6 ms·

Open Source Photography Workflow

162 points by macco 11y ago

tefo-mohapi 11y ago
Thanks for this. Looking to uninstall windows and move to Ubuntu on my laptop, this comes in handy
glenda 11y ago
Also, gphoto2 is great for interacting with cameras using the command line. I will typically use it to import/backup all the images directly from a camera but it has so many more features. I believe darktable uses it behind the scenes, but it is extremely powerful on its own. Another good command line program is dcraw, especially for batch developing RAW photos. These two programs probably make up more than half of my photography workflow.
unknownzero 11y ago
If nothing else that was a great pitch for the class at the end. It was actually informative and I felt pretty confident that I could get something out of the course by the time that I got to the end and saw it. A+
mpnordland 11y ago
Also look at gphoto2 for setting up your camera, on my camera, gphoto2 can do some pretty cool things like set the date and time (much better than doing it on the camera) and even take photos. When I went more professional I switched from Shotwell to using Rapid Photo Downloader and I created some scripts around sxiv (https://github.com/muennich/sxiv https://github.com/muennich/sxiv) that lets me pick out which shots I want and then I run then through darktable. I haven't gotten color management yet, just not in my (college student) budget.
vvanders 11y ago
That first line is telling. It took him years to find a workflow that met his needs. It's probably not a popular opion here but there are some things that are worth paying for. When it comes to working with 500+ photos from a shoot you can pry lightroom from my cold dead hands.
- hippich 11y ago
  it probably will take you years to find workflow that meet your needs using lightroom as well. any complex software requires time.
  - vvanders 11y ago
    Actually lightroom solves this exact issue. It's a streamlining of Adobe Camera RAW, Photoshop engine and library management targeted exclusively to photographers workflow. It also has seamless integration with Photoshop for heavyweight operations.
    - hippich 11y ago
      what i am trying to tell, is that it is streamlined only because you know photoshop already... every time i open photoshop (it happens may be once a year) i am totally lost. while in gimp - everything seems to be so easy. it doesn't mean gimp interface is intuitive, it means i spent a lot of time learning it. same about photoshop - every tutorial is created for photoshop contributes towards it, but it doesn't necessarily means it is "streamlined". hope this makes some sense :)
      - matwood 11y ago
        LR is way easier than PS to learn and use. When it comes to managing a large number of RAWs I have not found anything better.
      - tjr 11y ago
        I have never used Photoshop. I have used GIMP on and off for years, and mostly used Apple iPhoto for basic photo editing. Last year, on a whim, I bought a copy of Lightroom. I have rarely been so impressed with a piece of software, and was immediately more productive, and generating better results.
        newdaynewuser 11y ago
        Another vote for Lightroom. I just started using it and I am surprised how quickly I became productive with it. Wish I had converted to Lightroom years ago.
contingencies 11y ago
Darktable, which I've been using for at least three years now, is certainly a reasonable lightroom replacement. Its initially rough edges have been mostly well rounded now, and some of the more hard-line decisions from the developers (like "no file delete functionality at all") have been sensibly slackened. Some things I think are still missing from open source photography workflow: adequate support Linux from high-end printer manufacturers (eg. I have a Canon Pixma Pro 1 and I basically have to use it through a shitty Windows VM), and better front-ends for lens distortion calculators.
- CarVac 11y ago
  I've used Epson printers without issues on Linux. Apply the profile and print away. (Of course Epson has its own issues...)
- ISL 11y ago
  What might one recommend as an introduction to Darktable? I've transitioned to RAW in the past couple of months, and while I'm starting to develop a workflow, I get occasional surprising (to me) behavior. Is there a nice review of the thinking and backend behind the Darkroom UI?
  - rwh86 11y ago
    There's a bunch of resources on the darktable website: http://www.darktable.org/resources/ http://www.darktable.org/resources/ The screencasts might be a good place to start, and the user manual is quite comprehensive. Disclaimer: I did some of the screencasts. Riley's course is a more-complete overview, but it's not free. Also keep in mind that darktable just entered feature freeze for 2.0, should be released around the end of the year.
- stevekemp 11y ago
  I could never get the hang of DarkTable, and instead use rawtherapee. Mostly I like rawtherapee because it can be pointed at a directory of .CR2/raw files, be used to filter them, convert them, and makes zero attempts to be an image-manager. I don't want to import my images into a collection, or tag them, etc. Instead I use a filesystem hierarchy for that purpose: Images/2015/ Images/2015/10/ Images/2015/10/15-Helsinki-Sunset Each of my "event" directories contains RAW, JPG, and thumbs. That in combination with the year/mon/day-title directories lets me find things very easily.
green7ea 11y ago
I have the same workflow as he does and recently upgraded it by using the experimental GIMP 2.9 branch. It supports 16 and 32 bit colour channels and better interpolation which enables the use of GIMP as a RAW editor (which I find easier than darktable). If there are tech savvy photographers out there, I recommend taking the extra time to compile GIMP.
GutenYe 11y ago
The Open Source Community should really join forces together to create an unified-killer app for it.
- Elv13 11y ago
  This is exactly how the FLOSS community doesn't work. FLOSS only work well with the Unix philosophy. Small, targetted tools/libraries and then some higher level GUI for those. Then, let the law of the jungle get rid of the weaks and let the stong and new contenders fight for market share. There is some exceptions like Blender and GIMP, but overall, there is no such thing as getting together to build a killer mega-app. This is why OSS have hard time getting into CAD, EDA and (serious) accoutability feilds. Those are simply too large to wrap small tools into bigger ones.
sohkamyung 11y ago
lwn.net has a number of articles covering photography with Open Source software. Doing a generic search via DuckDuckGo [ https://duckduckgo.com/?q=site%3Alwn.net+photography https://duckduckgo.com/?q=site%3Alwn.net+photography ] shows a number of articles which may be of interest.
eveningcoffee 11y ago
I am actually wondering why does Adobe not invest a little into Linux? Considering that their current platform providers are moving towards business models where they will want to take large share from every software sale, it would allow Adobe to gain competitive advantage and negotiation power. Beside they would probably create completely new market for themselves.

162 points by macco 11y ago

Thanks for this. Looking to uninstall windows and move to Ubuntu on my laptop, this comes in handy

Also, gphoto2 is great for interacting with cameras using the command line. I will typically use it to import/backup all the images directly from a camera but it has so many more features. I believe darktable uses it behind the scenes, but it is extremely powerful on its own. Another good command line program is dcraw, especially for batch developing RAW photos. These two programs probably make up more than half of my photography workflow.

unknownzero 11y ago

If nothing else that was a great pitch for the class at the end. It was actually informative and I felt pretty confident that I could get something out of the course by the time that I got to the end and saw it. A+

mpnordland 11y ago

Also look at gphoto2 for setting up your camera, on my camera, gphoto2 can do some pretty cool things like set the date and time (much better than doing it on the camera) and even take photos. When I went more professional I switched from Shotwell to using Rapid Photo Downloader and I created some scripts around sxiv (https://github.com/muennich/sxiv https://github.com/muennich/sxiv) that lets me pick out which shots I want and then I run then through darktable. I haven't gotten color management yet, just not in my (college student) budget.

vvanders 11y ago

That first line is telling. It took him years to find a workflow that met his needs. It's probably not a popular opion here but there are some things that are worth paying for. When it comes to working with 500+ photos from a shoot you can pry lightroom from my cold dead hands.

hippich 11y ago
it probably will take you years to find workflow that meet your needs using lightroom as well. any complex software requires time.
- vvanders 11y ago
  Actually lightroom solves this exact issue. It's a streamlining of Adobe Camera RAW, Photoshop engine and library management targeted exclusively to photographers workflow. It also has seamless integration with Photoshop for heavyweight operations.
  - hippich 11y ago
    what i am trying to tell, is that it is streamlined only because you know photoshop already... every time i open photoshop (it happens may be once a year) i am totally lost. while in gimp - everything seems to be so easy. it doesn't mean gimp interface is intuitive, it means i spent a lot of time learning it. same about photoshop - every tutorial is created for photoshop contributes towards it, but it doesn't necessarily means it is "streamlined". hope this makes some sense :)
    - matwood 11y ago
      LR is way easier than PS to learn and use. When it comes to managing a large number of RAWs I have not found anything better.
    - tjr 11y ago
      I have never used Photoshop. I have used GIMP on and off for years, and mostly used Apple iPhoto for basic photo editing. Last year, on a whim, I bought a copy of Lightroom. I have rarely been so impressed with a piece of software, and was immediately more productive, and generating better results.
      - newdaynewuser 11y ago
        Another vote for Lightroom. I just started using it and I am surprised how quickly I became productive with it. Wish I had converted to Lightroom years ago.

contingencies 11y ago

Darktable, which I've been using for at least three years now, is certainly a reasonable lightroom replacement. Its initially rough edges have been mostly well rounded now, and some of the more hard-line decisions from the developers (like "no file delete functionality at all") have been sensibly slackened. Some things I think are still missing from open source photography workflow: adequate support Linux from high-end printer manufacturers (eg. I have a Canon Pixma Pro 1 and I basically have to use it through a shitty Windows VM), and better front-ends for lens distortion calculators.

CarVac 11y ago
I've used Epson printers without issues on Linux. Apply the profile and print away. (Of course Epson has its own issues...)
ISL 11y ago
What might one recommend as an introduction to Darktable? I've transitioned to RAW in the past couple of months, and while I'm starting to develop a workflow, I get occasional surprising (to me) behavior. Is there a nice review of the thinking and backend behind the Darkroom UI?
- rwh86 11y ago
  There's a bunch of resources on the darktable website: http://www.darktable.org/resources/ http://www.darktable.org/resources/ The screencasts might be a good place to start, and the user manual is quite comprehensive. Disclaimer: I did some of the screencasts. Riley's course is a more-complete overview, but it's not free. Also keep in mind that darktable just entered feature freeze for 2.0, should be released around the end of the year.
stevekemp 11y ago
I could never get the hang of DarkTable, and instead use rawtherapee. Mostly I like rawtherapee because it can be pointed at a directory of .CR2/raw files, be used to filter them, convert them, and makes zero attempts to be an image-manager. I don't want to import my images into a collection, or tag them, etc. Instead I use a filesystem hierarchy for that purpose: Images/2015/ Images/2015/10/ Images/2015/10/15-Helsinki-Sunset Each of my "event" directories contains RAW, JPG, and thumbs. That in combination with the year/mon/day-title directories lets me find things very easily.

green7ea 11y ago

I have the same workflow as he does and recently upgraded it by using the experimental GIMP 2.9 branch. It supports 16 and 32 bit colour channels and better interpolation which enables the use of GIMP as a RAW editor (which I find easier than darktable). If there are tech savvy photographers out there, I recommend taking the extra time to compile GIMP.

GutenYe 11y ago

The Open Source Community should really join forces together to create an unified-killer app for it.

Elv13 11y ago
This is exactly how the FLOSS community doesn't work. FLOSS only work well with the Unix philosophy. Small, targetted tools/libraries and then some higher level GUI for those. Then, let the law of the jungle get rid of the weaks and let the stong and new contenders fight for market share. There is some exceptions like Blender and GIMP, but overall, there is no such thing as getting together to build a killer mega-app. This is why OSS have hard time getting into CAD, EDA and (serious) accoutability feilds. Those are simply too large to wrap small tools into bigger ones.

sohkamyung 11y ago

lwn.net has a number of articles covering photography with Open Source software. Doing a generic search via DuckDuckGo [ https://duckduckgo.com/?q=site%3Alwn.net+photography https://duckduckgo.com/?q=site%3Alwn.net+photography ] shows a number of articles which may be of interest.

eveningcoffee 11y ago

I am actually wondering why does Adobe not invest a little into Linux? Considering that their current platform providers are moving towards business models where they will want to take large share from every software sale, it would allow Adobe to gain competitive advantage and negotiation power. Beside they would probably create completely new market for themselves.