Metadata, Sharing and Photography Resources on the Web
Materials and Additional Resources
Warning:
Do Not turn iCloud Photos on without first backing up your iPhone.
Apple goes to great lengths to keep your photos safe, but because of the changes made during the iCloud Photos setup, a backup is a good idea. If you have questions, scroll down to the “iCloud Photos” section below.
Presentation:
General:
Working with Metadata:
Apple generates Artificial Intellegence (AI) metadata on the Mac version of Photos. When your Mac is idle, this AI works in the background to identify human faces and objects. This feature was introduced without much fanfare a few years ago, and it has become pretty effective. For example, if you identify a few photos of a particular person in your library, the AI then finds other similar faces for you to confirm as the same person. In this way, you build metadata about the people in your photos with the help of the AI.
It also looks for common objects. Photos can identify over 400 according to a 2016 article, so by now the number must be much higher. Here’s a partial list — try it by entering them in the search bar of Photos!
A few of the 1000’s of Keywords Photos can identify: Glasses, Stained Glass, Beach, Graffiti, Night Club, Cat, Dog, Cow, Horse, Donkey, Giraffe, Bird, Deer, Moose, Car, Truck, Tractor, Bicycle, Food, Fried Chicken, Grilled Chicken, Broccoli, Salad, Bread, Pie, Sandwich,Wine, Coffee Shop, Coffee, Restaurant, Flower, Insect, Spider, Spiderweb, Snake
Metadata Apps:
Hashphotos – Free app (with in-app purchases) for adding keywords to photos on the iPhone and iPad
Photo Sharing Sites:
Dropbox – Cloud storage service for storing all types of files. Integrates with may other services and is very popular – 2 TB ($11.99/month)
Instagram – Social Media site for sharing photos – Free
iCloud Photos – Cloud storage service that integrates with Apple Mac OS and iOS – 50 GB ($.99/month), 200 GB ($2.99/month), 2 TB ($9.99/month)
Google Photos – Cloud storage, editing tools and print services for photos. – 100 GB ($1.99/month), 200 GB ($2.99/month), 2 TB ($9.99/month) with larger sizes available
Flickr – Social Media site for sharing photos – Unlimited ($50/year)
500px – Photo Storage service geared to professional photographers that also offers a gallery and licensing.
SmugMug – Broad range of plans from Basic (unlimited photo uploads – $5.99/month) to a professional package that offer galleries with templates and licensing.
How to Choose a Photo Storage Service – Helpful comparison on The Verge with information about photo services like Flickr, Google, 500px, Photobucket, DeviantArt and Amazon
Photography Resources on the Web
Google – The world’s information at your fingertips. It is still surprising to me how often a simple question like “how do I transfer photos from an iPhone to a Mac” will result in useful answers. Google understands natural language, so form a question and ask . . .
YouTube – The second largest search engine on the planet (behind Google), There are countless videos on almost any topic you can name. It’s my “go to” for quick information about equipment or procedures. Try searching for “iPhone Photography” or “iPhone Photography Gadgets.”
Apple.com – Lots of help here. Try: “About the Camera features on your iPhone.”
Smartphone Photography 101 – Ad supported Smart Phone photography course
iPhone Photography School – Paid Online Course with free samples. Pretty comprehensive including both iPhone camera operation and more general photography skills. They also have a YouTube Channel.
ICloud Photos
support.apple.com is a source excellent information site for Apple. The articles below will help you get started with iCloud Photos.
How to Backup your iPhone or iPad
How to Set Up and Use iCloud Photos on your iPhone or iPad – iOS, Mac or PC