I'm a recent darktable convert

I'm growing more and more impressed with its capabilities the more I use it! Wrapping my head around its approach to masking, and its "scene referred pipeline" took some time, but now that I'm getting the hang of it, I think I can say I genuinely prefer it to Lightroom.

Combined with digiKam, which is excellent for photo collection management, I'm a very happy photographer :)

variants ,

I am trying to make the switch from lightroom to darktable but I cant figure out the import process, I go to add to library and I select the top most directory and clicked on recursive mode but the add to library button is greyed out, not sure what to do, are we supposed to only open one photo at a time?

edit: nvm after finding the right spot in the manual I guess Im supposed to import folder by folder and I have to wait for the photos to populate on the right pane so that I can then select them to be imported, I was trying to do all my 70k photos in one go haha, this is going to take a while x_x

ada OP ,
@ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

You don't need to import your library in to darktable. Darktable isn't great at photo management and workflow.

What I do is use digiKam to manage my old Lightroom collection. In lightroom, make sure you've set it up to store metadata in sidecar files. Write your sidecar files out (this can take a long time). Open digiKam, and you can import all of your lightroom photos and data.

Then photos that need editing get sent to darktable from digiKam

variants ,

Ohh gotcha, so it's more like digikam is lightroom and darktable is like if you were to open a photo from lightroom into photoshop

ada OP ,
@ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

Yep! Exactly (though I did most of my image editing in Lightroom)

Also, when you are playing around with darktable, it's worth spending the time learning how to use parametric and drawn masks. If you ever use masks in your editing, mastering those in darktable will be the missing piece that makes it all come together for you. It's very different to masking in Photoshop or Lightroom, but IMO, more flexible and more powerful. But you need to really play with it to understand how to use it best.

variants ,

Will do! Thank you

Undaunted ,

I also want to make the switch away from Lightroom and it looks like that you here might have the solution for my problem. The Lightroom feature, where I can import everything on my PC and then sync these "smart previews" to their cloud and then hand out a link or just a tablet to my wife, friends or anyone, makes everything so much easier. They can then decide which photos they want to keep or be deleted and also label those, which I should develop first. Is there a FOSS (or at least non-Adobe) solution that would give me similar possibilities? I'm not afraid of hosting something myself.

coffee_with_cream ,

Same here, that's my favorite feature. If you don't find anything, I might be able to help develop it

Undaunted ,

Thanks! I don't know how plugins for digiKam work but that would probably be a good point to start. Though I think I have not enough time at the moment look at this more thoroughly. Sometime maybe :)

ada OP ,
@ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

We rsync the jpgs (not the RAW files) to our self hosted photoprism instance. Not for the same reason you do, but it could easily be used the way you describe it!

Alternatively, if you don't shoot in jpeg+raw, or if you want to reduce the size of the jpegs before you sync them, digiKam has a batching tool that would let you automate exporting smaller versions of all of your files as part of the import process.

Undaunted ,

Ideally I would love to have the votes synced back to digiKam, especially if it's about sorting out hundreds of photos. But that sounds like a workable solution until I found or developed a plugin, that can do this. Thank you!

ada OP ,
@ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

We don't sync back so I haven't tested it, but as long as you have a gallery that writes back to a sidecar file, digikam can work with it.

Digikam has direct integration with Exiftool as well as batching, so anything you can get in to a sidecar file, you can get out with Digikam, and then stick in custom albums/categories etc.

Some quick searching turns up a tool called Piwigo (which I haven't tried) that has the ability to run contest modes via plugins. Assuming it can write the votes/results back to the sidecar file in some manner, you should be able to get to it in Digikam

Undaunted ,

Thank you that is really helpful! I'll look into it! It's probably a bit of work until it is a smooth workflow but I'm willing to try it. Maybe then I can finally ditch Lightroom :)

Raffster ,

Same here. I'd never want to go back, Darktable is so customizeable, I realy prefer it to Lightroom.

sic_semper_tyrannis ,

I've been using it for around a year and am really happy with the program.

IMALlama ,

The big workflow gap for me is culling. Thankfully I have a legacy license for Photo Mechanic, but their new pricing structure is very unappealing.

ada OP ,
@ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

I just got an OM1-MkII, which has a "pro shooting mode" that basically dumps the last 2 seconds to the card when you press the button. Useful for sports and animals. But it makes culling a whole job!

So far, I've been using digiKam for that, and it is working, but I definitely don't have that workflow optimised yet...

IMALlama ,

As an OM-1 MK1 dabbler, I find my hit rate much higher if not using one of the SH modes. Not sure if procap is available with 'regular' ES. But you're right, metric tons of photos to cull. I'll have to give digiKam a go. All I use PM for us culling. There's a ton more it can do, but I'm def not using it to it's fullest.

ada OP ,
@ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

"ES"?

IMALlama ,

Electronic shutter

blackstrat ,
@blackstrat@lemmy.fwgx.uk avatar

I recently picked up photography a bit more seriously again having used Nikon Capture NX 2 for years. I tried all the linux and FOSS options but I ended up buying DXO Photolab 7 and found it far superior for my needs. I've had to setup a dual boot system to get it to work but it's definitely worth it. Dark table is good, but it's a long way off the commercial offerings in terms of ease of use and image quality.

raunz ,
@raunz@mander.xyz avatar

I'm seriously doubting the image quality bit

jeeva ,

You're doubting that it's meeting or missing image quality?

blackstrat ,
@blackstrat@lemmy.fwgx.uk avatar

In terms of noise reduction which greatly affects image quality it is nowhere near the big commercial players.

sic_semper_tyrannis ,

Have you tried the "Denoise (profiled)" feature? It applies auto de-noising per your camera model and metadata quite nicely. You can then fine tune it after enabling the feature.

ClockworkOtter ,

I usually leave it at chroma only as well. Luminance noise is far less unpleasant on the eyes.

ada OP ,
@ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

I've found the profiled noise reduction in Darkroom to do what I need. I've not noticed any significant difference between it and the results I was getting from Lightroom.

blackstrat ,
@blackstrat@lemmy.fwgx.uk avatar

That may be so, but Lightroom is not the class leader in noise reduction. There are other programs out there that do a much better job

ada OP ,
@ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

Cool, but I don't need class leader... I need "works on my linux box without loss of functionality compared to my previous Windows workflow"

Raffster ,

That's just not true with the image quality.

baggins ,
@baggins@beehaw.org avatar

Got recommended it from the other site a few years ago when I couldn't justify the expense of Lightroom anymore. Agree when you say you prefer it to Lightroom. But I don't use it nearly as much as I ought to. It is very good though isn't it?

One of the programmes where I am happy to drop a few quid towards the developer, even if I don't have to.

ada OP ,
@ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

I moved from Windows to Linux, and I just couldn't get Lightroom working on Linux. If I could have, I'd probably still be paying Adobe money, but instead, I was forced out of my comfort zone, and I'm thankful for it!

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