Image Tagging
Maybe you’ve spent a lot of time searching for the right image for a design project or saved an image in a folder but can’t find it. That’s very frustrating, especially if you’re carrying out a project and need that photo urgently.
Using image tagging software, you’ll be saved from all this stress and hassle.
Image tagging software makes searching for image files easier. Therefore, you’ll find the right JPEG in a few seconds and then utilize the time on your design project. Below is a complete breakdown of image tagging, its benefits, and how it can make work easier for you.
What is Image Tagging?
Image tagging is the process of keywording images based on the figures that appeared on a certain picture. An image tagging software will automatically tag an image, though a user can add some tagging process.
This software is an organizer that automates the tagging process by adding the right tags to the objects on a picture. The tools use face recognition and AI-powered image recognition to search an image and add relevant tags based on the people or objects that appeared on it.
Some sophisticated image tagging software even adds tags for abstract things like emotions, making it easier for you to find an image later.
Before the image tagging software, people tag a photo manually by labeling it with the relevant keywords. However, this is time-consuming, and errors can be made. Now that there is software that does auto-tagging, your team can save time and avoid errors.
Why Do We Need Image Tagging Software?
You must understand why we need artificial intelligence-based image tagging before we jump into how to utilize it and the best software.
Over the last years, the internet has experienced an incredible boom in the number of users. Businesses take advantage of this and establish a presence for their companies on various social media platforms. This led to creating more digital content like videos and images.
For example, suppose your business has an e-commerce website. In that case, you’ll need to upload photos of your products, flyers, banners, sales images that will be posted on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, e.t.c. These can be up to a thousand images or more. Grouping these images into folders or naming them can not be the most effective way to categorize the image repository.
Rather, when you tag images, you’ll have additional organization and an easier way to access your repository.
Most Digital Asset Management Systems add tags to their software so that users will easily find the image they’re looking for among thousands of files.
Descriptive tags that associate an image with the information on its content are easier to remember by humans than a file or folder name.
For example, a team member might name a photo of a cat and its kittens as abc.jpg. When another team member needs to use that picture, it will be hard to search for it, especially if the person named it isn’t around. Also, you can name a file and forget it. But if you use a tagging system, the file will be easier to access when needed.
Differences Between AI Image Tagging and Manual Image Tagging
Generally, there are two ways you can add tags to an image. Either manually or automatically.
The manual image tagging process involves looking at a photo and adding relevant tags using a digital asset management system. This type of tagging can effectively tag a limited number of images. However, in the case of thousands of photos, manual tagging will consume a lot of time and cost.
Also, it will be hard to maintain consistency and avoid errors when using this tagging process. If a repository of images is divided among a team to manually tag it, each person will tag an image based on their vocabulary and interpretation of the image’s content. This can cause issues for a business.
Thus you’ll need to set up a team and train them on the type of tagging vocabulary and interpretation used in your business. You know this will cost a lot of money and effort.
Since humans are prone to making errors, there can be typing errors when tagging, rendering it useless as you won’t be able to search that image.
Automatic image tagging on the other tag images using AI and advanced computer vision enables the computer to see and interpret images the way humans do and to identify all objects and label them.
Image tagging software carries out tagging accurately in milliseconds and can tag thousands of images simultaneously, making it more time efficient than traditional tagging.
Also, automatic tagging isn’t prone to spelling errors, reducing inconsistency. Utilizing an AI-powered tagging process will save time and the cost you’d spend on hiring and training individuals. The fast and accurate tagging also ensures smooth workflow in a business.
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5 Amazing Image Tagging Tips
1. Utilize a Document Tag Management Software
A document tag image management software helps your team organize images to easily and accurately access them. This saves them from checking thousands of files looking for a particular photo.
Good categorization and tagging allow a smooth workflow that can’t be achieved easily with physical tagging. A company that uses tag management software will achieve more productivity and save time and cost.
2. Set a Plan
Before you start image tagging, devise a plan for what you want to accomplish. Don’t start with tagging all the photos in your library; start with images you’re likely to reference or important ones.
You might want to start with the new photos to make them easier to find or an old folder of photos that you will likely use in the future.
Your main goal should be to make all your images easily accessible to anyone. Start with categorizing the most applicable ones; this will improve your file organization.
3. Develop a Simple Image Tagging Taxonomy
Avoid adding tags without proper planning and taxonomy if you use manual tagging. This will only result in spelling errors, overlapping meanings, and unorganized tagging.
Rather create photo tags that will be intuitive to anyone searching for them.
This works just like Google search. When searching for a subject we aren’t familiar with, we begin with general phrases or words. If that doesn’t work, we’ll narrow the topic until Google gives us what we’re looking for. Image tagging works the same way; you start from broader tags and then make them more specific so that your team members can easily find the image.
4. Develop a Strong Team
Some businesses think a single person can handle the tagging of a thousand images. Honestly, this is a huge task and can be energy draining resulting in unwanted results.
It’s recommended that a business identify the important folders that need to be tagged and then set up a strong team to work on it. Assign certain folders to each individual and watch how the work will be effortlessly done in a few hours.
Also, involve those using the images to carry out projects. Those making tags and those using them should sit together and develop an excellent tagging structure that will lead anyone to the appropriate photos.
5. Embrace the Latest Tagging Technology
While photo management software can do a good job in helping your manual tag images, it consumes a lot of time and resources.
Embracing the new technology of automatic image tagging can make work a lot easier for your company. AI image recognition can simultaneously scan thousands of images and categorize them based on the contents present.
Top Image Tagging Software You Should Try
This section shall look at the top 5 Image Tagging Software that can help you organize and tag your photos more effectively.
Adobe Lightroom Classic
Adobe Lightroom is not only a fantastic photoshop software, but it also has an amazing image organization function that can effectively improve your workflow.
Lightroom Classic has a good cloud storage option for AI image tagging. It also allows you to edit, reorganize, store and share your photos across different devices.
You can choose to either sort images into collections according to their contents or use lightroom smart collections to automatically categorize images into classes based on keywords and objects a user sets.
The AI and machine learning-based tagging software are available on Macbooks and Windows.
Google Photos
Google photos are the ideal photo management software for small businesses. It allows you to back up and access all your videos and photos using any device.
All you’ve to do is to upload your images on Google cloud storage, and Google Photos will automatically categorize and tag your images, making them easier to find.
Google photos use the geolocation of your camera to enable you to search for photos using their location. It auto-tags faces and objects, making it possible for you to categorize albums per object or individual.
