How to process a photo without import it?

Software darktable
1

DT 4.0.1 on Debian 11 but waiting for 4.2.

Is there a way of processing photos without “polluting” the db?

Starting tomorrow, I will need to process 250+ images for somebody else. Many will end up as print, from a print shop.

These are not my images and will be deleted as soon as I deliver the jpegs, so I don’t want to “pollute” my dt database with these images.

Thanks

2

run DT with no database would be one option or with a new library… both could be done on command line… direct dt to a folder called client and it will make a new database there that you can delete later or run it with no database using the :memory: option. This creates a virtual db that gets deleted at the end of the session. I ran DT for a long time like that ie just as an editor and used the xmp files as my edit storage… --library command line switch…

https://docs.darktable.org/usermanual/4.0/en/special-topics/program-invocation/darktable/

1 Like
3
  1. start with a new database?
  2. i mean cleaning up dead entries from the DB isnt hard either. so this is something i have never worried about.
4

Import them, develop them and remove them from database. You’ll end up in a state as if the images where never imported.