5 ms·

Darktable: An open source photography workflow application

98 points by jka 5y ago

bayindirh 5y ago
I'm using darktable for processing my RAW files for some time, and it's very powerful and neat. It has some learning curve, but it's much smoother than it looks. Also, its final image quality is really high.
- nish_rev 5y ago
  I agree, the tools it provides are very powerful. I also really appreciate that it's less opinionated than other photo editors, it makes me consider what I want the final image to look like before I start working on it.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
notjustanymike 5y ago
"Should I use this instead of Lightroom?" If you have to ask, the answer is no. Like learning VIM instead of using VSCode.
- bee_rider 5y ago
  I don't think this comparison is very accurate. VScode is at least free as in beer (with VScodium being free-free, if a little less convenient to use). Lightroom is a paid program that requires getting into Adobe's whole subscription mess. Darktable still has a GUI. It isn't nearly as barebones or discovery-hostile as vim (I love vim but there's a learning curve). I used darktable to touch up some photos, and was able to stumble through as a complete novice. IMO a better comparison would be Blender vs <insert your favorite proprietary 3d modeling tool here>.
- ISL 5y ago
  It is free to try; my recommendation to anyone who is curious about it is to give it a try and see if it works for you. I use Darktable exclusively for all of my photographic work, and have for years. It continues to improve year after year and the backward compatibility has been wonderful; anything I edited in the earliest days with Darktable still renders the same today.
adgud 5y ago
I've used and I loved it, but then I upgraded my camera and this software does not support new Canon CR3 RAW files yet... Sadly I'll switch to Lightroom until it does...
- th0ma5 5y ago
  I have used RawTherapee https://www.rawtherapee.com/ https://www.rawtherapee.com/
- nvllsvm 5y ago
  ART, a fork of RawTherapee, works great with the CR3 files from my EOS 90D. https://bitbucket.org/agriggio/art/wiki/Home https://bitbucket.org/agriggio/art/wiki/Home
- jka 5y ago
  It looks like the ability to read the CR3 format may be available in freshly-compiled distributions of darktable soon, at least for some cameras. It relies on the exiv2 image library, which added support[1] for CR3 in v0.27.4. That said, there are some notes in the darktable issue[2] that suggest that the darktable rawspeed library also requires some updates[3]. [1] - https://github.com/Exiv2/exiv2/releases/tag/v0.27.4 https://github.com/Exiv2/exiv2/releases/tag/v0.27.4 [2] - https://github.com/darktable-org/darktable/issues/2170 https://github.com/darktable-org/darktable/issues/2170 [3] - https://github.com/darktable-org/rawspeed/pull/271 https://github.com/darktable-org/rawspeed/pull/271
Tajnymag 5y ago
Anyone with experience of both Darktable and RawTherapee? I'm torn between the two for my personal photo editing and management needs.
- brbbb 5y ago
  RawTherapee for me has much more intuitive ui which you dont have to learn much, you just pick it up. On the downside it has a bit less features. One feature i'm missing in particular is retouch but apparently its already there in non-stable builds and will be released in the next version. Darktable also didnt have matching color profile for my Sony camera which RawTherapee had out of the box. RawTherapee seem much faster and responsive after adding some filters and edits on the photo. I'm not a professional btw.
- dheera 5y ago
  I use Darktable for almost everything. Except for a few occasional UI freezes it's amazing. Some samples of photos I have taken and processed in DarkTable https://dheera.net/photos/dancelight/ https://dheera.net/photos/dancelight/ https://dheera.net/photos/lashioroad/ https://dheera.net/photos/lashioroad/ https://dheera.net/photos/wintermongolia/ https://dheera.net/photos/wintermongolia/ https://dheera.net/photos/jinghangyunhe/ https://dheera.net/photos/jinghangyunhe/
Someone1234 5y ago
I'm glad Darktable exists. Adobe letting Lightroom "Classic" sit and rot for years, along with increasing the price substantially has really opened the market up to competition. I'm currently using PhotoLab 4, but that's mostly because workflow wise it is "good enough" while offering killer features like DeepPrime and ClearView+ (that neither Lightroom Classic nor Darktable have an answer to yet). Long term though I suspect Darktable will be the final victor if they can find a consistent group of contributors. The biggest limitation right now is lack of proprietary plugin support, for example if they had PureRaw Plugin support I could use Darktable instead of PhotoLab 4 today.
- omoikane 5y ago
  I am also on PhotoLab and have been very happy with it, the killer features for me are the spot removal tool and the perpetual license model. Darktable would have been able to satisfy both of those features, but when I tried it years ago, I had to go back to the menu to select the tool for each spot I wanted to remove and it was just not workable. Darktable had many interface annoyances of this sort and I am not sure if it has improved since.
- jseliger 5y ago
  I'm using Capture One—I tried darktable (I think they like the "no capital d"), but on MacOS it is a nonstarter, or was when I attempted it.
- Youden 5y ago
  I've just recently been combining Photolab with Darktable. DeepPRIME really is a killer feature. It produces images that are basically noise-free without turning the whole image into a smooth featureless blob. But I also really like Darktable's Filmic RGB module and colour management (you can output P3 images and actually make use of the wide gamut displays that nearly every modern device has). So I've taken to this process: - Cull my images and putting everything but the ones that make the cut into a "Rejected" folder. I used FastRawViewer at first but I've warmed to Digikam. - Run DeepPRIME and DxO's optical corrections with Photolab and export a DNG. - Do final adjustments and exports in Darktable. Basically, Photolab allows me to use Darktable but skip Lensfun (which others have mentioned is a bit of a weak point in Darktable) and push my shadows as far as I want without noise.
porphyra 5y ago
Darktable is awesome. However I wish that more modern cameras and lenses would be supported. Darktable depends on the nearly-abandoned lensfun library [1] which doesn't support many cameras and lenses, and has open pull requests that have inexplicably not been merged despite being open for years [2]. Also, the process of contributing calibrations to lensfun is a mess. First, the only way to gain access to create calibrations is to email a single developer, Torsten Bronger [3]. Second, it requires a highly manual and technical workflow primarily documented via a screencast video [4]. Oh, and you may possibly have to compile a custom version of Hugin by copying a patch from the documentation file. So it is no wonder that few volunteers are willing to contribute calibrations! By the way, this is not meant as a jab against Dr Bronger or any other maintainers of lensfun. I am deeply appreciative of the work that these guys have done. It's just that, despite the great work, it's not nearly scalable enough to keep the project going in an effective way. [1] https://github.com/lensfun/lensfun https://github.com/lensfun/lensfun [2] https://github.com/lensfun/lensfun/pull/912 https://github.com/lensfun/lensfun/pull/912 [3] https://github.com/lensfun/lensfun/blob/master/tools/calibration_webserver/workflow.rst https://github.com/lensfun/lensfun/blob/master/tools/calibra... [4] https://vimeo.com/51999287 https://vimeo.com/51999287
- dheera 5y ago
  Yeah, I often do the calibrations in Python (OpenCV for distortions and rawpy and a flat frame for vignetting), spit out a tiff, and then do the rest in darktable. Lensfun is complicated so I never tried to go through that. Libraries are supposed to simplify things and it doesn't.
unicornporn 5y ago
Since darktable introduced the scene referred workflow I would argue it's an extremely steep learning curve for anyone coming from display referred software (Lightroom, Capture One etc). Scene referred is very much a cine-thing and I know of no other still image software that uses it. dt v3.6 made scene referred default. Aurélien has been one of the driving forces behind the switch to scene referred and his hour long explanations of the new modules can be found on his YouTube channel[1]. Boris has a YouTube channel[2] which is quite the opposite. You watch him edit in silence and you will pick up the craft. darktable is made up of modules. The Filmic RGB module takes a central part of the editing workflow in scene referred. This is where to go if you need help getting started: https://discuss.pixls.us/t/lets-learn-filmic-rgb-your-one-stop-shop-to-understanding-filmic-based-approach-to-edits/23843/ https://discuss.pixls.us/t/lets-learn-filmic-rgb-your-one-st... RawTherapee has a more traditional, display referred, approach. If you want local adjustments (which you will want), you need to use nightlies until 5.9 is released. [1] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmsSn3fujI81EKEr4NLxrcg https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmsSn3fujI81EKEr4NLxrcg [2] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMbDlOwmmQnkRmcb2_5WERg https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMbDlOwmmQnkRmcb2_5WERg
- nighthawk454 5y ago
  In case anyone else is looking for a tl;dr on "scene-referred" this link has a very simple diagram. https://www.filmriot.com/blog/scene-referred-vs-display-referred/ https://www.filmriot.com/blog/scene-referred-vs-display-refe... gist is whether you do your color grading in the camera's original color space (scene referred) or after transforming to display color space (display referred)
  - hatsunearu 5y ago
    > you do your color grading in the camera's original color space you do your color grading in linear color space (or something that roughly maps to linear color space) is what that actually means. Linear meaning, the exposure of a pixel is supposed to be proportional to the data number, and the exposure is theoretically infinite (since you can have anywhere between 0 and infinite light). For display color space (for photography this is more in line with "print media color space") there is a maximum brightness and minimum brightness, and you have all the numbers to map brightnesses between the two. The math is a lot cleaner with linear color spaces.
vaidhy 5y ago
I recently started on my photography journey and is just starting with darktable. My biggest challenge is around multiple modules with apparently very similar functionality. It has been very hard to figure out what should I do to get to the end goal I have in mind. FWIW, most of my work is in underwater photography and what I really want is adjust exposure, white balance and change the de-saturate aqua and blue in masked areas and I got struck with filmic, RGB and a couple of others, with none being easy for a beginner.
dang 5y ago
Past threads, including one from last month: Darktable 3.6 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27720908 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27720908 - July 2021 (73 comments) Darktable 3.2.1 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24156113 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24156113 - Aug 2020 (47 comments) Darktable 3.0 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21874528 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21874528 - Dec 2019 (120 comments) Darktable 3.0 Approaching with Many New Features - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21440612 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21440612 - Nov 2019 (1 comment) Darktable 2.4.0 released - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16012499 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16012499 - Dec 2017 (74 comments) Darktable 2.2.0 released - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13261849 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13261849 - Dec 2016 (82 comments) Why don't you provide a Windows build? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12094038 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12094038 - July 2016 (3 comments) Darktable 2.0 released - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10789390 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10789390 - Dec 2015 (44 comments) A look at Darktable 2.0 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10640753 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10640753 - Nov 2015 (10 comments) Why there are no darktable builds for Windows - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9883018 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9883018 - July 2015 (1 comment)
- jcun4128 5y ago
  Guess they gave in as I've used it in Windows
- oh_sigh 5y ago
  Do you have a tagging system, or do you just use search? Or is it a prodigious memory?
  - dang 5y ago
    Just search. But I have software to semi-automate formatting the comments. Lol re memory - what's the opposite of 'prodigious'...
    - Abishek_Muthian 5y ago
dave333 5y ago
There seem to be many darktable tutorials on Youtube so which ones do people recommend? I've watched a couple of intro ones but looking for good ones on digital workflows.
rcarmo 5y ago
I wonder if they’ve finally fixed the performance in macOS. Earlier versions had a redrawing issue where the GUI was being constantly updated upon mouse move…

98 points by jka 5y ago

I'm using darktable for processing my RAW files for some time, and it's very powerful and neat. It has some learning curve, but it's much smoother than it looks. Also, its final image quality is really high.

nish_rev 5y ago
I agree, the tools it provides are very powerful. I also really appreciate that it's less opinionated than other photo editors, it makes me consider what I want the final image to look like before I start working on it.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

notjustanymike 5y ago

"Should I use this instead of Lightroom?" If you have to ask, the answer is no. Like learning VIM instead of using VSCode.

bee_rider 5y ago
I don't think this comparison is very accurate. VScode is at least free as in beer (with VScodium being free-free, if a little less convenient to use). Lightroom is a paid program that requires getting into Adobe's whole subscription mess. Darktable still has a GUI. It isn't nearly as barebones or discovery-hostile as vim (I love vim but there's a learning curve). I used darktable to touch up some photos, and was able to stumble through as a complete novice. IMO a better comparison would be Blender vs <insert your favorite proprietary 3d modeling tool here>.
ISL 5y ago
It is free to try; my recommendation to anyone who is curious about it is to give it a try and see if it works for you. I use Darktable exclusively for all of my photographic work, and have for years. It continues to improve year after year and the backward compatibility has been wonderful; anything I edited in the earliest days with Darktable still renders the same today.

adgud 5y ago

I've used and I loved it, but then I upgraded my camera and this software does not support new Canon CR3 RAW files yet... Sadly I'll switch to Lightroom until it does...

th0ma5 5y ago
I have used RawTherapee https://www.rawtherapee.com/ https://www.rawtherapee.com/
nvllsvm 5y ago
ART, a fork of RawTherapee, works great with the CR3 files from my EOS 90D. https://bitbucket.org/agriggio/art/wiki/Home https://bitbucket.org/agriggio/art/wiki/Home
jka 5y ago
It looks like the ability to read the CR3 format may be available in freshly-compiled distributions of darktable soon, at least for some cameras. It relies on the exiv2 image library, which added support[1] for CR3 in v0.27.4. That said, there are some notes in the darktable issue[2] that suggest that the darktable rawspeed library also requires some updates[3]. [1] - https://github.com/Exiv2/exiv2/releases/tag/v0.27.4 https://github.com/Exiv2/exiv2/releases/tag/v0.27.4 [2] - https://github.com/darktable-org/darktable/issues/2170 https://github.com/darktable-org/darktable/issues/2170 [3] - https://github.com/darktable-org/rawspeed/pull/271 https://github.com/darktable-org/rawspeed/pull/271

Tajnymag 5y ago

Anyone with experience of both Darktable and RawTherapee? I'm torn between the two for my personal photo editing and management needs.

brbbb 5y ago
RawTherapee for me has much more intuitive ui which you dont have to learn much, you just pick it up. On the downside it has a bit less features. One feature i'm missing in particular is retouch but apparently its already there in non-stable builds and will be released in the next version. Darktable also didnt have matching color profile for my Sony camera which RawTherapee had out of the box. RawTherapee seem much faster and responsive after adding some filters and edits on the photo. I'm not a professional btw.
dheera 5y ago
I use Darktable for almost everything. Except for a few occasional UI freezes it's amazing. Some samples of photos I have taken and processed in DarkTable https://dheera.net/photos/dancelight/ https://dheera.net/photos/dancelight/ https://dheera.net/photos/lashioroad/ https://dheera.net/photos/lashioroad/ https://dheera.net/photos/wintermongolia/ https://dheera.net/photos/wintermongolia/ https://dheera.net/photos/jinghangyunhe/ https://dheera.net/photos/jinghangyunhe/

Someone1234 5y ago

I'm glad Darktable exists. Adobe letting Lightroom "Classic" sit and rot for years, along with increasing the price substantially has really opened the market up to competition. I'm currently using PhotoLab 4, but that's mostly because workflow wise it is "good enough" while offering killer features like DeepPrime and ClearView+ (that neither Lightroom Classic nor Darktable have an answer to yet). Long term though I suspect Darktable will be the final victor if they can find a consistent group of contributors. The biggest limitation right now is lack of proprietary plugin support, for example if they had PureRaw Plugin support I could use Darktable instead of PhotoLab 4 today.

omoikane 5y ago
I am also on PhotoLab and have been very happy with it, the killer features for me are the spot removal tool and the perpetual license model. Darktable would have been able to satisfy both of those features, but when I tried it years ago, I had to go back to the menu to select the tool for each spot I wanted to remove and it was just not workable. Darktable had many interface annoyances of this sort and I am not sure if it has improved since.
jseliger 5y ago
I'm using Capture One—I tried darktable (I think they like the "no capital d"), but on MacOS it is a nonstarter, or was when I attempted it.
Youden 5y ago
I've just recently been combining Photolab with Darktable. DeepPRIME really is a killer feature. It produces images that are basically noise-free without turning the whole image into a smooth featureless blob. But I also really like Darktable's Filmic RGB module and colour management (you can output P3 images and actually make use of the wide gamut displays that nearly every modern device has). So I've taken to this process: - Cull my images and putting everything but the ones that make the cut into a "Rejected" folder. I used FastRawViewer at first but I've warmed to Digikam. - Run DeepPRIME and DxO's optical corrections with Photolab and export a DNG. - Do final adjustments and exports in Darktable. Basically, Photolab allows me to use Darktable but skip Lensfun (which others have mentioned is a bit of a weak point in Darktable) and push my shadows as far as I want without noise.

porphyra 5y ago

Darktable is awesome. However I wish that more modern cameras and lenses would be supported. Darktable depends on the nearly-abandoned lensfun library [1] which doesn't support many cameras and lenses, and has open pull requests that have inexplicably not been merged despite being open for years [2]. Also, the process of contributing calibrations to lensfun is a mess. First, the only way to gain access to create calibrations is to email a single developer, Torsten Bronger [3]. Second, it requires a highly manual and technical workflow primarily documented via a screencast video [4]. Oh, and you may possibly have to compile a custom version of Hugin by copying a patch from the documentation file. So it is no wonder that few volunteers are willing to contribute calibrations! By the way, this is not meant as a jab against Dr Bronger or any other maintainers of lensfun. I am deeply appreciative of the work that these guys have done. It's just that, despite the great work, it's not nearly scalable enough to keep the project going in an effective way. [1] https://github.com/lensfun/lensfun https://github.com/lensfun/lensfun [2] https://github.com/lensfun/lensfun/pull/912 https://github.com/lensfun/lensfun/pull/912 [3] https://github.com/lensfun/lensfun/blob/master/tools/calibration_webserver/workflow.rst https://github.com/lensfun/lensfun/blob/master/tools/calibra... [4] https://vimeo.com/51999287 https://vimeo.com/51999287

dheera 5y ago
Yeah, I often do the calibrations in Python (OpenCV for distortions and rawpy and a flat frame for vignetting), spit out a tiff, and then do the rest in darktable. Lensfun is complicated so I never tried to go through that. Libraries are supposed to simplify things and it doesn't.

unicornporn 5y ago

Since darktable introduced the scene referred workflow I would argue it's an extremely steep learning curve for anyone coming from display referred software (Lightroom, Capture One etc). Scene referred is very much a cine-thing and I know of no other still image software that uses it. dt v3.6 made scene referred default. Aurélien has been one of the driving forces behind the switch to scene referred and his hour long explanations of the new modules can be found on his YouTube channel[1]. Boris has a YouTube channel[2] which is quite the opposite. You watch him edit in silence and you will pick up the craft. darktable is made up of modules. The Filmic RGB module takes a central part of the editing workflow in scene referred. This is where to go if you need help getting started: https://discuss.pixls.us/t/lets-learn-filmic-rgb-your-one-stop-shop-to-understanding-filmic-based-approach-to-edits/23843/ https://discuss.pixls.us/t/lets-learn-filmic-rgb-your-one-st... RawTherapee has a more traditional, display referred, approach. If you want local adjustments (which you will want), you need to use nightlies until 5.9 is released. [1] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmsSn3fujI81EKEr4NLxrcg https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmsSn3fujI81EKEr4NLxrcg [2] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMbDlOwmmQnkRmcb2_5WERg https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMbDlOwmmQnkRmcb2_5WERg

nighthawk454 5y ago
In case anyone else is looking for a tl;dr on "scene-referred" this link has a very simple diagram. https://www.filmriot.com/blog/scene-referred-vs-display-referred/ https://www.filmriot.com/blog/scene-referred-vs-display-refe... gist is whether you do your color grading in the camera's original color space (scene referred) or after transforming to display color space (display referred)
- hatsunearu 5y ago
  > you do your color grading in the camera's original color space you do your color grading in linear color space (or something that roughly maps to linear color space) is what that actually means. Linear meaning, the exposure of a pixel is supposed to be proportional to the data number, and the exposure is theoretically infinite (since you can have anywhere between 0 and infinite light). For display color space (for photography this is more in line with "print media color space") there is a maximum brightness and minimum brightness, and you have all the numbers to map brightnesses between the two. The math is a lot cleaner with linear color spaces.

vaidhy 5y ago

I recently started on my photography journey and is just starting with darktable. My biggest challenge is around multiple modules with apparently very similar functionality. It has been very hard to figure out what should I do to get to the end goal I have in mind. FWIW, most of my work is in underwater photography and what I really want is adjust exposure, white balance and change the de-saturate aqua and blue in masked areas and I got struck with filmic, RGB and a couple of others, with none being easy for a beginner.

dang 5y ago

Past threads, including one from last month: Darktable 3.6 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27720908 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27720908 - July 2021 (73 comments) Darktable 3.2.1 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24156113 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24156113 - Aug 2020 (47 comments) Darktable 3.0 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21874528 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21874528 - Dec 2019 (120 comments) Darktable 3.0 Approaching with Many New Features - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21440612 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21440612 - Nov 2019 (1 comment) Darktable 2.4.0 released - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16012499 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16012499 - Dec 2017 (74 comments) Darktable 2.2.0 released - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13261849 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13261849 - Dec 2016 (82 comments) Why don't you provide a Windows build? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12094038 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12094038 - July 2016 (3 comments) Darktable 2.0 released - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10789390 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10789390 - Dec 2015 (44 comments) A look at Darktable 2.0 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10640753 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10640753 - Nov 2015 (10 comments) Why there are no darktable builds for Windows - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9883018 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9883018 - July 2015 (1 comment)

jcun4128 5y ago
Guess they gave in as I've used it in Windows
oh_sigh 5y ago
Do you have a tagging system, or do you just use search? Or is it a prodigious memory?
- dang 5y ago
  Just search. But I have software to semi-automate formatting the comments. Lol re memory - what's the opposite of 'prodigious'...
  - Abishek_Muthian 5y ago

dave333 5y ago

There seem to be many darktable tutorials on Youtube so which ones do people recommend? I've watched a couple of intro ones but looking for good ones on digital workflows.

rcarmo 5y ago

I wonder if they’ve finally fixed the performance in macOS. Earlier versions had a redrawing issue where the GUI was being constantly updated upon mouse move…