Nowadays, each of us has accumulated a huge amount of photos and videos, and UP owners who are doing self-publishing may have accumulated even more photos and videos. Facing so many photos and videos, how should we manage them?
Previously, I've been using Google Albums because it has a lot of advantages, such as unlimited space, support for smart organizing (by timeline, geolocation, and also face auto-merge).But last year Google started limiting the space and no longer offers unlimited space.
Today I would like to recommend you a powerful open source project - PhotoPrism. it is designed to provide a comprehensive solution that allows you to easily manage and browse every photo in your life.
Introduction to PhotoPrism
PhotoPrism anOpen source AI-driven photo management tool, developed using the Go language, provides powerful photo organization and browsing capabilities. It was born in 2018 and was initiated by former Google engineer Michael Mayer with the aim of creating a photo management solution that offers both powerful features and protects user privacy.
PhotoPrism is always designed around the following core concepts:
- Privacy first: users are in full control of their data
- Decentralized: can run locally or on private servers, not dependent on cloud services
- AI-driven: intelligent categorization and search using artificial intelligence techniques
- User-friendly: intuitive and easy-to-use interface for all types of users
- Open source transparency: fully open source code, community-driven development
Since open sourcing in 2018, PhotoPrism has earned nearly 34,000 stars on GitHub with over 200 contributors. The project maintains active development and regularly releases new versions, and its stability and functionality have been recognized by many users.
Features of PhotoPrism
1. Intelligent photo organization and search
One of PhotoPrism's most powerful features is its AI-driven photo organization and search capabilities. It can:
- Automatically recognizes people, objects, and scenes in photos;
- AI-based photo categorization with the ability to browse by theme, color, quality, and other dimensions;
- Provide powerful search function, support multi-dimensional combination filtering.
2. Comprehensive file format support
Unlike many photo management tools, PhotoPrism has comprehensive support for a wide range of file formats:
- Supports common image formats such as JPG, PNG, etc;
- Native support for RAW formats, no additional conversion required;
- Live Photos and video files are supported.
This means that whether you're a casual user or a professional photographer, PhotoPrism has you covered.
3. Facial recognition
PhotoPrism has powerful facial recognition built in:
- Automatically recognizes faces in photos;
- People's names can be manually tagged to make it easier to browse photos by person;
- Supports organizing photos by character relationships.
4. Geographic information display
For those who like to travel, PhotoPrism's geofencing feature is a godsend:
- Automatically extracts GPS information from photo EXIF;
- Provides a variety of high-definition world maps to visualize where photos were taken;
- Supports browsing photos by location, country, and other dimensions.
5. WebDAV synchronization
PhotoPrism also offers a convenient synchronization feature:
- Built-in WebDAV server supports two-way synchronization with other devices;
- Direct connection to Windows Explorer, Mac Finder, etc;
- Easy access and management of photos across multiple devices.
6. Metadata management
- Automatically extract photo EXIF, XMP, and other metadata;
- Support for editing and managing photo metadata such as titles, descriptions, tags, etc;
- Multiple metadata can be used as search criteria to improve photo finding efficiency;
- Supports batch editing of metadata for easy organization of a large number of photos.
7. Mobile support
Although PhotoPrism is primarily designed for use on self-hosted servers, it has good support for mobile devices as well:
- Provides a Progressive Web App (PWA) that installs to the home screen of your mobile device;
- Responsive design, perfectly adapted to various screen sizes;
- Supports PhotoSync and other third-party apps for mobile photo synchronization;
- Mobile-friendly touch operations such as swipe to navigate, zoom, etc.
You can easily access and manage your photo library on any device, whether it's on your big screen at home or on the go with your phone.
PhotoPrism vs. other photo management tools
To visualize the advantages of PhotoPrism, we can compare it with other major photo management tools on the market:
| characterization | PhotoPrism | Google Photos | Apple Photos | Synology Photos |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| prices | free and open source | cover the costs | Free (iOS only) | NAS purchase required |
| self-hosted | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| AI classification | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | Partial support |
| RAW Support | ✅ | Partial support | ✅ | ✅ |
| facial recognition | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Map Integration | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Open Source Customizable | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Privacy | your (honorific) | lower (one's head) | center | your (honorific) |
While Google Photos is slightly better in AI capabilities and Apple Photos is more integrated in the iOS ecosystem, PhotoPrism stands alone in privacy protection, self-hosting, and open source friendliness. Especially for users focused on data privacy and control, PhotoPrism offers a perfect balance.
Installation and use of PhotoPrism
PhotoPrism is relatively simple to install and can be deployed directly through Docker. There are a lot of environment variables and configuration options, so if you're interested, you can study them on your own.
For those of you who don't have a technical background, you don't have to worry about installation.Sealos App StoreOne-click deployment application templates are provided, and deployment can be done with a single mouse click, which is very silky smooth.
If you want to deploy a PhotoPrism quickly and don't want to get bogged down in a tedious installation and configuration processYou can try Sealos.
Open directlyPhotoPrism Application Templates, set the default username and password:
Then click "Go to Sealos Deployment" in the upper right corner.
If this is your first time usingSealosIf you want to deploy a template, you need to register and log in to your Sealos public cloud account, and you will be redirected to the template's deployment page immediately after logging in.
Click "Deploy Application" in the upper right corner to start deployment. Once the deployment is complete, click "Details" of the application directly to enter the details page of the application.
After the application status changes to running, you can open the PhotoPrism visualization by clicking on the external address.
In addition to this, there is another way to open it, by first refreshing the Sealos desktop (i.e., in the interface refreshes the browser), then you'll notice an additional icon on the Sealos desktop:
Clicking directly on this icon opens the PhotoPrism visualization interface.
Isn't it a bit of déjà vu? Yes, it does.Windows shortcuts!
If a stand-alone operating system can do it, Sealos Cloud OS can do it too.
Basic use of PhotoPrism
Once the installation is complete, you can start using the features of PhotoPrism.
Once you log in, you'll notice nothing, that's because we haven't imported the photos yet.
First we need to enter theSettings --> GENERALThen set the language to Simplified Chinese.
Add an album:
Change the name of the album and call it "fairy sister (slang)" Bar!
Go to the album and start uploading photos:
particle marking the following noun as a direct objectMy folder of Examiner's MaterialsUpload all the photos in the file! During the upload process, photos are indexed, metadata is extracted and thumbnails are generated.
Upload complete!
The process of importing photos reorganizes them by date and renames them, and they are all eventually stored in the/photoprism/originals folder. We can open PhotoPrism's file system by clicking the "File Management" button at the bottom right corner of the app details page.
You can see that the photos of the Divine Sisters are all placed in the 2024/07 directory, because it's July 2024, and each photo is named after a time + a random code.
