[cprobertson1]

What sort of organisation do people generally use for their folders and files in darktable?

My archives are starting to get bulky - just now I do a "dump" from the camera/SD card to a folder, and then I import all of that into Darktable - go through and tag all the non-keepers for deletion, and then tag the rest of them by genre.

I suspect I'm not using the full power that darktable has to offer - so I was wondering, from-camera-to-darktable, what sort of organisation and import process do folks like to use?

[GUB]

What sort of organisation do people generally use for their folders and files in darktable?

My archives are starting to get bulky - just now I do a "dump" from the camera/SD card to a folder, and then I import all of that into Darktable - go through and tag all the non-keepers for deletion, and then tag the rest of them by genre.

I suspect I'm not using the full power that darktable has to offer - so I was wondering, from-camera-to-darktable, what sort of organisation and import process do folks like to use?

In the past I have found that DT got a bit buggy when it had a lot of collections. So I don't use it to organise/tag.
Digikam is my go to.
(on linux)

[cprobertson1]

In the past I have found that DT got a bit buggy when it had a lot of collections. So I don't use it to organise/tag.
Digikam is my go to.
(on linux)

Interesting! My installation seems to be running fine despite having a lot of collections - which, to be fair, is part of the problem - as most of the collections are random file dumps.

That said, loading got a little slow with some of the larger collections (when the collection itself contained a lot of images) - but it was nothing I couldn't deal with.

So, in the background, do you keep all your photos in one folder with the tags stored in the metadata so that you can filter them that way, or do you manually sort them into folders?

[GUB]

Interesting! My installation seems to be running fine despite having a lot of collections - which, to be fair, is part of the problem - as most of the collections are random file dumps.

That said, loading got a little slow with some of the larger collections (when the collection itself contained a lot of images) - but it was nothing I couldn't deal with.

So, in the background, do you keep all your photos in one folder with the tags stored in the metadata so that you can filter them that way, or do you manually sort them into folders?

I use "Rapid Photo Downloader" which in it's default state (I think) creates daily folders. This makes for a bit of complexity but I group them monthly using the traditional folder hierarchy system (ie done by the operating system). Having all these daily folders means there is not too many thumbnails in DT at a time. These form my base archive and I guess it is defined as sorted chronologically. Because my editing finishes with Gimp which is a "destructive" editor all finalised work is "exported as" to an editing folder for that month. On the whole I only tag these edits and they lead me to the base archives. That means a lot less tagged images to sort through. Tagging is via Digikam.

[JensE]

What sort of organisation do people generally use for their folders and files in darktable?

My archives are starting to get bulky - just now I do a "dump" from the camera/SD card to a folder, and then I import all of that into Darktable - go through and tag all the non-keepers for deletion, and then tag the rest of them by genre.

I suspect I'm not using the full power that darktable has to offer - so I was wondering, from-camera-to-darktable, what sort of organisation and import process do folks like to use?

I have two folder hierarchies - which likely could be three, but the point is they are disjunct, i.e. a set of pictures clearly belongs to one or the other, not both. One is for family photos, one for everything else.
Both follow a shallow yyyy/yyyy-mm-dd_event--or-content/ structure, sometimes subdivided below into days, sometimes with a subfolder for panos or focus/exposure stacks.

BEFORE they go there, or even anywhere in darktable, I use FastRawViewer for culling, with a global 'rejected' folder, which I clean out from time to time. Once move into the structure above, I try to avoid moving files. The reason is that the hierarchy is accessed by multiple tools (and users) in addition to darktable, and e.g. good ol' Picasa would think that the moved file is a new one. Tagging id sparse, by content - e.g. a hierarchy of bee diseases for documentary shots taken for my wife.

Because the photo library used to be managed by Picasa, dates are still the last day of an event, because Picasa auto-created a folder with the current data on import. Consistency is important when you try to find something later.


FastRawViewer, which I now use under Wine in Linux, at basically full speed, is excellent for weeding out generally acceptable pictures, not so much for A/B style 'which one do I keep' decisions. I make those now in darktable, used to be geeqie.

[northcoastgreg]

I'm still primarily a Lightroom user, but when I'm on the road with my 12 year old Macbook, Lightroom is no longer an option and I have to make due with Darktable. Starting to get the hang of it, but will be returning to LR once I'm back to my iMac.

Here's a sunset on Lake Michigan processed with plenty of masking:

[siva.ss.kumar]

What sort of organisation do people generally use for their folders and files in darktable?

My archives are starting to get bulky - just now I do a "dump" from the camera/SD card to a folder, and then I import all of that into Darktable - go through and tag all the non-keepers for deletion, and then tag the rest of them by genre.

I suspect I'm not using the full power that darktable has to offer - so I was wondering, from-camera-to-darktable, what sort of organisation and import process do folks like to use?

I use exiftool command (Mac/Win/Linux) to do the import, organise by date taken, rename to contain the timestamp + camera model details.

[cprobertson1]

I use exiftool command (Mac/Win/Linux) to do the import, organise by date taken, rename to contain the timestamp + camera model details.

Nice - I could actually write a python script to do something similar and maybe drop them into folders or whatever. I have exiftool in my photography-tools-folder so I can try out your method as well to see if I like it =D

Thanks for that!

[JensE]

Check out https://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/pdf/FastRawViewer-Suggested-Raw-based-Workflow.pdf - even without using FastRawViewer, the suggested workflows show what could/should be done before cataloging images.

[siva.ss.kumar]

Nice - I could actually write a python script to do something similar and maybe drop them into folders or whatever. I have exiftool in my photography-tools-folder so I can try out your method as well to see if I like it =D

Thanks for that!

My exiftool command to import from SDCard to organized folder. You can tweak as required.
I also take care to put the lock tab on in the card before it goes into the computer

exiftool -P -v0 '-FileName<Pictures/${CreateDate#;DateFmt("%Y/%m")}/${DateTimeOriginal}_
${Exif:Model}%-c.%e' -o . -d "%Y-%m-%d/%Y-%m-%d_%H%M%S" /run/media/siva/K-5\ II\ s/DCIM/186_1811

Let me know your feedback if this command works.

[Clarkey]

Hi, Folks. I have been using DT quite a bit and am in the process of also trying out Turboprint, be keen to see if anyone else has used it with a Deb distro (MX Linux) and a Canon Pro 100.

I also stumbled across this repository of styles (dstyles) and have been playing with the E-m5II profiles there, for my GM5. Honestly, I have been very impressed, even though the colour matrix of the Panasonic is likely quite different at the RAW level.

Finally, I also recently purchased a half decent 4k monitor and with that am realising that some of the softness I was seeing at 100% was DEFINITELY monitor related. Very positively impressed. I was going to pick up a E-M5III, but may now pick up a EM5 II and use my 12-60 lumix.

[GUB]

OK I have a problem -- 20.04 and DT 3.0.1 (repository install) - all new build.
Click on icon - Darktable runs.
"Open with" a DNG with Gimp and DT runs as plugin.
"Open with" a DNG direct to DT and DT doesn't run and with the occasional error "the database lock file contains a pid that seems to be alive in your system"
I found the lock files and deleted them but they just renew.
Found this thread darktable error locking database - Ask Ubuntu
and created this screen shot
Obviously "color=auto" is the issue in some form.
Any ideas what I am looking for?
Also may be related - I have come from DT2.6 and am not impressed with the colors of the new DT.

[tduell]

OK I have a problem -- 20.04 and DT 3.0.1 (repository install) - all new build.
[snip]
Any ideas what I am looking for?
Also may be related - I have come from DT2.6 and am not impressed with the colors of the new DT.

Is the newly released v3.4 available for your system?
If not, and you have the where-with-all, you could try a build of the current master from the git repo, it works really well here.

Cheers,
Terry

[GUB]

Is the newly released v3.4 available for your system?
If not, and you have the where-with-all, you could try a build of the current master from the git repo, it works really well here.

Cheers,
Terry

Yes it would be available but I chose the Canonical repository one.
I tried top download the latest but tripped up on adding to the repository list - my skills with the terminal are limited and a simple cut paste of these commands wouldn't work for me.
Install package graphics:darktable / darktable
Do you think the issue is definitively within Darktable ?
It is strange that DT starts fine via Gimp and also by importing within DT. (starting via Icon).

[jbinpg]

Latest ubuntu binaries can be downloaded here:

Install package graphics:darktable / darktable

The binaries are listed as xubuntu but they work for all ubuntus. Give the latest a try to see if it works better.

Jack