I am currently working with Andi Clemens to improve some important usability issues in Image Editor and Showfoto.
In April, Risto Saukonpää, the designer (and photographer) who re-designed digikam.org website and digiKam logo (updates coming about those) provided a great mockup and ideas for Showfoto how to speed-up workflow during image editing.
Well, i'm happy to say that work is in progress in KDE3 branch. I have written a new API for editor named Editor Tool and it will be used for all image plugins. The goal is to remove all independent plugin dialogs and have them as embedded plugins on editor window itself. Preview is stacked over canvas and settings placed as a dedicated tab in right sidebar. The API will plug and unplug all tools automaticlally when changing between them.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.digikam.org/news/2008-08-24_digikam_image_editor_usability_improvements_screencast/