Library Staff can search the Library using search terms, keywords, advanced search operators and other file attributes.
- Searching the Library
- Taking Actions on Search Results
- Add a PhotoShelter Search Box to an External Website
- Using PhotoShelter's AI Visual Search
Searching the Library
Basic Info
Keywords - is where you type your search term(s). Remember, PhotoShelter for Brands indexes the information found in the filename plus the IPTC Metadata Description/Caption, Title, Keywords, City, State and Country. Custom metadata is not referenced in this search box (see below).
Use the following search operators to optimize your searches:
Use "&" to find images that contain both words: image & photo
Use "|" to find images that contain either word: image | photo
Use "-" to find images that contain "image" but not "photo": image -photo
Use "(" and ")" to group parts of the search: (photo | photograph) image
Use quotes to match a phrase: "the best photo"
All of these may be combined: "the best photo" & (portrait | travel) photographer
Quoting is for searching for phrases, but it doesn’t disable stemming. The current way to search for files that don’t include the stemmed words is to explicitly exclude them from your search. For example, to search for the very specific keyword "end", you will search for: end -endings -ending -endly -ends (and any other variation you think might be in your Library as a keyword).
Filename - type a filename to find that exact file. Any duplicates of the same exact name will appear. Works with or without a file extension. Type only a file extension in this field to narrow down your search results by a specific file type (like .jpg, .tiff, .pdf, etc)
File ID - a PhotoShelter assigned number unique to every file you upload. This can be found when selecting a single file in your library and looking in the Basic Info area of the righthand pane.
File Type -You can search specifically for image, video, audio, and other files.
Contained In - Media can only live inside a gallery, so, this field is where you can enter a specific Gallery name to search within a Gallery
Contributor - search by Contributor (a field applied upon media upload if the user is on your Contributor list)
Attributes
Priced - Either, Yes or No
Profile Type - narrow down priced images by a specific pricing profile
Have Model Release - Either, Yes, No
Have Property Release - Either, Yes, No
Orientation - Image orientation is detected upon upload
Rating - star rating applied to files
Dates
IPTC Date - creation date of the file
Upload Date - date file was uploaded
Location
City, State, Country applied to the image in the IPTC Metadata
Custom Metadata
Drop downs for custom metadata fields will appear here if you have enabled the Custom Metadata in your Library and tagged your files with Custom Metadata tags. See this page on Custom Metadata for more details on how to apply Custom Metadata.
Take Actions on Search Results
You know how you can take actions on files in the Library? Well you can take those same actions on the image thumbnails you see in the center pane when you are looking at search results. This means you can select some (or all) files and quick send, FTP them out of PhotoShelter, price them, and edit their IPTC metadata (Images only).
You can even create a new gallery of virtual copies from your search results (see "Add to Another Gallery"). This enables you to curate galleries in your media library and share them out with an audience without disturbing the overall structure of the parts of your media library that contain your files.
Add a PhotoShelter Search Box to Another Website
The embeddable search box is perfect if you want clients or site visitors to be able to jump straight into a search on your public Portal for keyworded files from an external webpage. You can embed this search box onto your main company website, your blog, etc.
To embed the PhotoShelter search box, copy the embed code from your Portal Settings:
2. In the box will appear your HTML code to embed a search box
3. Copy and paste the code into the HTML of the non-PhotoShelter webpage on which you'd like the search box to appear.
Note: You cannot frame the results of your search
To have search results open in a new window:
1. Insert target="ps" into the beginning of the code. The code begins as follows:
< form action="..." method="post" >
You must change it to:
< form action="..." method="post" target="ps" >
Make sure you paste target="ps" within the single tag, i.e. between < and > .
PhotoShelter's AI Visual Search
PhotoShelter's AI-driven Visual Search gives you and your team the power to search the content of your images rather than the associated metadata (or lack thereof). It's our easiest, fastest, smartest AI update to-date, saving your organization time and money otherwise spent on manually tagging images with IPTC keywords.
Enabling AI Visual Search in the Library
- In the Library, click File Search > in the Left Pane
- Click the toggle to Enable AI Visual Search
- Enter a Search term or phrase i.e. "sliding into home plate" or "students in the classroom." AI Visual Search uses artificial intelligence to show results that are similar to what you ask for.
- Take actions on your results by using the Select All option at the top of the Center Pane, or select images individually. You can also batch select images by dragging your cursor across your selection. Then, click the Actions drop-down menu or use the tabs in the Right Pane.
Search Tips
AI Visual Search does not rely on image metadata to return results. This means that you can search for broad terms or phrases to find the content you're looking for. Visual Search will return images visually similar to the concept of your search term or phrase. Some examples of this include:
- players celebrating on the field
- keeper diving for a save
- catching a ball mid-air
- staff welcoming guests at check-in
- families enjoying a hike outdoors
- detail shots of the appetizers
- students in the classroom
- the campus at sunset
There's no limit to the length of your search terms or phrases, so the more specific you are in your search, the more specific your results will be. However, keep in mind that AI Visual Search is driven by a conceptual similarity between your search terms and the content of the image. Searches for a specific "when" or "where" may not always return the expected results.
Disclaimer: AI Visual Search uses AI to show results that are visually similar to what you ask for. These results are not based on metadata. Though safeguards are in place, it can occasionally produce misleading or biased results.