Today’s Question: What’s your view on adding keywords to photos based on the date of capture?
Tim’s Quick Answer: In my view there is no benefit to adding keywords based on actual dates of capture, since you can filter images based on the capture date included in metadata. However, more abstract topics related to date, such as which season is represented in the photo, can certainly be helpful.
More Detail: In general, I am an advocate for thinking beyond the basics in terms of keywords for photos, meaning not limiting yourself merely to keywords that identify the contents of a photo. However, I don’t consider it helpful to assign keywords that identify the date (such as the year) of capture.
I especially don’t find date-based keywords to be helpful in the context of Lightroom Classic, because Lightroom Classic includes excellent features for filtering images based on the date of capture. That includes the ability to filter based on one or more years, months, or days, including both ranges and non-sequential date values. This makes it possible, for example, to see all photos captured on a particular month and day, regardless of the year, such as to find all photos captured on someone’s birthday in any year.
Because of these capabilities (with similar options in other software for organizing photos) I don’t find it helpful to assign keywords based on the date of capture. However, other keywords based on concepts that relate to time can certainly be helpful. That could include references to things like the seasons, golden hour, blue hour, and more, when the content of the photo reflects those time-based details.
