[digiKam-users] Help with this use case, please.

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Þann 23.3.2021 10:53, skrifaði Chris Poldervaart:
> Today, I am going to set up a NAS with the intention of collecting all of
> my photos from various sources and getting them centralized. 
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> Step One: Find everything.
> 
> I'd like to be able to plug in an external drive, have digiKam find all of
> the photos from the drive, copy those folders/photos to the NAS. Rinse,
> repeat. I'm hoping this can be somewhat automated so that I can spend my
> time on Step Two.

Guess there are two different methods possible:
Setup the NAS on the network, make a folder on it a main collection in 
Digikam, and shovel in your images [1].
Or to make things faster; temporarily connect your NAS to your computer 
as an USB3-drive, let this be a temporary main collection [2], and 
shovel in your images.

[1]: Also here are two different methods; First is to plugin the various 
external drives as USB-media, choose to import from each drive into your 
folder structure on the NAS. This imports only supported images, and (I 
think) ignores any folder structure on the media you import from.
Second method is to temporarily connect the external drives as a 
collection, and in digiKam left-hand Album-panel you move corresponding 
folders into your main collection/directory structure. For some reason 
this *moves* the folders/files, copying is not on offer in my setup. 
This imports all files in those folders, not just images, so it's 
perhaps quicker just using a file-manager.

[2]: People on this mailing-list have been seen re-assigning 
mount-points of collections via some sqlite-editing, just to keep the 
databases for thumbnails, fingerprints, etc. and same some time 
(considerable for large collections). Easiest is of course to redefine 
your main collection, once you have unplugged the NAS and put it back on 
the network (and then go outdoors and play for a while).

> Step Two: Organize what I found.
> 
> Once I have everything co-located, I'd like to be able to go in and
> organize, cull, and long-term manage those images.  (this will likely be
> the time consuming, manual review process).

This is what digiKam is the right tool for ;-)

Just a couple of hints; the main directory structure is important; 
depending on your workflow you may prefer it to be based on dates, or 
cameras, or subjects or whatnot. Don't forget that in digiKam there are 
tags and categories and ratings and stuff that transgress directory 
structure, and can serve as virtual folders/collections for whatever you 
want.
Plan for the future...

> I've
> been using it to make my selections from camera memory cards after a
> shooting session.  I haven't really started using it for photo management.

IMHO, photo management should be a lifestyle ;-) It can be a tedious 
work, especially when the "I'll do it later" attitude has been prevalent 
for some time.
There can be such joy in finding relevant images with the minimum of 
effort, just because they were tagged, categorized and organized...

Just thoughts,
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