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Tagging Your Photos (Tags are Keywords)


Tagging Your Photos (Tags are Keywords)

Although finding your photos by month and year is fairly handy, the real power of the Organizer appears when you assign tags (keywords) to your photos. This simple step makes finding the exact photos you want very fast and very easy. The first step is to decide whether you can use the pre-made tags that Adobe puts there for you or whether you need to create your own. In this situation, you're going to create your own custom tags.

Step One

Start by clicking on the Tags tab on the right side of the Organizer. Adobe's default set of tags will appear in a vertical list. (By the way, if you don't see the Tags and Collections tabs on the right side of the Organizer, click on the words "Organize Bin" at the bottom-right corner of the Organizer window.)

Step Two

You'll start by creating your own custom category (in this case, we're going to create a category of all floral shots taken for your clients , who happen to own a greenhouse). Click on the New pop-up menu that appears just below the Tags tab itself and choose New Category. This brings up the Create Category dialog. Type in "Flowers." Now choose an icon from the Category Icon list and then click OK. (The icon choices are all pretty lame, but at least we can use the Flower icon.)

Step Three

To create your own custom tag, click on the New pop-up menu again and choose New Tag. This brings up the Create Tag dialog. Choose Flowers from the Category pop-up menu (if it's not already chosen ), then in the Name field, type "Close-Up Flower Shoot." If you want to add additional notes about the photo shoot, you can add them in the Note field, or you can choose a photo as an icon by clicking the Edit Icon button. Now click OK to create your tag.

Step Four

SCOTT KELBY

Now you'll assign this tag to all the photos from the flower shoot. In the Photo Browser window, scroll to the photos from that shoot. We'll start by tagging just one photo, so click on the Close-Up Flower Shoot tag that appears at the bottom of your Tags list and drag-and-drop that tag on any one of the photos. That photo is now "tagged." If you have the photo's Details visible (if not, turn on the Details checkbox at the bottom-left corner of the Browser window), you'll see a small tag icon appear below the photo's thumbnail (in this case, the Flower icon).

Step Five

So at this point, we've only tagged one photo from the flower shoot. Drag-and-drop that same tag onto five more photos from the shoot so a total of six photos are tagged. Now, in the list of Tags on the right side of the Organizer, click in the small box in the column to the left of your Close-Up Flower Shoot tag (a tiny binoculars icon will appear in that box), and instantly, only the photos with that tag will appear in the Photo Browser window. To see all your photos again, click on the Back to All Photos button that appears at the top left of the Browser window.



Tagging Images of People (Face Tagging)

You're either going to think this is the coolest, most advanced technology in all of Elements 4.0, or you're going to think it's creepy and very Big Brother-ish (from the book by George Orwell, not the TV show). Either way, it's here to help you tag people easier because the Organizer can now automatically find photos of people for youas it has some sort of weird science, facial-recognition software built in (that at one point was developed for the CIA, which is all the more reason it belongs in Elements).

Step One

Okay, let's say you went on a family vacation, and you want to quickly find all the photos that have your daughter in them, without having to search through the hundreds of images you imported. Well, first go ahead and open the Organizer, because that's where our hunt will take place. Now select the group of photos you want to search through (you can do a Control-A to select all, click on a collection, or just Control-click on as many images as you want to sort through).

Step Two

SCOTT KELBY and iStockPhoto

Go under the Find menu, and at the bottom of the menu choose Find Faces for Tagging. This brings up the Face Tagging dialog. Within just a few moments (depending on how many photos you have), it will sort through your selected images and separate out the images that contain a human face.

Step Three

Once these images appear in the Face Tagging dialog, you can Control-click on the photos of your family, and then drag-and-drop the appropriate tag from the Tags palette onto any one of the selected photos. They'll all be assigned that tag.

Step Four

If you only want to see faces that haven't already been tagged, ensure the checkbox for Show Already Tagged Faces is off at the top of the Face Tagging dialog. When you're done, click Done to return to the main Organizer window.

TIP

As cool as this Face Tagging technology is, it doesn't stop there. Let's say you have a photo of a tall building, and you want to find all the similar photos that have a tall building. Just click on one of your building photos, then go under the Find menu and choose By Visual Similarity with Selected Photo(s). It will look for photos that have similar attributes (such as a building, similar colors, or orientation to what you've already chosen ). Pretty CSI Las Vegas , dontchathink?