, depending upon the information sought.
Metadata
Metadata is the hidden the information within any digital photograph. Data can be attached to a photo when you take it, each time you move it to a different device, share it, email it as well as information identifying the device that took the picture. It may even have geotagging information, which could provide the exact GPS coordinates of the image. In some cases, your camera may already label digital family photos.
This data is attached to the photos so that if these image files are shared with any other device, sent or transferred, the MetaData would go along the pictures. In case of digital photographs, it is important to mark the events, people and dates for further use in research or even for collection (what’s worse than finding old family wedding photos but being unable to identify the groom and bride?). In case of these pictures posted online, the data would be automatically transferred making it easy for the viewer to identify and for the sender to save the hassle of sending another file of details of the image files.
There are two types of Meta Data to consider when starting to label digital family photos, known as:
- EXIF –This is the information saved by the camera or cell phone that captures the photographs. EXIF contains the time and date of the image taken and this is automatic and doesn’t need to be saved. EXIF information also includes the type of image file and the file size. With the help of a smartphone, the location could be saved along with the basic image information too.
- IPTC or XMP Data –IPTC stands for International Press Telecommunications Council, which has developed the standard of photo labels embedded in the image file(it is supported by Microsoft). Adobe uses IPTC for their XMP (Extensible Meta Data Platform). Adobe is widely used for this purpose of digital photolabeling.
The digital photograph format should support IPTC or XMP if it has to be labeled. There are programs that do not support this format and it becomes much of a critical task to label such photographs then. IPTC/XMP is supported by JPEG and TIF digital photograph file formats and these are the widely used formats too.
What Information Is Included in the Metadata
Depending on the software you choose, the available metadata fields may vary, but generally the details to consider when you label digital family photos include details pertaining to:
- author
- title
- copyright
- caption
- keywords or tags
- GeoTagging
- Device type
Software to Label Digital Family Photos
Some of the most common software used to effectively label digital family photos are as follows:
1.Adobe Photoshop
The most commonly used editing software for the digital photographs is also essential for labeling digital photography, Adobe Photoshop. In descriptions field, the caption could be added to the image depending on the image type and description needed. Information could be added in batches of the photos which share a certain keyword.
2. Breezebrowser
BreezeBrowser is one of the first software for labeling the photographs that have supported IPTC standard. The titles and descriptions could be easily added to these photos. Also, keywords could be added to photos that have similar event/people/venue.
3. Picasa
Picasa is a famous Google image program and allows IPTC/XMP format for digital photo labeling. Picasa software also enables digital photo labeling/captioning in TIF format files.
4. IrfanView
IrfanView is another preferred graphics program to add metadata to your images. This package is extremely useful if your graphics card has issues in supporting the IPTC/XMO options. More importantly, its free and available on Windows, Mac and Linux.
If you decide to label digital family photos, it will be one positive step that helps keep the memories intact and with all the necessary details in modern day and technology. In genealogy projects, photo labeling works as a record and part other f information necessary for constructing a family tree and for other information needs. We hope this article has helped you along the way to successfully label digital family photos.
