Digikam+Darktable workflow

Hi list,

I just started using Darktable as my main photo editing/postprocessing
software. So far, I'm very happy with it. Still, all my photo albums are
organized in Digikam. Thus I'm searching for advice on a convenient
workflow for archiving and editing my photos.

Right now, my workflow is the following:

* I take pictures with my camera in RAW format and import them into a
  subfolder "raw" of the respective album in Digikam.
* Then I go through all the RAW pictures, select the good ones and tag
  them as "outstanding" (yellow flag).
* Then I use a search mask to show only the "outstanding" pictures,
  select all of them and open them with Darktable (Open with ...)
* In Darktable, I edit my pictures and rate them.
* If I decide to abort a picture in Darktable, I select it as aborted
  there, go to the Digikam search mask and mark it as aborted in
  Digikam as well (red flag).
* After finishing with editing, I export all pictures from Darktable in
  JPG format to the folder "../" (i.e. the album folder, with is the
  parent folder of current "raw" subfolder).
* Finally, I tag all pictures from the Digikam search as "done" (green
  flag) and remove them from the collection in Darktable.

As a result, I have my edited pictures in JPG format in the album folder
and all RAW files in a subfolder "raw".

A few things that I consider as inconvenient with this workflow:

* Flagging pictures as outstanding, aborted, done seems to be special
  to Digikam. Darktable doesn't know these flags and as a result I'm
  unable to do the flagging directly in Darktable while editing.
* It would be awesome if Digikam would know that the JPG version in the
  album folder is a new version of the RAW source version in the "raw"
  subfolder.
* If I find that I want to do some more editing later while browsing
  the JPG versions, I have to search for the corresponding RAW file in
  the "raw" subfolder and open it in Darktable for now. It would be
  awesome if I could simply select "open the RAW file in Darktable"
  from the JPG version.

I'm looking forward to read your suggestions on how to improve my
workflow with Digikam and Darktable. As I've written, I just started
using the two programs together, so I don't know about each and every
feature yet. I'm sure that there's much space for improvement :)

Cheers
 jonas
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[tosca]

Main things I do differently:

 - I use flags in darktable only for internal purposes, for example keeping trace of which files have been exported, and which remain to be edited

 - I export from daktable in TIFF format, and use this file as my main edited file. I then use Digikam (and more often the batch tool manager) to resisze/convert anytime I need some JPEGs for publishing on line, creating photo-books and such.

 - I put all the formats in the same folders, as Digikam provides filters to display whatever format is needed. The exception being folders dedidated to some specific work (photo-books for example) when it's easier to manage all the required pictures in their specific formats in the same place. In fact, such folders could be managed outside Digikam.

 - I usually group all the formats of the same picture, with the TIFF picture being the head of group.

And on import from my cameras, RAW files go into working folders first. That's where I make my first selections. Only the pictures I intend to keep (between 10% and 30% of each shooting session?) are transfered to their final folder.

Marie-Noëlle

2016-02-18 14:00 GMT+01:00 jonas <[hidden email]>:

Hi list,

I just started using Darktable as my main photo editing/postprocessing
software. So far, I'm very happy with it. Still, all my photo albums are
organized in Digikam. Thus I'm searching for advice on a convenient
workflow for archiving and editing my photos.

Right now, my workflow is the following:

* I take pictures with my camera in RAW format and import them into a
  subfolder "raw" of the respective album in Digikam.
* Then I go through all the RAW pictures, select the good ones and tag
  them as "outstanding" (yellow flag).
* Then I use a search mask to show only the "outstanding" pictures,
  select all of them and open them with Darktable (Open with ...)
* In Darktable, I edit my pictures and rate them.
* If I decide to abort a picture in Darktable, I select it as aborted
  there, go to the Digikam search mask and mark it as aborted in
  Digikam as well (red flag).
* After finishing with editing, I export all pictures from Darktable in
  JPG format to the folder "../" (i.e. the album folder, with is the
  parent folder of current "raw" subfolder).
* Finally, I tag all pictures from the Digikam search as "done" (green
  flag) and remove them from the collection in Darktable.

As a result, I have my edited pictures in JPG format in the album folder
and all RAW files in a subfolder "raw".

A few things that I consider as inconvenient with this workflow:

* Flagging pictures as outstanding, aborted, done seems to be special
  to Digikam. Darktable doesn't know these flags and as a result I'm
  unable to do the flagging directly in Darktable while editing.
* It would be awesome if Digikam would know that the JPG version in the
  album folder is a new version of the RAW source version in the "raw"
  subfolder.
* If I find that I want to do some more editing later while browsing
  the JPG versions, I have to search for the corresponding RAW file in
  the "raw" subfolder and open it in Darktable for now. It would be
  awesome if I could simply select "open the RAW file in Darktable"
  from the JPG version.

I'm looking forward to read your suggestions on how to improve my
workflow with Digikam and Darktable. As I've written, I just started
using the two programs together, so I don't know about each and every
feature yet. I'm sure that there's much space for improvement :)

Cheers
 jonas
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Hi,

I asked few times ago on this forum similar question.

For me, the more efficient is to update embedded jpeg in RAW used by digikam with Exiftool.

This avoid to manage several files for the same picture.

The command is:
exiftool "-previewImage<=Developpe/%f.jpg" -ext dng .

(my raw are in the main directory and jpeg files in developpe directory).

The problem with this method is that the update must be done each time the developpment of the raw is modified.

If Darktable could have an option to to this, it would be great, but I don't think this is in the "philosophy" of darktable (not modify raw, only sidecar file).

Otherwise, if Digikam could have an option to show JPEG which have the same name of raw files; this could be great too!

keep it up!

Gaylord

2016-02-18 16:58 GMT+01:00 Marie-Noëlle Augendre <[hidden email]>:

Main things I do differently:

 - I use flags in darktable only for internal purposes, for example keeping trace of which files have been exported, and which remain to be edited

 - I export from daktable in TIFF format, and use this file as my main edited file. I then use Digikam (and more often the batch tool manager) to resisze/convert anytime I need some JPEGs for publishing on line, creating photo-books and such.

 - I put all the formats in the same folders, as Digikam provides filters to display whatever format is needed. The exception being folders dedidated to some specific work (photo-books for example) when it's easier to manage all the required pictures in their specific formats in the same place. In fact, such folders could be managed outside Digikam.

 - I usually group all the formats of the same picture, with the TIFF picture being the head of group.

And on import from my cameras, RAW files go into working folders first. That's where I make my first selections. Only the pictures I intend to keep (between 10% and 30% of each shooting session?) are transfered to their final folder.

Marie-Noëlle

2016-02-18 14:00 GMT+01:00 jonas <[hidden email]>:

Hi list,

I just started using Darktable as my main photo editing/postprocessing
software. So far, I'm very happy with it. Still, all my photo albums are
organized in Digikam. Thus I'm searching for advice on a convenient
workflow for archiving and editing my photos.

Right now, my workflow is the following:

* I take pictures with my camera in RAW format and import them into a
  subfolder "raw" of the respective album in Digikam.
* Then I go through all the RAW pictures, select the good ones and tag
  them as "outstanding" (yellow flag).
* Then I use a search mask to show only the "outstanding" pictures,
  select all of them and open them with Darktable (Open with ...)
* In Darktable, I edit my pictures and rate them.
* If I decide to abort a picture in Darktable, I select it as aborted
  there, go to the Digikam search mask and mark it as aborted in
  Digikam as well (red flag).
* After finishing with editing, I export all pictures from Darktable in
  JPG format to the folder "../" (i.e. the album folder, with is the
  parent folder of current "raw" subfolder).
* Finally, I tag all pictures from the Digikam search as "done" (green
  flag) and remove them from the collection in Darktable.

As a result, I have my edited pictures in JPG format in the album folder
and all RAW files in a subfolder "raw".

A few things that I consider as inconvenient with this workflow:

* Flagging pictures as outstanding, aborted, done seems to be special
  to Digikam. Darktable doesn't know these flags and as a result I'm
  unable to do the flagging directly in Darktable while editing.
* It would be awesome if Digikam would know that the JPG version in the
  album folder is a new version of the RAW source version in the "raw"
  subfolder.
* If I find that I want to do some more editing later while browsing
  the JPG versions, I have to search for the corresponding RAW file in
  the "raw" subfolder and open it in Darktable for now. It would be
  awesome if I could simply select "open the RAW file in Darktable"
  from the JPG version.

I'm looking forward to read your suggestions on how to improve my
workflow with Digikam and Darktable. As I've written, I just started
using the two programs together, so I don't know about each and every
feature yet. I'm sure that there's much space for improvement :)

Cheers
 jonas
_______________________________________________
Digikam-users mailing list
[hidden email]
https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/digikam-users

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[Martin (KDE)]

Am Donnerstag, 18. Februar 2016, 14:00:07 schrieb jonas:

> Hi list,
>
> I just started using Darktable as my main photo editing/postprocessing
> software. So far, I'm very happy with it. Still, all my photo albums are
> organized in Digikam. Thus I'm searching for advice on a convenient
> workflow for archiving and editing my photos.
>
> Right now, my workflow is the following:
>
> * I take pictures with my camera in RAW format and import them into a
>   subfolder "raw" of the respective album in Digikam.
> * Then I go through all the RAW pictures, select the good ones and tag
>   them as "outstanding" (yellow flag).
> * Then I use a search mask to show only the "outstanding" pictures,
>   select all of them and open them with Darktable (Open with ...)
> * In Darktable, I edit my pictures and rate them.
> * If I decide to abort a picture in Darktable, I select it as aborted
>   there, go to the Digikam search mask and mark it as aborted in
>   Digikam as well (red flag).
> * After finishing with editing, I export all pictures from Darktable in
>   JPG format to the folder "../" (i.e. the album folder, with is the
>   parent folder of current "raw" subfolder).
> * Finally, I tag all pictures from the Digikam search as "done" (green
>   flag) and remove them from the collection in Darktable.

I used an own RAW sub folder once, but with this I lost overview and syncing
metadata (taging, flagging etc.) was a real mess. In the end I mix raw and
final data in one directory.

Destination format depends on my further needs: jpeg for usual stuff (web,
photoprinting ...) png (16bit or 8bit) for additional postprocessing. In
special cases tiff.

Usually I import my photos with digicam, rate and prepare them with darktable,
tag (Location, Persons ...) them with digikam and generate/export final
pictures with darktable again.

Darktable is able to reread tags and ratings from digikam, so I have no
problem to syncronize it this way. The other way round currently does not work
automatically. I have to trigger rescan of the album by hand to get all
changes from darktable into digikam.

>
> As a result, I have my edited pictures in JPG format in the album folder
> and all RAW files in a subfolder "raw".
>
> A few things that I consider as inconvenient with this workflow:
>
> * Flagging pictures as outstanding, aborted, done seems to be special
>   to Digikam. Darktable doesn't know these flags and as a result I'm
>   unable to do the flagging directly in Darktable while editing.
> * It would be awesome if Digikam would know that the JPG version in the
>   album folder is a new version of the RAW source version in the "raw"
>   subfolder.
> * If I find that I want to do some more editing later while browsing
>   the JPG versions, I have to search for the corresponding RAW file in
>   the "raw" subfolder and open it in Darktable for now. It would be
>   awesome if I could simply select "open the RAW file in Darktable"
>   from the JPG version.

I don't trigger photo editing in darktable from digikam. I always start
darktable on its own. Currently I use Digikam mostly for Metadata tagging and
organizing of the photos. With this digikam is realy great.

regards
Martin

>
> I'm looking forward to read your suggestions on how to improve my
> workflow with Digikam and Darktable. As I've written, I just started
> using the two programs together, so I don't know about each and every
> feature yet. I'm sure that there's much space for improvement :)
>
> Cheers
>  jonas
> _______________________________________________
> Digikam-users mailing list
> [hidden email]
> https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/digikam-users

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