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Janne Morenjannem@fosstodon.org
Jun 6, 2026, 11:12 PM
So I've been using Shotwell as my photo organizer for many years. But it's old, creaky and only barely supported.
What should I use instead? What do you use? I need:
* Photo management (sorting, ranking, deleting)
* Handles 10k+ images fine
* edit with external editor (gimp)
* RAW support
* Runs locally on Linux
* Ideally, import from camera
* Ideally, export to Flickr
* Ideally, a way to export from shotwell/import to the new organizer
Any ideas?
#fedihelp #photography #linux
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Replies

wevdapwevdap@mastodon.world
Jun 7, 2026, 12:54 AM
@jannem I also started with Shotwell, but switched to Darktable several years ago, pointed it at existing YYYY/MM/DD file tree, and am running happily with ~50K images. Definitely RAW and Linux support, haven't needed GIMP integration, run little Python program to import from card though DT does have its own import capabilities.
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geantvertvert (greenman)greenman@fosstodon.org
Jun 7, 2026, 5:48 AM
@wevdap @jannem yep i would recommand Darktable too
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FoolishOwlfoolishowl@social.coop
Jun 7, 2026, 2:59 PM
@wevdap @jannem How do the import capabilities in Darktable compare to Shotwell? That's the main reason I use Shotwell.
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wevdapwevdap@mastodon.world
Jun 7, 2026, 3:12 PM
@foolishowl @jannem Can't speak with experience about the breadth of DT capabilities (e.g., camera access) because I don't use many; force of working habit just has me copy images from camera card into file tree, then DT import from there. https://docs.darktable.org/usermanual/development/en/module-reference/utility-modules/lighttable/import/ should give you a fuller sense of what's there.
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.•Ø฿ɆɎ & ₵Ø₦₴Ʉ₥Ɇ ™.andrewz@stranger.social
Jun 7, 2026, 1:24 AM
@jannem
https://flathub.org/en/apps/org.kde.digikam
Also has face tagging, geo editor
10k pics and more.
It should also be in your
package manager.
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Janne Morenjannem@fosstodon.org
Jun 7, 2026, 1:32 AM
@andrewz
I've been looking at this one. Does it allow external editors, though? And Flickr export? It doesn't say, and I don't know how robust that functionality it is.
Edit: No, it seems it doesn't really support external editors. You're supposed to stay in the application itself. A valid use-case but not the one I'm looking for,
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Patrick Lam :tinoflag:va2lam@mastodon.nz
Jun 8, 2026, 12:26 AM
@jannem @andrewz what do you mean by stay in the application itself? I use digikam and I most often edit in digikam but I desmudge in gimp, which I can open with.
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Patrick Lam :tinoflag:va2lam@mastodon.nz
Jun 8, 2026, 12:28 AM
@jannem @andrewz my workflow is that the new file is called old_file_v1.jpg, no matter whether I edit with digikam or gimp. I then tag the original file as "rejected" and don't really look at it, but it's easy enough to find. It would also be possible to tag the files.
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Janne Morenjannem@fosstodon.org
Jun 8, 2026, 12:58 AM
@va2lam @andrewz
I mean, are the images associated with each other? If I select the image, do I see the original and the edited image as two versions of the same single image? Or is the edited version second, separate image unrelated to the first?
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Patrick Lam :tinoflag:va2lam@mastodon.nz
Jun 8, 2026, 1:18 AM
@jannem @andrewz I meant group not tag. I think it is, but I don't use grouping myself. I do have tens of thousands of files.
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Patrick Lam :tinoflag:va2lam@mastodon.nz
Jun 8, 2026, 1:20 AM
@jannem @andrewz some documentation about what you can do with groups later in this page: https://docs.digikam.org/de/setup_application/miscs_settings.html
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Janne Morenjannem@fosstodon.org
Jun 8, 2026, 2:10 AM
@va2lam @andrewz
Seems you have to manually create a group for each image and add new images to it.
That's what I mean about external tools not really being supported.
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Patrick Lam :tinoflag:va2lam@mastodon.nz
Jun 8, 2026, 2:13 AM
@jannem @andrewz I bet you can automatically create groups too. But it's just a question of what features you want...
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Patrick Lam :tinoflag:va2lam@mastodon.nz
Jun 8, 2026, 4:30 AM
@jannem @andrewz I don't know about automatically creating groups, but "manually creating a group" amounts to one extra workflow step: you select both pictures and click on "group selected". A bit annoying perhaps---if you can find a tool that works better for you, great.
It is also probably fairly easy to create a plugin (or to get someone to create a plugin) that automatically groups X.jpg with X_v?.jpg.
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Marcos Dionemdione@en.osm.town
Jun 8, 2026, 8:50 PM
@va2lam @jannem @andrewz maybe some of the #digikam people can answer the above question if they see them?
#kde
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Janne Morenjannem@fosstodon.org
Jun 8, 2026, 10:02 PM
@mdione @va2lam @andrewz
No; it's pretty clear that using an external editor goes against the grain of what the software is designed to do. A pile of hacks or workarounds are not ever going to be a good experience.
Digikam is not a good fit for my particular use case. That's not a criticism; it just shows how good software needs to be opinionated about its design. Something that would support every possible workflow wouldn't really support any of them.
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Patrick Lam :tinoflag:va2lam@mastodon.nz
Jun 9, 2026, 12:24 AM
@jannem @mdione @andrewz hope there is software that better fits your use case---though as a digikam user I would not say that what you're proposing goes against the grain, because I do in fact use gimp and the internal editor together smoothly in my own workflow; usually I use the internal editor first to rotate, crop, and edit colours, and then gimp to remove splotches where I should have cleaned my sensor properly in the first place.
But, overall, yes, let 1000 flowers bloom.
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Oblomovoblomov@sociale.network
Jun 7, 2026, 9:42 AM
@jannem digiKam?
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Janne Morenjannem@fosstodon.org
Jun 7, 2026, 9:52 AM
@oblomov
Doesn't seem to support using gimp (or other) as external editor. You seem to have to export the image, then import the result as a completely new image, not as an edit of the original.
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