Linux photo management software?

[Mr Bolton]

Hi there

This seems to be the closest forum to fit my question, since it isn't specifically about a certain brand of camera or computer..

I was previously running Linux on a 2014 era ASUS i7 laptop, but have just upgraded to a new System 76 laptop, with 3x the CPU cores and graphics RAM and much, much faster storage. I was using Shotwell because it's pretty good for minimal effort photo storage and quick edit/uploads, however it's catalog based archive is groaning under the weight of over 75,000 photos/videos. Although its interface is comforting to someone nostalgic for Picassa, I feel like I need to modernize my digital photo library. Shotwell is unusable for the first 15 minutes after launch, albeit on the old computer with spinning SATA hard disk storage, while it finds all its photos. And if the external storage happens to not be mounted, then all the pictures literally disappear in front of your eyes. Not really lost, but it's downright disturbing to watch.

So I've got this brand new System 76 Linux laptop (it doesn't even have a Windows graphic on the super key!) and I would like to prime it with some more modern way to mind my digital photo library. Are there any Linux users here and if so, what do you use?

Thank you in advance for your suggestions.

 

[supersargas]

Darktable is a raw developer that kind-of looks like Lightroom. Rawtherapee would be the "full suite", complicated but it doesn't leave anything out.
RawTherapee and DarkTable are different programs, is what I should have written. They seem to have different objectives in mind. I think you should try both, and see which one makes more sense.

There's also Photivo and digiKam, but I have not used those. Alternatively, you could probably get Lightroom/C1 working under Wine, but that's pushing it.

As for post-processing, GIMP is pretty much the de-facto choice, but there's also a dozen of alternatives, at the least.

It's not user friendly at all, but it is full featured and has a lot of plugins available. It is also quite old, so you might have to grab a few dependencies manually for some things to work, I had to install Python2 to make things work OK.
BTW I use Arch.

 

[tkbslc]

Try Digikam

https://www.digikam.org/

 

[CAcreeks]

So I've got this brand new System 76 Linux laptop (it doesn't even have a Windows graphic on the super key!) and

Cool! My favorite keyboard is so old it doesn't have a Windows key, just an empty space.

I would like to prime it with some more modern way to mind my digital photo library. Are there any Linux users here and if so, what do you use?

To view and cull photos I use Geeqie (awful name) but it works well and reminds me of Irfanview. JPEGs are edited with GIMP. Raw conversions are done with Darktable. I use normal file manager (Nemo) and shell (Terminal) to organize photos by camera and subject matter. All these are based on Gtk+ libraries.

Shotwell is not color managed, nor is Pix.

I continue thinking about switching from Linux Mint Cinnamon to KDE, probably Kubuntu. The video editor KDEnlive is great! DigiKam is more of a digital asset manager (DAM) than Darktable, supposedly.

 

[sluggy_warrior]

To view and cull photos I use Geeqie (awful name) but it works well and reminds me of Irfanview.

same here, use to have IrfanView on Windows, and mostly Geeqie on Ubuntu

JPEGs are edited with GIMP.

I've started using darktable for JPG as well, since I'm now too familiar with it comparing to GIMP :-(

Raw conversions are done with Darktable.

darktable is a better choice than RawTherapee if you have a decent graphic card. darktable utilizes the GPU/OpenCL very well, even more than Adobe Lightroom.

Shotwell is not color managed, nor is Pix.

I continue thinking about switching from Linux Mint Cinnamon to KDE, probably Kubuntu. The video editor KDEnlive is great! DigiKam is more of a digital asset manager (DAM) than Darktable, supposedly.

I tried Shotwell briefly and it doesn't fit my workflow. I organize my photo collection in folders with a naming convention (e.g. 20200603 - thunderstorm). Similarly, I don't use the DAM (lighttable) in darktable.

 

[Austinian]

I continue thinking about switching from Linux Mint Cinnamon to KDE, probably Kubuntu.

KDE is my desktop of choice. I wasn't unhappy with plain Ubuntu, till I tried to use fractional scaling on the 4K/UHD monitor. Didn't work, at least with my setup. Installed Kubuntu, worked.

 

[I2K4]

Much depends on personal use case and preference. I've settled on XnViewMP which is free, ad free, well documented, handles batch, cross-platform (e.g. Windows) and has a very configurable user interface (I rearrange the toolbar icons and set up "Favorites" for quick access to folders on different drives, and remove unwanted display boxes.) For serious RAW editing Darktable 3.x is quite good and has the best Youtube tutorial series (Williams and Rico), though again preferences could lead to Rawtherapee, the new RT spin Art, or another.

Learning curves can be pretty steep and time wasting, so consider documentation and video support along with appealing tools and interface.

 

[Austinian]

For serious RAW editing Darktable 3.x is quite good and has the best Youtube tutorial series (Williams and Rico), though again preferences could lead to Rawtherapee, the new RT spin Art, or another.

Darktable is what I use for my manual lenses that aren't supported in DxO PhotoLab. Very nice software. RT is impressively featured, but when I tried it in the past I felt it was less user-friendly. I recently installed the latest version on this desktop's Linux boot drive, and it seems like the default UI is improved; one of these days I'll have to spend time with it.

 

[I2K4]

For serious RAW editing Darktable 3.x is quite good and has the best Youtube tutorial series (Williams and Rico), though again preferences could lead to Rawtherapee, the new RT spin Art, or another.

Darktable is what I use for my manual lenses that aren't supported in DxO PhotoLab. Very nice software. RT is impressively featured, but when I tried it in the past I felt it was less user-friendly. I recently installed the latest version on this desktop's Linux boot drive, and it seems like the default UI is improved; one of these days I'll have to spend time with it.

You might want to look at the new independent ART spin on RT, does good things with the interface and incorporates some Darktable modules. Developer has contributed to the Retouching forum. That said, it's not much documented as yet. I have ART on board with Mint / Ubuntu but haven't dug into it. I like Darktable especially for its History stack, for rethinking what the heck I did back there, and am getting more familiar with the new tools in DT 3.x.

 

[CAcreeks]

You might want to look at the new independent ART spin on RT, does good things with the interface and incorporates some Darktable modules. Developer has contributed to the Retouching forum. That said, it's not much documented as yet. I have ART on board with Mint / Ubuntu but haven't dug into it.

Last time I checked (months ago?) RT ART did not have precompiled Linux packages, but it does now, both AppImage and PPA. The darktable at the same place ~dhor is back-rev, is this also true of RT ART? Here is the most recent darktable PPA.

https://launchpad.net/~ubuntuhandbook1/+archive/ubuntu/darktable

I like Darktable especially for its History stack, for rethinking what the heck I did back there, and am getting more familiar with the new tools in DT 3.x.

Yes, it's amazing software.

I got the source code and compiled it to support new Fujifilm X cameras, but have not yet added the X-T4. 'Twould be nice if darktable, instead of hanging, asked to substitute a different camera profile when encountering an unsupported model.

 

[I2K4]

You might want to look at the new independent ART spin on RT, does good things with the interface and incorporates some Darktable modules. Developer has contributed to the Retouching forum. That said, it's not much documented as yet. I have ART on board with Mint / Ubuntu but haven't dug into it.

Last time I checked (months ago?) RT ART did not have precompiled Linux packages, but it does now, both AppImage and PPA. The darktable at the same place ~dhor is back-rev, is this also true of RT ART? Here is the most recent darktable PPA.

https://launchpad.net/~ubuntuhandbook1/+archive/ubuntu/darktable

...

I'm also getting ART through the DHOR ppa that supplies RawTherapee and XnViewMP. Also found that the Ubuntu Handbook source for Darktable installs a ppa with very timely updates in the Mint (Ubuntu) repository - something of a surprise since last December it seemed to be an "unofficial" one-off making up for loss of Darktable's regular contributor Pascal de Bruijn. That substitution seems to be formally arranged in your link. (I personally have a hard time with tarballs, so am very grateful for a ppa or deb package.)

 

[sluggy_warrior]

I got the source code and compiled it to support new Fujifilm X cameras, but have not yet added the X-T4. 'Twould be nice if darktable, instead of hanging, asked to substitute a different camera profile when encountering an unsupported model.

you might want to pull from git master branch again, the X-T4 is supported now (but still not listed in lens correction). The related commits:



Given it's the same sensor as X-T3, it makes sense that it doesn't involve much. I have no problem processing the sample RAFs from dpreview.

Loading…

www.dpreview.com

Noise profile is also included:

Loading…

www.dpreview.com

 

[AnthonyL]

Try Digikam

https://www.digikam.org/

I'd like to say I knew more about Digikam and it was that and Kdenlive that led me to KDE, first on Mint and now Kubuntu. The attraction of Digikam was that it offered facial recognition which Picasa did so well on Windows and though I tried it out it was a year or so ago and I was in my early days on Linux. I have however used Kdenlive in anger (in an amateur way) and brought together video and photos from different cameras and made a small video together with commentary. It was surprisingly easy.

Digikam is awaiting more attention and I'm hopeful that it will fulfill the cataloguing side of my workflow. I'm also on the main Kubuntu 18.04 LTS release channel and seem to have an older Version 5.6.0 so some more investigation will no doubt be in order when the time comes.

 

[Mr Bolton]

You might want to look at the new independent ART spin on RT, does good things with the interface and incorporates some Darktable modules. Developer has contributed to the Retouching forum. That said, it's not much documented as yet. I have ART on board with Mint / Ubuntu but haven't dug into it.

Last time I checked (months ago?) RT ART did not have precompiled Linux packages, but it does now, both AppImage and PPA. The darktable at the same place ~dhor is back-rev, is this also true of RT ART? Here is the most recent darktable PPA.

https://launchpad.net/~ubuntuhandbook1/+archive/ubuntu/darktable

I like Darktable especially for its History stack, for rethinking what the heck I did back there, and am getting more familiar with the new tools in DT 3.x.

Yes, it's amazing software.

From my small amount of time with Darktable, I do recall its nice history stack, the ADHD shooter's friend ;-)

I got the source code and compiled it to support new Fujifilm X cameras, but have not yet added the X-T4. 'Twould be nice if darktable, instead of hanging, asked to substitute a different camera profile when encountering an unsupported model.

I'm guessing it supports the X-H1 then.

Also, WRT to the H.264 video files modern cameras generate.. have tried several free options plus got Davinci Resolve (the free version) running and there is just no love for h.264 video. Does DigiKam support it natively? Is my best non-commandline transcoding option just to throw down the $300 for the Davinci license?

BTW thank you all for a very informative and friendly thread!

 

[sluggy_warrior]

Also, WRT to the H.264 video files modern cameras generate.. have tried several free options plus got Davinci Resolve (the free version) running and there is just no love for h.264 video. Does DigiKam support it natively? Is my best non-commandline transcoding option just to throw down the $300 for the Davinci license?

what kind of video editing you need? I usually use Blender's Video Sequencer Editor, done that for a few piano recital recordings, as well as compiling simple videos for work. It relies on the famous ffmpeg so most codecs are supported.

The tutorial series by Mikeycal Meyers is my favorite:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY2G7EknC5BJeVpZU3Iperg

 

[CAcreeks]

Yes, it's amazing software.

From my small amount of time with Darktable, I do recall its nice history stack, the ADHD shooter's friend ;-)

The main thing I noticed is, don't use base curve and filmic rgb modules together!

I got the source code and compiled it to support new Fujifilm X cameras, but have not yet added the X-T4. 'Twould be nice if darktable, instead of hanging, asked to substitute a different camera profile when encountering an unsupported model.

I'm guessing it supports the X-H1 then.

Yes, X-H1 has been well supported for quite a while in the mainstream downloadable software. If you have an X-H1, you might be interested in this:

There's a recent thread on the Fuji X forum about the lut 3D module for Astia film emulation. Samples look good, and it might be a one-size-fits-all solution. Haven't tried it yet.

I'm not interested in the X-T4, except to edit some stuff in the sample gallery. X-T200 for me.

Also, WRT to the H.264 video files modern cameras generate.. have tried several free options plus got Davinci Resolve (the free version) running and there is just no love for h.264 video. Does DigiKam support it natively? Is my best non-commandline transcoding option just to throw down the $300 for the Davinci license?

Hmm... I use ffmpeg for H.264 encoding or transcoding. Not sure about KDEnlive, as I don't have it installed. DigiKam would be more for stills.

 

[I2K4]

Yes, it's amazing software.

From my small amount of time with Darktable, I do recall its nice history stack, the ADHD shooter's friend ;-)

The main thing I noticed is, don't use base curve and filmic rgb modules together!

...

One of the first things usually I do is compress the History stack at Orientation, deleting the Base Curve - it's redundant to and complicates other exposure tools or, new to me, applying LUTs. I'm not aware of a setting to avoid Base Curve being automatically applied by default, which I'd probably do. (The other quick and dirty first step I haven't seen elsewhere is just grabbing the edges of the histogram to drag inside the clipping points - can save time with the finer modules.)

 

[sluggy_warrior]

One of the first things usually I do is compress the History stack at Orientation, deleting the Base Curve - it's redundant to and complicates other exposure tools or, new to me, applying LUTs. I'm not aware of a setting to avoid Base Curve being automatically applied by default, which I'd probably do. (The other quick and dirty first step I haven't seen elsewhere is just grabbing the edges of the histogram to drag inside the clipping points - can save time with the finer modules.)

recent versions have an option to disable auto-applying of basecurve:

 

[I2K4]

Thanks for that, I'll give it a shot.

 

[Mr Bolton]

Also, WRT to the H.264 video files modern cameras generate.. have tried several free options plus got Davinci Resolve (the free version) running and there is just no love for h.264 video. Does DigiKam support it natively? Is my best non-commandline transcoding option just to throw down the $300 for the Davinci license?

what kind of video editing you need? I usually use Blender's Video Sequencer Editor, done that for a few piano recital recordings, as well as compiling simple videos for work. It relies on the famous ffmpeg so most codecs are supported.

The tutorial series by Mikeycal Meyers is my favorite:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY2G7EknC5BJeVpZU3Iperg

Nothing super complicated. It's just, you know, not my father's Linux box anymore and I really don't feel like command line transcoding all the video from/to my camera and YouTube. I'm willing to pay for the privilege of it just working, if I have to. It sounds like I have to.

It's 2020, I feel like video should be as easy for me now as it was back when I repaired Amiga based Video Toaster Flyer systems for a living.. VTASC was really awesome for its time.