cameraworkflow

You can use "A Photo Manager" as a android gallery app that supports editing of photo properties (exif, xmp, iptc).

Usually you also have a pc (and other android-devices) where you may also update photo properties.

This text describes how to keep photo properties in sync: a photo workflow from taking a photo on android to having a managed collection of photos with photo properties (exif meta data). which is synchronized on pc and android.

camera-worflow

• (1) Use a android camera app and take one or more photos. The photo files will be stored in a camera-specific-folder.
  • example photo file in the camera specific folder: .../DCIM/camera/IMG_00018837.jpg
• (2) In "A Photo Manager" select one or more images in the camera-specific-folder that should go into one target-folder and move them to a topic specific tranfer-sub-folder "to-pc".
  • example: Select all holiday photos that are related to your hotel and move them to .../DCIM/toPc/holidays/0709Kreta/Hotel/ folder
  • If the destination folder contains a .apm AutoProcessing Rule File photo files will be automatically renamed and photo properties (exif-metadata) will be applied if neccessary.
    • example: IMG_00018837.jpg will be renamed to 07KretaHotel023.jpg if there is a corresponding file renaming rule and there are already 07KretaHotel001.jpg .. 07KretaHotel022.jpg
    • example: 07KretaHotel023.jpg will automatically get geo coordinates (35.5070123, 23.96321) if the the photo does not have geo data yet and the rule file contains these defaults.
    • example: 07KretaHotel023.jpg will automatically get the tags(keywords) "Holiday, Hotel, Kreta" if the the photo does not have them yet and the rule file contains these defaults.
• (3) Use "A Photo Manager" for further processing exif/copy/move/rename/delete
• {4} All photos in the android-out "to-pc" folder structure on the android device are sychted to pc-in "from-android" folder structure on the pc.
  • example: .../DCIM/toPc/holidays/0709Kreta/Hotel/07KretaHotel023.jpg will be syched with .../fromAndroid/holidays/0709Kreta/Hotel/07KretaHotel023.jpg
  • https://github.com/syncthing/syncthing-android/ and syncthing for ms windows takes care that changes on one side (create/delete or modify) also go to the other side.
• {5} On the pc do further processing exif/copy/rename/delete using some photo management software like Digiam.

This worflow becomes more complicated

• if you have more than one sources of photos on the pc side.
• and if you want to optimize storage on android side by using reduced photo resolution.

• (1) to (4) are the same as above
• {5} On the pc do further processing exif/copy/rename/delete and finally move the photos from the pc-in-box "from-android" to the global pc photo collection folders "hires" using some photo management software like Digiam.
• {6} On the pc do further processing exif/copy/move/rename/delete using some photo management software like Digiam.
  • example: move from .../fromAndroid/holidays/0709Kreta/Hotel/07KretaHotel023.jpg to .../hiRes/holidays/0709Kreta/Hotel/07KretaHotel023.jpg
  • note: you probably have one pc-in-box for every photo source (android, my dsl-camera, ...) that are all merged into on "pc hires" folder.
• {7} create a scaled down 1024-low resolution image of every new image.
  • See irfanview batch processing which can be downloaded here.
  • example: at .../fromPc/holidays/0709Kreta/Hotel/07KretaHotel023.jpg there will be also a 1024 x XXXX pixel version of the .../hiRes/holidays/0709Kreta/Hotel/07KretaHotel023.jpg which has 3072 x xxxx pixel.
• {8} All photos on the pc side are synced to to android-in "to-pc" folder structure on the android device.
  • example: the example 07KretaHotel023.jpg will be syched with .../fromPc/holidays/0709Kreta/Hotel/07KretaHotel023.jpg
• (9) Use "A Photo Manager" for further processing exif/copy/move/rename/delete

android folder structure

• .../DCIM/camera/... where the android camera store the photos. Not managed yet
• .../DCIM/toPc/... outbox: managed on android side but not on pc side yet
• .../DCIM/fromPc/... inbox: managed on android and on pc side

pc folder structure

• .../fromAndroid/... inbox: managed on android side but not on pc side yet
• .../hiRes/... managing the high resolution photos on the pc
• .../fromPc/... outbox: managed on android and on pc side. low res mirror of the high-res version. Used to transfer changes between pc and android