"Paul Saunders" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:I'm in the middle of sorting out loads of landscape photos on my computer and I'm having trouble
deciding which areas to put certain photos into. The problem photos are those of a different area,
do I include them in the area that the photo is of, or do I include them in the area I took the
photo from? In other words, do I sort by subject or by viewpoint?
In my very humble and inexperienced opinion (;-)), it doesn't matter where the photo was taken from,
but only what it is taken of. Think of it from a clients perspective and you'll be fine. If they
want a photo of Snowdon, do they care where it was taken from, or what is in the photo? Of course,
it's the subject that matters.
Quoted message said:For example, I have an early morning shot of Snowdon taken with a telephoto lens from the summit
of Cadair Idris. There is nothing of Cadair Idris in the photo and the Rhinogs are effectively in
the foreground, in front of Snowdon, which rises up above them.
Should I put it in the Snowdon folder because it's a photo of Snowdon, or should I put it in the
Cadair Idris folder because that's where I took it from?
Put it in the Snowdon folder. A client wants a photo of Snowdon, full stop, so where it was taken
from doesn't really matter to them. Think of one of my fly photos:
usefilm.com172119.htmlOpen ↗ It's a photo of a fly, and it was taken in my back garden.
If someone wants a fly photo, they will be looking for flies, not back gardens.
Quoted message said:Suppose I'd taken the photo from a bit further back and included the summit of Cadair Idris in the
photo, would that make any difference compared to the example above?
If it can only be in one physical folder location, put it in the location which is the most
prominent within the photo. But like Pat says, why don't you just use the date method for your
images (as I thought you did anyway?). I don't see what the issue is, as with your cataloguing
software, you can have a single image in multiple categories, depending on what's in it. I use a
strict and robotic method for putting my images into categories - if it's a family photo that has
my Mum, Dad, Sister, Brother and Dog in, then that single image would be found in the Mum category,
Dad category, Sister category, Brother category, and Dog category. The same would apply to
mountains or whatever.
Quoted message said:This is a common problem. Views of mountains are often best from adjacent areas, for example Corn
Du from Fan Fawr or Fan Fawr from Corn
Du.
What you say above sounds like a good idea for giving titles to your images. You could even put this
in as a keyword, and like Ron says, search for "from Snowdon" if you really want to find a photo
taken *from* that location, but not necessarily *of* that location. ...not that you'd ever want to
do find these though! :-P (but I bet you're going to come back and tell me you do!)
Quoted message said:It would simplify the decision making process to categorise all photos in the area they were taken
from, but then if I wanted to find all my photos of Snowdon, they'd be scattered about in
different areas.
Exactly. A simple, but [censored] system to use.
Quoted message said:Sorting by subject seems to make the most sense, but having prominent foregrounds often makes it
difficult to decide what the most important subject is. For example, a photo of Pen y Fan taken
from Mynydd Du with Llyn y Fan Fawr in the foreground. Certainly Pen y Fan is a major feature, but
so is Llyn y Fan Fawr, so which should taken precedence?
Obviously in a database I can use keywords and categories to put the same photo in multiple
locations, but I'm trying to decide where to physically store the files.
Store them by date in the folders, as I think you do anyway.
Quoted message said:Not only that, but I'm redesigning my website with an area-based structure, so I also have to
decide in which area to put each photo on my site.
That's obvious, if it's a photo of Snowdon, put it in the Snowdon folder. If it's a photo of
Snowdon, with another mountain in the foreground, put it in the folder that matches which mountain
is most prominent. Or if you're unsure about this, have an image in each of the folders, simple! ;-)
Quoted message said:If the viewpoint sorting method is preferred, what about telephoto shots that show no foreground,
and thus show nothing of the area that the photo was taken from, should these be given special
treatment?
Forget about the viewpoint method, as your example above shows why it doesn't matter. As I said,
think of everything from the clients perspective and alter your system to meet this.
Quoted message said:I'm just curious to hear other people's views on this subject, in order to help me decide how I
want to do it.
So you'll hear about all the different ideas, and can then decide that your own idea was the best
one all along... :-)
Quoted message said:Paul
Ste
