[digiKam-users] Metadata Questions

[Peter Albrecht]

Hi Shai,

to your questions:


Question 1:

That's the setup I use: Write of metadata enabled in general, but "write to
sidecar" is disabled. This leads to metadata written in the JPG files.

But best is, to test it: Change some metadata (e.g. write a caption with some
unique text) and apply those changes to the image. Then open the image in a
hexeditor and let the editor search for your caption text.


Question 2:

Advantage of using sidecar files:
 + your image is not touched (you could use them "read only")
 + writing metadata to RAW files is not possible (as far as I know)

Advantage of writing metadata to the image:
 + metadata is always where your image is (no loosing sidecar files)
 + no need to think about your sidecar files when moving or renaming your
   image files


Regards,
	Peter

On 08.07.2018 22:45, Shai Gluskin wrote:
> Hi Peter,
> 
> Thanks for the response.
> 
> I'm a little confused and I confess I'm a novice in this area. I just
> looked up XMP and I see that xmp data can be stored with the image in the
> same file and/or as a sidecar. I had been assuming xmp data was always in a
> sidecar and EXIF was always embedded in the file. But I see now I'm wrong
> about that and so my question is evolving.
> 
> Thanks for your patience and keep reading to see two more questions.
> 
> 
> If I have all the above checked
> 
> AND I have reading and writing from sidecars turned off,
> 
> 1. Will that give me full metadata without using sidecar files at all?
> 2. What is the advantage of using sidecar files to store metadata (why not
> always keep xmp embedded in the image)?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks much,
> 
> Shai
> 
> 
> 
> On Sun, Jul 8, 2018 at 2:45 PM, Peter Albrecht <peter at crazymonkeys.de>
> wrote:
> 
>> Hello Shai,
>>
>> * Question 1:
>> I personally have important metadata written into the JPEG files. (EXIF,
>> IPTC,
>> XMP, ...)
>> Reason: If my digikam DB crashes, my hours of tagging and rating are not
>> lost.
>> The data is redundant in my image files.
>> But I must admit: In almost 10 years of using digikam, I never had a
>> database
>> crash. :)
>>
>>
>> * Question 2:
>> I think you can batch "write to sidecar" at a later time. There is an
>> Option in
>> digiKam main menu "Item" -> "Write Metadata to Image". I guess this should
>> do
>> the trick.
>> But you should test this first!
>>
>>
>> Regards,
>>         Peter
>>
>> On 08.07.2018 17:59, Shai Gluskin wrote:
>>> Hello Folks,
>>>
>>> New user here.
>>>
>>> Let's say I'm using DigiKam exclusively for my photo management needs (no
>>> plans to use Darktable or Adobe Lightroom etc).
>>>
>>> At: Settings => Configure DigiKam => Metadata => Sidecars
>>>
>>> *Question 1: I should leave both "Read to Sidecar files" and "Write to
>>> sidecar files" *unchecked. Yes?
>>>
>>> Question 2: If I later decide I want to use a different software program
>>> for photo management: at that time can I do a batch "write to sidecar
>>> files" for all my photos ?
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> Shai Gluskin
>>>
>>
>