Shortcut to open RAW from group in darktable

Software digiKam
1

Hi!

I am typically shooting RAW+JPEG and have them grouped by filename in digiKam. I am now trying to sort out the workflow between digiKam and Darktable and was wondering if there is a way to tell digiKam to specifically open the RAW file from a group and maybe also add a shortcut to open it in darktable instead of the editor.
If I do “Right Click → Open With → Darktable” in digiKam, the behaviour differs depending on where I do that:

  • Thumbnail → seems to open the group in Darktable
  • Preview → seems to open the JPG in Darktable
  • digiKam Editor → seems to open the JPG in Darktable

Ideally I would like to define a shortcut to open just the RAW file in Darktable, independent from the viewing mode I was using in digiKam. All ideas welcome and thank you in advance! :slight_smile:

1 Like
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hi @kunstbanause ,
I created a shortcut to open darktable without using the database:
image

In this case I can select pictures in Digikam, right-click > open in darktable-no-db and they will be opened in darktable.

This opens by default only raw files, at least in my case.

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If you don’t want to use the darktable database (the way @boredphoto has set up his system), you may want to enable writing (and reading) XMP sidecars in darktable.

Darktable normally stores the edit history in the database and sidecars. It does not save a edited version of the image on exit (unless you explicitly export the image). So if you use neither the database nor sidecars, any edit would be lost on exiting darktable…

I’m using both digikam and darktable, but I don’t bother with saving camera jpegs since a long time (I found I never used the saved jpegs…).

My workflow basically is:

  • download files from SD card with a card reader to a directory in digikams collection (using digikam’s import function);
  • rename files in digikam (to avoid duplicate names)
  • do a first cull of the images in digikam (mostly eliminating technically failed images: unsharp, target moved away, …);
  • add titles, keywords and captions in digikam;
  • import the files in darktable with “add to library” (no need to move files around or rename them);
  • edit and export in darktable.

I rarely have to go back to digikam once I start editing, the search and filter options in darktable work fine for me. I just prefer digikam’s interface for adding titles, captions and keywords (I started with digikam, so I’m used to its quirks, never bothered to learn darktable’s).

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good point, and very similar workflow as mine. I posted some tips in the past in this thread the maybe can be useful for OP: Utilizzare digikam contemporaneamente su Win 10 e Linux Mint 21