[Digikam-users] Digikam+Darktable workflow

[Martin (KDE)]

Am Donnerstag, 18. Februar 2016, 14:00:07 schrieb jonas:
> Hi list,
> 
> I just started using Darktable as my main photo editing/postprocessing
> software. So far, I'm very happy with it. Still, all my photo albums are
> organized in Digikam. Thus I'm searching for advice on a convenient
> workflow for archiving and editing my photos.
> 
> Right now, my workflow is the following:
> 
> * I take pictures with my camera in RAW format and import them into a
>   subfolder "raw" of the respective album in Digikam.
> * Then I go through all the RAW pictures, select the good ones and tag
>   them as "outstanding" (yellow flag).
> * Then I use a search mask to show only the "outstanding" pictures,
>   select all of them and open them with Darktable (Open with ...)
> * In Darktable, I edit my pictures and rate them.
> * If I decide to abort a picture in Darktable, I select it as aborted
>   there, go to the Digikam search mask and mark it as aborted in
>   Digikam as well (red flag).
> * After finishing with editing, I export all pictures from Darktable in
>   JPG format to the folder "../" (i.e. the album folder, with is the
>   parent folder of current "raw" subfolder).
> * Finally, I tag all pictures from the Digikam search as "done" (green
>   flag) and remove them from the collection in Darktable.

I used an own RAW sub folder once, but with this I lost overview and syncing 
metadata (taging, flagging etc.) was a real mess. In the end I mix raw and 
final data in one directory.

Destination format depends on my further needs: jpeg for usual stuff (web, 
photoprinting ...) png (16bit or 8bit) for additional postprocessing. In 
special cases tiff.

Usually I import my photos with digicam, rate and prepare them with darktable, 
tag (Location, Persons ...) them with digikam and generate/export final 
pictures with darktable again.

Darktable is able to reread tags and ratings from digikam, so I have no 
problem to syncronize it this way. The other way round currently does not work 
automatically. I have to trigger rescan of the album by hand to get all 
changes from darktable into digikam.

> 
> As a result, I have my edited pictures in JPG format in the album folder
> and all RAW files in a subfolder "raw".
> 
> A few things that I consider as inconvenient with this workflow:
> 
> * Flagging pictures as outstanding, aborted, done seems to be special
>   to Digikam. Darktable doesn't know these flags and as a result I'm
>   unable to do the flagging directly in Darktable while editing.
> * It would be awesome if Digikam would know that the JPG version in the
>   album folder is a new version of the RAW source version in the "raw"
>   subfolder.
> * If I find that I want to do some more editing later while browsing
>   the JPG versions, I have to search for the corresponding RAW file in
>   the "raw" subfolder and open it in Darktable for now. It would be
>   awesome if I could simply select "open the RAW file in Darktable"
>   from the JPG version.

I don't trigger photo editing in darktable from digikam. I always start 
darktable on its own. Currently I use Digikam mostly for Metadata tagging and 
organizing of the photos. With this digikam is realy great.

regards
Martin

> 
> I'm looking forward to read your suggestions on how to improve my
> workflow with Digikam and Darktable. As I've written, I just started
> using the two programs together, so I don't know about each and every
> feature yet. I'm sure that there's much space for improvement :)
> 
> Cheers
>  jonas
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