To download images from your digital camera, simply connect the camera to the USB port of your computer using the USB cable provided by the camera manufacturer. Depending on your camera model, you may need to switch your camera to a special data transfer mode. Consult the camera's manual about this.

There are three possibilities for accessing the pictures on the camera. USB mass storage or PTP (also known as PictBridge) are the most widely used protocols. Some camera models do not work with either one and need special drivers provided by gphoto2 (Section 19.10, “Troubleshooting”).

If your camera can be switched to a USB mass storage device, select this option. After you connect the camera to the USB port of your computer and turn the camera on, the new USB device is automatically detected and mounted. KDE lets you select the action to take in the event of any such device being mounted. You can choose to start digiKam or any other image viewing or processing application whenever a device of this type is mounted.

To set up a camera in digiKam, select Camera+Add Camera. First, try to detect the camera automatically with Auto-Detect. If this fails, browse the list of supported cameras for your model with Add. If your camera model is not included in the list, try an older model or use USB/IEEE mass storage camera and confirm with OK.

To download images from a camera that has been correctly configured, attach the camera to your computer and select the camera from the Camera menu. digiKam opens a window and begins to download thumbnails and display them as in Figure 19.2, “Downloading Pictures from a Camera”. Right-click an image to open a pop-up menu with the options to View the image, display some Properties or EXIF Information, Download, or Delete the image. Select Advanced at the bottom of the download window to rename the image files using Renaming Options and to determine how the EXIF data provided by the camera should be handled.

Figure 19.2. Downloading Pictures from a Camera¶

	Renaming Images
Mass renaming of your images comes in handy if your camera's filenames are not meaningful enough for your purpose. Provide a unique prefix, add an optional date, and let digiKam provide a sequence number.

Select all images to download from the camera by pressing the left mouse button or by clicking individual images with Ctrl pressed. Click Download and select the destination from the list or create a new album with New Album, which automatically suggests a filename with the current date. Confirm with OK to start the download process.

To retrieve any information about your image, hold the mouse pointer over the image to display a tool tip with very basic data about your image or right-click the image and select Properties from the context menu.

The following information is available:

digiKam creates a folder called My Albums by default to hold all of your images. You can move your images to subfolders later. The albums can be sorted by directory layout, by collection name set in the album properties, or the date that the albums were first created (this date can also be changed in the properties of each album).

To create a new album, use one of these methods:

Once you have chosen to create a new album, provide some basic administrative information about the new album, such as an album title. Optionally, choose a collection, insert some comments, and select an album date. Collections are a way of organizing your albums by a common label. This label is used when you select View+Sort Albums+By Collection. The comment is shown in the banner at the top of the main window. The album date is used when you select View+Albums+By Date.

digiKam uses the first photograph in the album as the preview icon in the My Albums list. To select a different one, right-click the respective photograph and select Set as Album Thumbnail from the context menu.

Managing lots of different images across various albums can be a nightmare. To manage your images by custom categories and across albums, digiKam provides the My Tag system. Tags categorize images and more than one tag can be assigned to an image.

For example, assume that you took several pictures of your friend, Joe, and distributed them across various albums. Now you are looking for an easy way to generate an overview of all pictures ever taken of Joe. Using digiKam's tags, proceed as follows for this scenario:

If you need to process a huge number of images, an easier way to do the tagging would be using the Edit Comments & Tags option from the context menu that opens when an image is right-clicked. This dialog allows you to assign tags to this image, enter an optional descriptive comment, and rate this image. When you are done with the first image, stay in this dialog, click Forward, and proceed with all the other images of this album. When finished, click Apply and OK to apply your settings. Proceed similarly with all other albums and images.

To retrieve all images in your entire collection that carry a certain tag (in this case Joe), proceed as follows:

Figure 19.3. Display Tagged Images Only¶

The Tag Filter in the rightmost edge of the main window limits the number of images displayed for the current album to those marked by the tag or tags selected here.

Any image collection soon becomes unmanageable if you do not find a means to search for the images you need and find them without much of a hassle. To help you organize your collection, digiKam offers you two search options:

The following example illustrates how to create an Advanced Search using rating or tag information to search for images:

Figure 19.4. Creating an Advanced Search Filter¶

digiKam provides several export options that help archive and publish your personal image collections. It offers archiving to CD or DVD (with k3b), HTML export, and export to a remote gallery.

digiKam comes with a comprehensive image viewing and editing suite consisting of various plug-ins. To enter digiKam's viewing and editing mode, double-click an image thumbnail. To use the plug-ins, you need to install the digikamplugins package.

Use View to zoom in and out of your image and to insert histograms. Using the Histogram option, you can judge the exposure of your image while viewing it.

Figure 19.5. Checking the Histogram¶

Use the Image menu to edit the properties, comments and tags of your images and to apply basic effects or to insert text:

19.8.1. Fixing and Tweaking Your Images¶

Use the Fix menu to address a number of common defects related to digital imagery:

Colors

Tweak various aspects of the image related to colors.

Blur/Sharpen

Tweak the sharpness of your image or smooth it.

Unsharp Mask

Enhance the sharpness of your image.

Refocus

Sharpen your image by trying to refocus it.

Red Eye Reduction

Reduce or eliminate red eyes caused by use of a flash.

Inpainting

“Heal” defective areas of your image.

Hot Pixel Correction

Detect and erase problem pixels of your image caused by defective pixels of your camera's sensor.

Restoration

Provides an all-inclusive treatment to images suffering from all sorts of digital defects, such as noise and scratches.

Noise Reduction

Remove artifacts, such as those caused by dust on your lens or sensor. Compensate for pixel noise caused by high ISO settings of your digital camera and reduce noise and artifacts in low quality scans.

Lens Distortion Correction

Compensate for barrel and pincushion distortion of your images caused by the use of strong wide-angle or telephoto lenses.

Anti Vignetting

Compensates circular shades (vignettes) at the edges or in the center of your image that were caused by the use of strong wide-angle or telephoto lenses.

To observe the functionality of the Fix options, look at Inpainting, for example. Assume some dust or scratch on your lens ruined an image. To remove this kind of artifact, proceed as follows:

1. Open your image.

2. Use the mouse cursor to select the area to which to apply the fix.

3. Select Fix+Inpainting or press Shift+I.

4. Determine the method to use to remove the artifact:

   • Choose one of the preset options (Remove Small Artifact, Remove Medium Artifact, or Remove Large Artifact) and proceed with Step 6.

   • Set the filter parameters on your own. Proceed with Step 5.

5. If you opted against using any of the preset filters (in the Preset tab), open the Smoothing and Advanced Settings tabs and adjust the settings to your needs.

6. Click OK to apply your settings and modify the image accordingly.

   	Creating and Reusing Your Own Filter Settings
   If you need to use the same set of settings more than once, for example, if a scratch on the lens ruined an entire series of images, create your set of filter settings. Save them for later use by clicking Save As and saving them to a text file. For subsequent images, open the Image Inpainting dialog, click Load, then select the text file and apply the filter settings with OK.

Figure 19.6. Using Inpainting to Remove Artifacts¶

19.8.2. Applying Image Transformations¶

To scale or rotate an image, use the Transform menu:

Rotate, Flip, Free Rotation

Rotate your image to a certain degree. Rotate rotates by multiples of 90 degrees. With Free Rotation, specify any angle you want.

Crop, Aspect Ratio Crop

Crop your image. Crop cuts to any rectangular selection on top of your image. Aspect Ratio Crop crops the image following various sophisticated design principles.

Perspective Adjustment

Adjust the perspective of an image. For example, if you notice some odd angles in shots containing vertical or horizontal lines, use this tool to set them right. Grab any of the four handles to the corners of your image and move them as much as needed. Use the Crop tool to remove the resulting black edges of your image and to trim it down.

Shear

Shift one part of your image to one direction and the other to the opposite direction, either horizontally or vertically. Specify the angles for vertical and horizontal shear and use Crop to trim the resulting image.

Resize, Blowup

Scale your image larger or smaller. Resize offers a simple interface allowing you to manipulate your image size by pixel or percentage. Select whether to keep the aspect ratio. Blowup performs basically the same resizing operation on your image. In addition to a simple scaling operation, you can enable filters to apply to the scaled image to improve the quality of the resulting image. Whenever you need to print the final result, select Blowup instead for a simple Resize. You can save the filter settings to a text file and load and apply them to more images later.

Assuming you have an image that is otherwise perfect, but you are not entirely satisfied with the composition yet or need to crop your image to match a certain paper format for reproduction. In this case, use Aspect Ratio Crop and proceed as follows:

1. Open your image.

2. Select Transform+Aspect Ratio Crop.

3. Determine the orientation and aspect ratio to use:

   None

   Specify a free crop of the image using the X, Width, and Y, Height sliders.

   Custom

   Select a custom ration of width versus height instead of using one of the preset values.

   X:Y Ratio

   These ratios match most of the common paper sizes used to print photographs. Pick the one that suits your purpose best.

   Golden Ratio

   A ratio (1:1.618) that is traditionally used by artists and architects to create harmonious results.

   Use Max. Ratio to set the crop area to the maximum possible size of the ratio specified.

4. After determining the size of your crop selection, optionally apply compositional rules to it. The Composition Guide helps to create a crop selection that results in a visually pleasing image. Dotted lines are displayed that guide you to a better composition of your image.

   	For More Information
   For a comprehensive description of the options, refer to http://docs.kde.org/development/en/extragear-graphics/digikam/using-kapp-imageeditor.html.

5. If the position of your crop does not follow the compositional rule to your satisfaction, move it.

6. Click OK to apply your crop selection and trim your image.

Figure 19.7. Creating a Custom Crop Using Aspect Ratio Crop¶

19.8.3. Applying Filters and Effects¶

You can select from a variety of basic effects and filters to apply to your images to give them a more artistic or over-the-top look:

Black & White

Transform your color image into a black and white one. Choose Neutral Black & White to get a simple grayscale image. Simulate the use of a color filter (green, orange, red, or yellow) that accentuates areas of a certain color in the original image by selecting any of the Black & White with … Filter options. Simulate the tint effect of various chemicals in the dark room by selecting one of the Black & White with … Tone options.

Raindrops

Apply raindrop effects to your image. Determine the size and number of the drops and finally specify the degree of distortion caused by the drops (Fish eyes).

Infrared Film

Simulate the use of infrared film to achieve a slightly surreal effect. The result is strikingly different from the original image. Add additional film grain and tweak the sensitivity (ISO) to achieve a more artistic feel.

Oil Paint

Simulate an oil painting. Determine the brush size and the degree of smoothing to apply to your image.

Emboss

Pretend your image had been embossed to a sheet of paper. Choose an appropriate depth.

Solarize Image

Simulate an overexposure to sunlight.

Distortion Effects

Apply various strange distortion effects, such as fish eyes, to your image. Determine type, level, and repetition.

Add Film Grain

Add film grain to your image to give it a rough look.

Blur Effects

Blur your image to simulate the image being out of focus or to mimic any kind of movement that was not there when you took the image.

Charcoal Drawing

Transform your image into a black and white charcoal drawing. Choose an appropriate pencil size and determine the degree of smoothing to apply to the image.

Figure 19.8. Simulating IR Photography¶

digiKam offers several little helpers for organizing your image collection and for processing your images. Find them in the Tools menu:

An example batch processing of images could involve applying a solarizing effect to a number of images. To queue images for batch processing and perform the actual processing, proceed as follows:

Figure 19.9. Batch Processing: Solarizing Images¶

Although SUSE Linux Enterprise and digiKam support a broad range of cameras, you might occasionally hit one of the following problems when using your digital camera with SUSE Linux Enterprise:

For more information about using digital cameras with Linux, refer to the following Web sites: