[Shotwell] Shotwell - Thoughts on work-flow and extensions

[Adam Dingle]

On 05/23/2010 05:35 AM, Chris Lindsay wrote:
> Hi,
> Let me introduce myself, my name is Chris Lindsay and I would class
> myself as an Enthusiast Photographer.
>    

Great - we like enthusiasts.  :)

> Ok, sorry for my longish lead in, but yesterday I read Shotwell would
> replace F-spot on Ubuntu 10.10. So I start to investigate Shotwell
> again after dismissing due to a lack of Raw support, which I see is
> coming in 0.6!
>
> I am impressed with Shotwell and with Raw support and the other
> additions in the pipeline will be a very usable photo manager.
>    

Thanks!  I'll warn you now that the RAW support in 0.6 will be somewhat 
limited.  In particular, you mentioned that you shoot RAW+JPEG.  In 
Shotwell 0.6, if you import RAW and JPEG files from a camera together 
they will simply appear side by side as two separate photos in your 
library.  We hope to be able to treat RAW+JPEG pairs as a single photo 
before long (see http://trac.yorba.org/ticket/1772 ) but I currently 
believe that feature will not be in 0.6.

> My Workflow using Shotwell...
>
> 1, A days photographing in RAW + JPG
> 2, Upload images from camera via Shotwell
>       - Tag images
>       - define naming convention with date/ location etc. (extension)
>    

Right; this is http://trac.yorba.org/ticket/1942 .

>       - allow copies to be saved to external HD at same time for backup
> (extension)
>    

A reasonable idea; I've created a ticket for this at 
http://trac.yorba.org/ticket/1963 .

> 3, Once imported images can be edited (non-destructively) within
> Shotwell or in Raw processing app (preferably if choice not tying user
> into a specific app, through settings, this could also be added as an
> extension)
> 4, Edited externally in for example Gimp. In this case a copy of image
> would be opened in external edit to preserve original. Edited image
> saved back into Shotwell as a revision of original.
>    

Right.  Shotwell 0.6 will allow you to open photos in an external 
editor.  We're working on implementing this now.  You'll be able to 
specify both an external JPEG editor (e.g. Gimp) and also an external 
RAW editor (e.g. UFRaw) to use for editing photos.

> 5, Finally edited images can be published to social networking sites,
> web based galleries or emailed etc.
>
> These are of course just my thoughts, but I believe this type of
> functionally would allow Shotwell to do what it does well, without
> trying to do everything poorly. As much as the majority of people only
> want an application which stores their images for easy review, basic
> edited and enhancements before publishing to their favourite social
> networking site or web based gallery. The addition of various more
> advance features in the form of extensions would allow advanced or
> users to still use and enjoy Shotwell as part of their work-flow.
>    

Thanks again for the feedback.  We really appreciate hearing about 
people's entire workflow and I hope we can continue to improve Shotwell 
to make it work well for you and other enthusiasts.  :)

adam