[Digikam-users] Digikam - Darktable workflow

Tue Jan 3 11:09:56 GMT 2012

I have a similar setup (Canon 30D - yes little old). But my workflow is
a little bit different.

Mostly I import all photos with digikam importer. Within this I rename
the images from img_xxxx.cr2 to something easier. I only rename the img_
part, so the number remains. Usually I dont shot more than 6000 photos a
year, so this is something like a yearly id.

The img_ part is changed to the year and a brief description of the
event or location. A family photo taken on Easter with original named
img_1234.cr2 changes to family-easter-2011_1234.cr2.

I organize my photos in a mixture of date based folders and
event/location based folders. I often take photos for my local community
administration. These photos are organized in one subfolder (level 1)
and named according to the main event (like parliament, meetings - level
2), year (level 3) and the exact date (level 4).

Most of the other photos are organized in a similar way. A roughly main
group as first level, sometimes a minor name as second level, the year
and then the date. I used the year as first level for several years but
I was tired in creating similar structure for every year again and again.

After that darktable is used. I develop the photos mostly in one run.
For a friend I shot wedding photos. These took some days to get
developed properly. Some other bigger events are the same. But in most
cases I have enough time to develop the photos, so no need do a first
selection and after some time the rest.

I don't start darktable from within digikam. I mostly use collections in
darktable. Usually I do all settings in darktable and export the photos
as jpeg. In some cases where I have to do special work (portrait photos
i.e.) I export the photos to png and do the work in gimp, where I use
gimps own file format.

As Marie I sometimes clone the raw (nice feature in darktable btw.) and
build a complete different setup of photos (mostly black/white). And I
always store all different incarnations of one photos in one folder.

Initial star rating is mostly done in darktable where I take a first
detail look on the photos. Detailed rating afterwards is done in digikam
(does not happen that often).

I dont use the tagging feature in darktable (besides photographer name).
All tagging is done in digikam. I use tagging for my print selections as
well.

If I want to print photos (never on my own printer - I use a lab which
handles colour profiles) I use digikams batch function. depending on the
size I plan to print I reduce the photos and add a small frame (most
labs cut of about 1,5% of the photo at the margins). Batch job puts the
resulting photos in my out folder, from where I send them to the lab.
These output photos stays there for several month (just in case I need
them once again). Every now and then I clean up the out folder.

If I need photos for the web I have a collection of scripts to
postprocess the photos from the out folder.

That's for the start
Martin

Am 03.01.2012 08:42, schrieb 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 herbe
> <http://www.webmaster-en-herbe.net/>
> 
> Parcourez les Cévennes à ma façon : Cévennes Plurielles
> <http://www.cevennes-plurielles.com/>
> 
> Et toutes mes autres publications à partir de ma page d'accueil générale
> <http://www.marie-noelle-augendre.com/>
> 
> 
> 
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