User Guide 📖📸
Version: 1.0.17 (Build 18) | Last Updated: September 2026 | Audience: All Fotologue App Users
Welcome to the Fotologue User Guide. This guide covers day-to-day operations, feature walkthroughs, light metering, taxonomy organization, and desktop archival exports.
Table of Contents
1. Quick Orientation & Onboarding
Fotologue is a 100% local-first exposure log and light meter companion. No cloud accounts or logins are required.
First Launch: The Welcome screen guides you through setting up your first Camera, Lens, and Film Stock.
Quick Settings: Easily toggle automatic thumbnails, on-device face detection, and picture export sizes directly from the Welcome or Settings screens.
2. Gear Library & Equipment Associations
Manage your entire arsenal in the Gear Library (GearLibraryScreen).
Equipment & Kits: Manage Cameras, Lenses, Films, Camera Kits, and Accessories (Teleconverters, Filters, Flashes, Viewfinders).
Fixed-Lens & TLR Auto-Creation: Adding a TLR (e.g. Yashica Mat-124G or Rolleiflex 2.8F) automatically creates and links its fixed lens (Yashinon 80mm f/3.5) in your database.
Smart Camera Kits: Pre-configure camera, lens, film, and accessory combinations (e.g. Leica M6 + 35mm Summicron + Tri-X 400) for one-tap setup during fieldwork.
3. The 3-Axis Tag Taxonomy (Subject • Content • Intent)
Organise your exposures across 3 distinct axes:
1. SUBJECT (Domain) 2. CONTENT (Detail) 3. INTENT (Purpose & Project) • Urban / Built • Architecture • Study (Exploration / Process) • Nature • Street • Series (Curated Body of Work) • Events • Wildlife • Documentation (Journal) • People • Portrait • Commission (Client Assignment)
Organizing Book Projects or Exhibitions
Create custom project sub-tags under Series (e.g., Series > Urban Decay or Series > London Monoliths). When exported, these appear in Lightroom or Capture One as Intent|Series|Urban Decay for instant smart collection filtering.
4. Smart Face-Aware Detection vs. Named People Tags
Understanding how Fotologue handles human subjects:
Face-Aware Detection (On-Device ML)
What It Does: Scans live camera viewfinder frames in real-time using Google ML Kit to detect whether a human face is present in the shot.
How It Helps: When a face is detected:
The light meter adjusts exposure suggestions to favor skin tones.
The log creation screen automatically highlights People category tags.
Privacy & Biometrics: Face detection is 100% ephemeral and local. Fotologue stores no biometric face hashes, templates, or facial recognition profiles.
Named People Tags
How to Tag Specific Individuals:
In the Gear Library, navigate to Subjects > People (or Taxonomy & Tags).
Add custom sub-tags for specific individuals (e.g. People > John, People > Sarah).
When logging a shot detected with a human, select your custom name chip (John or Sarah) in one tap.
5. Light Metering & Pro Calibration Wizard
Metering Modes & Viewfinder
Spot & Centre-Weighted: Toggle between Spot metering for specific highlights/shadows or Centre-Weighted for general scenes.
Film Look Pre-Visualization: Live-view pre-visualises contrast using B&W, C-41 (Colour Negative), or E-6 (Slide) profiles.
Pro Calibration Wizard (Settings > EV Calibration)
Stage 1 (The Void): Measure sensor "Noise Floor" with a covered lens.
Stage 2 (The Balance): Calibrate sensitivity against an 18% grey card.
6. Digital Contact Sheet & Frame Gap Adjuster
Open the Digital Contact Sheet via the top bar icon on the Timeline.
Format-Adaptive Grid: 6 columns for 35mm, 3 columns for 120 format.
Visual Scene Fingerprints: Scene thumbnails attached to logs let you easily match digital scan files to field logs.
In-Grid Gap Adjuster: Tap any skipped slot (#04 Skipped / Gap) or active frame to insert or remove frame gaps (+1 / -1 offset), keeping your digital contact sheet 1-to-1 aligned with physical film rebate numbers.
7. Camera Macro Copying & Scanner Matching
When photographing film negatives with a DSLR/mirrorless macro setup or flatbed scanner:
Camera Presets
Auto-name exported .xmp sidecar files (e.g. _DSF1024.xmp) to match RAW camera scan file sequences:
Fujifilm RAW: DSF prefix, 4 digits (DSF1024.xmp).
Canon RAW: IMG_ prefix, 4 digits (IMG_4821.xmp).
Nikon RAW: DSC_ prefix, 4 digits (DSC_0050.xmp).
Sony RAW: DSC prefix, 5 digits (DSC00050.xmp).
Save custom macro copy presets in Settings > Camera Macro Copying Presets for one-tap loading during exports.
8. Printable PDF Proof Sheets
Export styled A4 PDF contact proof sheets complete with:
Header: Camera, Film Stock, Roll Number, Exposure Count, Date, Creator Name, and Copyright notice.
Darkroom Grid: Scene thumbnails, frame rebate badges (#01, #02), and exposure settings (1/125 @ f/8).
Usage: Print physical proof sheets for negative storage sleeves or client archival binders.
9. Backups & Privacy
100% Local Storage: No accounts, analytics, or remote telemetry.
Full SAF Backup & Restore: Create full JSON backups or restore databases via standard Android Storage Access Framework (SAF) in Settings.
10. Release Focus & Future Roadmap (v2.0)
Current Release Focus (v1.0.x)
The feature set for this major release is finalized and feature-frozen. The primary focus for v1.0.x is comprehensive QA testing, community verification, and validating that all metering, cataloguing, cross-referencing, and XMP export features operate with 100% precision.
Next Major Release Roadmap (v2.0)
1. Bluetooth Hotshoe / PC-Sync Flash Trigger Hardware (Fotologue Trigger)
We are actively developing a custom camera hardware device that connects to your Android phone via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE):
Hotshoe / PC-Sync Flash Signal Capture: Connects to your camera's hotshoe or PC-sync flash port. When a photo is taken, the flash signal triggers an instant baseline log in Fotologue.
Instant GPS Precision: Captures exact GPS location coordinates at the precise millisecond of exposure.
Smart Auto-Increment: Automatically increments the roll frame counter using your last log setup as a baseline.
Multi-Camera Field Timelines: When operating multiple cameras in the field, each physical trigger device broadcasts its own unique camera ID, maintaining independent, parallel log timelines for each camera body in real-time.
2. Digital Camera Cataloguing & Taxonomy Integration
While modern digital cameras automatically capture EXIF exposure settings (aperture, shutter speed, ISO), they lack Fotologue's rich 3-Axis Tag Taxonomy (Subject • Content • Intent) and field notes.
Digital Camera Integration: v2.0 will extend cataloguing and Bluetooth hotshoe triggering to digital cameras, bridging digital shooting workflows with Fotologue's fine-art taxonomy (Series, Study, Book Projects) and location history.