export Captions and Tags from digikam to ART Raw-Converter

Software digiKam
1

Is there a way to automatically transfer the captions and tags that are only written in digiKam’s database to the raw converter? My raw files are Panasonic RW2 and digiKam cannot write the annotations into them.

Digikam can easily write all the information into a DNG RAW file, so RT or ART will also can use them.

2

Digikam can also create XMP sidecar files, which can hold the captions, titles and keywords. Perhaps ART can read those sidecars?

1 Like
3

Hello @rvietor
That works perfectly. Creating them is really easy:
grafik
Do you know which setting is the best?
Is there a setting where the information is only passed on to the raw converter without an .xmp sidecar being written?

Now I just have to get used to always carrying these sidecars around with me.It’s much easier for me to manage, organize and move the photos when there are no sidecars. Do they never bother you?

4

Writing sidecars from digikam is easy. But have you tried reading them yet (in ART)?
I use the settings you show, btw.

Nope, once I’ve imported the images into digikam, I do any managing from within digikam. The program then takes care of moving/renaming the sidecars with the raw files.

There are two things to keep in mind:

  • there are several XML tags for storing e.g captions (and idem for titles, and again for keywords, it’s a bit of a mess), so you may have to check which are read by ART;
  • best is not to work with both programs at the same time: if you write to the same sidecar from both programs, one set of changes can get lost. If there’s only one program writing to the sidecars, you are probably ok. (You can have the same issue when writing to image formats that allow is, like jpeg)
5

Yes, ART can read the content of the sicecars from digiKam without any problems. I would also only process the XML with digiKam and ART would only develop the photos. I’m not entirely happy with the additional files (.xml), it would be much clearer for my workflow without them. The alternative would of course be to transfer the tags and information with ditiKam after developing and final editing with Gimp.

6

You may have to do that anyway, iirc transferring metadata into Gimp doesn’t always work the way you want it to.

7

Hello @rvietor
I will probably stick with my old method for the time being and not use sidecars. thanks for your commitment.