[Feature] Bulk Edit Photos + Lift & Stamp of Settings/EXIF data. (like bulk rotation, flip, aspect ratio, etc)

[nabeelr]

I have searched the existing feature requests, both open and closed, to make sure this is not a duplicate request.

• Yes

The feature

Edits should be able to be applied in bulk to a series of photos selected, especially edits like flip and rotation.

These edits, and other settings/EXIF data should also be able to be lifted and stamped to other photos.

These are common features in most photo management software, and would be very valuable in Immich.

The lack of availability of these features makes the usability of Immich quite deficient, to the point where, I'm likely going to leave these changes until after a feature like this gets implemented, instead of doing this manually for thousands of photos.

Please note, This over-arching feature has been requested several times in smaller ways in the following discussions:
#25964
#29879

Platform

• Server
• Web
• Mobile

[bo0tzz]

#25964

[nabeelr]

It is specifically not a duplicate of that feature request.

That feature request is just asking about rotation. I'm asking for bulk edits. Not the same thing at all.

[nabeelr]

Please re-open this discussion as it is not a duplicate of #25964 at all.

I made this clear in the original post that even referenced #25964

[bo0tzz]

#25964 is asking for rotation in the main overview. Their mockup isn't in line with how we do things, but that request does essentially boil down to having an option for it in the select menu, ie operating on a selection of multiple assets.

[nabeelr]

Is there any update on this? I'd like to request this feature get added. Should I re-create the request?

As I said the existing bulk edit functions are not what I'm asking for, nor are the existing requests.

[bo0tzz]

To me that fine-grained functionality sounds like the sort of poweruser edit tool that's better suited for the more advanced software that you mentioned, I don't see us adding this sort of selecting specific exif fields thing to Immich.

[nabeelr]

Aperture is now gone, as well as iPhoto. Apple Photos leaves much to be desired. Adobe is practically an extortion ring/criminal organization. …and 2/3rds of those solutions require a Mac—the other requires Windows. Additionally, none of those let you host it on a web app/private cloud. There isn't much in the way of good software for managing large libraries of photos, especially ones in the cloud/private cloud.

The problem with the bulk editing tools as they are implemented right now is that they are simultaneously ham-fisted and not powerful enough. If I wanted to change the location, timestamp, and description of a series of photos, I'd have to do them in several individual steps. Once rotating and flipping gets added, that's FIVE steps to do something that should be doable in one—this is assuming cropping never gets added to bulk actions, which again, would also be useful. What's more, if I wanted to add to the description but not replace what's already there to a bunch of photos, I can't.

Plus, when dealing with raw files, since Immich seems to have limited raw support, doing things like colour correction will become a must for Immich down the road, because raw files are practically useless without colour, brightness and contrast correction. Presumably, when this gets added, a function like Lift and Stamp will also become a must.

I guess there was another inherent assumption on my part:
Does the raw file support have a point in Immich, or was it just included because some library you're using supports it as well? Because I assumed it was there aspirationally, because Immich wanted to become a more full fledged photo management platform, as time passes.

If not, and things like colour, contrast, and brightness correction aren't on their way, that makes the raw support functionally pointless, and would very much change my decision to use Immich in the way I'm planning. So I guess that's good to know now.

And to be clear, I'm not a professional photographer. Just a hobbyist that has a large library. But this kind of functionality is a must for anyone who has a lot of photos to organize. Which is why I'm requesting it. I understand wanting to bias towards casual users, but I don't think casual users are setting up their own Immich servers, as we all have… so some "power tools" would be nice, and very useful to a lot of people, I'd suspect.

All this to say: If Immich wants to become the iPhoto/iCloud of open source, private cloud software, I think it's going to need this core feature for bulk editing. I thought this was the goal, is for Immich to be a feature complete, web based photo management platform.

[bo0tzz]

You're expecting Immich to be something it isn't. Immich isn't for heavy metadata editing, RAW colour correction, etc. RAW is supported because people want to store their RAWs in Immich, that doesn't mean we plan to add extensive support for editing them though.

[nabeelr]

What's the point of storing raw photos, if you can't use them? Does Immich integrate with anything else that could use the raw photos?

I'm not sure if you're aware, but often times raw photos are so dark, you can't really see the photo very well without applying some corrections to it, making judging which photo is the good one in a series hard to comprehend.