/r/FOSSPhotography

Photograph via snooOG

Are you an open source enthusiast? Do you love photography? Would you like to combine them, or enhance your current FOSS workflow? Join us!


/r/FOSSPhotography is a subreddit dedicated to free, open source, alternatives to the Adobe suite for your photography needs. It doesn't matter if you use Windows, Linux, or Mac, if you want to discuss something related to alternative photography software you're in the right place.


Related Reddits:


/r/MagicLantern

/r/AskPhotography

/r/libredesign

/r/gimp

/r/postprocessing

/r/freesoftware

/r/opensource


FOSS for Photography:


Camera Firmware Mods:

CHDK

Magic Lantern

RAW image developers:

Darktable

RawTherapee

Photivo

Raw Studio

DigiKam

UFRaw

Fotoxx

HDR Specific Software:

Luminance

QPSFTMO

PFS Tools

Panorama Stitching:

Hugin

Panorama Tools

Photo Organizers:

Shotwell

DigiKam

GPhoto

EXIF Editors:

ExifTool

Photo Downloaders:

Rapid Photo Downloader

Camera Tetherers:

Entangle

Monitor Color Correction:

Hughski

Alternative Image Viewers:

Geeqie

FEH

Gwenview (minor editing features)

We can't forget, of course...

... the great GIMP!:

Useful GIMP Mods/Scripts:

Cinepaint

/r/FOSSPhotography

7,255 Subscribers

9

My ideal workflow is so far away from my current workflow that I'm afraid to take the leap - advice?

Hey!

Currently my (as a hobby photographer) setup looks like following:

  1. Import RAWs to Lightroom Cloud
  2. Go over the imported photos and Pick/Reject photos. Basic editing (exposure, cropping, white balance mostly)
  3. Filter the imported photos by Pick
    1. Create a Lightroom Album for these
  4. Export these photos to JPEGs
  5. Upload these photos to Google Photos
    1. Create Google Photos albums I share with friends and family

For this I pay about 3,000SEK/year ($275/265EUR/£216) for Lightroom Cloud with 3TB of storage (currently using 1.6TB) and 1,000SEK/year ($91/86EUR/£72) for 2TB of Google Photos storage (800GB used).

--

I prefer Linux but have accepted I have to use a Macbook due to relying heavily on Lightroom. However, if I could (ideally) replace this workflow with FOSS, I could get rid of my Macbook and use a Linux laptop instead.

  1. Import RAWs to DigiKam
  2. Go over the imported photos and Pick/Reject photos. Basic editing (exposure, cropping, white balance mostly)
  3. Filter the imported photos by Pick
  4. Export these photos to JPEGs
  5. Upload these photos to self-hosted Immich
    1. It would be cool if I didn't need step 4+5. If Immich could just use the same storage as DigiKam but with some sort of metadata filter so just by picking the photo in Digikam ensures it's exposed in Immich

It should work in theory. Buying a small home server and 5TB of storage or something and set up a Backblaze remote backup cron job...

However - it feels like a big investment without actually knowing if it's an "acceptable" workflow.

There are some "partial" migrations I could do. For example I could get a NAS and use that storage as my Digikam storage and keep the rest of my workflow as is? I.e. first replace Lightroom Cloud in my workflow?

I am just worried about getting a NAS, a home server, spend hours setting everything up properly and at the end of it just feel that it's not worth the time, money, and effort to get everything up and running?

1 Comment
2024/11/29
09:58 UTC

6

FOSS alternative to Google photos

I'm looking for a way to replace Google photos. My wife and I have set up sync of our media to cloud storage, so our devices keep pushing data there. Now I'd like to be able to search and sort by face recognition, location, time, and stuff like that.

But I don't want to import and download everything to get another location. I want a tool that can either read the media from cloud storage directly, or read it (only read, no edit or rename) of I mount the cloud storage to make it available as a local folder.

Are there any tools that can do something like this? If I can choose, I'd easily to for the stable option that still exists and works 10 years from now,over the current cool tool with fancy features.

6 Comments
2024/11/13
22:48 UTC

2

Trying to use Digikam but it Just. Keeps. Crashing

I've been a long time fan of open source tools for many aspects of my digital life. For a while I've been using a NAS for storing my whole photo library. One of the main reasons I kept that process was because it had a tool for searching photos based on geotagging and facial recognition. I love the option to find things based on where I was when I took it, not only the date.

I recently had some issues with that hardware box, and so I've decided to migrate my whole library over to a USB-C RAID drive attached to a mac mini, and try Digikam for the geotag and facial recognition features. I've read great reviews of the app! But, sadly, I'm not able to get it working. Like, AT ALL.

I've installed it a couple of times. I'm running MacOS Sonoma on a Mac Mini Intel machine. I'm able to go through the wizard to establish my library path, etc.

Once I do that, I'm able to load my entire library into the app....

After this point, I'm unable to launch the software. It crashes every single time i open it. I've cleared the prefs, rebuilt the database. I've even created a blank database and tried importing my library one folder at a time. Once I get to 'more than one folder' the software crashes. Every Time. I've even tried varying which folder I import first to see if I can narrow down a particular file causing the crash. But, it doesn't seem to matter. One folder fine, two folders not fine.

Is there something I'm missing on how to get this working? Or, am I doing my file management wrong? I have one folder of photos, within that I have them foldered by year and then month, and that's basically it. Occasionally I'll have a folder of an event inside the month such as my wedding or a ski trip.

Scratching my head over here wondering how to get this thing working!

ETA: I am using a Mediasonic Pro enclosure with RAID 0 - three 4tb drives to make total of 12tb. I know this is not the idealist, but I am running a second 16tb backup that I mirror every other day, so I have good coverage. I have a future plan to upgrade to a better enclosure with SSD's once I get the wallet filled back up. Not sure if this affects performance. I wouldn't think it should.

11 Comments
2024/11/13
00:10 UTC

12

Cataloging open source projects for Sony Alpha cameras and more related to said cameras

Hello everyone. I'm working on creating a comprehensive list of open source projects for, or related to, Sony alpha cameras. I was recommended this place as well by a user on r/photography and even though this isn't general software, I hope this discussion will fit.

Anyways, I'm creating this list because I see a lot of potential in the black box that Sony Cameras are and how sometimes Sony really drops the ball for some of them with either bad apps or removing compatibility for a camera in apps when it should be working just fine. Plus throwing in some other projects that add some more info with opening up the black box of Sony Alpha cameras.

So far, I only have these:

Alpha remote by Staacks (a Bluetooth controller app for Sony Alpha cameras who posted here about a day or two ago that sparked my interest in making a list like this):

Sony Multi-port controller by epietrowicz (a Sony Multi-port guide for creating accessories that is slightly depreciated due to the listed vendors in the repo either removing the item or have taken down their page, but other vendors are still available if you look online a bit)

Sitina1 by Wenting Zeng (a full frame Sony E mount compatible camera)

Sony Remote Tool Kit SDK by Sony (not exactly open source, since you would have to get in contact with Sony in order to obtain it, but it is worth mentioning to help others with developing stuff for Sony Alpha cameras)

Probably missing a few, but adding any that are for, or work with, Sony alpha cameras. I've only been working on this for the last few days, but open to add any projects that people mention for this list. I plan on compiling it all into an "awesome-Sony-alpha" styled GitHub list. Also going to work on creating a compatibility list for these projects so people know what ones work for their camera.

I do not own any of these projects. I am simply just showing what I have catalogued for others.

0 Comments
2024/11/11
19:00 UTC

4

digiKam: excluded directories issue

For a week or two I'm using DigiKam on my Windows computer. I excluded some directories from being scanned in the settings, but it looks that don't work as I expected. In face recognition for example, I can see photos from excluded directories. What can be wrong?

0 Comments
2024/10/26
15:58 UTC

1

Digikam: What's the green border in the thumbnails view?

I've got some RAW images, I used some software to process them, and I make an exported JPG in the same directory. Then for some reason they get bright green borders around them in the thumbnails view and it's not clear to me what causes it.

Anyone know? Digikam docs don't seem to mention anything.

Green border here: https://i.imgur.com/4YJmIyo.png

EDIT: Solution is to turn off the color label by right clicking and going to Labels.

6 Comments
2024/10/26
02:56 UTC

0

Simple, lightweight screensaver for Windows, that shows rated (at least one star) pictures from DigiKam database (SQLite)

Annoyed by the lack of a reasonable alternative (all the available ones don't do what I wanted, are overloaded with features or inefficient) I made a screensaver that randomly selects all rated images (at least one star) from the SQLite database of DigiKam.

Version is 0.1, so not everything is perfect yet, but the most important features work. You can build your own *.scr (I described how in README.md) or download a ready binary file (in the right column - "Releases").

By the way, did you know that *.scr are regular *.exe files ...just with a different extension? (And specific commandline API).

2 Comments
2024/10/17
06:12 UTC

40

digiKam 8.5.0 will introduce face management improvements: new face detection default AI model YuNet and new face recognition default AI model SFace. Next stage will be to rewrite the face clustering engine. The new model gains speed performance in computation.

3 Comments
2024/10/03
09:41 UTC

30

Next digiKam 8.5.0 packaging as native application for MacOS Silicon is near to be ready to test...

9 Comments
2024/09/12
17:56 UTC

9

Fastest Linux Command Line Tool for Converting RAW Photos to JPEG?

Hi everyone,

I'm in search of a Linux command line tool that can quickly convert RAW photos (support for Sony, Nikon and Canon cameras would be great) to JPEG images. The primary goal is to generate preview images, so speed is more important than maintaining perfect image quality.

Do you have any recommendations for tools that are optimized for fast conversions? Any tips on how to streamline the process would also be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

13 Comments
2024/09/08
18:31 UTC

0

Nomacs color profile?

I really like how Nomacs render my raws (Olympus) be default. I can't really replicate it with RawTherapee. Does anybody know which postprocessing/color profile it's using?

3 Comments
2024/09/03
17:45 UTC

3

digiKam face tags sometimes embed in metadata, sometimes they don't {HELP!}

I’ve been enjoying tagging photos from my personal collection this past year. (Between jpgs and unprocessed RAW files, the collection is ~280,000.) I run a face detect scan, recognize scan, correct and/or approve. Rinse and repeat. It’s been slow going, but fun to see familiar faces pop up and it’s mindless clicking that makes me feel productive.

Well, all that joy came to a screeching halt when I realized not all my face tags were being applied in the metadata all the time. I have no idea why they mostly apply correctly but occasionally they don’t. Here are the details…

  • Running digiKam 8.3 on Windows 10 on my computer
  • All photos are stored on a networked Windows 11 computer using Stablebit for drive pooling
  • In Settings > Metadata, for things to be written to metadata I have everything selected, including “Face Tags (including face areas)”. (I’ve excluded GPS)
  • I don’t have “Use lazy synchronization” or “Update file modification timestamp when files are modified” checked.

I used Adobe Bridge for most of my actual photo browsing and work. That’s where I noticed that most files will have the face/name tags show up, but inexplicably a few files will sometimes be empty. Nothing is different about those files as far as I can tell; they’re from the same series, same camera, they’re not in special folders or grouped up in anyway, same jpg format.

I found a guilty file, applied keywords and face tags in digiKam. Nothing showed up in Bridge or viewing the details in File Explorer. (So I know it wasn’t just a cache issue with Bridge.) I also selected the file in digiKam, clicked Item > Write Metadate to File and nothing worked.

Any ideas what might be going on?

6 Comments
2024/08/23
01:47 UTC

3

Geeqie .pp3 grouping

Bit of a longshot here. I use Geeqie to view photos, and RawTherapee to edit them. I am trying to use Geeqie to group the .pp3 sidecar files with their JPG and RAW counterparts.

I have tried a few different strings under the grouping to no avail.

0 Comments
2024/08/22
00:36 UTC

5

Digikam 8.4.0 does not show HEIC images as thumbnails or in viewer.

I'm running Fedora 40 with KDE/PLasma 6.1.4. Digikam 8.4.0 natively installed and libheif v1.17.6 (latest version) is installed. I cannot view any HEIC/HEIF images with GIMP, Darktable, Gwenview, or Digikam. Eror is "usupported image format" or "unknown filetype". Digikam shows the files, but no thumbnail and cannot view or edit. Digikam Library and Components Information tells me I have HEIF reading support...

Ideas?

4 Comments
2024/08/18
13:13 UTC

2

Digikam: Separating photos by month will often creating multiple months groups.

I have my photos 'Sort Item by Creation Date' and 'Separate item by month' but not all the photos are grouping together in a unified month For example I will have the majority the picture in the proper month (ie Aug 2024) but there might be a couple photos in one or more additional Aug 2024 grouping. Odder is that they may all be part of a series. IE picture 001, 002, 003, 005, 006, and 007 would be in one group; 004 would be in another group; and 008 would be in a third group.

This is not consistent across all months.

1 Comment
2024/08/15
00:21 UTC

3

Digikam: Is there a way to remove a subfolder from a collection to make it it's' own collection?

I have a subfolder in my Picture folder (that I can't move elsewhere). Is there a way to make it its own collection so it doesn't affect the filtering/search/tag/etc in the main collection?

6 Comments
2024/08/15
00:13 UTC

5

Accessing digikam photos from android?

Hello. I'm trying to setup a way to view digiKam photos on my android phone. I have a server I'll be running a MySQL and NFS server on my LAN, and my desktop & laptop would connect to it. Right now I'm testing digiKam with local SQLite db and remote NFS photos, and it's working flawlessly.

I can technically view the photos from my phone by opening the photo directory with something like FTP, but I'd like to see tags. I don't need features to manipulate tags or add new photos as I'll be doing that from my desktop though. Is there any tool that fits this purpose? I'd prefer not to modify the original photos by adding exif datas or such into them.

I thought piwigo would fit this task best, but I'm not too sure now. It runs its own database and I'm not able to properly keep it in sync with my directory. I'm having to click the sync button on admin panel everytime I add new photos or something, and it keeps failing to do so showing timeouts and 503 service unavailable. I also wasn't able to use digiKam's tags there, as for some reason I can't export all existing tags as sidecar files.

Thansk!

11 Comments
2024/08/12
13:35 UTC

2

Is there a plugin or something for digikam to handle pdf files?

I'd like to use digikam mostly for it's DAM functionality in a research project : tag and categorize images, videos and pdf files. Unfortunately, digikam doesn't recognize the pdf files in my folder structure.

I tried searching if there is a solution, but the term pdf is so generic, that I am flooded with "results" that lead nowhere useful.

Anybody knows ?

9 Comments
2024/07/31
10:03 UTC

43

Thanks to CHDK I managed to run GameBoy emulator on my Canon!

Camera: Canon SX30 IS

Used Peanut-GB emulator

Performance could be highly improved by switching from a function that sets pixel to editing display buffer directly, but that breaks compatibility 👀

6 Comments
2024/07/22
22:06 UTC

4

Digikam to Darktable on Windows?

I'm using Digikam for file management, but I really like Darktable's editing workflow.

Is there a way to more seamlessly switch between them on Windows? I'd like digikam open darktable with --library :memory: but that doesn't seem possible.

4 Comments
2024/07/21
03:38 UTC

7

Digikam or any other photo organizer and Raw + JPG

So I currently use Digital Photo Professional (canon) but I don't think it matters which Raw Editor one would use. My question is when you use a Photo Organizer such as DigiKam when you are looking at your photos it does not show the raw file as it was edited.

What do others do about this?

I have been shooting JPG and RAW and maybe I just keep the JPG and organize those and just store the RAW with same filename in other folders?

Usually my JPG are good enough and rarely need to modify them much in DPP anyway.

6 Comments
2024/07/11
20:13 UTC

3

Applying Digital Watermark with DigiKam

I am trying to apply digital watermarks to images before I publish them on the web, but I simply cannot figure out how to do it in DigiKam. To be clear, digital watermark are these invisible watermarks that encode encrypted metadata into the image itself, not the typical visible watermarks like you would see on a stock image.

The feature/process is mentioned in the documentation twice. Just that it exist or that it can be a part of the DAM workflow, but never how or which tool to use. Anybody who can help me with some pointers? Or if all else fail, suggest an alternative software to do this in.

I am using DigiKam 8.3.0 on Ubuntu 23.04

Documented here: https://docs.digikam.org/en/asset_management/authorship_copyright.html

and also here: https://docs.digikam.org/en/asset_management/dam_workflow.html

Thanks in advance

6 Comments
2024/07/09
20:20 UTC

10

What do you use to cull raw images before editing?

I prefer using Raw Therapee for editing but prior viewing of the raw/jpg image out of the camera is limited. I'd like something that can call up the image, perhaps with the histogram, for review. I could then decide if it's keeper or not. I know ART has a viewer but I like the RT modules better.

I use and like Rapid Photo Downloader to move images from the SD card but it doesn't have a viewer.

I could use DarkTable but I'm not a fan of the Lightable module.

11 Comments
2024/05/19
06:44 UTC

1

Linux print server with color management?

I have a Canon Pixma Pro 9000 which lacks networking. I was looking at options to get this accessible from my network for photo printing and was considering a Raspberry Pi just running a simple CUPS server. But I was wondering if there are any software packages, either accessed via web or vnc, that is similar to Silverfast's Printao or Qimage in its ability to store all of your color management profiles and handle layout and sharpening and all of that from the print interface. Is anyone else dealing with a similar setup?

1 Comment
2024/05/18
20:58 UTC

2

Apply rating to metadata in digiKam

I'm trying to decide which of the photos I've taken to edit by rating them with 5 stars, but when I check on them in File Explorer they just don't have the stars applied to them in the metadata. I've enabled writing the rating to metadata but it's still not helping.

Anyone got any fixes or suggestions?

0 Comments
2024/05/15
23:13 UTC

Back To Top