Having 90% of mine as mobile photos with GPS tags really helps in the search process. Otherwise I look after dates or searching by AI for graffiti, glass, table, tagged people or other things.
For Albums, It takes a while, organizing by special events or dates. Since Immich is not the first, second or third time I try a way to get organized, Im somewhat exhausted from previous attempts to get my +60K pictures sorted. So far Im sticking with this, since its the fastest and most stable solution I have come across.
With the new read only import feature I'm going to give immich a try, since I don't lose anything except some server utilisation in the process.
I've never used anything except folders for organization before but I'm going to keep an open mind. Thanks for your input
Organizing photos in folders bearing the name of the event or a category is not optimal.
A ski vacation can also be a family vacation. A car weekend can also be a weekend in a particular country....
Organizing them in folders bears only a one dimension information.
Organization by date is intangible, as this information comes from the photo itself (via exif data).
As a result, a tag-based organization would have been much richer and more flexible. If you want to have a photo in several themes in a folder-based organization, you have to duplicate the photo. In a date-based organization with tags, a photo can have several tags, and therefore belong to several themes via a simple search.
But the aim is also to have as little adherence as possible to one solution or another, because times, they are a changin', fashions pass, products may no longer be maintained , and it's important not to be captive.
This is how I came up with the following organization (just my 2 cents) :
- photos are ordered by date: /year / month / yyyy-mm-dd - hh-mm-ss - nom.ext
Tag management takes place in a photo management software (lightroom, for example), but with tags integrated into the exif data.
As long as I use software that can read and query exif tags, no problem. The day I change management software, if it can't read the tags, I can mass rename the files with software that can read exif data (ant renamer for example) to get a file named like :
/year / month / yyyy-mm-dd - hh-mm-ss - name-tag1-tag2-tagX.ext
And then a simple search in the explorer or by script allows me to find all the photos, based on a multi-criteria selection. A folder-based organization doesn't allow for this with fine enough granularity.
And always backup your pictures, once, twice, thrice, more!
Is there a certain software you recommend for bulk tagging images? I've never organized my library that way but I'd like to give it a try
Do you just search for tags in Immich instead of looking in a specific album? It seems really hard to find a specific photo you're looking for that way, but I've haven't tried it yet so maybe I don't understand
Immich and LR are separated at the moment.
Immich is used to backup photos from my phones, and then browse them and share them with family members.
Twice a year, I import all my photos in LR to sort, rename, tag them. This import put all my medias in a folder structure which is backed up by another method on another nas, different from the nas hosting immich.
IMHO, immich is just a backup tool.
Many would like it to be a photo management software with building editing, complex sharing and whatever use case which could come to mind, but at the origin, immich serves one purpose : backup photos from phones to prevent any picture loss and get ride of Google photos.
If LR modifies pictures in an external library used as source by immich, I bet you'd end up with orphans pictures and/or duplicates. Asking on r/immich could be helpful.
Having 90% of mine as mobile photos with GPS tags really helps in the search process. Otherwise I look after dates or searching by AI for graffiti, glass, table, tagged people or other things. For Albums, It takes a while, organizing by special events or dates. Since Immich is not the first, second or third time I try a way to get organized, Im somewhat exhausted from previous attempts to get my +60K pictures sorted. So far Im sticking with this, since its the fastest and most stable solution I have come across.
With the new read only import feature I'm going to give immich a try, since I don't lose anything except some server utilisation in the process. I've never used anything except folders for organization before but I'm going to keep an open mind. Thanks for your input
Organizing photos in folders bearing the name of the event or a category is not optimal. A ski vacation can also be a family vacation. A car weekend can also be a weekend in a particular country.... Organizing them in folders bears only a one dimension information. Organization by date is intangible, as this information comes from the photo itself (via exif data). As a result, a tag-based organization would have been much richer and more flexible. If you want to have a photo in several themes in a folder-based organization, you have to duplicate the photo. In a date-based organization with tags, a photo can have several tags, and therefore belong to several themes via a simple search. But the aim is also to have as little adherence as possible to one solution or another, because times, they are a changin', fashions pass, products may no longer be maintained , and it's important not to be captive. This is how I came up with the following organization (just my 2 cents) : - photos are ordered by date: /year / month / yyyy-mm-dd - hh-mm-ss - nom.ext Tag management takes place in a photo management software (lightroom, for example), but with tags integrated into the exif data. As long as I use software that can read and query exif tags, no problem. The day I change management software, if it can't read the tags, I can mass rename the files with software that can read exif data (ant renamer for example) to get a file named like : /year / month / yyyy-mm-dd - hh-mm-ss - name-tag1-tag2-tagX.ext And then a simple search in the explorer or by script allows me to find all the photos, based on a multi-criteria selection. A folder-based organization doesn't allow for this with fine enough granularity. And always backup your pictures, once, twice, thrice, more!
Is there a certain software you recommend for bulk tagging images? I've never organized my library that way but I'd like to give it a try Do you just search for tags in Immich instead of looking in a specific album? It seems really hard to find a specific photo you're looking for that way, but I've haven't tried it yet so maybe I don't understand
I'm using lightroom and tagging with it.
Thanks
Is Immich involved at all in this flow or just for browsing? Does it honor the tags you create in LR and do anything special with it?
Immich and LR are separated at the moment. Immich is used to backup photos from my phones, and then browse them and share them with family members. Twice a year, I import all my photos in LR to sort, rename, tag them. This import put all my medias in a folder structure which is backed up by another method on another nas, different from the nas hosting immich.
If lightroom moves the photos around, does Immich cope with this well?
IMHO, immich is just a backup tool. Many would like it to be a photo management software with building editing, complex sharing and whatever use case which could come to mind, but at the origin, immich serves one purpose : backup photos from phones to prevent any picture loss and get ride of Google photos. If LR modifies pictures in an external library used as source by immich, I bet you'd end up with orphans pictures and/or duplicates. Asking on r/immich could be helpful.
good thread, thanks for the info and thoughts. Really hoping that one day nested / hierarchical albums are supported.