Keywords and Metadata Tagging Tips

You’ve uploaded a great shot and are ready to license it. But how can you be sure it will be seen by a potential buyer? Detailed keywords and metadata descriptions are essential for your content to appear during searches.

Tagging your image with the right keywords and metadata will increase the clip’s visibility and ensure that it appears in search results. The wrong keywords or metadata — or worse, too few keywords or metadata — might decrease your clip’s visibility or result in missed sales opportunities. Although it can seem tedious, effective keywording is a critical step in preparing your videos for licensing. By keeping it simple and factual, keywording and metadata can be an easy part of your workflow.

When keywording, do:

  • Describe what you see and stick to the facts 
  • Use conceptual keywords (what is the emotion, mood, or bigger picture idea?)
  • Check for spelling errors

When adding metadata, do:

    • Fill out as much as possible. The more you can add about the camera used, type of shot, motion control, etc. the more you help a potential buyer refine their search.
    • While keyword options are practically endless, we do supply drop down menus for each category of metadata, to keep terminology consistent. Match the metadata as best as possible to the options provided. See below for example.

 

  • Take advantage of our batch metadata editor or import metadata from your own database. To learn more about both of these options, refer to this earlier post about our metadata management tools.

To illustrate what a good set of keywords and metadata look like, we’ve included some examples below.

 

Example 1:

Title: Patagonia Timelapse 

Description: Motion timelapse of clouds passing over Patagonia mountains and lake

Keywords: patagonia, 8k, chile, argentina, mountains, lake, andes, sunset, sunrise, time lapse, fitz roy, landscape, nature, calm, dramatic

Location: Patagonia

Camera: Pentax 645z

Composition: Wide Shot, Extreme Wide Shot

Focus: Back, Infinite

Light Source: Sun

Lightfall: Ambient

Medium: Time Lapse

Motion: Dolly, Pan, Tilt

 

 

Example 2:

Title: Cowboy riding galloping horse 

Description: Close up of cowboy riding horse as it gallops 

Keywords: cowboy, man, person, ranch, horse, farm, wild west, western, canada, alberta, plains, saskatchewan, running, galloping, powerful, animal

Camera: Red Epic Dragon

Location: Alberta, Canada

Composition: Close Up Shot, Medium Close Up Shot

Focus: Mid, Fore

Frame Angle: Neutral View, Profile

Light Source: Sun

Medium: Video

Motion: Movi, Dolly

Model Release Available: Yes

 

Example 3:

Title: Desert Buggy Race Aerial

Description: Track Eric Solorzano from the air as he races through the desert. Sun flare through the frame.

Keywords: Drone, aerial, 4k, offroad, off-road, buggy, desert, car, dust, race car, flare, dusk, dawn, epic, adventure

Camera: Inspire 2 x5s

Lens: 50

Location: Glamis, CA

Composition: Medium Shot

Focus: Infinite

Frame Angle: Birds Eye, 3/4 Rear

Light Source: Sun

Lightfall: Ambient

Medium: Video

Motion: Aerial

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