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.
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’.
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…
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?
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.
I have seen his videos and as someone has mentioned you never see him discussing “Photography” but will talk about gears and software etc. and that also from not actually using it!
I think he must be suffering from acute case of Haemorrhoid by constantly sitting on his fat ass, eating and vomiting venom.
Well, these are photos from Jason who was the “good” part in the mentioned shootout. The “bad” and angry Ken is the one who criticizes open source.
200000 subscribers isn’t really much. And the average views of each video is well below 10000. Is that really enough to make a living? I don’t think so. And it isn’t viral.
Let’s just say I’m no stranger to his history thanks to his frequent BS regarding Sony cameras. He’s all about clickbait and not any form of truth or accuracy.
Great response Pierre. But I still think it’s best to delete this thread, even if it means we lose all the witty retorts. This guy’s channel does not deserve promotion here.
