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 “feel”
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. I’d 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 there’s necessarily anything wrong with that…but Phd work in wavelets probably makes for a better resume than having taken a photoshop class.
It doesn’t 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 envy…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 he’s 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 camera… 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 I’ll never pay a dime for anything from Fujifilm. [ SteelhouseLane ]
from here (already posted by @anon41087856).
I’ve 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.
I’m going to have to save the videos at that link for later as I’m in a public place but I just looked at his photos. These are the first that I’ve seen from him.
I’ll be nice by saying that he’s probably a very busy man these days with that YouTube channel and probably doesn’t have much opportunity to maintain his photography skills by going out shooting. 
The other photographer obviously has a better grasp of, well… light.
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dude just wants to show off his tattoos + jedi robe 
I’ve never heard of this guy but I’ve heard many of the same arguments. Seems to be a common sentiment from the Apple enthusiasts I’ve encountered. The number of times I’ve been told “if you were truly any good at X or smart you’d give up on free software and program for the iPhone” by some of these folks is quite staggering too. It’s like a cult. 
He has some galleries on his web site aside form the blog post you linked. While the photos in that gallery aren’t 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 I’m misunderstanding and the galleries are not his work but workshop attendees? Maybe he had an off day with the GFX? Like I said I’d 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 Wheeler’s Instagram is pretty weak. Looks like snapshots and reposts.
More angry than photographer, indeed.
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Ah OK sorry I thought Lanier was the guy in the video too. I don’t know who either of these guys are so I assumed we were talking about one person.
But he peals potatoes with Light Room ®©™ so nicely …
My not so friendly duck says go away you Jamie Oliver impersonator
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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 ‘garbage ware’ is some ‘million miles’ away from Lightr… no I mean from ‘Photoshop’.
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He seems to get views by being negative, so I’d say just let him be.
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Being negative is fine, possibly even constructive. But let’s not mistake “negative” with “toxic”.
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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 post…
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 “neutral” photographer who suggests in his blog to dump Lightroom in order to adopt Capture One…
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 free…
On the Net, you often read about some users suggesting to dump Photoshop and adopt Gimp because it is free. If they are “geeky techies” they often precise you can even download the source code as a bonus…
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I wouldn’t 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 it’'s “garbageware,” 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 you’re spending thousands on gear, then price might not be a huge issue. But “free” as in “without cost” 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 “free” 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?
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BTW, you get similar comments when you write “Canon colors are better” in a Sony forum 
There is no misunderstanding, since there is no rational cognitive process going on there (you can’t misunderstand what you didn’t try to understand at all). Wheeler’s business is to start controversies, not to evaluate options and report his conclusions in order to, maybe, let viewers make their own mind.
darktable is garbage. Why ? The image quality is not good ? The workflow is sub-optimal ? The interface is ugly ? The controls are confusing ? Some cameras are not well managed ? It runs too slow ? It crashes unexpectedly ? (Side note : I wouldn’t have started working on it if it was perfect, and @hanatos wouldn’t have restarted a vkdt from scratch, so we are well aware it sucks on many aspects, thanks).
We will never know, because it’s not the point. The point is to piss-off people so his shit channel gets viral. And proof is here, it worked.
That’s why I’m against inviting him, or ever trying to discuss with him. This kind of people is toxic, nothing good will come out of it and they will never change their mind because there is no mind in there. Put them in an asylum or in the White House, but I don’t want them in my mail box. They are big children throwing toys away to get noticed.
I’m probably the most negative person around here, and I swear a lot too, every day, on open-sourcery (GTK, PulseAudio, Gnome, LittleCMS2, lately : libheif…), the difference is I didn’t started a channel to rant, I learned C to fix the stuff that pisses me off and holds me down. Everyone his own ethics I guess.
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