Whew! Had no idea there is so much open source software for photography.
So, I’m Starkman, an amateur photographer at times (it’s been a while since I’ve had the camera in my hands), and I learned Photoshop but I really mastered Lightroom! I don’t use either anymore because I can’t afford to and just don’t shoot enough to justify paying for them anyway.
So, getting back into the groove a bit, I want to learn GIMP, but I understand it doesn’t process RAW, or you need a plugin to do so—I’ll probably be shooting a lot of JPEG, but it’d be nice to shoot in RAW too. And then I just found out about Darktable for RAW processing. Well, first, does it process JPEG as well, and secondly is it able to do most everything that Lightroom can (in terms of processing, not necessarily work flow)? And then there’s other programs I saw, and I wonder, first and foremost, are they really proficient enough to handle heavy-duty processing? I simply don’t know. But man, there’s a lot of them. I just never heard of them…until, that is, I decided to install Linux Mint. Suddenly open source becomes very prevalent!
As for GIMP, I understand it’s still clunky and not as intuitive as it could be, but having a strong knowledge of Lightroom and a bit of Photoshop, I’m trusting that won’t be too much of a problem to learn, at least I hope not!
So, where does the open source software stand compared to the typical PS and LR comparisons? What’s missing? Where do they exceed?
This is true, GIMP won’t edit RAW by itself. Both Darktable and RawTherapee can pass images seamlessly to GIMP.
Please consider shooting RAW. Even if you just batch process them with a raw processor, I think you’ll have better results. But once you get the hang of editing, you’ll get great results. Both Darktable and RawTherapee can edit jpegs.
I don’t think either program wants to have feature parity with LightRoom, but the tools provided work well.
Some modules I like in Darktable: raw black/white point, zone system, equalizer
Some modules I like in RawTherapee: Lab adjustments, Wavelet contrast/edge detection, film simulation
GIMP will likely get you the results you want and you’ll be fine if you understand the basics of image editing.
As far as shooting RAW, that’s all I did in the past, and I love it. Iif I find Darktable and RawTherapee agreeable with my future plans for shooting (not a whole lot, and not wanting to spend a lot of time editing), then I’ll probably consider shooting in RAW again. Shooting in JPEG would simply be because I’m not going to demand much at all from my shots. Just enough for my own enjoyment, not for showing. So I don’t want to spend a lot of time or intricate work on image editing.
I definitely understand image editing, and it will only be photographic image editing that I will be doing (I am NOT a graphic artist person…I can barely spell the words, but I understand it well enough).
So, I’ll get to researching Darktable and RawTherapee as soon as I get a hold on GIMP…maybe even before. We’ll see!
You make it sound so complicated
Just take one step at a time.
Most of the forum members seem to have their favourite work flow.
Some very complicated (I come to think of one presented a few days ago)
– but so what, it works for him!; while others are much simpler & easier to follow.
Both Darktable and Rawtherapee can develop styles, a group of settings that you can easily apply to your photographs. Darktable has several websites that catalog these settings. Both applications also allow you to do batch processing (Darktable via the command line, and RawTherapee both at the command line and via the GUI).
To be honest, Claes, for me it is complicated. I don’t do “intuitive” well at all. If it’s not spelled out, I tend to flounder quite nicely!
Really, for me, it’s about trying not to reinvent the wheel again, you know. I do well when I can gather information that helps me keep from making mistakes that don’t need to be made if the research is done ahead of time.
As to workflow, that’s really at the bottom of my list; I’ll catch on to that as I go. Thankfully, I won’t be producing much requiring to worry about it. Once I know the program well enough, meh, the rest will kick in.
But in the beginning, it really is about saving myself the headaches of not wanting to reinvent the wheel when it comes to just the basics of what a program can and cannot do, what I can expect and not expect, how it compares with what I already know. Once I get those basics down, I’m much better off learning the program.
Also, don’t let things overwhelm you too much. There’s a ton of different projects out there, but some of them can be quite specialized and might not be relevant to you at first. If it was me I’d focus primarily on raw processing (darktable, RawTherapee) and pixel editing (GIMP) first. Ask questions, get to know things a little bit (folks here are usually quite friendly and don’t bite), and build up a workflow you are comfortable with. Then start branching out as needed.
Regarding Gimp; I found this article which explains how to make Gimp behave a bit like PS.
You can rearrange the User Interface, select another theme and also import PS key bindings, so you don’t have to learn these all over again. article link
Personally I learned a lot from the tutorials at ‘meet the gimp’. Although no longer maintained, most of it is still relevant.
Thanks much. I haven’t used PS in, well, over a year or so, so I’ve forgotten any key combinations, but it will be interesting to see about making GIMP act (or seem to act) more like PS. That I think I will like. Thanks very much!
