[Digikam-users] Digikam - Darktable workflow

[Marie-Noëlle Augendre]

I'm a Linux/Fedora 16 user, and have been using Digikam since I switched
from Windows to Linux 2 years ago. I have about 30.000 pictures in my
Digikam database, about half of them having been migrated from the
Photoshop Elements I had used when running Windows.

About one year ago, I gave up shooting JPEG, and I now use RAW files only,
produced by Canon EOS 450D at the beginning, and EOS7D currently.
I began to treat RAW pictures with Digikam, then RawTherapee, and
'upgraded' to Darktable some weeks ago.
I'm very satisfied with both programs - Digikam and Darktable - and intend
to use them consistently in the foreseeable future

My workflow is usually the following:

1) in Digikam:
- import pictures straight from memory cards to a 'buffer' folder (I've
named it 'A trier')
- first selection/rating: the pictures I want to keep are moved to their
final folder. Some that I'm not yet sure about will remain in the 'A trier'
folder till I take time to have another look; they will be moved to the
same album as their 'sister' pictures in the case I decide to keep them
For this step, I mainly use the rating function; as I upgraded to version 2
quite recently, I've not yet decided how/when (at what stage) I will use
pick and color labels.
I roughly maintain two main albums trees, one for 'events' when I produce
between 30 and 500 or more pictures, the other for pictures taken at any
moment, that I regroup in a monthly album. The events tree is organized by
year (level 1) and event (level 2) named 'NN - this specific event' so they
remain sorted in their own year. The 'day to day' tree is classically
organized by year (level 1) and month (level 2)
So, whatever I'm looking, I always know in which folder I can find the
picture I'm looking for.
- I might do some commenting and/or tagging at this stage, when I still
have a lone CR2 file; but I have no strict rule on the matter: I can add
information any time to any picture when I browse and work on the whole
collection.

2) in Darktable:
- I use Darktable to produce TIFF files that will serve as 'master' full
size pictures for whatever publication/export I'll need.
- I usually don't treat all the pictures of an event at the same time; I'm
more or less in a hurry to publish a couple of the best ones, and take
time, days or weeks later, to derawtize the remaining pictures
- I would like to be able to find easily the RAW files that have been
previously selected in Digikam, but the information is not passed on to
Darktable ... In the beginning, I created sub-sub-folders in Digikam, in
order to select them easily in Darktable, but that is not convenient as I
never know from the beginning, which pictures I will treat - or not - in
the future ... and I want/need to keep in the same folder all the files
(CR2, TIFF, JPEG, XMP) related to the same pictures and some of them (XMP
for example) are not displayed.
- if I want different treatments for the same picture (color treatment,
effects, etc.), I will clone the RAW file and produce a different TIFF. To
make things easier, I've defined in Darktable an 'export Digikam' style
that always save the TIFF in the folder the RAW file comes from.
- as there is currently no information transferred from Digikam to
Darktable, when I want to treat just a couple of pictures, I find it easier
to use the 'open in Darktable' function in Digikam, rather than the 'import
folder' or 'import image' in Darktable.

3) in Digikam:
- from Digikam I export pictures regularly to a FB page, and several Piwigo
and Picasa galleries.
- I usually open each picture in the editor in order to resize, then adjust
the sharpening it before saving it as a new JPEG version. If sharpening is
not so critical, I might use the batch queue treatment, or the resizing
option of the Piwigo export to quicken the process.

I'd like very much to read from others about their own DK-DT workflow.

Marie-Noëlle

-- 
Une galerie photos, un blog ... pourquoi pas ? Webmaster en
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Parcourez les Cévennes à ma façon : Cévennes
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Et toutes mes autres publications à partir de ma page d'accueil
générale<http://www.marie-noelle-augendre.com/>
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