Experience sharing - Setting up a photo management system with Linux Mint

[CAcreeks]

The professional denoising tool, Neat Image should be good as a standalone tool under Linux. It should be possible to apply it with TIFFs exported from darktable.

See here.

It works well, based on web comparisons. I have not purchased it.

The denoise features of Darktable are effective, though (for me) somewhat hit or miss, and very compute intensive. Also GIMP has an good - and extremely fast - denoise filter.

I bought DxO PhotoLab 4 in the recent black Friday sale, and run it on MacOS, which I don't like as well as Linux, but at least it's not Windows. Deep PRIME is the best.

 

[I2K4]

The Ubuntu Handbook blogger Ji m produced a PPA for Darktable last year (Method 2), taking over from another fellow who left - it's been reliable and timely so far (for the even-numbered regular releases), in the Mint Update Manager within a day or two.

 

[aerondight]

(2) darktable

darktable is my raw editor of choice. See here + the link therein for a description how I work with darktable. Basically, I work with the great LUTs from Stuart Sowerby to emulate the famous Fuji film simulations.

In the repository there was only v3.0.2. Of course you can work with this version but the current v3.2.1 comes with quite some improvements, so I wanted to have this one.

The latest version is available from the snapstore. I installed it but I didn't like those "loops" created by snapd. Maybe others can report. I decided to deleted it.

I eventually downloaded the .deb file from Opensuse and installed it.

$ sudo dpkg -i darktable_3.2.1-1.1_amd64.deb

I got an error message. So I did

$ sudo apt-get install -f

$ sudo dpkg -i darktable_3.2.1-1.1_amd64.deb

Many thanks to my friend who helped me to accomplish this.

Not sure how tied Mint is to Ubuntu, but you could have added the OpenSuse repos - https://www.darktable.org/install/#3rdparty

(3) Lensfun database

darktable relies on the Lensfun database for lens correction profiles.

Lensfun is a great project. The Lensfun database contains a lot of lens correction profiles. Unfortunately, the project lacks active skilled members since about the beginning of 2019; lots of lens calibration images handed in by volunteers are waiting for being analyzed and processed to create lens profiles! But this is another story.

As a matter of fact, the Lensfun database that came with my version of darktable (maybe still from the repository's version) was completely outdated.

What you need to do to upgrade is described here. Let me describe in my own words how I did it:

• Download http://wilson.bronger.org/db/version_0.tar.bz2
• Unzip. You will get a folder "version_0". It contains a number of xml files - the profiles.
• Find Lensfun. In my case, it is in /usr/share/lensfun. Here you will find a folder called "version_1".
• Copy "version_0" to the same level, i.e., next to "version_1".
• Delete "version_1"
• Rename "version_0" as "version_1"
• Done

This should have been much easier:

Ubuntu Manpage: lensfun-update-data - update Lensfun's database

manpages.ubuntu.com

sudo apt install liblensfun-bin

sudo lensfun-update-data

 

[Rightsaidfred]

Having discussed about 500px and 100ASA, I am not fully convinced whether Instagram, a mobile device centered platform is a good platform for photographers. But anyway. So, the problem is that Instagram does not allow photo upload from a desktop or laptop, they want their customers to use a mobile device. This is pretty inconvenient in my case since I have all my photos on my Linux desktop and am not willing to transfer them to my cell phone first just to enable upload to Instagram.

There seems a Linux solution, Ramme. However, I am not sure whether it works with my Mint system. So I was looking for a different solution. What I am sharing here is very simple and even independent from Linux, yet may be useful for some visitors of the forum.

My standard browser is Firefox. Every time I want to use Instagram on my desktop, I do this:

Step 1: Logon to Instagram (Firefox)

Step 2: Right click on Instagram window, click "Inspect Element", a new section opens in the bottom part of the screen

Step 3: Left click on "Responsive Design Mode" in the right part of the new section


Click on the left symbol (mobile device symbol) to enter the Responsive Design Mode

Step 4: Top left, above the Instagram page, select a suitable mobile device


Select a suitable mobile device

Step 5: Reload the page


Reload

You're done. You can now upload photos with the "+" symbol.


You can now upload photos

To quit this mode, just leave the Responsive Design Mode by clicking on the same symbol again and reload the page.

It's similar with Google Chrome and Safari.

My sources

• How to post on Instagram from PC
• Use This Trick to Post to Instagram With Chrome

Kind regards,

Martin

--
https://500px.com/bachrocks
https://100asa.com/photographer/martin

 

[Carey Brown]

Windows users are used to assign file and folder names with blanks and also some special characters. The Linux world doesn't like this.

BR,

Martin

In Linux, can't you enclose names that have spaces in double quotes? I do that all the time in windows, much easier than typing hundreds of underscores, which is what I used to do.

 

[Rightsaidfred]

Windows users are used to assign file and folder names with blanks and also some special characters. The Linux world doesn't like this.

BR,

Martin

In Linux, can't you enclose names that have spaces in double quotes? I do that all the time in windows, much easier than typing hundreds of underscores, which is what I used to do.

 

[sluggy_warrior]

Windows users are used to assign file and folder names with blanks and also some special characters. The Linux world doesn't like this.

BR,

Martin

In Linux, can't you enclose names that have spaces in double quotes? I do that all the time in windows, much easier than typing hundreds of underscores, which is what I used to do.

I have no idea what being mentioned. In Ubuntu, I have spaces and all kinds of weird characters in folder and file name. GNU/Linux actually are case-sensitive, too, "deadline 1.txt" is different from "Deadline 1.txt". I can even have quotes in folder/file names.

Perhaps Rightsaidfred was mentioning about having to escape spaces in terminal (with backslash)? Spaces are used to separate parameters/tokens, but often time I can just Tab for autocomplete.

 

[CAcreeks]

Windows users are used to assign file and folder names with blanks and also some special characters. The Linux world doesn't like this.

In Linux, can't you enclose names that have spaces in double quotes? I do that all the time in windows, much easier than typing hundreds of underscores, which is what I used to do.

Alternatively, you can press Tab in the Terminal shell (bash) to complete filenames with spaces escaped by backslash.

I prefer CamelCaseForFilenames.

 

[Rightsaidfred]

Windows users are used to assign file and folder names with blanks and also some special characters. The Linux world doesn't like this.

BR,

Martin

In Linux, can't you enclose names that have spaces in double quotes? I do that all the time in windows, much easier than typing hundreds of underscores, which is what I used to do.

I have no idea what being mentioned. In Ubuntu, I have spaces and all kinds of weird characters in folder and file name. GNU/Linux actually are case-sensitive, too, "deadline 1.txt" is different from "Deadline 1.txt".

Yes.

And *.jpg is different from *.JPG

I can even have quotes in folder/file names.

Didn't know that.

Perhaps Rightsaidfred was mentioning about having to escape spaces in terminal (with backslash)? Spaces are used to separate parameters/tokens, but often time I can just Tab for autocomplete.

No. I never had trouble. I just had read it somewhere that one should avoid blanks and special characters in file and folder names under Linux. Maybe it was an outdated information. I don't remember.

Anyway, I wanted to build up a "clean" system from the beginning because I rely on rsync in all my backups. It didn't cost me much, just a little time to clear up all my names and titles. In the worst case it was unnecessary

Martin

--
https://500px.com/bachrocks
https://100asa.com/photographer/martin

 

[Billiam29]

No. I never had trouble. I just had read it somewhere that one should avoid blanks and special characters in file and folder names under Linux. Maybe it was an outdated information. I don't remember.

I think the ampersand character (&) is still generally considered something to be avoided since it’s used as an operator on the command line. At least it is in the bash shell which is pretty much default in every common distro as far as I’m aware. I’m not sure about any other shells.

GUI file managers in desktop environments might handle the character OK. I really don’t know. All it takes is something as simple as a single use of exiftool though and your life can all of the sudden become unexpectedly difficult when you have ampersands in your file or directory names.

 

[Rightsaidfred]

No. I never had trouble. I just had read it somewhere that one should avoid blanks and special characters in file and folder names under Linux. Maybe it was an outdated information. I don't remember.

I think the ampersand character (&) is still generally considered something to be avoided since it’s used as an operator on the command line. At least it is in the bash shell which is pretty much default in every common distro as far as I’m aware. I’m not sure about any other shells.

GUI file managers in desktop environments might handle the character OK. I really don’t know. All it takes is something as simple as a single use of exiftool though and your life can all of the sudden become unexpectedly difficult when you have ampersands in your file or directory names.

Many thanks for this information Billiam.

Martin

 

[Arek Halusko]

I just use folder name with date and short name for the locations/event I shot at. I usually delete anything that I don't want so after 17 years only have about a tb of images and can probably still delete 50% of them lol

I see people boast about having 10's of thousand of images and wonder why they need to many?

 

[sluggy_warrior]

I just use folder name with date and short name for the locations/event I shot at. I usually delete anything that I don't want so after 17 years only have about a tb of images and can probably still delete 50% of them lol

I see people boast about having 10's of thousand of images and wonder why they need to many?

When you have a kid, the amount of photos and videos can easily get out of control with school events, piano lessons and recitals, karate exams and tournaments, ice-skating competitions, parties, parks, trips, ... My storage size is growing exponentially due to the upgrade to higher MP cameras and 1080/60 videos.

Take a 1-hour piano recital for example: 6GB of 1080p videos from a D5100, 12GB of 1080p non-stop video from a phone (as a different angle and as filler), 5GB of WAV from 4 mics, and about 4GB of RAW from an X-T20.

I only shot JPG early on with my D40 and now I'm regretting it, as there were many precious shots of my daughter back then that I can definitely use the RAW now.

 

[Rightsaidfred]

So, I had a relatively old monitor with a bad resolution, and upgraded now. Based upon a friend's recommendation, I went for an Eizo FlexScan EV2760-BK, a 27" monitor with a resolution of 2560 px x 1440 px. I use the new monitor for my remote work during daytime on a Windows laptop.

Well, my Linux desktop had only DVI and VGA sockets but the Eizo has neither of them. So I first went for a 9 € DVI-HDMI cable but to my surprise, this didn't work. The new monitor remained black. So, with another friend's help, I came to the conclusion that the graphic card must be too old! I then searched in Linux forums and found that an AMD Radeon RX 550 is a highly recommended graphic card that should work plug & play under Linux.

I obtained a not too much used Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 550 2G for 100 € (currently, a new one is at least 157 €). It does not even require an own power supply. What should I say? - it worked plug & play! Success!

Now I connect my Eizo to Windows during daytime through HDMI, and to Linux in the evenings through display port I can leave my cables all the time.

I am sharing my Linux experiences here in the forum because not every hobbyist photographer using a Linux based system is at the same time a Linux freak. I am not. I can do what I need to do, and that's it. My hobby is photography, not an operational system.

I spend my money rather on excellent lenses than on hardware and software as long as the latter are good enough. I am still very happy with my Linux based system with darktable as the raw editor of choice. My camera system is Fujifilm-X.

The Eizo is clearly a big step forward in my hardware system. I read a debate here in the forum about the Eizo. I am not a photo professional, and I am very happy with it. Great resolution, great ergonomics, great colors.

Kind regards,

Martin

 

[Rightsaidfred]

So my Linux system was Mint 20.04 when it was first installed. Since long, I upgraded to Mint 20.1 and always do all the required system updates. But when I try to install a darktable version for xUbuntu 20.1 (in this case, https://download.opensuse.org/repos...ntu_20.10/amd64/darktable_3.6.0-1.1_amd64.deb), it fails because of dependency problems (certain libraries).

I already had this problem when I upgraded to darktable 3.4.0, and now I had it again when upgrading to 3.6.0, that's why I'm reporting it here. My hypothesis is that if I'd install Mint 20.1 from scratch, I'd not have these dependency problems - but I don't know.

So instead of wasting hours in trying to upgrade all these libraries, I did it quick and dirty and chose the version for xUbuntu 20.04 (https://download.opensuse.org/repos...ntu_20.04/amd64/darktable_3.6.0-1.1_amd64.deb), and it works. Like last time when I installed 3.4.0.

Note. If an attempt with the version for xUbuntu 20.1 was unsuccessful, it is important to delete the file that was downloaded with "wget" before downloading a file for another xUbuntu version. This is because the files share the same name, in this case, "darktable_3.6.0-1.1_amd64.deb".

The procedure is simple, as I already described:

Logon as su

$ wget https://download.opensuse.org/repos...ntu_20.04/amd64/darktable_3.6.0-1.1_amd64.deb

$ sudo dpkg -i darktable_3.4.0-1.1_amd64.deb

Comments welcome.

Kind regards,

Martin

--

500px

500px.com

https://100asa.com/photographer/martin

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[CAcreeks]

So my Linux system was Mint 20.04 when it was first installed. Since long, I upgraded to Mint 20.1 and always do all the required system updates. But when I try to install a darktable version for xUbuntu 20.1 (in this case, https://download.opensuse.org/repos...ntu_20.10/amd64/darktable_3.6.0-1.1_amd64.deb), it fails because of dependency problems (certain libraries).

Is this the same problem reported on pixls.us?

darktable 3.6: Summer Release 2021

I also love the new euclidian norm ratio in filmic. The difference can be subtle, but its now the ratio who’s results I prefer most often.

discuss.pixls.us

 

[I2K4]

As I wrote seven months ago about DT 3.4, and now for 3.6, the same unofficial Ubuntu Handbook PPA has worked reliably in the Mint Update Manager (for the even-number final releases) since the blogge Ji M took it over at the end of 2019. DT 3.6 appeared for update a few days after the official release, installed seamlessly on Mint 20.x (Ubuntu 20.04) and works fine. (The PPA does not require Flatpak or other nonsense. Set it and forget it.)

 

[Rightsaidfred]

So my Linux system was Mint 20.04 when it was first installed. Since long, I upgraded to Mint 20.1 and always do all the required system updates. But when I try to install a darktable version for xUbuntu 20.1 (in this case, https://download.opensuse.org/repos...ntu_20.10/amd64/darktable_3.6.0-1.1_amd64.deb), it fails because of dependency problems (certain libraries).

Is this the same problem reported on pixls.us?

https://discuss.pixls.us/t/darktable-3-6-summer-release-2021/25701/29

Yep. libexiv2 was one of them but there were more dependencies.

Regards,

Martin

 

[Rightsaidfred]

Dear all

Never had a photo downloading problem with my X-T20. Always connected my camera through USB and everything worked just fine.

Since a few days, I am a proud owner of a new X-T4 Unfortunately, the Rapid Photo Downloader does not seem to get along with (Fujifilm) cameras having two card slots. When I connect my X-T4, the Rapid Photo Downloader does not find any photo or video files, just "Other". Seems also to be the case with the X-T2: No photo, no video but others.

But I like the Rapid Photo Downloader for its file renaming capabilities! So I bought a card reader and take only one sd card at a time out of my X-T4. Looks good.

Other experiences?

Regards,

Martin

 

[Rightsaidfred]

Just wanted to upgrade to darktable 4.0.

Install package graphics:darktable / darktable

software.opensuse.org

However, it wants a newer version of libexiv (0.27.5) which my system (Mint 20.3 Una) does not provide

Upgrading Exiv2 seems not that easy.

Any idea apart from waiting?

Best,

Martin