Anyone using Synology Photos?

[stefanjan2]

If you are using Synology Photos with iMatch, I would be interested in your workflow.

I've just upgraded my NAS to a Synology DS923+ and would like to make my best jpeg photos available on the NAS in albums.

My current workflow is to store Raw files and phone jpegs in day folders under year. Individual subfolders for processed jpegs, Affinity etc.

I use Synology Drive / Synology Drive Client to synchronise folders between the NAS Shared folder, desktop, laptop and also access from phone and tablet.

On the NAS I'm wondering whether it would make sense to change the folder on the NAS to the Synology Photos folder.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts

[PandDLong]

I use a Synology NAS and I do put selected photos into the Photo folder and videos into the Video folder.  I did this as I use the media player from my TV and tablets in the home.   My NAS is not accessible from outside of my wi-fi (I use OneDrive for cloud based storage and outside access). I do not use the Synology Photos app as it would seem to compete with iMatch (but perhaps it is a good way to organize these selected photos that are copies not managed by iMatch).

I used those folders as it is a nicely labelled way to find photos and videos meant for sharing and in-home access and I keep it to the best content so one doesn't need to scroll through all of my collection (which is in other folders).

I have learned that the media player gives me the same access to the other folders on the NAS that may contain photos and videos and I can scroll through and find everything from anywhere on my wi-fi.  

So using the predefined folders isn't necessary in my experience but I find it useful.

Michael

[PandDLong]

I use Synology Drive / Synology Drive Client to synchronise folders between the NAS Shared folder, desktop, laptop and also access from phone and tablet.

I am interested in this synchronise process.  

Are you synching iMatch managed folders and files into a mirror copy on the NAS?   Is it run continuously or scheduled?

I started out using OneDrive to synchronize and have a mirror copy but it would run into conflicts with iMatch with file locking and some other issues - so now my synch to create a copy of the files and folders is a manual process - which I would like to automate in some way.

Michael

[stefanjan2]

Are you synching iMatch managed folders and files into a mirror copy on the NAS?  Is it run continuously or scheduled?

Up until recently I used Resilio Sync to mirror between my desktop, laptop and phone. I used my DS218Play to back up the files also using Resilio Sync

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to switch to using Synology Drive (app in the Synology Package Center) to synchronise between the NAS and all my devices. Among other things, I wanted to be able to synchronise images from my new laptop back to the NAS while travelling. I found that NAS was taking an age to do anything.

So after a lot of research, I decided to buy a Synology DS923+ NAS. I couldn't be happier, everything just seems to work without any slowdown on the NAS.

Synology Drive Server on the NAS runs continuously (not scheduled).

On the Synology Drive Server you select which folders are available - Team or Personal. I have just one top level Team folder selected.

On the device in Synology Drive Client (downloadable app) you select which pairs of folders you want to sync and chose the type of sync and whether you want everything or just on demand.

I don't envisage any issues with imatch during synchronisation of the image files. I'll probably use imatch pack and go periodically from desktop to laptop. But doing most of my culling and some editing on the laptop making sure I write changes back.

[6b6561]

Hi,

I used the DLNA on my NAS in the past to share my photo album at home, used the TV or whatever device to view the album. I have since swithced to google photo but my workflow remains the same.

Setup:
My iMatch library is in a "year\yymmdd - short description" folder structure, basically same as you but with a short description in the filename. I don't have a separate folder for edits, what I do is append -e1, -e2... to the file names.

I have two categories one called google and one called google.new.

Workflow:
New pictures are added to the library, normal culling, tagging... pictures that I want to have in my google album is added to the google.new category.

Please note that I haven't so far tried the next step with the new version of IMatch as I just last week upgraded from the ancient version 3.6...

So what I did at this point was that I selected all the google.new pictures and ran a "copy with path" to a new directory which is synchronized with google photo. This should be possible with the "Batch Processor" in the new version.

Once the new pictures are in place and organized in google, then I will update the category in IM to the plain google category.

I have used similar work categories in the past for printing, phone copies, DLNA and now cloud.

[Mario]

Do you really upload unencrypted images to Google photos?

[6b6561]

Yes I do, but these are pictures of such a nature that other people would happily share them to half the world on Facebook. And I'm quite confident that Google will not leak the picture to the outside world. Yes, the will probably harvest them with face recognition to link me to other persons, but on the other hand I guess the do the same with my contacts.

[6b6561]

So what I did at this point was that I selected all the google.new pictures and ran a "copy with path" to a new directory which is synchronized with google photo. This should be possible with the "Batch Processor" in the new version.

Worked like a charm after some help from Mario with the output folder name.

I use something like {File.Path|replace:C:\Photos==D:\Shared Photos} as my output path.

[stefanjan2]

Haven't settled on a final workflow with Google Photos but my current state of play is as follows:

Folder on Desktop / Laptop setup as a Synology Drive client folder which synchronises with the NAS Synology Photos folder.

Currently I use Renamer to move culled photos from an import folder to a "YYYY\YYYY-MM-DD ¦ Project Name" folder.

Images processed in Photolab are exported as jpegs to "YYYY\YYYY-MM-DD ¦ Project Name\Processed"

I select photos within the Processed by CTRL Click or filtered on Star rating.

I then use iMatch Image Batch Processor to send the images to the folder synchronised with Synology Photos using a preset with the following settings:

_ Jpeg Quality 85% Long Edge 1920

- D:\Synology Photos\{File.DateTime|format:YYYY}\{d1} results in YYYY\Parent Folder Name

- Clean output folder Empties the destination folder

- Add output folder to database

This seems to work quite well, I'm just missing a way of keeping track in the Processed subfolder of images synced to Synology. Perhaps I could use a keyword (keyword rather than category as I need to sync with laptop) . Ideally the keyword would be added in the Image Batch Processor but I can't see an obvious way of doing this.

[Mario]

Ideally the keyword would be added in the Image Batch Processor but I can't see an obvious way of doing this.

You can do that via the Custom Metadata option. The help shows examples, including adding keywords on-the-fly.

Like:

-hierarchicalSubject+=foo
-subject+=foo

See https://exiftool.org/exiftool_pod.html for syntax.

[stefanjan2]

You can do that via the Custom Metadata option.

Thanks Mario,

All very complicated but managed to get the following to work and sync with Synology Photos:

-TransmissionReference=Synology
-exif:createdate={File.MD.createdate|format:YYYY:MM:DD hh:mm:ss}
-Exif:ImageDescription={File.MD.XMP::photoshop\Headline\Headline\0}

I ended up using JobId (TransmissionReference) rather than keywords as keywords come through in Synology photos as tags.

Actually marking the output files does not really help me that much as ideally I'd mark the processed jpeg in a way to show it's been synced with Synology Photos. Although the original processed file does show 1 stacked child so that's probably enough

[Mario]

All very complicated (...)

The Batch Processor offers easy one-click options to transfer selected metadata tag groups / tags into the output file. Easy.

You want to add / set individual tags in the output file which don't exist in the source file. Even using variables!
This is something not needed often, but when it is needed, this Batch Processor feature is a perfect problem solver. Not many software out there which can do this that elegantly.

As always, if you want something "extra", you will have to put in some more work.
It's only complicated if you do it for the first time. And, usually, the copy & paste examples I provide in the help are a good starting point.

Tip: {File.MD.XMP::photoshop\Headline\Headline\0} can be replaced with the {File.MD.headline} Metadata Tag ShortCode.

I'd mark the processed jpeg in a way to show it's been synced with Synology Photos.

Why not tell Synonlogy Photos to set a metadata tag when it has ingested a file successfully?
There surely is an option or a script you can write and plug-in?
Just make sure it does not rip apart the rich and complex metadata IMatch writes.