[Digikam-users] Reading tags from XMP sidecar files

[Martin (KDE)]

Am Freitag, 26. August 2011 schrieb sleepless:
> Op 26-08-11 19:09, Gys van Zyl schreef:
> > I don't like that option. I principle I try not to touch my
> > original files in any way.
> 
> I agree completely. That is why I think the best way to go is
> completely rely on the db (and the copy´s you store) no writing to
> pictures nor to xmp as the latter does not function on dk.

Partially. I use a similar procedure as with my analogue photos. I 
only use raw from my camera (so no jpeg which are often useless). I 
don't want any program to alter my raw files. So not being able to 
write to raw files is not a bad thing (imho).

For raw files a working sidecar file would be great. DK currently is 
not able to handle this reliable so I use the DB only.

It is different to jpeg files, there I want all relevant data in my 
jpeg files I generate from the raw one. As I use darktable for raw 
processing this is a two step thing:

- generate jpeg (or png) from raw (if there was already a jpeg file 
the new on is generated with a postfix.
- if there is a jpeg with postfix, extract the exif data from the old 
one, add it to the new one and replace the old with the new one.

This works great with DK. So for jpeg files I don't need sidecar 
files. In the contrary: what will happen, if the jpeg file is newer 
than the sidecar one (altered by an other program)? should the 
internal or external exif data be used? As no program alters my raw 
files, there is no such problem.

Regards

Martin

> 
> > That's why I like the sidecar file - metadata can be added
> > without modification to the original file.
> > 
> > In any event, I don't think its possible yet to write metadata to
> > Canon raw files.
> 
> no, I was not aware that it was raw.
>