[Digikam-devel] [Bug 142975] New: wish better support for RAW photo handling

[simon at margo.student.utwente.nl]

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http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=142975         
           Summary: wish better support for RAW photo handling
           Product: digikam
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: unspecified
        OS/Version: Linux
            Status: UNCONFIRMED
          Severity: wishlist
          Priority: NOR
         Component: general
        AssignedTo: digikam-devel kde org
        ReportedBy: simon margo student utwente nl


Version:            (using KDE KDE 3.5.6)
Installed from:    Unlisted Binary Package
OS:                Linux

I think the process for handling photos from flash cards or digicams is very good with digikam and I would like to use it more (i.e. stay inside digikam for longer), but for that to happen, I'd like to see some features that would help me handle the RAW files that I shoot.

Basically what I do is, download the images using digikam (insert card, choose upload to digikam, choose an album to download and do that). That's when I switch to the commandline and run a simple bash for-loop to convert all the .ARW files to jpg using dcraw -w -c | convert file.ARW.jpg. After the conversion I copy the exif information using exiftool to the output jpg.

Later, when I want a different interpretation of the raw data, I use the gimp, because it has UFRAW to import the raw information. This gives a quick way to interpret the RAW information. I realise this isn't "necessary" in digikam, since the editor /can/ handle 16 bit data. However this way of working with the raw files is very intuitive to me and the digikam editor isn't for some reason.

Using RAW files means that in-camera noise reduction (for high ISO), sharpening and white-balance is a necessary step (at least the option) when converting to jpg, which is still the de-facto standard for displaying and printing.

So what I'd like digikam to do is while downloading the RAW files, create a smaller preview version of the RAW file using some generic settings for dcraw (see above). That way I can wait until the download batchjob is done and then I can quickly preview all the images. Then when I open one, I'd like to get a dialogue with something like UFRAW processing, with the addition of NR perhaps. Then I'd like to edit the resulting 16-bit data and save it (and a jpg of the current interpretation). Later I may want to tweak the interpretation of the RAW data...

I hope this makes sense to you, I'm not an experienced programmer, but I could try helping with the debugging.

Thanks

Simon