Adding Metadata to Your Digital Photos

One of the greatest challenges with working with digital images is how to keep track of people and information within the image itself. There are no naming convention standards for digital images. For example, if you want to name a photograph of an individual, you might consider using the name plus any other descriptive data. Here's an example:

HOLDER-Brisco Washington - 1906 - RomeGA.jpg

When naming a group photo, however, it isn't practical to list all the names of the people pictured, is it? The file name could be huge and not necessarily easy to find later. 

When naming a digital image downloaded and saved from an online database, you might try this:

WILSON Family-1900 US Census-Mecklenburg County NC.jpg

However, if you have a multiple page document, you will download it and save it one page at a time. For example:

WILSON-Lenora Lydia Patterson-Will-1914-Page1.jpg

WILSON-Lenora Lydia Patterson-Will-1914-Page2.jpg

WILSON-Lenora Lydia Patterson-Will-1914-Page3.jpg

And what about a newspaper clipping? How much information do you include in the filename?

MURPHY-Jeter Earnest-Obituary-07091898-Statesville[NC]Landmark-Page6.jpg

Filenames are not necessarily the most efficient way to organize and document your digital images. Fortunately, however, there are other ways to organize information about and in the images. One way is by using Metadata. 

A two-part article in the RootsTech Blog describes what Metadata is and how to add it to your digital images. 

• Part 1: https://www.rootstech.org/blog/adding-metadata-to-your-digital-photos
• Part 2: https://www.rootstech.org/blog/metadata-basics-how-to-keep-your-stories-alive-digitally

Take some time to read and understand Metadata. You'll open up a new way to add data to your images.