You can import photos from your hard drive or from your digital camera (see Section 15.2, “Downloading Pictures from Your Camera” for more information). F-Spot automatically makes copies of photos imported from your hard drive. If you do not want to copy images, uncheck Copy files to the Photos folder on the Import dialog box, or press Shift when dragging photos into F-Spot.

Figure 15.2. Importing Images into F-Spot¶

By default, F-Spot copies your photos to the /Photos directory in your home directory. You can change the directory F-Spot uses by clicking Edit+Preferences.

If all the photos you are importing are from a particular event, or if they have some other characteristic in common, you can create a tag for them so you can easily find them at a later time. During the import, select Attach Tag, then choose the appropriate tag from the drop-down menu.

To import photos:

You can import new images from your digital camera by connecting it to the USB port of your computer. The type of camera is detected automatically. When you import photos from your camera, F-Spot makes copies of them so that you can clear your camera's memory.

When you select an image, some basic statistical information is displayed in the lower-left part of the window. This includes the filename, its version (copy or original image), the date of creation, size, and the exposure used in creating this particular photo.

To view more detailed information on a photo, including the EXIF data associated with the file, click View+Metadata Browser.

Figure 15.3. F-Spot Metadata Browser¶

Use tags to categorize any of your photos to create manageable subsets of your collection. F-Spot comes with default tags, but you can change them and add new ones. If, for example, you want to organize your collection of portrait shots of your friends or family, do the following:

You can also use the following methods to tag photos:

The first photo you associate with a tag is used for that tag's icon. To edit a tag's name, parent tag, or icon, right-click the tag, then select Edit Tag.

You can change a tag's parent by dragging and dropping it where you want. You can also edit the name of a tag by selecting it and pressing F2.

After your photos have been tagged, you can browse your collection by tags. Using our earlier example, clicking People+Family limits the displayed collection to the photos tagged Family. Searching your collection by tag is also possible through Find+Find Selected Tag. The result of your search is displayed in the thumbnail overview window.

Removing tags from single images or groups of images works similarly to attaching them. The tag editing functions are also accessible on the Tags menu in the top menu bar.

As mentioned in Section 15.4, “Managing Tags”, tags can be used as a means to find certain images. Another way to find images is to use the Timeline below the toolbar. By dragging the little frame along this time line, you can limit the images displayed in the thumbnail overview to those taken in a selected time frame. F-Spot starts with a default time line, but you can edit the time span by moving the sliders to the right and left of the time line.

You can also start a search by clicking Find+Show Find Bar. With the find bar displayed, you can drag tags from the tag view to the find bar.

Figure 15.4. Show Find Bar in F-Spot¶

To find photos that are tagged with more than one tag, select the first tag in the tag view (or drag the tag onto the Find bar), then drag the second tag and drop it on top of the first. You can also right-click the second tag in the tag view, or click Find+Find Selected Tag With, then select the first tag (or group of tags).

You can search for photos that do not have a particular tag by double-clicking a tag in the Find bar. Photos that do not have that tag (or any tag at all) are displayed. You can also right-click a tag in the Find bar, then select Exclude.

To remove a tag from the search, drag it away from the Find bar, or right-click the tag and select Remove.

By default, photos tagged Hidden will not be shown. You must explicitly include the Hidden tag in your search to show such photos.

There is also a type-to-find entry. Press the forward slash (/) to open it. It cannot be used at the same time as the Find bar. You can type queries such as “TagA and (TagB or (TagC and TagD))”. At any point, if F-Spot recognizes what you have typed as a valid query, it will update your search. The not operator is not yet supported.

Figure 15.5. Type-to-find Search¶

F-Spot offers a range of different export functions for your photo collections.

F-Spot offers several basic image editing functions, such as the ability to remove red-eye, crop, and adjust colors and brightness.

When you edit a photo, a new copy (called a version) is created, so your original photo is never altered. After your first edit to a photo, subsequent edits modify the same version. If you want to create multiple versions of a photo (for example, with different cropping or coloring), click File+Create New Version. To access a photo’s original version, click File+Version+Original.

Professional image editing can also be done with The GIMP. For more information, see Chapter 14, Manipulating Graphics with The GIMP.

You can use either of the following methods to share your photos using F-Spot. Both methods share only the photos you have selected when you run them.