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I've been using darktable for a while to edit my RAW photos. The amount of features, viable workflows, and in general the quality of the software is baffling fo

by lionkor 3mo ago

I've been using darktable for a while to edit my RAW photos. The amount of features, viable workflows, and in general the quality of the software is baffling for a free product. I would happily pay 200 bucks or something per year to use this, it makes all other RAW editing software obsolete. I can only recommend it, and there's nothing missing for me, even for editing thousands of RAW photos with presets, different steps, color correction in various color spaces, it's simply fantastic and the documentation absolutely shines. Not only does the documentation explain how to use it in a way that non-professional photographers understand, it also explains edge cases, things to be careful about, and in general whoever wrote the documentation is sharing a lot of knowledge. I keep pushing this software and it just keeps doing it, I don't seem to stop finding features and little things that do what I wanted, and do it well. I learned more from reading darktable documentation than from any lightroom/draktable/davinci resolve tutorial. With the new local-model AI features for denoising and subject selection, it filled the last little missing piece for me. Absolutely fantastic software, can recommend it. I'm on arch, so to get the latest build I built it myself which was painless.

cryo32 3mo ago
Another +1 for this. I just replaced Lightroom with it after several years. So much happier.
- sv123 3mo ago
  Is there a catalog conversion tool?
  - cryo32 3mo ago
    Don’t think so. I just exported all files to jpeg 90% into the Lightroom library folder structure. Then moved all the RAWs to an archive disk. I just add any directories I want to do edits on into the Darktable library.
mcdonje 3mo ago
I'm on Debian, which is of course behind. I tried installing the flatpak, which is up to date, but the packager removed the AI parts. The only option I have (short of moving to Arch or similar) is AppImage, which doesn't integrate well with the DE. I get being against AI, but Darktable is very responsible about it according to their release notes. Local only, opt-in only, no nagging. It's not like Adobe trying to push AI on you when you don't want it.
- doubletwoyou 3mo ago
  One way to get the AppImage to integrate better would be to install appimaged. Another way to get the up-to-date version on Debian would be to use Nix (install nix, add the stable or unstable channel or whatnot, and make darktable installable)
  - Groxx 3mo ago
    GearLever is handy too, though they seem moderately different in goals and I'm not familiar with the details
- everybodyknows 3mo ago
  I built from source, on Ubuntu. There are few rough edges -- look for hints on the pixls.us forum. And git-checkout at the release point for version 5.6, not TOT.
- deleted 3mo ago
  [deleted]
- roryirvine 3mo ago
  Have you tried Darktable's own Debian packages from the OpenSuSE Build Service: https://software.opensuse.org/download.html?project=graphics:darktable&package=darktable https://software.opensuse.org/download.html?project=graphics...
anfractuosity 3mo ago
Doesn't arch already package it (https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/darktable/ https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/darktable/), I was using darktable on arch, but recently switched distros.
- lionkor 3mo ago
  Arch packages it, but it did not package the very latest one.
qurren 3mo ago
I've used Darktable for almost a decade quite happily, but recently am moving off of it because they made one MASSIVE blunder with the new shitty color grading and white balancing tool that never gets any of my images right, all the tones are off, and it doesn't have sane defaults that renders things at least "almost correctly" at first go like the previous white balance tool did. It was way better a couple years ago with the vanilla "White Balance" and "Base Curve" tools. Darktable also cannot correctly color any of my DJI Mini Pro imagery. None. They all have really bad greenish hues. I haven't been able to publish any of my DJI images for 4 years now because Darktable won't fix it, and it's a known issue that they explicitly plan to not fix (https://github.com/darktable-org/darktable/issues/13319 https://github.com/darktable-org/darktable/issues/13319). I'm currently starting to love RapidRAW (https://github.com/cybertimon/rapidraw https://github.com/cybertimon/rapidraw); the developer is super active and releases new features every couple of weeks. I'm also able to add a few minor nitpick features I want quite easily with AI code tools. I have a good feeling I can get AI to fix the DJI issue on RapidRAW since the code is quite nicely organized.
- c7b 3mo ago
  Stupid question, if there's an old version that you liked, couldn't you just keep using that version?
  - qurren 3mo ago
    It's a pain in the ass to maintain when it has dependencies on older stuff while I upgrade the rest of the system
    - epihelix 3mo ago
      Well, you shouldn't need to maintain - just compile a static linked binary and you should be good for the rest of your system's life. But more practically - I've been using darktable for well over a decade, and it's remained backward compatible with my old styles. If you like the older modules, they should still be there, and you should still be able to apply your old styles the same as always. My own problem is that darktable keeps improving, so much so that I want to reprocess all my old photos again :/

by lionkor 3mo ago

cryo32 3mo ago

Another +1 for this. I just replaced Lightroom with it after several years. So much happier.

sv123 3mo ago
Is there a catalog conversion tool?
- cryo32 3mo ago
  Don’t think so. I just exported all files to jpeg 90% into the Lightroom library folder structure. Then moved all the RAWs to an archive disk. I just add any directories I want to do edits on into the Darktable library.

mcdonje 3mo ago

I'm on Debian, which is of course behind. I tried installing the flatpak, which is up to date, but the packager removed the AI parts. The only option I have (short of moving to Arch or similar) is AppImage, which doesn't integrate well with the DE. I get being against AI, but Darktable is very responsible about it according to their release notes. Local only, opt-in only, no nagging. It's not like Adobe trying to push AI on you when you don't want it.

doubletwoyou 3mo ago
One way to get the AppImage to integrate better would be to install appimaged. Another way to get the up-to-date version on Debian would be to use Nix (install nix, add the stable or unstable channel or whatnot, and make darktable installable)
- Groxx 3mo ago
  GearLever is handy too, though they seem moderately different in goals and I'm not familiar with the details
everybodyknows 3mo ago
I built from source, on Ubuntu. There are few rough edges -- look for hints on the pixls.us forum. And git-checkout at the release point for version 5.6, not TOT.
deleted 3mo ago
[deleted]
roryirvine 3mo ago
Have you tried Darktable's own Debian packages from the OpenSuSE Build Service: https://software.opensuse.org/download.html?project=graphics:darktable&package=darktable https://software.opensuse.org/download.html?project=graphics...

anfractuosity 3mo ago

Doesn't arch already package it (https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/darktable/ https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/darktable/), I was using darktable on arch, but recently switched distros.

lionkor 3mo ago
Arch packages it, but it did not package the very latest one.

qurren 3mo ago

I've used Darktable for almost a decade quite happily, but recently am moving off of it because they made one MASSIVE blunder with the new shitty color grading and white balancing tool that never gets any of my images right, all the tones are off, and it doesn't have sane defaults that renders things at least "almost correctly" at first go like the previous white balance tool did. It was way better a couple years ago with the vanilla "White Balance" and "Base Curve" tools. Darktable also cannot correctly color any of my DJI Mini Pro imagery. None. They all have really bad greenish hues. I haven't been able to publish any of my DJI images for 4 years now because Darktable won't fix it, and it's a known issue that they explicitly plan to not fix (https://github.com/darktable-org/darktable/issues/13319 https://github.com/darktable-org/darktable/issues/13319). I'm currently starting to love RapidRAW (https://github.com/cybertimon/rapidraw https://github.com/cybertimon/rapidraw); the developer is super active and releases new features every couple of weeks. I'm also able to add a few minor nitpick features I want quite easily with AI code tools. I have a good feeling I can get AI to fix the DJI issue on RapidRAW since the code is quite nicely organized.

c7b 3mo ago
Stupid question, if there's an old version that you liked, couldn't you just keep using that version?
- qurren 3mo ago
  It's a pain in the ass to maintain when it has dependencies on older stuff while I upgrade the rest of the system
  - epihelix 3mo ago
    Well, you shouldn't need to maintain - just compile a static linked binary and you should be good for the rest of your system's life. But more practically - I've been using darktable for well over a decade, and it's remained backward compatible with my old styles. If you like the older modules, they should still be there, and you should still be able to apply your old styles the same as always. My own problem is that darktable keeps improving, so much so that I want to reprocess all my old photos again :/