[Digikam-users] Digikam Workflow Questions

[Eric Mesa]

Hello Digikam list,

Back in 2012 I did a comparison of Lightroom and Digikam and it seemed like
Digikam was pretty awesome, I just happened to have been involved in
Lightroom for a long time and didn't want to change without reason. However,
with the latest Lightroom 5, performance has slowed to a crawl, making me
wonder if it's worth the $150/year vs FLOSS software I already know is
pretty awesome. 

So I had a couple questions about workflow that I couldn't find in the
online documentation. 
1. Does Digikam write metadata do DNG files or just use XMP sidecar files? 
2. Right now if I want to create a black and white version of one of my
photos, here's what I do Lightroom: 
   a. On my DNG file I create a Virtual Copy
   b. I make that Virtual Copy Black and White (and any tonal changes I'd
like to do)
   c. I export the Virtual Copy as a JPEG (so I have B/W files to upload to
the net, share, etc)
   d. I export the original as a JPEG (so that I have a color version to
upload, share, etc) 

Does Digikam have anything like that? If Digikam doesn't have virtual
copies, how do I represent multiple versions of a DNG file? 
3. There's a lot I can Google, but especially in the world of FLOSS software
this is ever-changing: What is the best RAW/DNG-based workflow with the
latest version of Digikam? Does it involve RAWTherapee/DarkTable/something
else to interpret the RAW/DNG file? Or is Digikam currently the best? If
someone on the list uses one of these external programs - would you mind
letting me know your current workflow?

Thanks,
Eric Mesa