[digiKam-users] Versioning of processed photos

[Tac Tacelosky]

Is there any metadata associated with a final photo that indicates its "source", the original file it started with?

I'm working with digiKam as my DAM, and using RawTherappee and occasionally LightZone to process photos.  I'm also learning how to use the queues to processed RAW photos within DigiKam.

I'm thinking that if I start off with MyPhoto.RAW, I can create derivative photos from it and preserve the history by using filenames, e.g.

MyPhoto.RAF
MyPhoto.thumb.jpeg
MyPhoto.bw.jpeg

MyPhoto.final.jpeg

Is that the best way?  Or is there metadata somewhere that points back to the original photos (Sidecar file, EXIF, etc.)

I figure this must be a pretty common question, and that maybe DigiKam already handles it.

Thanks,

Tac

[Marcel Wiesweg]

yes it does...
there is no standard (at least was not 8 years ago)
we assign a unique id to edited images,
we store the history as XML in Xmp.digiKam.ImageHistory that refers to among
others to this id, and some secondary identifiers like filename / file size
IIRC

> Is there any metadata associated with a final photo that indicates its
> "source", the original file it started with?
>
> I'm working with digiKam as my DAM, and using RawTherappee and occasionally
> LightZone to process photos.  I'm also learning how to use the queues to
> processed RAW photos within DigiKam.
>
> I'm thinking that if I start off with MyPhoto.RAW, I can create derivative
> photos from it and preserve the history by using filenames, e.g.
>
> MyPhoto.RAF
> MyPhoto.thumb.jpeg
> MyPhoto.bw.jpeg
> MyPhoto.final.jpeg
>
> Is that the best way?  Or is there metadata somewhere that points back to
> the original photos (Sidecar file, EXIF, etc.)
>
> I figure this must be a pretty common question, and that maybe DigiKam
> already handles it.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Tac

[Tac Tacelosky]

How does digiKam handle changes made from external programs (like RawTherappee)? 

On Wed, Mar 7, 2018 at 3:36 PM, Marcel Wiesweg <[hidden email]> wrote:

yes it does...
there is no standard (at least was not 8 years ago)
we assign a unique id to edited images,
we store the history as XML in Xmp.digiKam.ImageHistory that refers to among
others to this id, and some secondary identifiers like filename / file size
IIRC

> Is there any metadata associated with a final photo that indicates its
> "source", the original file it started with?
>
> I'm working with digiKam as my DAM, and using RawTherappee and occasionally
> LightZone to process photos.  I'm also learning how to use the queues to
> processed RAW photos within DigiKam.
>
> I'm thinking that if I start off with MyPhoto.RAW, I can create derivative
> photos from it and preserve the history by using filenames, e.g.
>
> MyPhoto.RAF
> MyPhoto.thumb.jpeg
> MyPhoto.bw.jpeg
> MyPhoto.final.jpeg
>
> Is that the best way?  Or is there metadata somewhere that points back to
> the original photos (Sidecar file, EXIF, etc.)
>
> I figure this must be a pretty common question, and that maybe DigiKam
> already handles it.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Tac

[Marcel Wiesweg]

There is not much it can do...it cannot know what happened.
There is backend support for manual change recording (you tell digikam that
file x25 is derived from file x24) but I think this was never added to the UI.


> How does digiKam handle changes made from external programs (like
> RawTherappee)?
>

[NeiNei]

Hi there,

thanks Marcel for bringing light on this functionality. I was not aware
on this backed function at all.

However, I think it would be better than the situation now. At the
moment, I change the name of my external edited/manipulated images with
adding  a "_v1", "_v2", ... to their file names, so that I could
differentiate it in in DigiKam, i.e. file 2244.jpg is the original file
and then 2244_v1.jpg is the externally manipulated file.

But it would be really an advantage if the versioning could be done in
DigiKam itself with just the information "x25 externally
edited/manipulated image, derived from original image x24".

Perhaps bringing this "hidden functionality" to the Digikam frontend
would be an option for DK 5.9 or DK 6?


On 13.03.2018 21:13, Marcel Wiesweg wrote:

> There is not much it can do...it cannot know what happened.
> There is backend support for manual change recording (you tell digikam that
> file x25 is derived from file x24) but I think this was never added to the UI.
>
>
>> How does digiKam handle changes made from external programs (like
>> RawTherappee)?
>>
>
>
>