I'm not a photographer. I don't even own a camera (if u ignore the crappy camera that comes with my mobile and the webcam on the laptop). However, I do collect photographs and pictures, it's a small hobby of mine. And then I have a number of photos of my family and college friends. A whole lot of backgrounds, some which I posted here already. So how do I manage all of them? What if I want to tag them and bag them into an online album like Picasa Web Albums, Flickr, other popular picture hosting sites or share it with friends on Facebook? That's where Shotwell Photo Manager (or simply Shotwell) comes in.
Shotwell is a small, lightweight photo and picture manager that has replaced the incumbent picture manager, F-Spot, after Maverick(10.10) release of Ubuntu. This means that it's there by default under Applications -> Graphics -> Shotwell Photo Manager in Meerkat and Natty. It's well developed and under constant development. Despite it's name, it manages videos as well.
Lightweight on the system resources, as expected of a default Ubuntu application
Under constant development and timely updates
Simple no-nonsense interface that's easy to learn and manage
Able to make small changes to the pictures within the application or edit from an external program, such as the GIMP
Ability to apply multiple-tags to photos, for easy browsing
Browse by events, photos taken at a particular event or date
Add a watched directory and have photo library updated automatically
Add a folder (and have the option to import to the watched directory)
Import photos directly from camera and keep synchronised
Able to export selected photos (very useful when you want to give photos scattered across folders)
Search photos according to names and tags
Flag and rate photos (so that you can sort photos accordingly)
Select multiple pictures and create a background slide show compatible with Ubuntus xml backgrounds (like the ones that shipped in by default)
Very good integration with online publishing. Want to upload pictures and photos to Picasa Web Album? No problem! Just sign in to your account, create an album and upload the file at your wanted resolution. It's very straightforward and easy
Cons
Not a Picasa replacement. Many of the features, such as searching entire file directory for pictures, advanced editing features such as cropping, applying effects (and many more) are not available.... yet.
Not able to browse by directory, a feature I certainly would like available
Not able to create albums. Bummer.
No plugins such as collages.
Not all cameras (such as my crappy mobile phone camera) are detected.
Unable to distinguish photos that are uploaded from photos that aren't. A badge on the photo showing where it was uploaded should fix it?
Not able to keep pictures synchronised with a web album. Have to upload picture manually to a certain web album after tagging it.
Screenshots
Default opening view of the library. Looks sweet, right?
Setting a slide show as my wallpaper with a 1hour duration between each picture. This uses Ubuntu's XML background slide show to set the wallpaper so you don't need to keep Shotwell running
My newly created slide show running as the background and integrated with Appearance Preferences Dialog
Last imported pictures
Selected picture in full view. That's me, BTW.
Sorted according to rating.
Filtered by tags
Uploading to Picasa Web album
Conclusion This is an application that's well integrated with the overall Ubuntu/Linux environment and goes out of it's way to keep things simple. I prefer it to the heavyweight alternative and everyones favourite, Picasa which is also available on the Linux platform. I will post my review on Picasa soon and a comparison to Shotwell soon. Meanwhile, if you are a photographer and a Linux user, then this application would really help you out.
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