Here is a little something for your blog…

This was the title of an email I got the other day. The email comes from Michael Baranov, a fellow Pentaxian from Ottawa – a good man, if you ask me 🙂 .

Attached was a Python script that gobbles up all the RAW files from a directory and spits out JPEG (or TIFF or PNG…) files. The interest is that the output quality is very high (including Chromatic Aberration correction and use of 16bits), its usage is flexible (a few variables to configure at the beginning of the script and you’re all set) and it preserves exif data.

A word of caution, though: for CA to work, you need to compile the latest version of Hugin (at least for Ubuntu) and for K users (at least K10) you need the latest version of DCRaw with -S support, otherwise you will get pink highlights (DCRaw with -S support needs to be compiled if you are an Ubuntero).

The script should work with any camera brand, maybe with some adaptation; don’t hesitate to leave comments with your experiments…

Update: get the raw2any.py file

Due to wordpress limitations, the script is enclosed as and ODT file: just open it with OpenOffice, copy and paste it to a text file, save the text file as raw2any.py, make it executable and have fun…

get the raw2any ODT file

Manslide a KDE4 based Slideshow GUI

In my last entry about creating a high quality DVD slideshow under Linux, I used the command line tool dvd-slideshow. As you would, Alexandre Prokoudine (again 🙂 ) commented a 1 liner which read “what about Manslide?” So I had to give it a go. Manslide is a QT4 application which offers GUI for slideshow generation in different video formats. The application is ambitious with support for a lot of fancy effects in slide transitions as well as how it each image is displayed: zooming, moving around, on a moving flag or coming out of fog.

Since the process of setting up and running Manslide had quite a few bumps, this entry will be more about my impression of a work in progress than a “proper” review.

Producing a DVD slideshow

When shooting friends’ wedding, I decided it would be “way cool” to give them – beside an album (of course) – a DVD with a slideshow of the best pictures of D-Day. This is so simple to send to friends abroad, you just need a TV or a computer to play it and you can also include higher definition pictures if someone wants to have prints.

Now there is a set of tools that allows to do just that on Linux: dvd-slideshow. You start with preparing your slideshow (defining pictures, timing, transitions…) then create a DVD menu and generate an ISO which you burn on a DVD.

Linux being Linux, dvd-slideshow is command line based. And no, it is not as bad as it looks. However, this entry is based on a several months old successful experience with dvd-slideshow, so there may be some inaccuracies…

Ubuntu Linux graphic software list

In another of these never ending threads that is the TradeMark of UbuntuForums, I came across a list of all the design, photo, video and animation tools available for Ubuntu Linux. The thread is 114 posts long (as of writing) and the content has been moved to an independent wiki: artlinux.wetpaint.com. The real meat is the top left box – “Navigation”.

While it contains only basic information on the programs and not all are interesting for photography, this is a good starting point if someone needs an overview of “what exists”. And unfortunately, there is no Photoshop or Lightroom Open Source equivalent that had gone unnoticed so far… if you DO find one, though, please let me know 🙂

Still, the link is worth a visit.

Phatch: batch power without bash hassle

In a previous comment, Yves mentioned Phatch, a GUI based batch photo processor. Phatch also has one of these never-ending threads on Ubuntu forums. I had planned to give it a try for some time, and today, the time has come…

Basically, Phatch is a (wxGTK) python based GUI front end to the python image library. It allows to create batches and apply them to all the images in a folder.

ImageMagick and bash: Batch Power!

Ok, here is another topic on which I had planned to blog for quite some time, but I wanted to have the end result available on my gallery website before blogging about the technicalities…

An area where Linux shines

We have touched the subject of using bash scripts to quickly convert RAW files into JPEG with default settings. For that we used Ufraw (from the command line) and a bash script. Bash scripting (web, wiki) is actually one area where Linux (and Unix-like systems) shines since this has been an important part of the operating system since its inception. Basically, Linux is a kernel that you can interact with through a command line language (Bash is one of them). And you can write these commands to a file for ease of (re)use.

Now the command lines also allows you to interact with most Linux programs, as we have seen in the Ufraw example.

The sweetness of dual screen (with Xorg 7.3)

Hello again,

Today will be a bit off-topic and a break from the (just started) workflow stuff.

The sweetness of dual screen…

A very comfortable thing when working with photographs is to have a dual screen system. The principle is to have one monitor with your tools / programs and another one (color managed) with your photograph on it. I have a flat monitor normally attached to my computer (for office work, web browsing…) and an extra (old) CRT which I use for photography. The CRT is color managed.