First year pelican attempting a water landing

Admit it, we all hate it and are usually behind the curve playing catch-up - Key-wording. Most of us do too little of it (2013-pelican) and some of us do way too much (2013-pelican-white-water-wings-splash-action-young-juvenile-landing-summer-june-river-dam) which is what usually pegs our frustration level and actually keeps us from doing it more regularly.

Well, just like Goldilox found, is there a solution that is "just right? Here's a way to help you figure out what "just right" really is for you.

Think of Future Use

The main purpose of key-words is to find something later when you need it. At some point you'll have a particular use for a certain type of image. So let's think about what those potential "use cases" are for your type of photography and then just add the key-words you think you'll need.

For my needs, it usually revolves around a particular subject in a particular location or action. A sample use case for me would be something like this:

I need a young "xxxxxxx" that is in "xxxxxx" splashing around.

So based on the need above, my keywords should identify the type of animal, whether it's a juvy or an adult, what type of environment it's in and is there any unique action going on.

white pelican
juvenile
water
action

Now this is what works for me, your list could very well be a bit longer depending on what your needs are. If I don't have a need to know that the pelican was actually on a river - I won't keyword it.

But isn't it better to "over do" it on key-words just in case, it can't hurt, right? Well for some of us it could. If the task of extremely detailed key-wording is so overwhelming, we may tend to avoid it and put it off - resulting in a mountain of backlog and the lack of ability to find even the most basic of use cases without sending out a hunting party for your image.

You'll usually think of new needs as time goes on, just update your use cases.

Stay in focus,

Mark