Irritating to Disappointing - Photos Without Titles, Strange Names and other Nuisances

Well, about the title: ipernity has a bug at this point (reported in ticket #23883, but they can´t reproduce it, not even with a given example-file by me, so this ticket ended in "Not resolved") which prevent the displaying of the given title (in IPTC - tags) as title for ipernity. Instead the filename is chosen... I add a title and even a description to nearly every upload, but expecially at larger batches it could be annoying to replace each title after uploading (even in organizer) because of this bug.
So this might be the reason for some of these filenames in titles (of course, I suggest, this was the minority, mostly the title wasn´t set in exif or iptc).

About geotagging: Well, most of my photos are geotagged as well. Just a few ones imported from flickr aren´t, or if I don´t want to provide geo-infos because of security-reasons (some family-photos etc.). Also I add a link to WikiPedia if it´s a place of interest.

But all these needs time... So if you are talking about missing titles and geolocations I could talk about you and missing keywords - where are your keywords for this article? ;-)

Not everyone will invest this time. Which is sometimes sad, yes. And I wonder why they don´t provide this information, why they don´t tag their documents with keywords - they will help everyone to find their docs, even by the photographer itself. But I won´t interpret this as not being polite - sometimes it´s because of a lack of time, sometimes because of a bug, sometimes - well, many more reasons why somebody don´t title the documents, why not provide some background - information about it - or why somebody don´t provide some keywords...

Well, if I´m searching for informations where a photo was taken - mostly I post it to a group of this area and ask in title for the location, this will help mostly if it wasn´t to specific.

About your feauture - suggestion: Well, there are groups for this. Mostly they are, of course, local ones. And some of them are in "different direction" - the photograph will known the location, but others should find it... these kind of groups are named "Guess where [city]" - groups... sadly most of them are in deep, deep sleeping-mode.

Thanks for your comment, which is really appreciated since I'm still working to understand the ins and outs of Ipernity. And yes, you are right, where are my keywords? To be honest: I'm working on it! And agan, you are right here as well, it takes some effort and time.

And as to the question of titles: For me the vast majority of photos without titles or explanation simply don't get my attention. Only very few photos really speak for themselves and don't need any explanation. But I've seen galleries here only with boring titles as DSC_XXX from end to end. Great vintage cars, a gallery full of airplanes and other marvels, which caught my interest immediately, however, neither titles nor explanations ... so what, I just turn around and go away. (btw: the automatic use of the IPTC information is nice feature, I haven't thought about that. But I have to admit, that I don't use that feature myself)

I really enjoy galleries, which come with lots of background information and have started to augment my photos accordingly. I love to read the stories e.g. the almost incredible story of the refurbishment of your house and appartment.

Now, let me get to work on my keywords ;-)

Greetings to my hometown, Lutz

Just saw this... I agree that its frustrating to see a fascinating building or landscape and there be nothing in the title or keywords that give you any knowledge of where it is.

Regarding suggesting corrections for places on geo-tagging, I've mixed feelings on that. I appreciate it when someone does say something helpful, but I've photos on Panoramio and too often the changes are incorrectly to the location that is being photographed (e.g., Alcatraz Island), not the location from which the photo was taken (e.g., the waterfront in SF). I'm also frustrated by all of the photos that are geo-tagged only by some major point (e.g., whatever point Google gives when you type in "San Francisco") that's way too crude for telling the viewer where it was taken.

Yes Don, I agree to some extent. Geo-tagging comes in different flavors ;-). And I have to admit, that I really enjoy to precisely position my photos even those which have been taken 40 years ago. I know, that I cannot expect that from everybody else. On Panoramio you have the option to correct misplaced photos, which I usually do, if I stumble over one, where I know the place. Thanks for stopping by and greetings, Lutz

I also often get pages, on which I find beautiful photos of interesting and exciting landscapes.
It is always again so bad to find no word of description and no title and no location.
I often wonder why a photo in this manner at all has been uploaded.

...see, you never walk alone, not even here ;-)

What I like most about ipernity is that most of the submissions are from Europe. My wife and I have had the good fortune to have made several trips to Europe in the last few years. When I see your beautiful part of the world, well captured, yes I want to know where it is. We have started to plan our trips, in a general sense, from member's photos.

I think, that is a very nice "fringe benefit" of geotagged photos. I do exactly the same but also enjoy to virtually visit parts of world, where I will most likely never go.

Fotografieren heißt Ideen umsetzen.... Dinge sehen und ihnen eine Bedeutung
geben... Bilder halten Momente des "Sehens" fest ... oft sogar Emotionen.
Daher sollten sie auch einen Titel haben der diesen Moment beschreibt
oder das wiedergibt was sich der/die Fotograph/in durch den Kopf ging.

Meiner Meinung nach ist es nicht zwingend ... aber hilfreich eine
Beschreibung hinzu zu fügen... aber Bilder ohne Titel...
sind meiner Meinung nach Ideenlos und entsprechen dann nicht
der Kreativität des Urhebers.

...sehe ich genau so Katja. Ohne Titel: Mangel an Phantasie und/ oder Interessee, warum hat der Fotograf das überhaupt fotografiert, wenn er / sie es nicht benennen kann!Beschreibung: manches erschließt sich von selbst, da brauchts danna uch keine Beschreibung, oft ist die aberschon hilfreich. Ich beschäftige mich dann deutlich länger mit so einem Bild.

I fully agree! I like to see not only a title but also a description, tags and geotagging and tend to skip photos that provide nothing but IMG_123. But after all those users harm themselves because their photos can't be found on the map or by tag search.

BTW- tags are not always easy, they are case sensitive, sensitive to spelling and blanks. Try to find photos under the tag blue port- there's BluePort, blue port, blueport... always different photos. So where do you begin and end with tagging? Germany, Deutschland, Allemagne ...?

my words, I have given up on tagging for the time being. too much trouble, too prone to error, too clumsy process. But I'm impressed, when I see some guys here, who have zillions of tags on their photos!

Die Fehler kann man eigentlich ganz gut korrigieren (nach Stichworten suchen, bearbeiten) und neue Tags für viele Fotos gehen gut über den Organisator.

Recently, a number of my images uploaded without the file title. So if you upload images straight to "public viewing" they can appear without a title / description. Very annoying, for both owner and viewer.
Although I usually add keywords, I sometimes forget - or need to edit / add other tags as I go along.

Well, right after upload is not my problem, I come back later. But if the entire gallery comes along with IMG_XXX, that was my last visit then. IMHO it's a matter of respect towards the visitor.

I agree, titles and descriptions are very important to the viewer. I tend not to open up mine unless I have these, and at least some tags in place. I don't geotag, though.

Wobei speziell der Title zumindest bei meinen Fotos von ipernity nicht erkannt wird, obwohl ich den in den exif - Informationen speichere (Beschreibung und Stichwörter werden aber sehr wohl erkannt).
Meist kopiere ich die dann händisch rein, ich will aber nicht ausschließen, dass ich es auch mal bei dem ein oder anderen Foto vergessen habe - kann ich aber gerade nicht nachschauen, weil ich gerade kein Clubmitglied mehr bin.

Aber vom Grundsatz her hast du schon recht - aber das schrieb ich schon. Hm, wieso hat sich das Artikel - Datum geändert, hast du etwas ergänzt, wenn ja, was?

Moin Stefan, ich hab eine Kleinigkeit und damit das Datum geändert weil ich den Artikel aus aktuellem Anlass mal wieder vorn haben wollte. Da gab es so eine Disskussion ...

Ja, den Artikel des anderen sah ich auf der folgenden Suchseite nach dem Stichwort "ipernity" auch dann. Mir ist das Team gerade ein wenig zu ruhig und wollte mal schauen, ob andere da was näheres wissen. Laut einem anderen Blogposting stand deren Büro wohl vor einigen Wochen bei dem Unwetter in Südfrankreich auch unter Wasser und die hatten weder Strom noch Internet, reagieren aber seit rund einer Woche wieder auf Fehlerreports. Das erklärt zwar die Stille die Monate vorher nicht, aber vielleicht geht es hier dann ja nun auch mal weiter.
Der Server, auf dem ich normalerweise helfe ipernity von englisch nach deutsch zu übersetzen ist auch schon seit Monaten offline, das spricht irgendwie andererseits dann auch nicht für rege Entwicklungstätigkeiten..

Hello Lutz,
At least you got some attention here. As we both have a past from Panoramio we know that the time people take to do a good job is variating a lot. On PA it had to to with getting the picture on Google Earth, no matter what the quality of the picture. Of course, as here, I respect that the ability of the users varies as well, as it should because Ipernity should be for all. Nevertheless I think TTTL (Title, Tags, Text, Location) is improving the viewers experience on a platform like this. But if a picture is good..., well, a picture can tell more than a thousend words.
Have a good X-mas.

Thanks for your comment Peter, I fully agree and have to admit, that there are indeed pics, where I do not stick to my usual behavior, however, the bar is set pretty high then. And season greetings to you and your loved ones as well.

I agree about titles and descriptions of photos. I get my kicks out of creatively titling a photo, it's part of the fun for me.

On the other hand, tags and geotagging I never think to do, because I don't make use of the feature myself. This article you wrote taught me that there are people out there who rely on tagging, so I will think about tagging my photos in the future.

Thanks for your thoughts, Val. I always want to know the "What" and the "Where". I have been a map person all my life and I just love to see it on the map or satellite image. It's not really a point for photos of a tree, a flower or the pet, but when it comes to landscape and architecture I'm always pleased to find it geotagged. Sometime there is the additional benefit to find out, that it's not so far away and I want to go there sooner or later. I guess, that has also something to do with my fomer virtual life on Panoramio, where tagged photos were shown on Google Earth (which was nice as long as it worked).

Anyway, it is just my personal perception.

Greets Lutz

Unless it was a photo taken around by my home, I have always tried to post the location of any public site I've visited, like my frequent trips to Longwood Gardens, Winterthur or NYC. In the future I will geotag the photos as well. I have avoided it in the past simply because I don't like revealing my specific location to the world-wide public for security reasons. Maybe I'm being too paranoid about it, but I have seen too many bad things happen to people who reveal their lives in intimate ways. I don't even like to post photos of me or my family members for that reason. But to geotag an image of a public tourist attraction is quite reasonable. :-)

Hehe, on another subject, after reading your post to NGC300 explaining what types of photos interest you, I now fully understand why you didn't comment on my latest submission to TSC this week. I have my preferences for subjects as well (i.e., nude photos I typically avoid, no matter how well photographed they are), so I have no problem if you choose to not visit some of my images for those reasons.

My words, Val. I fully share your security concerns and when it comes to the place where I live, my geotags become grossly inaccurate ;-)) Same goes for my current position in my profile.

Of course we all have our preferences. I always go through all TSC postings. Some photos I like some not so much. But again, that is a matter of taste and very personal. But if nothing enters my mind, when I look at a photo, I simply don't comment on it.

Regards and have a nice week, Lutz

I agree to most of what you write Lutz, but some of your wishes will have to go away, I always give titles to my photos, often adding where they were taken and with which camera.
Things, buildings, Shrines and Temples are generally described, sometimes with extracts borrowed from Wikipedia with aknowledgement to that fact. Photos of private homes will not have absolute locations for reasons desired by the friends that live in them.

I would add that I find it bad mannered just to mark a photo with the Star signifying that the viewer thinks it woth mentioning but never bothers to make a comment.

Some, in fact many of my photos are of birds, animals etc with common name in English and the Scientific name in Latin, no point in adding more unless the creature in question is exceedingly rare, the Latin name is undersandable to all nature lovers no matter they be Chinese, Thai or American as the names are used everywhere and can be looked up. This is of course an area that not everybody is interested in.

Holiday photos are generally only of interest to the friends and or family members involved so location and date are added plus the files are titled. They as are many of my uploads marked as being viewable to Friends and or family, only photos added to groups or those I wish to share in order to indicate my interests in a general manner are marked for everyone.

The adding of a string of logo's saying 'Enjoyed on this and that group' are tiresome and they get deleted by me.

Hi Lutz, :)

I enjoyed your article. This has always been a pet peeve of mine. It's nice to know that I'm not alone in feeling disappointed in images with unattractive file names and without any further information. It's always puzzled me why someone would post a nice photo without giving any more insight to the viewer about it. I always think, "If only they would have added this or that, it would have made the image complete."

Geo tagging I know almost nothing about so I can't comment on that part. Cheers, Karen

You are right with your worfs

I don't like it when fantastic photos are not mapped. I love to see where i would like to visit!

"And then there are the photos with the horizon askew. Given all the nice functions we have at our hands today I find it disrespectful towards the beholder to show such photos without correction."

Yes, those causes me bad allergic reactions! =D

Thanks Lutz. You have provided the grumpy so I can just be the old man today. :-)

I agree with everything you said. We have chosen our recent travel itineraries based on some of the photos we see here. I have no interest in recreating the photo someone else took but I am very interested in the location.

:-))

One thing that drives me nuts is when people don't use good grammar in their own language or don't leave spaces between their words or after a period or comma. It renders the translator (a wonderful convenience) useless.

..oh yes, I can only agree

Eine Ausnahme seh ich: Werke, die nur die fortlaufende Nummer eines Projektes tragen. Ansonsten: voll d'accord!

btw.: die geotagging-Funktion geht bei mir am Desktop nicht direkt beim Bild - oder muss ich da irgendwie was einstellen? (bisher schaff ich das nur über den Umweg "organisieren, etc. Ist aber umständlich)

Rechts in der Mitte >Ort >"Zeigen Sie auf einer Karte wo dieses Foto gemacht wurde". Sollte funktionieren. Hab da noch nie Probleme gehabt.

Was meinst du mit "fortlaufende Nr. eines Projekts?

Manchmal gibt es keinen sinnvollen Titel. Bei Kunstprojekten etwa, die aNNa unten erwähnt. Dann weicht man bsp. auf eine Nr aus. Ein prominentes Beispiel: das Gemälde "Untitled XXV" von Willem de Koning, das gerade für 61,7 Mio Dollar versteigert worden ist.

diepresse.com/home/kultur/kunst/5118999/Rekordpreis-fur-Bild-von-de-Kooning

... na ja, dann wäre der Titel bei mir "Untitled XXV" von Willem de Koning" und eben nicht DSC_3243 :-)

D'accord!
DSC_3243 etc. halte ich ebenfalls für beiläufig und lieblos.
Wenn man sich über den Titel keine Gedanken macht, müsste man ein Foto eigentlich gar nicht hochladen.

Genau das meinte ich. Wenn mir kein Titel für mein Foto einfällt ist da irgendwas mit dem Foto nicht in Ordnung. ;-)

Oh Lutz,
ich danke dir für diesen Kommentar !!!
Du sprichst mir aus der Seele.
Wenn ich Bilder anschaue, schau ich genau und will mehr wissen als *nur* ein gutes oder schönes Foto.
Oftmals geben mir EXIF-Daten Informationen, was ich vielleicht bei meinen Bildern besser machen könnte.
Geo-Daten sollten immer angeben werden, ausser bei *Kunst*-Foto, wo es dann letztlich egal ist wo es gemacht ist. Aber gut wäre es allemal, vielleicht Erklärungen abzugeben.

Ansonsten habe ich nichts zu deinem Artikel hinzuzufügen ausser ES SOLLTEN ALLE LEUTE / FOTOGRAFEN LESEN !!!

Nochmals großen Dank

Liebe Grüße aNNa*

Phew, bet you felt better after that Lutz! ;)

...indeed Paul, needed to be said ;-)