[digiKam-users] batch process for tagging

[Remco Viëtor]

On jeudi 6 septembre 2018 22:10:47 CEST Fabiola Iannarilli wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I am using digikam to process camera trap pictures and add information on
> the species 'captured' as EXIF data using tags.
> 
> I have a large number of camera sites (100 x season) coded with different
> names. The cameras I am using store every 1000 pictures in a different
> folder, so I have this directory structure:
> 
> Camera_1
>      folder_1  (1000 pics)
>      folder_2  (1000 pics)
>      folder_3  (1000 pics)
> 
> Camera_2
>      folder_1  (1000 pics)
>      folder_2  (1000 pics)
> .....
> 
> Is there a way to add the tags to all the pictures taken at a camera site
> (i.e., pictures in all the folders of that camera) using a batch process so
> that I can run it when I am not at the computer?
> 
> Thank you for any suggestion,
> Fabiola

I don't see a way to do this from within digikam, as I don't see a way to use 
part of the image path as a tag. 

But if in your directory structure the "camera_1" etc. corresponds to a *site* 
(and ideally has the site name as actual name), a bash script would be 
possible.  

What to use exactly depends on the file format. If the images are jpgs, I'd use 
Exiv2 (or exiftool) to add/modify keyword tags (either using the directory 
name or a lookup table), after making a complete backup.

If you are dealing with raw files, best go through a sidecar. Those use XML 
format,  but they are not XML files as they miss the proper headers. Something 
like awk would allow you to add a tag on the proper place.

And of course, make a backup and test on a small subset (which should contain 
several sites and image drectories): especially when dealing with sidecars, 
small errors could make the sidecar file unreadable (not the image, it's not 
touched).

Oh, and if you do this on an existing Digikam picture collection, don't forget 
to reload the metadata from the images when you're done.

If "camera_1" etc. corresponds to different physical camera's which are moved 
around (so one camera corresponds to several sites), things are getting 
"interesting": there is no clear link to the site in your directory 
structure... You can still use a batch file to add tags to newly imported 
images

Remco

P.S. While doing such massive tagging through Digikam is going to be slow 
(although you can tag a whole "camera_x" directory in one go), writing and 
debugging the required script(s) is going to take time as well, usually more 
time than initially expected.