Here are some suggestions that have some strengths and some weaknesses depending on the nitty gritty details.
First, you can use those Code Replacement shortcuts in the IPTC Info (Not sure if you were using that or the IPTC Stationary Pad)
When in the IPTC Info dialog (by clicking the 'i' on a thumbnail or pressing cmd-i) , you can also use keyboard shortcuts to save and advance to the next photo. (Tip: You can resize the IPTC Info dialog so that the thumbnail gets much larger, so you can see it better)
So you can type in your Code Replacement, then hit cmd-n (or ctrl-n) to save and move to the next one, Your cursor should remain in the keyword field so you're ready to do the next one.
You could also use color classes to group your files onto buckets that you can then use when applying keywords.
1. Make sure single key rating is set to color class (Prefs > Accessibility)
2. Make sure changing color class will auto advance to next photo (Prefs > Preview)
Then you have 8 "buckets" to play with. You could make a pass for all Groom photos and tag them Green, all Bride photos Blue, etc. (Clever alliteration
) Then use the Color Class Widget at the bottom of the screen to quickly filter only Green or Blue classed photos. (Tip: Option-clicking on one color immediately deselects other colors) Then you can select them all (cmd-a) and apply an IPTC Stationery Pad with the keywords you want for that batch. You can save IPTC Stationery Pads for this purpose, making this much faster on your subsequent weddings.
Assuming you have photos that will be in multiple buckets, you might have to make a few passes. (Maybe you have one saved IPTC Stationary Pad named "Blue - Bride" and one called "Blue2 - Bride's Family" etc. for multiple passes.)
It is possible to combine keywording of 8 buckets into one single step using those Code Replacements, but this involves a little more preparation.
You could set up a Code Replacement keywording file that looked something like this
kw-Red animal, raccoon
kw-Blue animal, bear
kw-Green animal, giraffe, tall
kw-Yellow animal, yeti, imaginary
kw-Teal animal, tarsis, cute
You would need to make sure that the Color Names you use in this Code Replacement file match the color names that are set in Prefs > General. (I personally use the Adobe Lightroom defaults (Click the Lightning icon to see different default sets), and then I add Peach, Teal, and Black so I have 8 colors to work with)
Once you have this done, you go through a shoot and add color classes to all the photos, then select them all (cmd-a) and apply an IPTC Stationery Pad that just has /kw-{colorclass}/ in the keyword field, and it will dynamically add your keywords to all files based on color class. {colorclass} with the curly brackets is a Variable. See more about them here:
http://wiki.camerabits.com/en/index.php?title=Image_VariablesIf you want to filter by Keyword after you have applied them, you can use the Quick Search field at the top of the Contact Sheet. That field operates on the files in that Contact Sheet. If you want to make sure your search is restricted to the Keyworld field, try cmd-f (or ctrl-f on Win) and only check the boxes for IPTC data and Keywords field.
There are definitely a lot of ways to go about this, but hopefully this gives you some ideas. If you want clarification on any of this, let me know and I can try to help. Thanks!
Mick
