As many of you know (and hate!) captioning and keywording is an important part of the imaging workflow.
Whether searching a large collection or preparing a batch of images for market a good caption and set of keywords is important.
Lightroom does not come with a structural set of keywords to help you build a proper keywording tree so you either have to make your own from scratch or you buy a ready made “base” one that you can adapt and grow to your own needs.
Up till now I have been recommending a US based list to clients but have recently come across a competitively priced list that is both logical and deep, Its written by a real stock photographer called Tim Makins who lives in Ireland. It even has a set of Getty conceptual keywords and we all know how we love conceptual keywords 🙂
The base list already has a good selection of wildlife and plant items for the geographical area chosen but this can be further enhanced by adding free additions from the site such as the 7209 item list of plants with both common and scientific name or the extensive mammal and bird lists..
If you dont have a very good keywording tree or are in the market for one this is an excellent place to start: http://www.photo-keywords.com/ Not only does Tim provide a selection of lists his site gives very comprehensive guides and advice in using and adapting them, recommended reading for cold winter nights.
Its always a pleasure retouching images for MINT and ensuring that they have a contemporary feel as well as meeting the quality standards of the market.