News, Views + Info
Practical insights for image libraries, agencies, archives and publishers looking to improve discoverability, collection quality and commercial performance. Topics include image merchandising, sorting, ranking, AI-human metadata and the challenges of managing large visual collections.
Why You Get AI Keywording Mistakes
Artificial intelligence has brought speed and efficiency to keywording that would have been unimaginable a decade ago, but still we get AI keywording mistakes. Modern systems can scan thousands of images in minutes, automatically tagging them with lists of relevant...
Meet Bespoke Keywording Standards with AI-Human Blend
Across the world, boutique and medium-sized image libraries are increasingly creating their own bespoke keywording standards. They recognise that competing solely on volume with the global giants is impossible, so they’re differentiating themselves through precision...
Better Keywording – An Image Sales Magnet
In today’s image-driven economy, keywording isn’t an administrative task — it’s a direct sales tool. Better keywording pulls your images to the top of search results, while weak or inconsistent ones bury them. Better keywording acts like a magnet for sales. Most...
Legal Pitfalls of AI Keywording
AI keywording tools are fast and affordable, but using them without proper checking can expose your organisation to serious legal and reputational risk. Keywording may look harmless — just short descriptive terms — yet one incorrect or misleading tag can be enough to...
How Bringing Keywording In-House Is False Economy
At first glance, doing keywording in-house seems logical. You already pay your staff, so why not assign them the job? But the maths rarely works out in your favour. If an employee costs $30 an hour and keywords 100 images in that time with the help of AI, you’re...
Human vs AI Keywording: Finding the Balance
AI keywording has revolutionised the way archives and image libraries manage content. Modern systems can scan thousands of files per hour, identifying objects, colours, and even activities. It’s fast, consistent and cheap — but not infallible. Machines can recognise...
Avoiding DIY Keywording Agony
It's a tempting cost-saver, particularly when setting up a new image library, to do the keywording in-house. If you're considering going DIY, it's worth understanding the pitfalls. Consider these problems before making a decision to start, or continue further with,...
Dollar Keywording – Are You A Victim?
Many image and video libraries still pay more than US $1.00 per image for keywording at a time when companies such as Picsell Media are charging far less. How can this be? The reasons are that those paying the higher amount either don't know what's out...
Avoiding Spreadsheet Disasters
Sending keywording and other information in spreadsheets is a great way to update image metadata without going through the laborious process of re-uploading the images themselves. But be warned, there are ways that spreadsheets can also cause disasters....
The Hidden Cost of Image Research
Direct savings on license fees can lull image buyers into a false sense of thriftiness. The truth is that with subscription deals and other bulk-buying schemes, the cost of research can grow significantly and stealthily. The reasons are threefold:...
Learning Lessons From Smart Retail
Interested in boosting image sales by 20%? That's exactly the sort of thing smart retail is achieving for online sales - the same can be done for photo and video libraries. Companies in the image licensing business are perpetually looking for more effective ways to...
How to Beat Production Fatigue
Tired, listless, lacking focus? You could be suffering from production fatigue. Never heard of the term? Put simply, it's the inability to focus on important parts of the business because you're bogged down in production details. In the image business,...
FAQs: Picsell Media Keywording Services
What topics do you cover in Insights?
We cover image merchandising, collection sorting, image ranking, AI-human keywording, metadata quality, search performance and the commercial challenges of managing large visual collections.
Who is the content for?
It is written for image libraries, photo agencies, archives, museums, publishers and other organisations that want their collections to be easier to manage, search and buy from.
Will you still cover AI and keywording?
Yes. AI and keywording remain important, but they are only part of the picture. We also look at selection, prioritisation, duplicate-heavy collections, search clutter and the role of human judgement.
How often is Insights updated?
We publish when we have something useful to say, including practical guidance, observations from client work and commentary on changes affecting image collections and metadata.
Can I suggest a topic or question?
Yes. Send your suggestion through the contact form. We are particularly interested in recurring problems faced by image libraries, archives and publishers.
Do you include practical examples?
Where permissions allow, we use anonymised examples, comparisons and case studies to show how changes to selection, ranking and metadata can improve discoverability and commercial value.