[Digikam-users] Digikam - Darktable workflow - Color profile

[Wolfgang Mader]

Hallo,

are you guys who do RAW development using calibrated work stations and color 
profiles. If so, how do you obtain the color profile for your camera. I am using 
a Canon 40D and have no clue on how to get the Canon color profile. Or is color 
profiling not important when working with RAW files?

Thank you very much and a happy new year.
Wolfgang

On Tuesday 03 January 2012 08:42:06 Marie-Noëlle Augendre wrote:
> 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