DAM, DAM with Digikam. Moving files.

[Mark Hayes (Hotmail)]

Dear all,

Following a period of just 'playing around' with the software, I am just starting to really try and use Digikam as a serious part of my workflow.  As such, I have a bunch of questions that I can't seem to find real answers to - either in the documentation or the website etc, so I'll just post them here and see if you can point me in the right direction.

I'll send multiple e-mails with different headings to help differentiate between them all - and help make it easier to read later.

Firstly - DAM (Digital Asset Management).

I have read the (thoroughly excellent) DAM Book, by Peter Krogh - and would recommend it to anyone who is serious about preserving and then finding their photos.  It has really helped me mould an idea of what I want to do in terms of keeping my photos accessible and searchable etc.  And I'd like to follow some of this through with Digikam.

However, not being very competent with databases, I just don't know if some of the methods he describes will break links etc in Digikam.

In particular - Krogh moves photos about a lot during the process.  I mean, he physically moves through a bunch of folders as part of the process, until they end up in the final filing location, all completed and fully set out with metadata.  For example, he downloads them to a specific folder, renames them, and then moves them to another holding folder for review.  Then in that new folder they are reviewed and rated, metadata attached and then moved out again.

My question is this - will moving files within a folder structure 'lose' files within Digikam?  Will it cause problems with Digikam not knowing where to find a particular file or which file to associate a particular set of metadata with?

Is this correct?  And if so, how might I get around that?

Should I do it only 'inside' Digikam?  Will Digikam automagically update the database info?  What happens if I was to move them in Dolphin?  Does this cause problems and break things?

Any help on clarifying this would be most helpful.

Thanks,

Mark.

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[gerlos]

Il giorno 25/gen/2012, alle ore 15.01, Mark Hayes (Hotmail) ha scritto:

> In particular - Krogh moves photos about a lot during the process.  I mean, he physically moves through a bunch of folders as part of the process, until they end up in the final filing location, all completed and fully set out with metadata.  For example, he downloads them to a specific folder, renames them, and then moves them to another holding folder for review.  Then in that new folder they are reviewed and rated, metadata attached and then moved out again.

As long as you tell digikam to store metadata in the pictures (but it's jut because I'm paranoid and I use other software too), you won't have any problem with this approach.
Albums on digikam ARE the same of directories on your disk.

> Should I do it only 'inside' Digikam?  Will Digikam automagically update the database info?  What happens if I was to move them in Dolphin?  Does this cause problems and break things?

No, I actually do it all the time, without any problem.
Actually, don't know if it's working fine just because I told it to save metadata directly in images, or it just works out of the box.
I usually download images using dolphin, do a gross selection looking at previews, open digikam (that loads them automagically), tag tag, edit, trash them, and some times I edit them with other tools, like Gimp. As long as those tools preserve metadata in saved files, everything work fine.
It works, and I'm happy with it.

It's a lot better than my Aperture DAM, where I'm always afraid of opening images with something else, because it's a mess managing images in and out of the library (you know, when I dual boot I feel like Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde).

regards
gerlos

--
"Fairy tales are more than true, not because they tell us that dragons exist,
but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten."
                                        G. K. Chesterton
       <http://gerlos.altervista.org>
gerlos +- - - > gnu/linux registred user #311588

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[Anders Lund]

On Onsdag den 25. januar 2012, Mark Hayes (Hotmail) wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> Following a period of just 'playing around' with the software, I am just
> starting to really try and use Digikam as a serious part of my workflow.
> As such, I have a bunch of questions that I can't seem to find real
> answers to - either in the documentation or the website etc, so I'll just
> post them here and see if you can point me in the right direction.
>
> I'll send multiple e-mails with different headings to help differentiate
> between them all - and help make it easier to read later.
>
> Firstly - DAM (Digital Asset Management).
>
> I have read the (thoroughly excellent) DAM Book, by Peter Krogh - and would
> recommend it to anyone who is serious about preserving and then finding
> their photos.  It has really helped me mould an idea of what I want to do
> in terms of keeping my photos accessible and searchable etc.  And I'd like
> to follow some of this through with Digikam.
>
> However, not being very competent with databases, I just don't know if some
> of the methods he describes will break links etc in Digikam.
>
> In particular - Krogh moves photos about a lot during the process.  I mean,
> he physically moves through a bunch of folders as part of the process,
> until they end up in the final filing location, all completed and fully
> set out with metadata.  For example, he downloads them to a specific
> folder, renames them, and then moves them to another holding folder for
> review.  Then in that new folder they are reviewed and rated, metadata
> attached and then moved out again.
>
> My question is this - will moving files within a folder structure 'lose'
> files within Digikam?  Will it cause problems with Digikam not knowing
> where to find a particular file or which file to associate a particular
> set of metadata with?
>
> Is this correct?  And if so, how might I get around that?
>
> Should I do it only 'inside' Digikam?  Will Digikam automagically update
> the database info?  What happens if I was to move them in Dolphin?  Does
> this cause problems and break things?
>
> Any help on clarifying this would be most helpful.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Mark.

The workflow you describe is supported by digikam itself. You download your
pictures and rename them in the process, rate them and manage metadata. So why
use a cumbersome workflow outside digikam?

That said, digkam can be configured to scan folders at startup, which will
find out about new/removed images. If metadata is in the image files, there
will be no ṕroblem. Not sure about the state of xmp sidecars in this respect.

--
Anders
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[Martin (KDE)]

Am 25.01.2012 15:01, schrieb Mark Hayes (Hotmail):

> Dear all,
>
> Following a period of just 'playing around' with the software, I am just starting to really try and use Digikam as a serious part of my workflow.  As such, I have a bunch of questions that I can't seem to find real answers to - either in the documentation or the website etc, so I'll just post them here and see if you can point me in the right direction.
>
> I'll send multiple e-mails with different headings to help differentiate between them all - and help make it easier to read later.
>
> Firstly - DAM (Digital Asset Management).
>
> I have read the (thoroughly excellent) DAM Book, by Peter Krogh - and would recommend it to anyone who is serious about preserving and then finding their photos.  It has really helped me mould an idea of what I want to do in terms of keeping my photos accessible and searchable etc.  And I'd like to follow some of this through with Digikam.
>
> However, not being very competent with databases, I just don't know if some of the methods he describes will break links etc in Digikam.
>
> In particular - Krogh moves photos about a lot during the process.  I mean, he physically moves through a bunch of folders as part of the process, until they end up in the final filing location, all completed and fully set out with metadata.  For example, he downloads them to a specific folder, renames them, and then moves them to another holding folder for review.  Then in that new folder they are reviewed and rated, metadata attached and then moved out again.

That is the part I don't understand. Why should I move photos around? I
use digikam for downloading the photos from my memory card and store
them in one (or more) folder(s). This is the physical part and finished
with this action.

After that I develop my raw files and tag the photos. From this point on
I search and organize photos by their tags (most of the time - sometimes
I use the file/album view). Sometimes I forget to tag the photos an I
have some problems to find what I search for.

And: for backing up stuff it is not that great to move files around on
your hard disk.

Martin

>
> Thanks,
>
> Mark.
>
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