Author Topic: Future-proofing the tagging of digital photographs.  (Read 3910 times)

Online jim1

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Re: Future-proofing the tagging of digital photographs.
« Reply #9 on: Wednesday 06 December 17 18:01 GMT (UK) »
What Martin wants to do is put information into the photo unseen which can be accessed by anyone viewing it rather than adding a comment which might get lost or erased. This is for future generations who don't have to say "I've got a photo but don't know who it is or where it was taken". With embedded metadata the info travels with the photo.
Warks:Ashford;Cadby;Clarke;Clifford;Cooke Copage;Easthope;
Edmonds;Felton;Colledge;Lutwyche;Mander(s);May;Poole;Withers.
Staffs.Edmonds;Addison;Duffield;Webb;Fisher;Archer
Salop:Easthope,Eddowes,Hoorde,Oteley,Vernon,Talbot,De Neville.
Notts.Clarke;Redfearne;Treece.
Som.May;Perriman;Cox
India Kane;Felton;Cadby
London.Haysom.
Lancs.Gay.
Worcs.Coley;Mander;Sawyer.
Kings of Wessex & Scotland
Census information is Crown copyright,from
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

Online familydar

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Re: Future-proofing the tagging of digital photographs.
« Reply #10 on: Wednesday 06 December 17 18:30 GMT (UK) »
And rather than spend hours doing a visual search through thousands of images in a virtual photo album, tell the computer to search for a specific tag (or whatever takes over from tags) and it finds them in an instant.  Although I don't "do" facebook I think their tags work on a similar principle.
ALLEN
BARR, BARRATT, BERRY, BRADLEY,BRAMLEY,BRISTOW,BROWN,BUGBIRD,BUTLER
CAIN,CARR,CHAPMAN,CHARLES,CH*LTON,CHESTER,COCKETT
COLLASON,COLLYER,CORKERY
DARLING, DENYER,DICKERSON,DOLLING,DURBAN
FARMER,FURNELL
GIBSON,GILES,GROOMBRIDGE
HALL,HAMBIDGE,HARMES,HART,HICKS,HILL,HOLLOWAY
JACKSON
K*AT*S
LANCASTER,LINTON
MCDONALD,MCFADEN,MEARS,MILLARD
NICOLAS,NOAK,NORTH
PARFIT,PORTER
RIPPINGALE,ROBINS
SEARLE,SPENCER,STEDHAM
TYLER,TILLY,TUCKWELL
WADE,WAGER,WALKER,WATSON,WEBB,WITHRINGTON,WOOD

Offline Handypandy

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Re: Future-proofing the tagging of digital photographs.
« Reply #11 on: Wednesday 06 December 17 19:22 GMT (UK) »
Trying to get people to actually save photos properly at all, is a bit of a hobby horse for me. Like almost everything else, they appear to have become almost disposable, undervalued because of the sheer volume. I imagine that these days, more photos are taken on any single day than in the first hundred or so years. How many will survive though?

Offline Mart 'n' Al

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Re: Future-proofing the tagging of digital photographs.
« Reply #12 on: Wednesday 06 December 17 19:29 GMT (UK) »
These comments are so true.  Vital parts of the next generation's heritage need preserving, but they are currently treated as instant 'NOW' moments and seemingly instantly disposable.

I know for some it is a bag of worms, but Google are obliged to get rid of StreetView data once it is superseded.  What if our great grandchildren find out that pictures of their street and the residents were disposed of?  I'm getting off-topic, I'm just concerned about making my box of flaky photos available in 100 years.

Martin


Online jim1

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Re: Future-proofing the tagging of digital photographs.
« Reply #13 on: Wednesday 06 December 17 20:15 GMT (UK) »
Anything we use today will be obsolete in a 100 years so whatever you use will have a limited shelf life.
The only sure way is an album with all the photos labelled.
Seem to have come full circle.
Warks:Ashford;Cadby;Clarke;Clifford;Cooke Copage;Easthope;
Edmonds;Felton;Colledge;Lutwyche;Mander(s);May;Poole;Withers.
Staffs.Edmonds;Addison;Duffield;Webb;Fisher;Archer
Salop:Easthope,Eddowes,Hoorde,Oteley,Vernon,Talbot,De Neville.
Notts.Clarke;Redfearne;Treece.
Som.May;Perriman;Cox
India Kane;Felton;Cadby
London.Haysom.
Lancs.Gay.
Worcs.Coley;Mander;Sawyer.
Kings of Wessex & Scotland
Census information is Crown copyright,from
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

Offline Sinann

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Re: Future-proofing the tagging of digital photographs.
« Reply #14 on: Wednesday 06 December 17 21:42 GMT (UK) »
Tagging sounds interesting, I shall investigate a bit more although I think I'd prefer simply writing under the scanned photo and on the back of the physical photo and let who ever ends up with them change to whatever new method comes along, perhaps it's because I don't have children that I can't drum up any concern about 100 years time. I'll do me best to have all I've collect in a useable state and hope I can find someone willing to keep it (and enjoy) rather than skip it.

Offline bluesofa

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Re: Future-proofing the tagging of digital photographs.
« Reply #15 on: Wednesday 06 December 17 23:10 GMT (UK) »
If you haven't found it already, ExifTool by Phl Harvey is a very handy little application.  While aimed at photographers, it reads/writes many metadata formats and has a command-line interface allowing you to update multiple files at the same time (with all the benefits and associated risks).

I share your surprise that this question doesn't seem to be well catered for.  I have been confused by the plethora of models and standards, but I guess there are many reasons to catalogue digital material, of which genealogy is only one.

I quite liked the look of Dublin Core metadata standard, but I had not worked out how to implement it.  Alternatively, I considered using Adobe Photo Editor to organise digital images.  While it creates a separate database, I believe it has the functionality to write meta-data directly to the files as well. 

However, as you can probably tell, I haven't implemented anything yet, relying on my family history software and careful filenames.  That works for a few photographs, but for my fh software at least, to do that for my parents slide collection is rather unwieldy, never mind the digital photos of my own family.

I don't know if there's any fh software out there that will add gedcom meta-data to the images of sources.  For example the individuals of interest in a census image.  I'm aware that without my fh software, my collection of census records and certificates are difficult to appreciate by themselves, and I don't really expect others to learn how to use my fh software.

Offline a chesters

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Re: Future-proofing the tagging of digital photographs.
« Reply #16 on: Wednesday 06 December 17 23:22 GMT (UK) »
Tagging sounds interesting, I shall investigate a bit more although I think I'd prefer simply writing under the scanned photo and on the back of the physical photo and let who ever ends up with them change to whatever new method comes along, perhaps it's because I don't have children that I can't drum up any concern about 100 years time. I'll do me best to have all I've collect in a useable state and hope I can find someone willing to keep it (and enjoy) rather than skip it.

As an ex-technician, I am very dubious about computerisation. Like Sinann, I label each digital photo on the computer, with a number for each one regarding the trip etc, and write on the back of physical photos. Having to learn basic programming in the early 1980's :o :o :o I took a very jaundiced view of the future "progress" the enthusiasts were carrying on about.

Offline mike175

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Re: Future-proofing the tagging of digital photographs.
« Reply #17 on: Thursday 07 December 17 09:21 GMT (UK) »
I use the EXIF Tags and Comments available under Windows 10 to add details that are useful to me. I suspect, as with many Microsoft 'features', these are probably non-standard and not readable by some other software. Like others I am dubious about future standards that may apply, so I just do what suits me now.

My RootsMagic software links media to the relevant people to form an integrated database, but I also try to make files searchable independantly using the Windows OS.

I am prompted by this thread to investigate further, but I don't have great expectations of finding a universal system . . .  :-\
Baskervill - Devon, Foss - Hants, Gentry - Essex, Metherell - Devon, Partridge - Essex/London, Press - Norfolk/London, Stone - Surrey/Sussex, Stuttle - Essex/London, Wheate - Middlesex/Essex/Coventry/Oxfordshire/Staffs, Gibson - Essex, Wyatt - Essex/Kent