[Digikam-users] RAW workflow & digikam

[Mikolaj Machowski]

Dnia Monday 25 of August 2008, Sebastian Schubert napisał:
> Hi,
>
> I'm just a newbie and would like to get some idea for a good workflow.
> I want to shoot RAW files.  My idea:
>
> 1) download files to a backup folder
> 2) copy them to another folder, scan through it, delete bad ones and
> keep the others
> 3) produce jpg from the files in 2)

When you took all hassle to make RAWs don't develop them to JPEG, waste
of time. Use PNG or TIFF - digiKam has better support for metadata in
PNGs, but TIFF is industry standard (which is strange way to describe
TIFF but that is another story :). JPEG only for web presentation,
sending by mail, etc.

> 4) tag and sort results from 3)
>
> after some time
> 5) delete files in 1)
>
>
> What do you think?  

Generally yes. After more time you can consider to backup files from 2.
on DVD. Pro-photographer I know lately decided to even delete those
RAW files. Once properly developed they are not useful.

> What would be the most efficient way to do that?  I
> want -- of course -- have the final results in digikam.  Is an extra,
> external raw converter a good idea?  

Frankly - up to 0.9.4 yes, it is good idea. I used(*) RawTherapee and
assigned RAW filetype to RawTherapee in kcontrol so I could call it on
RAW files from digiKam.

(*) Note past tense :) With new RAW Import Tool all need for external
converters is gone. 

But it is available only for brave (wo)men riding svn version ;) I only
hope there will be batch mode for this - there is still advantage
of RT over new digiKam tool.

> To be honest, atm I'm quite
> overwhelmed by all the sliders and stuff in these programs.

If you shot photo properly in 90% of cases you don't need to use them.

> Is there a way to tag the raw files I want to keep (step 2) and the
> final jpgs?

New exiv2 (still in beta?) should support some RAW formats.

> Thanks for any ideas!  Also if you know any tutorials, I am eager to
> read them.

I can recommend RawTherapee manual. While I don't recommend attaching to
the program itself ;) it explains nicely most terms which you need to
understand to work with RAWs.

m.