I’m moving to Linux (Pop OS) from Windows (Photo Supreme for cataloguing , DXO and Affinity for processing) and am looking at Darktable and RawTherapee for my image processing. Darktable has cataloguing but RawTherapee looks like it might be better at processing my Sony raw files however there’s no catalogue. What do folks use for cataloguing that works well with RawTherapee?
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I’d recommend digiKam.
I don’t think it handles RawTherapee sidecar files by default, though, so make sure to add that in the settings.
With a bit of fiddling with the settings, it also works well with Darktable.
I don’t do any cataloguing apart from storing my files in a folder with a date and short description (like, “2020-08-19 Day at grandma”). Works for me.
I am not even sure what people would want for more advanced cataloguing.
I’ll take a look. I’m trying Shotwell right now and it looks nice although I really haven’t used it heavily. I had a problem installing the flatpak version. It installed but couldn’t see any external editors. I uninstalled and installed with apt get and it seems OK now.
Thanks for the DigiKam tip.
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I’m not into heavy cataloging but being able to review and rate images is important. Also when I have raw, tifs and a couple of jpg versions it can get confusing.
I treat the file system as my catalog. Folder names contain date, descriptive text, and the camera used, for example “2022-10-25_scarboro-crescent-park-foggy-morning_X-T20”. I don’t personally find a need for anything more sophisticated than that.
Flatpaks are sandboxed. You need to alter the sandbox or use flatpak-spawn to use external applications.
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I like to use IMatch for organizing and managing my photos. In a windows environment it beats file explorer hands down.
I suspect that I’m in the minority as many people do like DigiKam.
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I used to use IMatch but moved to Photo Supreme in Windows. There isn’t an IMatch for Linux is there? I know there’s IMatch on the web but I think you still need Windows to install it.
That looks interesting although it doesn’t move images. I want to move the images from my camera SSD card to another drive.
I’m really new to Linux so flatpak commands and sandboxes will take some investigating. I ended up installing Shotwell with apt get and it’s working well so far.
I use vvvP (https://vvvp.sourceforge.net/)
Open source, it run also in Linux and it uses a relational database to handle catalogs.
I use 3 FOSS for that matter.
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“Rapid Photo downloader” for importing the images from the card reader to the PC
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RawTherapee for processing the photos (and then backing up the whole folder to external drive)
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digiKam for archiving and tagging the photos just imported/processed and backed up.
I usually tag the RAW files with digiKam (do not write to original file but just associate the RAW file with tags on the SQLite db that comes with digiKam) and not the converted ones.
Another new one for me. Thanks. Has vvvp been around a long time? The appearance looks a little dated and they reference CDs and DVDs as storage which I haven’t used in many years. I’m not sure it can move files either but I’ll take a closer look.
This might be the way to go. A couple of specialised programs to get it done. Thanks a lot.
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Use Rapid Photo Downloader for that. Digikam does have an import feature, but it’s not as good as RPD.
When switching over to the Linux ecosystem, one of the first differences you may notice is that many ‘Linux first’ applications are designed around the ‘do one job and do it well’ philosophy; as such, you can easily install apps along side each other to fit your personal requirements.
I don’t use cataloguing myself; if I did, though, I’d go with digiKam (I also use Rapid Photo Downloader and Rawtherapee).
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Yes, I installed RPD and am using it.
I downloaded Digikam but couldn’t figure out the best place for the SQLite database so I removed it. It seemed a bit overkill for my needs but maybe I didn’t give it enough of a chance.