Rather than releasing the memory card from your DSLR camera to be inserted to your computer and copying your photos manually, you are more suggested to import your photos using photo management software. Importing photos from DSLR camera using photo management software can make your photos be more organized. And digiKam is one of the tools that you can use to do that.

DigiKam is a cross-platform photo management software which is available for major platforms including Windows, Mac and Linux. In this article I am going to show you how to use this software to import photos from DSLR camera. I use Ubuntu Linux in this example.

DigiKam itself is popular enough photo management software in the Linux users scope, other than Shotwell. Probably, it’s the most complete photo management software for Linux since it’s very feature-rich. Nearly all Linux distributions have added this software to their software package repository. If your distro hasn’t included digiKam to its software package you can download is here. In Ubuntu, you can install digiKam by executing the command below.

$ sudo apt install digikam

And here is how to import your photos from DSLR camera to your Linux computer.

• Launch the digiKam app on your Linux.
• Connect your DSLR camera to your computer using USB cable.
• Most Linux distros (including Ubuntu) will automatically mount your DSLR camera. Before being able to import your photos using digiKam you need to unmount your DSLR camera.
• DigiKam will automatically detect your DSLR camera. On your digiKam app, select Import –> Cameras. Select the detected camera.

• A new pop window will appear. Press and hold the CTRL button while selecting multiple photos you want to import. Or, simply just select the Download All option if you want to import all of the photos.

• Click the New Album Button to create a new album. Give your album a name and select the category of the album and also write some words on the Caption column. Click the OK button once you done.

• Please note that creating an album isn’t mandatory. However, it’s highly recommended to create an album every time you import new photos in order to make your photos be more organized. Unlike Shotwell which will automatically create folders based on date, digiKam will just import the photos without creating any folder if you don’t create album. Your photos will be stored under the Pictures folder in your account.
• Select the album you have just created and click the OK button to start importing.

• Prepare a cup of tea while waiting for importing process. It takes minutes depend on how many photos you import.