[gentoo-user] Photo management programs

[gentoo-user] Photo management programs

[Michael Mol]

So I take a lot of pictures. A *lot* of pictures. Sometimes around
500/month, sometimes twice that if I manage to get out more. I've got
a large number of 'DCIM' directories from different cameras, different
camera models, etc, going back ten years. Sometimes in JPG, sometimes
RAW, sometimes both.

And I've never really managed them well.

Does anyone have any photo management tool they like? I've got bits of
Qt and Gtk installed already, and while I'd prefer to avoid pulling in
a full desktop environment, I might--if the tool is good enough. It
would have to:

* Handle RAW (via libraw or dcraw is fine), JPEG, PNG[1] and TIFF[1]
content and metadata
* Index by metadata, including things like the recording camera's
serial number[2]
* Not be destructive, or ambiguous about being destructive, on image
import. I tried using Amarok to organize my music, which is in similar
disarray, and I was never sure if it was being destructive about the
source files/folders. So I made copies. Which ultimately added to the
disarray.


[1] My postprocessing occasionally winds up in lossless formats like these.
[2] My fiancee and I have the same model camera, and occasionally need
to share memory cards, so I'd like to be able to use serial number to
distinguish whose is whose.

-- 
:wq

Re: [gentoo-user] Photo management programs

[Dale]

Michael Mol wrote:
> So I take a lot of pictures. A *lot* of pictures. Sometimes around
> 500/month, sometimes twice that if I manage to get out more. I've got
> a large number of 'DCIM' directories from different cameras, different
> camera models, etc, going back ten years. Sometimes in JPG, sometimes
> RAW, sometimes both.
> 
> And I've never really managed them well.
> 
> Does anyone have any photo management tool they like? I've got bits of
> Qt and Gtk installed already, and while I'd prefer to avoid pulling in
> a full desktop environment, I might--if the tool is good enough. It
> would have to:
> 
> * Handle RAW (via libraw or dcraw is fine), JPEG, PNG[1] and TIFF[1]
> content and metadata
> * Index by metadata, including things like the recording camera's
> serial number[2]
> * Not be destructive, or ambiguous about being destructive, on image
> import. I tried using Amarok to organize my music, which is in similar
> disarray, and I was never sure if it was being destructive about the
> source files/folders. So I made copies. Which ultimately added to the
> disarray.
> 
> 
> [1] My postprocessing occasionally winds up in lossless formats like these.
> [2] My fiancee and I have the same model camera, and occasionally need
> to share memory cards, so I'd like to be able to use serial number to
> distinguish whose is whose.
> 


As someone who also takes a LOT of pictures at times, I don't use
software, I just use directories.  Mine starts out like this:  Camera
directory > Year > subject matter > image  That works for me.  I used to
not have the year but that ends up with a LOT of pictures in a
directory.  Example of mine as it goes to a actual image:

Camera-pics/2012/New Years/2012-01-05-8.JPG

I have been using gtkam to download my pics for years.  Thing is, it has
a bug up its butt and wants to crash at random times, usually when
changing the directories.  Anyway, it always crashes before I am done
and lets just say it gets on my freaking nerves.  So, I tried digikam.
Well, my camera has multiple directories and for some reason it doesn't
show them all and then duplicates other images to boot.  I may have 2 or
3 copies of the same picture.  I have yet to figure out why that is and
google, now startpage, has not helped me either.  Maybe I am searching
for the wrong thing?

If you want software to help manage your images, I'd try digikam.  If it
works for you and your camera, it should do fine.  If you want to go my
route, try gtkam and hope like heck it doesn't crash for you too.  Right
now, both of those get on my nerves for different reasons.

Hope that helps and is clearer than mud.  Maybe someone will come along
with a better plan for us both too.  lol

Dale

:-)  :-)

-- 
I am only responsible for what I said ... Not for what you understood or
how you interpreted my words!

Miss the compile output?  Hint:
EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS="--quiet-build=n"

Re: [gentoo-user] Photo management programs

[Paul Hartman]

On Sun, Mar 4, 2012 at 2:08 PM, Michael Mol <mikemol@gmail.com> wrote:
> So I take a lot of pictures. A *lot* of pictures. Sometimes around
> 500/month, sometimes twice that if I manage to get out more. I've got
> a large number of 'DCIM' directories from different cameras, different
> camera models, etc, going back ten years. Sometimes in JPG, sometimes
> RAW, sometimes both.
>
> And I've never really managed them well.
>
> Does anyone have any photo management tool they like? I've got bits of
> Qt and Gtk installed already, and while I'd prefer to avoid pulling in
> a full desktop environment, I might--if the tool is good enough. It
> would have to:
>
> * Handle RAW (via libraw or dcraw is fine), JPEG, PNG[1] and TIFF[1]
> content and metadata
> * Index by metadata, including things like the recording camera's
> serial number[2]
> * Not be destructive, or ambiguous about being destructive, on image
> import. I tried using Amarok to organize my music, which is in similar
> disarray, and I was never sure if it was being destructive about the
> source files/folders. So I made copies. Which ultimately added to the
> disarray.

I think Digikam can do all of it and more. :) Not sure how much of KDE
it will require...

Check out the features list at:
http://www.digikam.org/drupal/features

Re: [gentoo-user] Photo management programs

[Dale]

Dale wrote:

> 
> As someone who also takes a LOT of pictures at times, I don't use
> software, I just use directories.  Mine starts out like this:  Camera
> directory > Year > subject matter > image  That works for me.  I used to
> not have the year but that ends up with a LOT of pictures in a
> directory.  Example of mine as it goes to a actual image:
> 
> Camera-pics/2012/New Years/2012-01-05-8.JPG
> 
> I have been using gtkam to download my pics for years.  Thing is, it has
> a bug up its butt and wants to crash at random times, usually when
> changing the directories.  Anyway, it always crashes before I am done
> and lets just say it gets on my freaking nerves.  So, I tried digikam.
> Well, my camera has multiple directories and for some reason it doesn't
> show them all and then duplicates other images to boot.  I may have 2 or
> 3 copies of the same picture.  I have yet to figure out why that is and
> google, now startpage, has not helped me either.  Maybe I am searching
> for the wrong thing?
> 
> If you want software to help manage your images, I'd try digikam.  If it
> works for you and your camera, it should do fine.  If you want to go my
> route, try gtkam and hope like heck it doesn't crash for you too.  Right
> now, both of those get on my nerves for different reasons.
> 
> Hope that helps and is clearer than mud.  Maybe someone will come along
> with a better plan for us both too.  lol
> 
> Dale
> 
> :-)  :-)
> 


I wanted to add some testing results.  I mentioned I used gtkam and it
was bad to crash.  Well, I experimented a bit and found out this.  If I
disable the gimp USE flag, gtkam doesn't seem to crash.  I tested for
longer than it usually lasts so it may crash again but it lasted through
a lot of clicking without crashing.  It is a good sign at least.  By the
way, gtkam crashed with a segmentation fault.  I have debug turned on
but it doesn't seem to help much.

I may report this to the gtkam folks if it is not to much trouble.  This
has been going on long enough.  BTW, I don't use gtkam within GIMP
anyway.  I only use GIMP after I have downloaded my pics.

At least if you go this way, you have a possible way to get it to not
crash.

Dale

:-)  :-)

-- 
I am only responsible for what I said ... Not for what you understood or
how you interpreted my words!

Miss the compile output?  Hint:
EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS="--quiet-build=n"

Re: [gentoo-user] Photo management programs

[Todd Goodman]

* Michael Mol <mikemol@gmail.com> [120304 15:12]:
> So I take a lot of pictures. A *lot* of pictures. Sometimes around
> 500/month, sometimes twice that if I manage to get out more. I've got
> a large number of 'DCIM' directories from different cameras, different
> camera models, etc, going back ten years. Sometimes in JPG, sometimes
> RAW, sometimes both.
> 
> And I've never really managed them well.
> 
> Does anyone have any photo management tool they like? I've got bits of
> Qt and Gtk installed already, and while I'd prefer to avoid pulling in
> a full desktop environment, I might--if the tool is good enough. It
> would have to:
> 
> * Handle RAW (via libraw or dcraw is fine), JPEG, PNG[1] and TIFF[1]
> content and metadata
> * Index by metadata, including things like the recording camera's
> serial number[2]
> * Not be destructive, or ambiguous about being destructive, on image
> import. I tried using Amarok to organize my music, which is in similar
> disarray, and I was never sure if it was being destructive about the
> source files/folders. So I made copies. Which ultimately added to the
> disarray.
> 
> 
> [1] My postprocessing occasionally winds up in lossless formats like these.
> [2] My fiancee and I have the same model camera, and occasionally need
> to share memory cards, so I'd like to be able to use serial number to
> distinguish whose is whose.
> 
> -- 
> :wq

I like Digikam a lot.

There's some rough edges, but part of that is because a lot of
development is being done all the time on it with lots of new features
added.  Obviously sticking to a non-bleeding edge build would reduce
that a lot.

The developers are all quite responsive and the Gentoo packager
(Andreas) is very active too.

I run it from the command line without KDE running though it's a KDE app
(so you'll have to pull in bits of KDE.)

Try it though.  It may not be the kind of managing you're looking for
(though I think it can do everything you've mentioned above with a
recent enough version.)

Todd

Re: [gentoo-user] Photo management programs

[Michael Mol]

On Sun, Mar 4, 2012 at 3:41 PM, Dale <rdalek1967@gmail.com> wrote:
> Michael Mol wrote:
>> So I take a lot of pictures. A *lot* of pictures. Sometimes around
>> 500/month, sometimes twice that if I manage to get out more. I've got
>> a large number of 'DCIM' directories from different cameras, different
>> camera models, etc, going back ten years. Sometimes in JPG, sometimes
>> RAW, sometimes both.
>>
>> And I've never really managed them well.
>>
>> Does anyone have any photo management tool they like? I've got bits of
>> Qt and Gtk installed already, and while I'd prefer to avoid pulling in
>> a full desktop environment, I might--if the tool is good enough. It
>> would have to:
>>
>> * Handle RAW (via libraw or dcraw is fine), JPEG, PNG[1] and TIFF[1]
>> content and metadata
>> * Index by metadata, including things like the recording camera's
>> serial number[2]
>> * Not be destructive, or ambiguous about being destructive, on image
>> import. I tried using Amarok to organize my music, which is in similar
>> disarray, and I was never sure if it was being destructive about the
>> source files/folders. So I made copies. Which ultimately added to the
>> disarray.
>>
>>
>> [1] My postprocessing occasionally winds up in lossless formats like these.
>> [2] My fiancee and I have the same model camera, and occasionally need
>> to share memory cards, so I'd like to be able to use serial number to
>> distinguish whose is whose.
>>
>
>
> As someone who also takes a LOT of pictures at times, I don't use
> software, I just use directories.  Mine starts out like this:  Camera
> directory > Year > subject matter > image  That works for me.  I used to
> not have the year but that ends up with a LOT of pictures in a
> directory.  Example of mine as it goes to a actual image:
>
> Camera-pics/2012/New Years/2012-01-05-8.JPG
>
> I have been using gtkam to download my pics for years.  Thing is, it has
> a bug up its butt and wants to crash at random times, usually when
> changing the directories.  Anyway, it always crashes before I am done
> and lets just say it gets on my freaking nerves.  So, I tried digikam.
> Well, my camera has multiple directories and for some reason it doesn't
> show them all and then duplicates other images to boot.  I may have 2 or
> 3 copies of the same picture.  I have yet to figure out why that is and
> google, now startpage, has not helped me either.  Maybe I am searching
> for the wrong thing?
>
> If you want software to help manage your images, I'd try digikam.  If it
> works for you and your camera, it should do fine.  If you want to go my
> route, try gtkam and hope like heck it doesn't crash for you too.  Right
> now, both of those get on my nerves for different reasons.
>
> Hope that helps and is clearer than mud.  Maybe someone will come along
> with a better plan for us both too.  lol

Based on this and other posts in the thread, I'll probably give
digikam a try. I did want to clarify one point, though: I don't
connect the camera to the computer; I put the SD card into a card
reader, and copy from there.

-- 
:wq

Re: [gentoo-user] Photo management programs

[Dale]

Michael Mol wrote:

> Based on this and other posts in the thread, I'll probably give
> digikam a try. I did want to clarify one point, though: I don't
> connect the camera to the computer; I put the SD card into a card
> reader, and copy from there.
> 


It is a nice program and I'm pretty sure it allows you to download from
your card too.  I'm not sure gtkam will allow downloads from the card so
you are likely headed down the right road.

Honestly, if digikam worked right with my camera, I'd use it in a heart
beat.  I like it but I can't get my pics to show up right.  I can't
figure out why tho.  Maybe I should try getting from the stick like you
do?  Thing is, I leave my camera on the tri-pod about 90% of the time.
The card is on the bottom of mine beside the battery.

Dale

:-)  :-)

-- 
I am only responsible for what I said ... Not for what you understood or
how you interpreted my words!

Miss the compile output?  Hint:
EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS="--quiet-build=n"

Re: [gentoo-user] Photo management programs

[Michael Mol]

On Mon, Mar 5, 2012 at 12:04 PM, Dale <rdalek1967@gmail.com> wrote:
> Michael Mol wrote:
>
>> Based on this and other posts in the thread, I'll probably give
>> digikam a try. I did want to clarify one point, though: I don't
>> connect the camera to the computer; I put the SD card into a card
>> reader, and copy from there.
>>
>
>
> It is a nice program and I'm pretty sure it allows you to download from
> your card too.  I'm not sure gtkam will allow downloads from the card so
> you are likely headed down the right road.

Well, I use scp to move the files from machines with with card readers
to the machines I do processing. If digikam has any kind of 'import'
support, that'd do it.

>
> Honestly, if digikam worked right with my camera, I'd use it in a heart
> beat.  I like it but I can't get my pics to show up right.  I can't
> figure out why tho.  Maybe I should try getting from the stick like you
> do?  Thing is, I leave my camera on the tri-pod about 90% of the time.
> The card is on the bottom of mine beside the battery.

Check out the Eye-Fi?

http://www.eye.fi/

When I first heard about it, someone had just gotten a receiving
daemon written in Python to work with it.

-- 
:wq

Re: [gentoo-user] Photo management programs

[Todd Goodman]

* Dale <rdalek1967@gmail.com> [120305 12:09]:
[..]
> Honestly, if digikam worked right with my camera, I'd use it in a heart
> beat.  I like it but I can't get my pics to show up right.  I can't
> figure out why tho.  Maybe I should try getting from the stick like you
> do?  Thing is, I leave my camera on the tri-pod about 90% of the time.
> The card is on the bottom of mine beside the battery.
> 
> Dale

Have you tried a more recent Digikam Dale?

They use libgphoto2 (I believe) and also recently pulled in more support
internally (again, I believe) so they continue to improve camera
support.

I don't know offhand what's what in the latest Gentoo stable and testing
ebuilds though as I build from the upstream git in most cases.

Todd

Re: [gentoo-user] Photo management programs

[Dale]

Todd Goodman wrote:
> * Dale <rdalek1967@gmail.com> [120305 12:09]:
> [..]
>> Honestly, if digikam worked right with my camera, I'd use it in a heart
>> beat.  I like it but I can't get my pics to show up right.  I can't
>> figure out why tho.  Maybe I should try getting from the stick like you
>> do?  Thing is, I leave my camera on the tri-pod about 90% of the time.
>> The card is on the bottom of mine beside the battery.
>>
>> Dale
> 
> Have you tried a more recent Digikam Dale?
> 
> They use libgphoto2 (I believe) and also recently pulled in more support
> internally (again, I believe) so they continue to improve camera
> support.
> 
> I don't know offhand what's what in the latest Gentoo stable and testing
> ebuilds though as I build from the upstream git in most cases.
> 
> Todd
> 
> 


Yep, I unmasked and unkeyworded the ones that were available at the
time.  Is "unkeyworded" a word in Gentoo?  Hmmmm.  I did file a roach
report with gtkam on the crash and that the gimp plugin seems to trigger
it.  Maybe they will have a fix.  Since I don't use gtkam from within
Gimp, I don't really care myself but I would like to help fix it for
someone else who does use it that way.  There is some more updates I
could do tho.  Here is the current versions:

root@fireball / # equery list gtkam libgphoto2 libexif-gtk gtk+
 * Searching for gtkam ...
[IP-] [  ] media-gfx/gtkam-0.1.18:0

 * Searching for libgphoto2 ...
[IP-] [  ] media-libs/libgphoto2-2.4.11-r1:0

 * Searching for libexif-gtk ...
[IP-] [  ] media-libs/libexif-gtk-0.3.5-r2:0

 * Searching for gtk+ ...
[IP-] [  ] x11-libs/gtk+-2.24.8-r1:2
[IP-] [  ] x11-libs/gtk+-3.0.12-r1:3
root@fireball / #

When I add the -p option I see newer ones that have been added since I
played with this.  May have a new project.  Maybe update that stuff then
try the gimp flag again.

The problem with Digikam is weird and sort of hard to explain.  My
camera has directories sorted by the date.  Sometimes I have 15 or 20
directories.  Digikam seems to show a couple directories in one view
window but ignores the rest.  Then on top of that, some images with the
same file name are duplicated, some even more than twice.  Is that
called triplicated?  lol

I think it is a setting or something that I am missing.  It could be a
bug but I think it is just a bad setting or some setting I need to
change but can't find.  It wouldn't be the first time I didn't have a
light bulb moment.  o_O

Now that I have gtkam working, at least I can get my pics off and it not
crash part way through.  So, I'm not to worried about digikam but may
play with it some more, especially if it updates again.  Maybe I should
check the USE flags again too.  Maybe that would help some.

Dale

:-)  :-)

-- 
I am only responsible for what I said ... Not for what you understood or
how you interpreted my words!

Miss the compile output?  Hint:
EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS="--quiet-build=n"

Re: [gentoo-user] Photo management programs

[Dale]

Michael Mol wrote:

> Check out the Eye-Fi?
> 
> http://www.eye.fi/
> 
> When I first heard about it, someone had just gotten a receiving
> daemon written in Python to work with it.
> 


Well, I don't have any wi-fi around here.  I live in the sticks but I
still don't want that, not yet at least.  It does look neat tho.  I also
am going to have to get a new card.  My old one is getting slow.  I
think it is old age, like me.  lol

Dale

:-)  :-)

-- 
I am only responsible for what I said ... Not for what you understood or
how you interpreted my words!

Miss the compile output?  Hint:
EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS="--quiet-build=n"

Re: [gentoo-user] Photo management programs

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Mon, 5 Mar 2012 12:10:40 -0500, Michael Mol wrote:

> Well, I use scp to move the files from machines with with card readers
> to the machines I do processing. If digikam has any kind of 'import'
> support, that'd do it.

Just drop the files into Digikam's working directory and run "Scan for
new images" - you can have it scan automatically at startup, at the
expense of startup time.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

Politics: Poli (many) - tics (blood sucking parasites)

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Re: [gentoo-user] Photo management programs

[Frank Steinmetzger]

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On Mon, Mar 05, 2012 at 11:04:47AM -0600, Dale wrote:
> Michael Mol wrote:
> 
> > Based on this and other posts in the thread, I'll probably give
> > digikam a try. I did want to clarify one point, though: I don't
> > connect the camera to the computer; I put the SD card into a card
> > reader, and copy from there.
> > 
> 
> 
> It is a nice program and I'm pretty sure it allows you to download from
> your card too.  I'm not sure gtkam will allow downloads from the card so
> you are likely headed down the right road.
> Honestly, if digikam worked right with my camera, I'd use it in a heart
> beat.  I like it but I can't get my pics to show up right.
----------------------------------------------^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Since your spelling is not always 100% precise ;-) do you really mean "show up
right", or do you mean "show upright"? The latter is a question of support by
your camera.

But why bother with it a special download function in the first place? Most
cameras support standard USB mass storage protocol, so if you set your camera
to it and plug it in via USB, it shows up as a normal mass storage device.
Digikam then recognises the folder structure on it and allows you to download
the images.

I'm still more old school -- I copy the images over from the card using
$filemanager and then import them selectively into my digikam collection,
which allows me to keep it clean more easily.

Digikam is a really great management application. I've been using it since KDE
3 times. Its strong points are tagging and organising, and subsequent
rediscovery by tags and descriptions you assign to a photo. And though I
myself haven't used it much yet apart from a few select features, it has a
nice editing program, too.
-- 
Gruß | Greetings | Qapla'
I forbid any use of my email addresses with Facebook services.

The situation has never been so serious... as always.

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Re: [gentoo-user] Photo management programs

[Dale]

Frank Steinmetzger wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 05, 2012 at 11:04:47AM -0600, Dale wrote:

>> It is a nice program and I'm pretty sure it allows you to download from
>> your card too.  I'm not sure gtkam will allow downloads from the card so
>> you are likely headed down the right road.
>> Honestly, if digikam worked right with my camera, I'd use it in a heart
>> beat.  I like it but I can't get my pics to show up right.
> ----------------------------------------------^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> Since your spelling is not always 100% precise ;-) do you really mean "show up
> right", or do you mean "show upright"? The latter is a question of support by
> your camera.


Meant as written, this time.  lol  I think I explained this a bit more
in another post.  My camera has a separate directory for each day.
Digikam doesn't seem to show them correctly.  Some images don't show up
at all and others show up twice or even more than twice.  I think it
looks for just one directory but I'm not sure.


> 
> But why bother with it a special download function in the first place? Most
> cameras support standard USB mass storage protocol, so if you set your camera
> to it and plug it in via USB, it shows up as a normal mass storage device.
> Digikam then recognises the folder structure on it and allows you to download
> the images.
> 
> I'm still more old school -- I copy the images over from the card using
> $filemanager and then import them selectively into my digikam collection,
> which allows me to keep it clean more easily.
> 
> Digikam is a really great management application. I've been using it since KDE
> 3 times. Its strong points are tagging and organising, and subsequent
> rediscovery by tags and descriptions you assign to a photo. And though I
> myself haven't used it much yet apart from a few select features, it has a
> nice editing program, too.


As I said, digikam is a nice program.  I'm not saying it isn't for sure.
 It is a bit much for me tho since I already have a way of managing my
pics.  I could use digikam but I already have a system that does what it
does without all the fancy stuff.

As to why I use gtkam.  I use it because it renames the pics as it
copies and puts them in sequence. Not only do I sort them by directories
but I also give them names that helps sort them too.  If I just copy
files the camera has, I end up with a lot of files out of order and
possible duplicates and such.

Of course, now I have gtkam working without crashing, so far anyway.

Dale

:-)  :-)

-- 
I am only responsible for what I said ... Not for what you understood or
how you interpreted my words!

Miss the compile output?  Hint:
EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS="--quiet-build=n"