Even if there are still serial (RS-232) digital cameras around, virtually all recent digital cameras use USB, so we assume that you have a USB camera.
GNU/Linux software uses the Gphoto2 library to communicate with your digital camera. Check GPhoto2's supported cameras list for more information on camera support. If your camera uses the Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP), it may be supported even if it's not in Gphoto2 list.
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You can also consult the very complete Digital Camera Support for UN*X web page. |
Plug your camera in a free USB slot, turn it on into
“play” mode[4], and choose
+ → from the main menu
to launch digiKam. If your camera is not listed in the
menu, then choose and click on
. If detection fails, click on
and look for your camera in the list, or
fill the parameters corresponding to your camera, and accept your
settings.
If your digital camera is not recognized you can still try to
use a USB “card reader” which lets you plug in the
camera's memory and usually appear mounted under
/mnt/removable
or
/mnt/memory_card
, so you can access it like
you would any other storage device. There are many card readers
that support multiple memory card types: Compact Flash, Secure
Digital, etc.
If you have a laptop computer with a PCMCIA slot, you can use the ATA photo memory PCMCIA card adapters. They are mounted just like any other ATA device (CD-ROM, hard disk, etc.) in order to access your pictures. This is the fastest method to access photo cards. It also means the camera's batteries may last longer.
Choose the → menu and select the photos you want to transfer in the digiKam camera import window (see Figure 5.8, “Selecting Pictures to Transfer”) and then click on and select the Download Selected option. Then choose (or create) the album to store photos into and click : the pictures will be transferred to that album[5].
Select a set of pictures and choose → from the menu and confirm the operation: the images are moved to the desktop's Trash. Keyboard shortcut: Shift-Delete.
Double click on a picture to open the image edit window. Note that all touch-up operations affect the quality of the picture's on-disk file. Also bear in mind that on-screen rendering is quite different from printing your digital pictures on photographic paper. So if you intend to both print and publish your pictures for online viewing, it might be wise to treat both copies differently from the beginning.
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Press Ctrl-Z to undo the last transformation operation. However, once you have saved the image, changes cannot be undone. |
Choose
+ →
from the menu and use the sliders to adjust the brightness,
contrast and gamma of the picture using the picture copy as a
guide.
Choose
→ from the menu,
drag the rectangle to the part of the image to be used as a guide,
and use the slider to sharpen the picture.
Select the pupil of the eye to fix, choose
→ from the menu, and then
select the aggressive (only part of the eye selected) or mild
(more than the eye selected) option to reduce the red-eye flash
effect. Repeat for the other eye, if needed.
Multi-megapixel images are
excellent for photographic paper print-ups, but are far from
adequate for e-mailing or publishing on the web. Choose
→ from the
menu, then select the desired size, either in pixels or in
percentage, and whether or not to keep (recommended) the
aspect ratio.
You can also crop an image to
a desired size while keeping aspect ratio. Choose
→ from the menu, drag the rectangle to
frame the part of the image you are interested on and select the
aspect ratio, orientation, width and height (one follows the other
according to the aspect ratio selected).
Most digital cameras produce EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) files. EXIF provides extra tags containing information about the image such as the date, the camera model, the exposure time, the ISO speed setting, the aperture, etc.
Select the picture, choose → from the menu, and select the
EXIF tab. Then, select the level of
information detail: either Simple (shows
the most important settings only) or Full
(shows all EXIF information).
To add a comment to a picture select it and press the F3 key, then fill your Comments (see Figure 5.9, “Adding an EXIF Comment to a Picture”).
If you want to share your pictures with your family and friends, you can easily create a “Web Album” of your pictures. Choose + → from the menu, select the album options (theme, picture and thumbnails size and format, etc.), finally provide a Destination folder to store the album and click to create it: the album is then opened inside the browser for you to preview it (see Figure 5.10, “Previewing a Web Album”). You are ready to upload the album to the web.