Free / Open Source photography software

[New stuff in more recent posts. Please check the end of this thread for much newer software]

Darktable 2.0 has been released. Available for OSX and Linux, [edit]September 2017 - Windows now available too[/edit] installers are here:
https://www.darktable.org/

Try it out and see what you think. 100% open source, free to use commercially, $0 and no crippled trial version.

 

Tried it a few times before, but I remember the first version was pretty unstable on Linux. I will see how it goes on OS X...

Edit: not a bad program, a touch slow on my dual core MBP, but so is Lightroom. Here is screenshot:

Click to view full size!

The image in question was of the first sunrise for 2016. Taken from Nobby's Beach - Newcastle NSW.

 

looks pretty cool.
I assume this is purely for photo editing?

 

Ahh I wish I had the knowledge with helping port it to windows

 

I tried the last version out on my laptop a while back. Found it a bit clunky compared to Lightroom but great for a free product.

Until someone can port it to Windows It's not really an option for me anyway.

 

The porting isn't a problem apparently, it's the ongoing support for that port.
One of the DT guys actually already tried a port:
http://www.darktable.org/2011/07/that-other-os/

 

Just an update.

Things that piss me off

The UI fonts are huge on my retina display (at the max resolution of 1680x1050 pixels), which is my chief annoyance with this program. The video elvis posted said there was a CSS file you could tweak to modify the UI settings, but I'd be damned if I can find it anywhere.

Also, I haven't found a single setting in the "~/.config/darktable/darktablerc" file that improves overall catalog browsing on an completely intel based dual-core i5 MBP with an SSD and 4GB of RAM. Scrolling begins a refresh race that can last up to a few minutes with a large number of NEF files - something that doesn't happen in Adobe Lightroom CC thanks largely to 1:1 thumbnails being built on import and stored in the Lightroom catalog file.

Edit: This is really pissing me off... all of images are now blurred and GREEN. <- was the OpenCL setting that I was fiddling with. FIXED

Things I like

I do like the way it works with my NEF files, just a few quick and simple adjustments and my images look far more pleasing to the eye than they do in Adobe Lightroom CC when adjusting the same/similar settings - very little in the way dickery is needed.

The huge array of pluggable filters/options you can use is a little over the top, I'm sure I won't use all of them and quite frankly have no idea who would, but thats just me. I'm glad they are there though so I can experiment as needed.

 

While looking around for a Windows version of this, most references were to a blog post from the developers claiming the only reason there was no Windows build was due to the fact no Windows developer has put their hand up to port it. (which I thought sounded pretty unbelievable)

I eventually found a Windows developer complaining that he'd ported it but the Darktable developers didn't want to talk to him.

All politics aside, a non-official 64bit Windows Darktable v2.0 release can be found on his website.

 

Thanks for the link!

 

Excellent. I'm glad someone is making the effort to get this on Windows. Great tool!

 

Buggy on Windows 10.

Tried to edit a NEF, that worked ok. Tried to export had to figure out how...

http://www.darktable.org/usermanual/ch02s03s12.html.php

The file format options menu is just a blank line and I cannot choose JPG or anything else. So therefore clicking export just says invalid file format selected.

 

I'm impressed at the detail of this outline of changes, I've been using it without even noticing the update!

Thanks for sharing though, big fan of Dark Table

 

Did you set the "Target Storage" in the export settings as "Save on disk"?

 

I love my Linux and have tried Darktable (not 2.0) but just couldn't get into the workflow like Lightroom. Yes, I realise they are different but I just find Lightroom an easier product the use and the deal breaker is then having Photoshop available when required.

I still have Darktable on my laptop and Linux desktops for casual editing, but I've recently had to install Windows again just for the Lightroom and Photoshop combo.

I really need to get this installed on my laptop to see what it's like.

 

Try getting into gimp

 

Used gimp for years, but again only for basic things here and there. It's a new workflow and doesn't have some stuff that Photoshop has been doing for a long time.

 

I generally recommend Krita to folks instead of GIMP. It's somewhat aimed at illustration types, however does have a few photo editing options that are not too bad. Windows/Mac/Linux builds available.

Not open source, but I've been waiting forever for these guys to get their product out of beta. "Bloom" (previously named "Ormr") looks amazing. I need to put it infront of some high end artists and get some feedback.

 

Yep output to my local disk, folder on my C:\

 

Agree. There's no excuse anymore to not consider GIMP. It has a billion features. People have tried to tell me that they can't do ABC in GIMP, but when you tell them how to do it, they're shocked. They just didn't know how, that's all.

Now combine GIMP with Darktable and you have one hell of an open-source image editing suite there which easily rivals its Windows proprietary packages.

 

What @kernelhack said.

The obstacle for most people is what they started out with. It would be just as difficult for me to move to photoshop/illustrator. Lucky for me I don't have any reason to