Bingo
He is free to his own tastes in software and photography editing. But I must say I am very annoyed at the number of reviewers who make no effort to understand the underlying science behind photography and still think their opinion holds any sort of value. The lens review category is especially rife with pseudoscience and āfeelā
yeah he even mentions how there are college level courses in PS. But when I was at university, I knew people who were doing Phd work on wavelets. Iād say they picked the more interesting thing to study, and might have a bit more appreciation of what some of these free tools can do than people who took a class in Photoshop. Not that thereās necessarily anything wrong with thatā¦but Phd work in wavelets probably makes for a better resume than having taken a photoshop class.
It doesnāt seem to occur to this guy (or a lot of people for that matter) that something free might require a whole bunch of learning to use properly too, not to mention that it could be better.
I use Raw Therapee and the new Darktable update is giving me feature envyā¦good thing I can just go ahead and use it for free if i want.
I laughed when he started talking about how many machines heās allowed to use his editing softwares on.
There are people who have some doubts with respect to his photography 
:
Worst photos ever taken with a large format cameraā¦ Congrats Wheeler - not an easy task to accomplish. And as I told to Fujifilm people, as long as such a troll like you get involved with their brand Iāll never pay a dime for anything from Fujifilm. [ SteelhouseLane ]
from here (already posted by @anon41087856).
Iāve probably stumbled upon dozens of his videos over the years. He always struck me as a camera equipment collector and gearhead who found a way to pay for his hobby by making videos for YouTube. Somehow he has managed to get over 200,000 subscribers to his channel so this may very well be his full-time job.
Iām going to have to save the videos at that link for later as Iām in a public place but I just looked at his photos. These are the first that Iāve seen from him.
Iāll be nice by saying that heās probably a very busy man these days with that YouTube channel and probably doesnāt have much opportunity to maintain his photography skills by going out shooting. 
The other photographer obviously has a better grasp of, wellā¦ light.
1 Like
dude just wants to show off his tattoos + jedi robe 
Iāve never heard of this guy but Iāve heard many of the same arguments. Seems to be a common sentiment from the Apple enthusiasts Iāve encountered. The number of times Iāve been told āif you were truly any good at X or smart youād give up on free software and program for the iPhoneā by some of these folks is quite staggering too. Itās like a cult. 
He has some galleries on his web site aside form the blog post you linked. While the photos in that gallery arenāt my style they seem to be more or less competently executed. Which makes his seeming lack of skill with a camera in the blog post even more puzzling. Unless Iām misunderstanding and the galleries are not his work but workshop attendees? Maybe he had an off day with the GFX? Like I said Iād never heard of the guy until now and know almost nothing about him.
These photos are done by Jason Lanier and not by Ken Wheeler or am I wrong?
You are correct.
Men Wheelerās Instagram is pretty weak. Looks like snapshots and reposts.
More angry than photographer, indeed.
1 Like
Ah OK sorry I thought Lanier was the guy in the video too. I donāt know who either of these guys are so I assumed we were talking about one person.
But he peals potatoes with Light Room Ā®Ā©ā¢ so nicely ā¦
My not so friendly duck says go away you Jamie Oliver impersonator
1 Like
FUD marketing strategy is not quite freedom of speech 
Neither is patent trolling
This poor chap is somehow bound to Adobe products although he hates them. Has someone contact to him and can invite him to provide a photo for play RAW here? Would be glad to show if this āgarbage wareā is some āmillion milesā away from Lightrā¦ no I mean from āPhotoshopā.
1 Like
He seems to get views by being negative, so Iād say just let him be.
4 Likes
Being negative is fine, possibly even constructive. But letās not mistake ānegativeā with ātoxicā.
1 Like
First they ignore you: it was the case when Darktable was not as powerful as it is today
Then they laugh at you: we are discussing about this on this postā¦
Then they figth you;
Then you win.
With commercial softwares there are always many reviewers who bash other commercial softwares in order to promote their products.
For instance, I am bored to death to read on the net articles with a āneutralā photographer who suggests in his blog to dump Lightroom in order to adopt Capture Oneā¦
EDIT: I have never tried Lightroom. I am a happy RawTherapee user.
EDIT:
IMHO, to be fair, you have to admit that this guy has a point when he says that it does not make any sense to propose a software to a photographer only because it is freeā¦
On the Net, you often read about some users suggesting to dump Photoshop and adopt Gimp because it is free. If they are āgeeky techiesā they often precise you can even download the source code as a bonusā¦
2 Likes
I wouldnāt know how to get in touch with Mr. Wheeler, but perhaps someone could present a challenge to him. Let him see if he could definitively pick which, out of a series of photos, were edited by Adobe or by Darktable. If itā's āgarbageware,ā his masterful eyes should certainly be able to tell the difference, right? Just a thought. Anybody know how to get in touch with him?
True, if youāre spending thousands on gear, then price might not be a huge issue. But āfreeā as in āwithout costā is not the type of free that is important to me.
The important part is having the freedom to control my toolchain as I see fit. No phoning home, no automatic updating, no minimum version requirent. It also means that as long as I have a platform that can run some version of the software, I can use my files.
So āfreeā as in cost is a misunderstanding on his part.
The car metaphor he uses is weird as well. Are Adobe products supposed to be racing slicks?
8 Likes
BTW, you get similar comments when you write āCanon colors are betterā in a Sony forum 