The amount of photos on your computer grows every week. Do you notice that it takes more and more effort to find the right snapshot or the desired video? The free program digiKam helps you organize photos and at the same time it has numerous editing options to give your photos more appearance.
Many have photos spread over various folders. Sometimes they are organized by year, sometimes by person or occasion. And if there is a photo folder called Allerlei on your computer, then it is high time you read this article with shame on your cheeks.
Before things get really messy, get yourself in order with a decent photo management program. There are quite a few photo managers that require you to pull the credit card, but digiKam is free. And we’re not talking about an entry-level version where you can upgrade to a more advanced version later, but really for free.
DigiKam is open source and is regularly updated. With this program you can manage huge libraries, even photo banks of more than 100,000 images. The program is available in Dutch and there is a version for Windows, macOS and Linux.
Also read: How to automatically remove duplicate photos
to install
On the home page www.digikam.org choose the installer for your system. Then you select a server on a card to download software. By the way, there is a fast server in the Netherlands. In this case we install digiKam 7.6 64 bit. In the installation wizard you quickly click through a few screens to agree to the conditions.
When the installation is complete, open the program. You will notice that digiKam has adopted your system language (Dutch).
Configure
After that, the assistant will help you to configure the application. You can always change the configuration later in the program via the menu Settings. First you indicate where you want to save the images. The program will change the folder Pictures to introduce. The software creates three databases: one for collections, one for compressed thumbnails, and one for facial recognition information. Feel free to stick to the suggested type: SQLite.
In the next step you can indicate whether the program is allowed to add information to the metadata of the photos. Then you decide how the images are displayed in preview mode. Select there that you want to see the reduced version, that works the fastest.
Next, you have to choose how images are opened when you left click on the thumbnail. You have the choice between Open a preview — that’s our preference — or Open in the editor. Finally, the assistant asks if you want to see speech bubbles when you hover over an item. That’s best for you too.
Put photos in albums
The first time you open the program, there are obviously no images in the library yet. In the menu Import you already notice the versatility of digiKam. Of course you will find the options here to add images from certain folders, but you can also download photos directly from Google Photos or copy from a USB storage device or a memory card. It is even possible to address the scanner directly.
When you have chosen a source, the software asks in which digiKam album you want to place the images. You get an overview of the existing albums and you can create a new album. You give the album a name, you indicate to which category this album belongs (various, nature, party, travel, etc.). Then select a date that belongs to the new album.
Then you indicate which folder and files you want to download. When you hover over a thumbnail, you can indicate in the top left corner of the thumbnail whether you want to select or deselect that file. You can also just download everything. If you want to work more selectively, it is possible to download only the raw files, only jpg/tiff files or only video files.
Thumbnails and Examples
The imported albums keep the original folder structure. For example, if you import the Photos folder, you will find all subfolders in the left column next to the albums. When you click on a folder in the left column, the contents appear on the central workspace.
Under each thumbnail you can read the file formats of the image files. In some states ARW, then we know that these are raw files. For example, in videos it says MP4. Indeed, you can also manage videos with this program. Read the photos below JPG, PNG or TIF. When you click on a thumbnail, it is possible to assign a star rating from one to five. At the same time you can rotate the photo.
If you double click on a thumbnail, you will enter preview mode and the rest of the thumbnails from this album will appear in a band above the photo. You can scroll through the images by using the arrows.
Map, table, slideshow
We go to the toolbar at the top. Click on folder, digiKam shows a map showing where all the photos of the selected album were taken. The photos must then contain location information. At the bottom left of the map is a button with a globe. This allows you to switch between different card types. Here you can also indicate that you only want to see thumbnails on the map, or also numbers that show the number of photos that belong to this location.
You often have photos that do not contain location information. Don’t worry, you can also add that information later with digiKam. Select the thumbnails of photos taken in the same place. By holding down the Ctrl key, you can select multiple photos at once. Then go to the menu Items / Geolocation Editing.
You will then see the list of the selected photos and a map. On the right side of this pane, use the tab To search and there you type in the name of the location. The location finder will pin on the map and add this information to the metadata of the selected photos.
Via the toolbar you can also view the contents of an album as Table see. Then you see the date and time when the photos and videos were taken. With the button next to it, digiKam produces a slideshow from the album. With the arrow pointing down, you decide to play all the images in the folder or just a certain selection or a subfolder.
The last button is used to display the selected photo full screen.
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tagging
In the left bar you will see various tabs. The top tab takes you to the albums. Below that is the Tags tab, which opens the tab manager. tags are indispensable if you want to quickly find certain images in a huge photo library. Tags in the photo collection work the same as hashtags on the web. Thanks to tags you will find all images with the same keywords for locations, names of people and events.
Right-clicking on a thumbnail takes you to the assignment Assign tag. It is faster to select a series of files with the Ctrl key pressed, so that you can tag them together in one go. You can select a previously used tag or insert a new tag. It is also possible to use a tag hierarchy such as Citytrips/Paris/Eiffeltoren.
To make it visually even clearer, you can make tags recognizable with icons. In addition, you can link a keyboard shortcut to frequently used tags.
Labels
The terms tags and labels are often used interchangeably. At digiKam they mean different things. Tags are identifiers that make searches easier. Labels are stars, flags, or colors that indicate categories. By in the tab Labels clicking on five stars will bring up all the top photos that you have assigned the maximum number of stars.
DigiKam has four different flags that indicate, for example, whether a photo is being processed or accepted. In the Labels tab you can see which photos have been given a certain flag, color or star rating.
Dates and timeline
A tab that often comes in handy is Dates. The years in which you recorded photos and videos will appear here. Every year you can click open in months to view the media files chronologically. And at the bottom you can even select a day in a calendar.
Under this tab is the tab Timeline, where you can see how many photos you have taken per unit of time (year, month, week, day). In the tab Search write down the tags or the time at which you want to search the photo bank. You can also save any search query for later use.
Shortcuts
Shortcut keys ensure that you work even more smoothly with this program. You can still adjust all these shortcuts yourself in the settings.
t: open the Tags tab
Ctrl+selection drag: face recognition
Ctrl+D: find duplicates
Ctrl+Shift+D: adjust time and date
Ctrl+0 … Ctrl+5: add star rating
Alt+0 … Alt+3: change flag color
Ctrl+Alt+0 … Ctrl+Alt+9: place color label
Alt+Shift+T: edit image title
Ctrl+Shift+G: edit location
Ctrl+Shift+M: edit metadata
Alt+Shift+C: edit comment
Face recognition
In digiKam, AI algorithms for automatic face tagging also work. You have to help that facial recognition a bit by first naming a few people yourself. The more you help this facial recognition, the more efficient it becomes.
If you hold down the Ctrl key and drag a selection box around a face, digiKam asks you to enter a name. You can in mode Example also use the doll icon: Add a face tag. If there are several people in a photo and you have already tagged some people, you can use the button next to it: Show face tags.
