Darktable experience?

[hoanpham]

An alternative to Lightroom is open source Darktable.

What is your experience using it?

Thanks

[miran]

It's been a long time since I last checked it out, at least a year, more likely two. Way back then it promised a few nice features which I really liked but overall it wasn't enough to make me switch from RawTherapee. I should take another good look now to see how far they've come since then. On the surface it looks really slick and powerful.

[std]

There is no windows build?

[hoanpham]

No windows build.

I am using Linux Ubuntu Server LTS as base, Virtual Box and several desktop OS on top.
Still using windows as desktop, but not a requirement.

Yes, the surface looks really nice.

[hoanpham]

Found another similar, open source,
windows build:

http://lightzoneproject.org

[tomzcafe]

I have been using Lightzone for some years to convert from raw to jpg.
I prefer lightzone over rawtherapee.

[Deonshook]

what are the benefits of using lightzone over rawtherapee..??

[tomzcafe]

[Deonshook]

Why it creates an additional text file..?? what is the use of it..??
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hospital safes

[patrickh]

Darktable has come a long way in 2 years. You should really give it a try, I find it renders better (more detail) than LR. Many really fine plugins as well



patrickh

[bghomofaber]

Definitely a very sound program now. I enjoy the keystoning filter quite a lot, for example.

Got a windows version from www.partha.com, alongside the new gimp 2.9 for windows (not so experimental).

Usually I fire up linux at home but on my trips or at work I use windows.

[Jackjones1337]

Darktable is good enough. I've been using it for a year and i'm satisfied with it. I used to retouch some photos at nuderetouching-com but when Darktable was released i started using it instantly. Its main advantage is that it is free of course. As for me, very nice Lightroom alternative

[RnR]

Windows are fully supported nowadays by the developers themselves. Windows is a first class citizen in the DarkTable family. Most image operations are hardware accelerated these days, making it fast and snappy.

From a Fuji X-trans processing stand point; its demosaic algorithm is phenomenal. I feel I get more details from the raw than from Fuji's incamera jpg engine and thats before I add sharpening. DarkTable don't sharpen its output by default. From what I have read from around various forums, its raw processing is highly competitive with commercial offerings including that of C1 and Iridient.

https://www.darktable.org/install/

[lumens pixel]

I am quite happy using Darktable even if I did not abandon Rawtherapee. Using masking on Raw files is a huge benefit.

[Spokklocka]

Darktable has been my main development application since I switched to Linux (Solus) from DXO and to a certain degree C1 in Windows 10.

I like its mask tools, its velvia module, the colors module and the overall layout. File handling wise I'm still getting to grips with it(re-import folders every time I put new raws in them..not a lot of folders but some things don't fit into "film rolls" so much, for example). Denoising isn't as easy as DXO Prime (particularly it requires more user dedication for luma denoising).

No complaints about conversion times.

The graduated density tool is nice too.

[tromboads]

Another darktable fan here,

Generally pretty comfortable to use, I both enjoy and hate, that the scroll wheel can interact so all the menu's. Makes flipping through filters settings great, but also DOH moments if you aren't paying attention with the mouse.

[SkedAddled]

I like what it offers so far, and I'm just testing it out,
but for the life of me, I can't find a way to save an image to where I'll find it
and not to the same RAW file.

Help?

[uddhava]

[SkedAddled]

Sorry I missed your comment for so long, uddhava, but I thank you.
I'll be giving it a try very soon.

So far, I like what darktable does over RawTherapee, as far as my own desires for processing.
It's a very proficient program, with far more capabilities than I am likely to need.
If I can become comfortable enough with using it, it will replace my Photoshop CS6.

[Barry Kirsten]

I've finally made the break with Adobe after a couple of tries. The problem was that for a long time I couldn't see an alternative to PS and particularly LR. I'm now using GIMP and Darktable, and for me Darktable is the killer LR replacement. Although I'm still learning DT I'm finding it does just about everything LR can do and in many cases does them better. And like GIMP it's open source software. Before I finally ditched Adobe I exported many images I'd worked in LR to keep the benefit of the changes I'd made. Some of these I've opened up in DT and have been astonished to find that I've been able to improve them! There are a lot of YouTube videos on DT, but for me the pick of them are those by Bruce Williams, who has 60 videos in his series. DT is serious gear and certainly worth a look as an alternative to Adobe. I've also found GIMP a big improvement from when I last used it about 15 years ago. So far the only thing I've found that GIMP and DT can't do is panorama stitching, but there are open source options there like Hugin, which I've used a few times.

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[uddhava]

Thanks!
I will look at those tutorials when I get home.

[visualopsins]

and welcome Barry Kirsten

[pleto]

I use both darktable and rawtherapee. Darktable is richer in functions. However Rawtherapee is far superior to me when converting Adobe dng files, they are as good as the ones converted by photoshop.

I use indifferently Gimp, Darktable and rawtherapee, according to needs.

Gimp with the g'mic filters is excellent in other things, especially sharpening and film emulation.

Occasionally I may also use lightzone.

For dualiso exposed files, after conversion to dng, I see only rawtherapee as an efficient tool.

[Jackjones1337]

I’m also interested in this. I would like to start my blog about a photo, what can you advise?
https://fixthephoto.com/online-photoshop-editor.html