| For myself, I used Apple's Photos on the Mac. Of course you could use Lightroom, etc. but I am swearing off software subscriptions. Get Info in Photos and add all the metadata you need. For myself I try to set the date for the photo — at least get close to the correct year. I set the day/month/time to something like January 1, 12:00 AM as a sort of indication that I have no idea when during the year. And if I am not even sure about the year I indicate as much in the description for the photo. I enter a description (on export this will populate either one of the EXIF or IPTC properties or both). I describe what was written on the back and/or front (if any). Describe who I think the photo is of, maybe where the photo came from, etc. I add keywords. Keywords for each person I recognize in the photo, keywords for the collection the photo came from, keyword "Family Photo" so I can differentiate from all other photos in my library..... Any decent photo editing app should have a means to set the date, enter a description, add keywords. And all of these are exportable — are part of the EXIF and/or IPTC spec. And, again, a decent photo editing app will preserve these on export. The beauty of course is that you can then create "smart albums" to show your family photos chronologically where: keyword = "Family Photo", sort by date. Or find all photos of "Faye Coble". |