Software to manage a collection of photos

Author:	Wojciech Muła
Last update:	2022-01-25

Contents

• Overview
• Workflow
• Setup
• Usage

Overview

This is software I use to manage my collection of photos.

I split the collection by the year, month and day, like this:

2022
|
+-- 01
|   |
|   +- 2022-01-01
|   +- 2022-01-02
|   +- 2022-01-03
|   |  +- a
|   |  +- b
|   +- 2022-01-04
|   |
.   .
.   .

Sometimes I need to create subdirs (a, b, etc.), because from time to time I use two cameras and have to avoid filename clashes. Once the photos are filtered, I pick a set of "best" ones worth publishing. I publish my photos in various places, for example on Facebook. Obviously, publishing is preceded by photo postprocessed (like cropping, adjusting contrast, colors). Then, the final photo is resized down to some reasonable dimensions.

The problem is that selecting photos, postprocessing and publishing may span several days, weeks or even months. I need to keep track which selected pictures require some work, and which were already published on a certain platform.

This software helps me in managing this very custom workflow.

Workflow

1. In a directory for the given day (for example 2022-01-01 or 2022-01-04/b) I create subdirectory publish.
2. From the main directory I select "best" photos and make symblic links to them in publish directory. These links are considered as "sources".
3. I process the sources using some software (currently RawTherapee) and save them as JPG files in publish directory.

Now the program comes in:

• First of all, it downscales the processed JPGs.
• Then, adds symbolic links to the downscaled photos into subdirectories designed for each publishing chanell.

A sample directory structure looks like this:

2022-01-01
|
+- publish/
   |
   +- DSC_0001.JPG              # original JPG file -- links to ../DSC_0001.JPG
   +- DSC_0001_processed.JPG    # processed file
   +- DSC_0001_small.jpg        # downscaled DSC_0001_processed.jpg
   +- DSC_0002.NEF              # original RAW file (this: from Nikon) -- link to ../DSC_0002.NEF
   +- DSC_0002.JPG              # processed RAW
   +- DSC_0002_small.jpg        # downscaled DSC_0002.JPG
   +- facebook/
      |
      +- DSC_0001_small.jpg     # photo awaiting for publication on Facebook
      +- published/
         |
         +- DSC_0002_small.jpg  # photo already published

When I add a new picture to the publish directory, the program creates new symbolic links. It also keeps the symbolic link in a relative form.

Also, I keep the symbolic links in a git repository (alongside text notes, and other tiny files). Thus the program adds new or modified symlinks to the repository, but it's configurable.

Setup

The program reads a config file ~/.config/publish/settings.py. It defines what services we want to track, and if we want to use git repository. Here's a sample content:

# list of services we want to track (for instance Instagram, Facebook or 500px)
services = [
    'facebook',
    'instagram',
    '500px',
]

# if we want to track symbolic links with git
git = True

Usage

When the program is run without arguments, it fixes up stuff: adds missing directories, add symbolic links to new photos, and does other maintenance, boring things:

$ publish       # or publish fixup

Check which photos are not postprocessed yet:

$ publish missing

List which photos were not yet published on given service (here: Facebook):

$ publish facebook

Backup source images:

$ publish backup

Backup adds hard links to source photos in subdir publish/.backup.