[digiKam-users] Importing from a local folder

[Remco Viëtor]

On mercredi 29 mai 2019 11:29:04 CEST Dougie Nisbet wrote:
> I'm retrying digikam after years of using shotwell (and previously
> f-spot). After initially importing my original images in their original
> location (~100,000) I'm now trying to import and copy from a local folder.
> 
> My workflow with shotwell is something like:
> 
> Images in /store1/images/YEAR/MONTH/DAY
> 
> New images somewhere local, e.g. /home/dougie/in
> 
> I rarely, if ever, import directly from a camera or memory card. I
> prefer to do an  initial pass, using something like geeqie, on my
> incoming photos to weed out unwanted images. I may also add some
> geolocation information.

Digikam can also add the geolocation info, and scrolling through the images to 
weed out unwanted ones is easy. I usually use the green/yellow/red flags to 
mark images to keep/review/throw away on a first pass (using shortcuts to 
navigate and tag), then select all red flags for deletion in one step.

> In shotwell, the import process would copy and relocate according to
> photo date into /store1/images/YEAR/MONTH/DAY. I can't see how to do
> this in digikam.

Sorry, no idea how to do this in Digikam. I usually download from card (where 
images are stored in 1 directory/day) to the directory where i want them. 
Those directories are named <yyyy[mm[[dd]]>_<short title>, with subdirectories 
as needed, which means I *can't* use an automated naming system. Finding 
images by date is easy, and I use tags to describe the content.

I don't know Shotwell, so I can't really comment on your . But I find that I 
can do the weeding, renaming, tagging, and geolocation (using GPS tracks) from 
within Digikam with no problem. 

It also depends on the number of images you treat per session or per week/
month: I've had occasions where I  imported several hundreds of images per 
session, 2000+ for the event and that went fast enough for me to present a 
selection the next day or so.

> I've found:
> 
> 1. If I click on the Import option on the menu bar, digikam attempts to
> look at my (unmounted) external USB drive where I store backup images.
> It freezes the import window during this. However, during this time I
> can see some rename options on the Import window, I just can't do
> anything with it.

Is the directory with your backups registered with Digikam as a collection?

> 2. If I disconnect my USB drive (the only way I could figure out how to
> stop digikam looking at it), the Import option on the menu bar is
> unavailable. The options on the Import drop-down menu are of little use.
> 
>  From the searching I've done, I've seen various suggestions, including
> Ctrl-I (no effect). The 'Add Images' and 'Add Folders' options are
> greyed out.

When I use the "Import" menu (on Digikam 6.1.0) with no external media 
attached, I do get the "Add Folder" option, just options concerning external 
media are grayed out. And there's no reason to have the "add images" and "add 
folder" options grayed out, normally...

> I considered adding ~dougie/in as a collection, but I suspect it would
> leave the photos in place, whereas I want them imported and renamed and
> copied to /store1/images.

You can still move the images around within and between collections from 
within Digikam. 

Remco