I use DT only. I like combining masks and blends, and savings as presets and simplifying my workflow. Modules I like are highpass (w overlay) and lowpass (w softlight), color zones, equalizer. I save parametric masks in exposure module for shadows, highlights, midtones and use this in conjunction with shadows/highlights to control for haloing, then fine tune to taste. I sometimes use this in sports photography to with drawn masks to lighten face shadows in extreme sun (like a whitecard effect). I also save similar presets in tone-curve to similar effect, to fine-tune. For more see discuss.pixls.us/t/darktable-tricks/7903/6
I've tried RT & will definitely use it. DT, unfortunately I can't get my images imported. I've tried different versions & none give me the options under the import tab like I see in the tutorials. It's not opening any of my files anywhere on my pc. So being unable to import or upload, means I can't use it
congratulations, i am also attempting to educate more people in my community and local organisations. i am a FOSS Advocate, i use Darktable in a professional manner without GIMP, but i totally use GIMP for other things. i am going to be giving a FOSS presentation for my local council for Artists, and hope to continue to do so. so i appreciate what you are doing! :O)
Hi Andy! Thank you so much for watching! There's a forked version of #RawTherapee that comes VERY close to combining the good ideas of both tools. It's called #Art - I did a video covering here, if you're interested to try it out - ruclips.net/video/I3Y9hzH-Knc/видео.html - Hope it helps!
Darktable 3.0.0: -crashed when I first time ever exported 38 images of jpg. -allows various adjustment using scroll wheel, but merely hovering a mouse on the panels will also trigger false adjustment. That creates confusions. need to keep your mouse on the scroll bar to browse across panels to avoid that. -Removing images out of Collection from lighttable tab sometimes accidentally removed another unintended images. It feels like a bug. I need to extra click on that image before removal. Or perhaps the UX confuses me about what is being selected and what is the mouse hovering on. --Also, removing a pic from collection seems to keep the editing profile - how to delete that as well automatically? -cropping tool is more flexible and user-friendly than Rawtherapee because you can move the cropped area around the picture, while Rawtherapee makes you use "Left" and "Top" to slowly change the cropped area around the image. -Not much of right click menu (actually none I think) Rawtherapee I don't know where to geotag my pics. That's the first thing I wanted to do with my pictures, so I gotta switch back to Darktable... Darktable has potential when UX and stability are improved because it has the closer look to lightroom - Lightroom-ers will appreciate it when they switch over to Darktable. If this video isn't factual about both, I'll just drop these here and look at another video. Cheers.
Hi AgentP! Thank you so much for watching and adding some detailed insight! For the Geotagging question, I agree in that there does not appear to be a way to retrieve or edit that information. However, there is a forked version of RawTherapee called ART 1.0 (Video coming soon!) which does appear to contain this information and may be worth a look - bitbucket.org/agriggio/art/downloads/- Hope that helps!
A couple of corrections to the video. Darktable has History too, and Snapshots. The Darktable modules don't have to be accessed from the long list at the bottom: you can choose which modules permanently appear in the 'top down' lists of tools, and you can also create a Favourites list of tools that stay under the 'Star' list. Finally, the video fails to mention that Darktable has very powerful 'local actions' capability that RawTherapee lacks, where you can use drawn or parametric masks, or combinations of both, to apply each tool to discrete areas of the image. I certainly agree that they are both powerful tools, and both deserve their reputations as genuine heavyweights in the image processing world, in terms of power, if not in terms of popularity. cheers
Hi T N Args! Thank you very much for watching and for the feedback - this is very helpful! With a lot of my reviews, I try to keep some the experience somewhat raw, to test the intuitiveness of the interface. Thank you so much for adding to the experience and helping to grow this community of learning! 😀
I was using both until I bought my Canon R7 over a year ago. I ended up using DT since then. My main reason was RT was not reporting exif data correctly and DT was quick to include R7 support with noise profiles etc. I love DT for my use. RT may have more demosaic control compared to DT, but I don’t miss it really. DT is more actively developed and it is nicely featured- no need to look at LR etc
I love some of darktable's features, but I still find I get the best output with Raw Therapee. I'm playing with the Digikam 7.0 beta the last couple of days, that fills in a lot of the darktable features that aren't in Raw Therapee like DAM, spot healing, film grain, etc.,etc. Digikam seeems able to integrate with RT to some extent. I keep trying darktable again and again, but I just can't get the same quality output from it as I can from RT, although I reckon it is possible. Anyway, they're both great, I love how they're more complicated than most commercial software,more complicated things are usually better, and have a higher fun factor too, because you can't get bored of something you haven't fully figured out how to use yet lol. I haven't decided whether I'll start using digikam full time yet, but Raw Therapee is definately what I'm going to use for all raw conversion for now l, I just love the look of the pictures it makes.
I am more or less along the same vein of thought for Raw Therapeee and Digikam as well. I was using DxO''s PhotoLab for awhile along with ACDSee because of it's inclusion of a fairly extensive DAM capability. But then, I discovered DigiKam recently. This application is like night and day compared to ACDSee in terms of photo organization, metadata and what not have you. I just installed 7.0 Beta 1 myself but seems to be a bit buggy so I just uninstalled it and will go back to v6.4. Perhaps if I can do a dual install of both side by side (separate folders, I think it's possible) I may reinstall it. I also prefer Raw Therapee versus DarkTable. They are both very capable programs but the reason for the RT preference is that I find the GUI more appealing and intuitive. My skill level in both is still relatively shallow, but what I have discovered thus far, it is going to be RT and Digikam for me going forward. Also, especially being a hybrid shooter (photos/videos) I like the fact that Digikam also includes video clips for metadata, ranking, tagging, etc. Most commercial applications still ignore video clips as if they were not a part of multimedia. Ditto for audio files too.
Hi majun26! Thank you so much for watching and leaving some great feedback! It's great to see how these tools differ, and especially compare strengths and weakness for different uses! Really appreciate the insight~
I'm a beginner but I agree with most of majun26 and @Jerry Suppan's opinions. I just feel like RT is a very solid software that focuses on the quality of important, in my opinion, features and not on having super many fancy features like DT (or any other) does. In other words, sometimes I feel like I need more, but the way RT limits its features to a few leads to photos being much more natural and not unnatural with too much tweak. I like RT.
Old video BUT, I've used both but RawTherapee no longer displays the preview thumbs or image correctly. Don't know the problem and have no time to dig into it.
Hi AloeIsTheStuff! Thank you for the comment - Just for curiosity, which version of #RawTherapee is in use? Thus far, I've been unable to duplicate this issue and was wondering if it's something specific to a version and or operating system~
Raw Therappee is actually vastly superior to lightroom. You have better control of the demosaicing algorithms you have control of wavelets it has better sharpening control and noise reduction also. I only used RT for my raw files and finish off in photoshop for at least ten years.
Dealing with this issue right now.... BOTH have things i like, and a few maybe not as much... Just jumping back and forth, seeing which operates more like I think.... ( natural working/ thinking flow?)
Hi Gilroy! Completely agree - I've found over time that the interface for RawTherapee is easier, but the results from DarkTable look better in many ways (yet are more difficult to work through). As you mentioned, it depends a bit on which enhancement is needed and then leveraging the tool that serves best. Thanks!
@@Photolearningism So of the 2.,. you lean to DT more than RT overall? My deal is, there is SO MUCH out here, and I'd like to taper down to a few programs I can REALLY learn and be good in, instead of having ten or more all over the desktop, and be only partially versed in all of them. Rather be a master of a few, than a jack of a bunch!
Hi voidmind! Thank you so much for watching! This seems to be a common feeling and I appreciate your feedback! Going forward I'm considering dropping music, as it seems to be simply distracting for this kind of video production.
Hi jeylful! Thank you so much for watching! Yes, the music proved too distracting and has since been given a generous retirement 😀 - I've dropped using music in my latest videos. Just for curiosity, have you had a chance to try out either #DarkTable or #RawTherapee?
Hi Mo Velarde! Thank you for the comment! The DarkTable team does look to have a process built in for camera models that are not yet fully supported - I can't vouch for how often they respond, but here's the link they provide in the documentation - hope it helps! github.com/darktable-org/darktable/wiki/Camera-support
Rawtherapee does my Sigma DP1 and DP2 Merill raw whereas DT is unable to do so, otherwise both are fantastic tools, used DT exclusively with my SONY A7R.
hi, i m new to photography, just bought my first camera canon rp. it came with canon's digital photo professional........i cant afford adobe subscriptions....is it good for beginner to stick with canon's dpp or should i try something else? i am also confused....on internet and youtube.....some says go with gimp, some says go with raw therapee, some favors darktable.....i m so confused.......if they are all adobe alternatives then why some have unique feature that others dont have? it means you have to use all of them one by one for your photo edits? time consuming and confusing....which will defeat the purpose of avoiding costly adobe subscriptions. please advice. thanks.
I am a long time user of Photoshop, since 1994. Lightroom, I wasn't really a fan of until I started work that required batch editing. So I was a late user of that. I still prefer PS for 90% of my editing. I purchased several standalone versions of PS throughout the years and stopped being a fan of Adobe's when they went to the subscription model. With PS v 6.0 already installed I simply did not sign up for the sub because I felt I could do anything I needed in PS 6.0. With all that history now said, which of the two profiled here (or GIMP) should I use as an adjunct to Photoshop? Will one simply import into it as does Lightroom? I don't like saving out of one and into another. I'd prefer edits to transfer if possible.
Nitpick: If you're trying to use Krita as a "photoshop replacement", then you're using the wrong tool. Krita is primarily a drawing & painting program, rather than photo manipulation. For the latter, use GIMP or an equivalent.
Hi James Bannon! Thank you so much for watching! I've been using #GIMP and #Krita for a while and personally still find #Krita to be more user-friendly to my alteration needs. In either case, I've built a workflow around color toning in #RawTherepee, which outperforms both #GIMP and #Krita in that regard, and then I'll do any final adjustment (removing blemishes or unpleasant accents) in #Krita. Granted, this part could work just as well in #GIMP, but I found the UI to be more challenging to translate. For curiosity, what kinds of photos do you work with?
I would maminky point out that DT and RT are both for RAW file developement and all changes to image are non destructive. GIMP is not for RAW developement and that is main reason why you must first develop your RAW file to be able to use it in GIMP.
Hi David Mareček! Thank you so much for watching! Since posting this video, I've become more attuned to the open source model of leveraging many different frameworks to extend tool capabilities, which is a common Linux model. Having a dominant Windows background, this concept wasn't immediately clear to me, but has since crystalized around how each open source tools are built not just to unlock functionality, but to offer integration scalability. Thank you for the feedback!
@@Photolearningism i actually start using DigiKam thanks to one of your video so thank you for doing your work for people intetested in opensource. I do not mind to pay for software but current trend of subscribtions Is in my opinion just sick. I strongly support legal software and opensource community deserve big thanks for allowing this without ruining a budget And even leads very often to more quality software than payed ones.
Hi, thanks for this very useful video. I am in the middle of deciding between just these two apps. I am replacing ACDSEE and have noticed that Darktable preserves all my IPTC descriptions and keywords whereas Rawtherapee does not. Since I have lots of metadata in IPTC in family and client archives that I don't want to have to reinput. I do a lot of film negative captures also and want the best one for speeding up inversion and colour balance. Darktable provides this in 'negadoctor' and so does Darktable with 'Film Negative'. So far I've found that RawTherapee seems to provide better off the bat colour balance using Film Negative.
Hi Durgesh! Thanks for the question! #DarkTable and #RawTherapee can actually be used (one or the other) as a RAW loader for #GIMP (GIMP is unable to load RAW images without one or the other). Each features different strengths and weaknesses for specific use-cases. #DarkTable and #RawTherapee are designed to work with RAW photos, focusing on color tuning, sharpening, and denoising. They can be used for general image tuning, but are best suited to RAW photography uses. In my opinion, #RawTherapee is easier to understand and use, but the results are not as strong as #DarkTable. On the flip side, #DarkTable has a higher learning curve to use, the results are better. If the intended use-case is digital drawing or illustration, then I'd recommend either #GIMP or #Krita. Both can support digital drawing tablets and high resolution work. #GIMP tends to reflect the look and feel of Adobe tools (which can be helpful if you're familiar with Photoshop), while #Krita uses a uniquely different interface. #Krita does have an added bonus of including 2D animation tools. Hope that helps!
Thank you, I am trying to decide which Lightroom Alternative should I use, and after going through several reviews, I end up having two choices, either Dartable or Rawtherapee. I will sure try them both eventually, as I am yet still a beginner, looking forward to building my experience step by step. Subscribed and wishing you the best, looking forward to more intuitive videos. Edit: forgot to mention that I probably will go with Darktable first ( which means for several months probably as I am still new and need to build up a reference point), Firstly because it's recognized by Gimp, Secondly, coz it's community is larger and has more support and a strong community than Rawtherapee as it is, in fact, an Opensource, been around since 2009, while Rawtherapee is just 2 months old. Which is actually astonishing and so awesome to find it competing already in the free market. But I have a feeling that it will turn commercially soon maybe having a pro edition or something.
Hi Ayiam! Thank you so much for watching and for the feedback! I appreciate the insight into these two tools and would welcome you to share your experiences as you try them out! I found it very difficult to pick a favorite between the two, as both have great features (I kinda' wish there was a hybrid version of both!) 😀.
Hi, just a note: rawtherapee is much older than 3 months...it has been available at least since 2011. That said, same here, struggling to decide which software to invest on as a management and processing tool alternative to lightroom.
I can relate to your appraisal of GIMP. While very useful, it's still not at the Photoshop level of being "everything to everyone". I usually keep it out of the "photo enhancement/dark room" tool set and use it more for "image hacking" (i.e., what most people refer to as "photoshopping"), mostly to combine it with work from other sources. Well, that's how I've arranged my workflow, and so far it's what's worked best.
Hi Alexander! Thank you so much for watching and for the great comment! I've been working on a a similar workflow of using #RawTherapee for color toning, then relying on either #PDN or #Krita to perform any correction or "physical" alteration. For curiosity, what kinds of graphic work do you typically work on?
When I'm not coding, I do CGI or painting. I work for a company that makes casino games. There's no single workflow that fits all of what we do, but what I wrote above *usually* works.
Good video! I was just curious what you had to say about the differences between Raw Therapee and Darktable so I watched. I've never used Darktable as my workflow is Lightroom for cataloging, then Raw Therapee for preparing raw files for export into Photoshop. Raw Therapee's demosaicing is far superior and adjustable as compared to Lightroom. Also, you have some very targeted and superior noise reduction and capture sharpening within Raw Therapee. Lightroom is too global in its adjustments.
Hi John! Thank you so much for watching and leaving some great feedback! I'm so glad the video was helpful! WIth extended use between the two, I've found #RawTherapee to be just a bit easier to use than #DarkTable and made it a primary tool in my editing process. I do believe #DarkTable also has some fantastic features (more options than #Rawtherapee in fact) and I may find myself looking to that took as I continue on my own journey of learning. Just for curiosity, what genre of images do you typically work on?
Hi Aero Flux! Thank you for the comment - This is was one of my learning experiences in creating videos with #OBS. While the tool is amazing, I wasn't aware that the resolution had to be purposefully configured to record in HD. My mistake was that I had setup an HD camera (using 1920x1080) as a recording source and made the assumption that the output would follow the same. Someone kindly alerted me to this and I have since posted in HD going forward. Unfortunately, there is no way (that I'm aware of) in RUclips to swap out the video with a higher quality version after being uploaded. In any case, I hope the video was informative and helpful!
I prefer rawtherapee colors tones highligts blacks. Looks like a little less contrast LR or Capture one picture, very good look pictures. DT has incredible tools but I can't have the look I like.
@@Photolearningism ok comparing rendering of multiple software is very interresting, I think RT is near to lightroom, with a lower constrast by default. I find DT has muted, shifted colors , and high and low tonalities are not as good. It's a pity cause DT has very powerfull tools.
Thanks for the Video.. Linux is Life over here and Open Source is amazing. I never got into photo editing,while I suck at it, I enjoy the ease of some of the software as I work around GIMP. I thoroughly enjoy the world of Linux. I have no idea what Half the Things do in there, But i love just turning somethings up and down and see what happens. Basic photo editing for the most part on my side. ome things are a bit more complicated in gimp to achieve vs something like raw therapee or darktable.
Hi Rocky Waters! Thank you so much for checking out this video and asking a great question! Nik collection was new to me (and surprising to learn it was a Google-acquired technology). I haven't been able to test this, but I did found some write-ups that suggest adding the Nik Collection to #GIMP is possible (although I can't yet vouch for stability or any potential hazards of doing so) - www.makeuseof.com/tag/get-started-googles-free-nik-plugins-photography/ - I'll look into this, but for the moment, perhaps this will help!
Tried both think DT is more powerful (?) I used the favorites to mimic Lightroom's layout. Like how it ties into Gimp. However my go to is Capture One Pro.
I was very impressed with DT as a stand alone tool. There was a lot of thought and design that make it very powerful and useful! I've heard of Capture One but haven't taken a deep look just yet - maybe it's time! :) Thanks for the feedback!
Hi Rano! Thank yo for the comment. During some of my earlier videos, I was unaware that OBS had to be manually set to record in HD, even through the camera settings were configured for HD. I've since fixed this, but unfortunately, there's no good way to upscale the old videos on my channel without replacing them all. I do very much appreciate you checking out this video and hope it was helpful!
Hi, thank you for your videos ! If I may say you are missing the big difference between RT and DT : the masks. DT offers in every module the possibility to apply the changes to only a part of the image, part that you can draw or define with parameters, even more powerful than in LR. By the way I am surprised you don’t even mention LR in your video, even though DT (a bit less RT to my knowledge) is a fantastic and free alternative to LR. Thx again
Hi FreudeAmTanzen InFranken! Thank you very much for watching! This video is meant to be a high-level, somewhat raw experience to highlight some features, stimulate discussion, and encourage exploration surrounding these tools. Have you had an opportunity to try out either tool and test it's value?
@@Photolearningism thanks. I installed DT one week ago. (After using Lightroom for seven years.) Of course I need more practice, but in the first steps I had problems with combining masks or using one mask for different things (sharpen, highlights, colour). ... Now I was searching for detailed videos regarding the masks of Rawtherapee. And the differences in workflow to Darktable. But unfortunately I didn't found meaningful videos. ... But perhaps you are right. I have to take the time and try RT on my own to find the pros and cons.
@@Photolearningism I wish I had it handy, but there is a really interesting article by the author of the plugin. A French guy and he goes deep into the mathematics behind the plugin. The article is very technical and I am not going to pretend to understand it but it is interesting to take a look at. I want to say this feature is maybe a year old so there are not too many tutorials out there but I do know that you should disable the base curves and use this instead if you go with Filmic.
@@Being_Joe Awesome! Thanks - I've been very impressed with my initial look into this and will likely cover it within an upcoming video. Thanks so much!
Hi Tom! Thank you so much for watching! With #RawTherapee and #DarkTable, the "layer" equivalent would be the individual modules for adjustment, as each can be turned on or off. That aside, #DarkTable employs masking to refine module adjustments (I believe this is also coming soon in #RawTherapee). I've not yet tried out #On1PhotoRaw or #Luminar, but will give these a look and seed how they stack up! Thanks a ton for mentioning these!
I love darktable, I use it professionally. It has very advanced features and makes It easy to streamline your workflow with styles. I use it to preproces my RAW files. Favorite features? - styles / batch processing - parametric blend modes - advanced color correction/grading modules - object removal module - etc.
Hi barkingbandicoot! Thank you so much for watching and for noting #Kubuntu! After reading your commend I found that this is part of the KDE community and totally worth checking out! Thanks! kubuntu.org/
I also am the same frame of mind. DigiKam + RawTherapee. The video here seems to be rather skewed to DarkTable as a preference and occasionally mentioning RT as the sidekick alternative, but I personally prefer RT as I find the GUI more appealing and intuitive.
Hi@@tokyojerry ! Thank you so much for watching and joining in! I would very much like to explore RT more after reading all the great commentary from the community! In preparing for this video, I had previously implemented DT as a first option and then moved next to RT, which probably caused the natural feeling of sidelining it. I do find the interface a bit more intuitive within DT, but I'd like to see first-hand the quality output being discussed for RT, as it sounds very useful and worthwhile. Thank you so much!
Hi Izmet! Thanks so much for watching! I've been seeing a lot of Linux recommendations as of late and have been considering running some tests to see the results for myself! 😀
@@Photolearningism My recommendation would be Ubuntu 16.04. I've tried a lot of different distros, but only Ubuntu 16.04 wasn't causing me any problems :)
My dude darktable is total crap it just is. I just installed it. First of all, buggy. Gave a database error the first times I tried to run. Keep minimizing for no reason. Finally it opened but ran sluggish like a dog. Then the colors are all off. Not black background as I see in your video. Light grey, horrible. I tried to open a file, nah, not even that works, shows directories in the worst least intuitive way possible like the idiots at Linux do, complicate too much what is easy. I chose the folder with raw images, for some reason this darktable crapfest doesn't show any files in there, I can't open files. Uninstall, this is horrible.
Hi A Grill Has No Name! That does sound like a bad experience and would absolutely understand not wanting to use it. While some of these troubles sound familiar, for my usage these have been atypical and uncommon. I would add that #DarkTable could do with more a intuitive interface, as it is often difficult to find what I need or how to use it. However, I do find that when I can find my way through, it does deliver the results I need. As with any free, open source tool, there can be struggles and issues, which are the trade off sometimes in place of buying a commercial tool. The advantage with open source is that new features are typically more rapidly applied, which can be used as a strategic edge. I do very much appreciate you checking out this video and leaving the comment! I do hope that you can find a tool that does suit your needs~
Had some experience with DarkTable or Rawtherapee? What are your favorite features?
I use DT only. I like combining masks and blends, and savings as presets and simplifying my workflow. Modules I like are highpass (w overlay) and lowpass (w softlight), color zones, equalizer. I save parametric masks in exposure module for shadows, highlights, midtones and use this in conjunction with shadows/highlights to control for haloing, then fine tune to taste. I sometimes use this in sports photography to with drawn masks to lighten face shadows in extreme sun (like a whitecard effect). I also save similar presets in tone-curve to similar effect, to fine-tune. For more see discuss.pixls.us/t/darktable-tricks/7903/6
sorry try discuss.pixls.us/t/darktable-tricks/7903
Great - Thank you for the comment and sharing the details! I'm going to check this out in DT - I'm a big fan of reusable features!
I've tried RT & will definitely use it. DT, unfortunately I can't get my images imported. I've tried different versions & none give me the options under the import tab like I see in the tutorials. It's not opening any of my files anywhere on my pc. So being unable to import or upload, means I can't use it
congratulations, i am also attempting to educate more people in my community and local organisations. i am a FOSS Advocate, i use Darktable in a professional manner without GIMP, but i totally use GIMP for other things. i am going to be giving a FOSS presentation for my local council for Artists, and hope to continue to do so. so i appreciate what you are doing! :O)
I wish there was one software that combined all of these
Hi Andy! Thank you so much for watching! There's a forked version of #RawTherapee that comes VERY close to combining the good ideas of both tools. It's called #Art - I did a video covering here, if you're interested to try it out - ruclips.net/video/I3Y9hzH-Knc/видео.html - Hope it helps!
I'm so glad to see this channel growing! Big UP for your work!
Thank you so much, Izmet! Really appreciate the kind words!
Darktable 3.0.0:
-crashed when I first time ever exported 38 images of jpg.
-allows various adjustment using scroll wheel, but merely hovering a mouse on the panels will also trigger false adjustment. That creates confusions. need to keep your mouse on the scroll bar to browse across panels to avoid that.
-Removing images out of Collection from lighttable tab sometimes accidentally removed another unintended images. It feels like a bug. I need to extra click on that image before removal. Or perhaps the UX confuses me about what is being selected and what is the mouse hovering on.
--Also, removing a pic from collection seems to keep the editing profile - how to delete that as well automatically?
-cropping tool is more flexible and user-friendly than Rawtherapee because you can move the cropped area around the picture, while Rawtherapee makes you use "Left" and "Top" to slowly change the cropped area around the image.
-Not much of right click menu (actually none I think)
Rawtherapee
I don't know where to geotag my pics. That's the first thing I wanted to do with my pictures, so I gotta switch back to Darktable...
Darktable has potential when UX and stability are improved because it has the closer look to lightroom - Lightroom-ers will appreciate it when they switch over to Darktable.
If this video isn't factual about both, I'll just drop these here and look at another video.
Cheers.
Hi AgentP! Thank you so much for watching and adding some detailed insight! For the Geotagging question, I agree in that there does not appear to be a way to retrieve or edit that information. However, there is a forked version of RawTherapee called ART 1.0 (Video coming soon!) which does appear to contain this information and may be worth a look - bitbucket.org/agriggio/art/downloads/- Hope that helps!
A couple of corrections to the video. Darktable has History too, and Snapshots. The Darktable modules don't have to be accessed from the long list at the bottom: you can choose which modules permanently appear in the 'top down' lists of tools, and you can also create a Favourites list of tools that stay under the 'Star' list. Finally, the video fails to mention that Darktable has very powerful 'local actions' capability that RawTherapee lacks, where you can use drawn or parametric masks, or combinations of both, to apply each tool to discrete areas of the image. I certainly agree that they are both powerful tools, and both deserve their reputations as genuine heavyweights in the image processing world, in terms of power, if not in terms of popularity. cheers
Hi T N Args! Thank you very much for watching and for the feedback - this is very helpful! With a lot of my reviews, I try to keep some the experience somewhat raw, to test the intuitiveness of the interface. Thank you so much for adding to the experience and helping to grow this community of learning! 😀
I was using both until I bought my Canon R7 over a year ago. I ended up using DT since then. My main reason was RT was not reporting exif data correctly and DT was quick to include R7 support with noise profiles etc. I love DT for my use. RT may have more demosaic control compared to DT, but I don’t miss it really. DT is more actively developed and it is nicely featured- no need to look at LR etc
I love some of darktable's features, but I still find I get the best output with Raw Therapee. I'm playing with the Digikam 7.0 beta the last couple of days, that fills in a lot of the darktable features that aren't in Raw Therapee like DAM, spot healing, film grain, etc.,etc. Digikam seeems able to integrate with RT to some extent. I keep trying darktable again and again, but I just can't get the same quality output from it as I can from RT, although I reckon it is possible. Anyway, they're both great, I love how they're more complicated than most commercial software,more complicated things are usually better, and have a higher fun factor too, because you can't get bored of something you haven't fully figured out how to use yet lol. I haven't decided whether I'll start using digikam full time yet, but Raw Therapee is definately what I'm going to use for all raw conversion for now l, I just love the look of the pictures it makes.
I am more or less along the same vein of thought for Raw Therapeee and Digikam as well. I was using DxO''s PhotoLab for awhile along with ACDSee because of it's inclusion of a fairly extensive DAM capability. But then, I discovered DigiKam recently. This application is like night and day compared to ACDSee in terms of photo organization, metadata and what not have you. I just installed 7.0 Beta 1 myself but seems to be a bit buggy so I just uninstalled it and will go back to v6.4. Perhaps if I can do a dual install of both side by side (separate folders, I think it's possible) I may reinstall it.
I also prefer Raw Therapee versus DarkTable. They are both very capable programs but the reason for the RT preference is that I find the GUI more appealing and intuitive. My skill level in both is still relatively shallow, but what I have discovered thus far, it is going to be RT and Digikam for me going forward. Also, especially being a hybrid shooter (photos/videos) I like the fact that Digikam also includes video clips for metadata, ranking, tagging, etc. Most commercial applications still ignore video clips as if they were not a part of multimedia. Ditto for audio files too.
Hi majun26! Thank you so much for watching and leaving some great feedback! It's great to see how these tools differ, and especially compare strengths and weakness for different uses! Really appreciate the insight~
I'm a beginner but I agree with most of majun26 and @Jerry Suppan's opinions. I just feel like RT is a very solid software that focuses on the quality of important, in my opinion, features and not on having super many fancy features like DT (or any other) does. In other words, sometimes I feel like I need more, but the way RT limits its features to a few leads to photos being much more natural and not unnatural with too much tweak. I like RT.
So, I am thinking I’ll commit to learning Raw Therapee and GIMP. Will I be missing out on any critical tools by giving Darktable the skip.
Old video BUT, I've used both but RawTherapee no longer displays the preview thumbs or image correctly. Don't know the problem and have no time to dig into it.
Hi AloeIsTheStuff! Thank you for the comment - Just for curiosity, which version of #RawTherapee is in use? Thus far, I've been unable to duplicate this issue and was wondering if it's something specific to a version and or operating system~
Raw Therappee is actually vastly superior to lightroom. You have better control of the demosaicing algorithms you have control of wavelets it has better sharpening control and noise reduction also. I only used RT for my raw files and finish off in photoshop for at least ten years.
To much chasing your tail in your workflow.
Nice presentation!
Dealing with this issue right now.... BOTH have things i like, and a few maybe not as much... Just jumping back and forth, seeing which operates more like I think.... ( natural working/ thinking flow?)
Hi Gilroy! Completely agree - I've found over time that the interface for RawTherapee is easier, but the results from DarkTable look better in many ways (yet are more difficult to work through). As you mentioned, it depends a bit on which enhancement is needed and then leveraging the tool that serves best. Thanks!
@@Photolearningism So of the 2.,. you lean to DT more than RT overall? My deal is, there is SO MUCH out here, and I'd like to taper down to a few programs I can REALLY learn and be good in, instead of having ten or more all over the desktop, and be only partially versed in all of them. Rather be a master of a few, than a jack of a bunch!
The music is distracting
Hi voidmind! Thank you so much for watching! This seems to be a common feeling and I appreciate your feedback! Going forward I'm considering dropping music, as it seems to be simply distracting for this kind of video production.
Thanks for the compared. The subject is "detailed photo editing" but video is 480p, it is a bit dissapointed. 😕
Hey mate, great video. Thanks for putting it together. Music distracted a bit but your video was clear and had plenty of information. Cheers
Hi jeylful! Thank you so much for watching! Yes, the music proved too distracting and has since been given a generous retirement 😀 - I've dropped using music in my latest videos. Just for curiosity, have you had a chance to try out either #DarkTable or #RawTherapee?
The trouble I am having with DarkTable is it does not have the camera profile for my camera. I am using the R5C and it is not working right.
Hi Mo Velarde! Thank you for the comment! The DarkTable team does look to have a process built in for camera models that are not yet fully supported - I can't vouch for how often they respond, but here's the link they provide in the documentation - hope it helps! github.com/darktable-org/darktable/wiki/Camera-support
@@Photolearningism Thank you so much for the information and link. I am going to try to help with the process.
Rawtherapee does my Sigma DP1 and DP2 Merill raw whereas DT is unable to do so, otherwise both are fantastic tools, used DT exclusively with my SONY A7R.
Thank you for doing what you are doing. I am a linux fan---loving DT, kdenlive, and open source in general. Subscribed!
Hi Kane! Thank you so much for watching! Great to read that the content is helpful - Glad you've joined in the fun! 😀
hi, i m new to photography, just bought my first camera canon rp. it came with canon's digital photo professional........i cant afford adobe subscriptions....is it good for beginner to stick with canon's dpp or should i try something else? i am also confused....on internet and youtube.....some says go with gimp, some says go with raw therapee, some favors darktable.....i m so confused.......if they are all adobe alternatives then why some have unique feature that others dont have? it means you have to use all of them one by one for your photo edits? time consuming and confusing....which will defeat the purpose of avoiding costly adobe subscriptions. please advice. thanks.
I was a little frustrated since you really did not compare them, or did it lightly. I got confused.
I am a long time user of Photoshop, since 1994. Lightroom, I wasn't really a fan of until I started work that required batch editing. So I was a late user of that. I still prefer PS for 90% of my editing. I purchased several standalone versions of PS throughout the years and stopped being a fan of Adobe's when they went to the subscription model. With PS v 6.0 already installed I simply did not sign up for the sub because I felt I could do anything I needed in PS 6.0. With all that history now said, which of the two profiled here (or GIMP) should I use as an adjunct to Photoshop? Will one simply import into it as does Lightroom? I don't like saving out of one and into another. I'd prefer edits to transfer if possible.
Photopea is worth reviewing as well
i came here because i bought a sony xperia 5ii. You think raw therapee supports sony mobile raw files?
Nitpick: If you're trying to use Krita as a "photoshop replacement", then you're using the wrong tool. Krita is primarily a drawing & painting program, rather than photo manipulation. For the latter, use GIMP or an equivalent.
Hi James Bannon! Thank you so much for watching! I've been using #GIMP and #Krita for a while and personally still find #Krita to be more user-friendly to my alteration needs. In either case, I've built a workflow around color toning in #RawTherepee, which outperforms both #GIMP and #Krita in that regard, and then I'll do any final adjustment (removing blemishes or unpleasant accents) in #Krita. Granted, this part could work just as well in #GIMP, but I found the UI to be more challenging to translate. For curiosity, what kinds of photos do you work with?
@@Photolearningism I don't, I just know a bit about open source software.
I would maminky point out that DT and RT are both for RAW file developement and all changes to image are non destructive. GIMP is not for RAW developement and that is main reason why you must first develop your RAW file to be able to use it in GIMP.
Hi David Mareček! Thank you so much for watching! Since posting this video, I've become more attuned to the open source model of leveraging many different frameworks to extend tool capabilities, which is a common Linux model. Having a dominant Windows background, this concept wasn't immediately clear to me, but has since crystalized around how each open source tools are built not just to unlock functionality, but to offer integration scalability. Thank you for the feedback!
@@Photolearningism i actually start using DigiKam thanks to one of your video so thank you for doing your work for people intetested in opensource. I do not mind to pay for software but current trend of subscribtions Is in my opinion just sick. I strongly support legal software and opensource community deserve big thanks for allowing this without ruining a budget And even leads very often to more quality software than payed ones.
thanks for the great review
Hi, thanks for this very useful video. I am in the middle of deciding between just these two apps. I am replacing ACDSEE and have noticed that Darktable preserves all my IPTC descriptions and keywords whereas Rawtherapee does not. Since I have lots of metadata in IPTC in family and client archives that I don't want to have to reinput. I do a lot of film negative captures also and want the best one for speeding up inversion and colour balance. Darktable provides this in 'negadoctor' and so does Darktable with 'Film Negative'. So far I've found that RawTherapee seems to provide better off the bat colour balance using Film Negative.
Which is better dark table raw thearpee or gimp
Hi Durgesh! Thanks for the question! #DarkTable and #RawTherapee can actually be used (one or the other) as a RAW loader for #GIMP (GIMP is unable to load RAW images without one or the other). Each features different strengths and weaknesses for specific use-cases. #DarkTable and #RawTherapee are designed to work with RAW photos, focusing on color tuning, sharpening, and denoising. They can be used for general image tuning, but are best suited to RAW photography uses. In my opinion, #RawTherapee is easier to understand and use, but the results are not as strong as #DarkTable. On the flip side, #DarkTable has a higher learning curve to use, the results are better. If the intended use-case is digital drawing or illustration, then I'd recommend either #GIMP or #Krita. Both can support digital drawing tablets and high resolution work. #GIMP tends to reflect the look and feel of Adobe tools (which can be helpful if you're familiar with Photoshop), while #Krita uses a uniquely different interface. #Krita does have an added bonus of including 2D animation tools. Hope that helps!
Thank you, I am trying to decide which Lightroom Alternative should I use, and after going through several reviews, I end up having two choices, either Dartable or Rawtherapee.
I will sure try them both eventually, as I am yet still a beginner, looking forward to building my experience step by step.
Subscribed and wishing you the best, looking forward to more intuitive videos.
Edit: forgot to mention that I probably will go with Darktable first ( which means for several months probably as I am still new and need to build up a reference point), Firstly because it's recognized by Gimp, Secondly, coz it's community is larger and has more support and a strong community than Rawtherapee as it is, in fact, an Opensource, been around since 2009, while Rawtherapee is just 2 months old. Which is actually astonishing and so awesome to find it competing already in the free market. But I have a feeling that it will turn commercially soon maybe having a pro edition or something.
Hi Ayiam! Thank you so much for watching and for the feedback! I appreciate the insight into these two tools and would welcome you to share your experiences as you try them out! I found it very difficult to pick a favorite between the two, as both have great features (I kinda' wish there was a hybrid version of both!) 😀.
Hi, just a note: rawtherapee is much older than 3 months...it has been available at least since 2011. That said, same here, struggling to decide which software to invest on as a management and processing tool alternative to lightroom.
I can relate to your appraisal of GIMP. While very useful, it's still not at the Photoshop level of being "everything to everyone". I usually keep it out of the "photo enhancement/dark room" tool set and use it more for "image hacking" (i.e., what most people refer to as "photoshopping"), mostly to combine it with work from other sources. Well, that's how I've arranged my workflow, and so far it's what's worked best.
Hi Alexander! Thank you so much for watching and for the great comment! I've been working on a a similar workflow of using #RawTherapee for color toning, then relying on either #PDN or #Krita to perform any correction or "physical" alteration. For curiosity, what kinds of graphic work do you typically work on?
When I'm not coding, I do CGI or painting. I work for a company that makes casino games. There's no single workflow that fits all of what we do, but what I wrote above *usually* works.
Good video! I was just curious what you had to say about the differences between Raw Therapee and Darktable so I watched. I've never used Darktable as my workflow is Lightroom for cataloging, then Raw Therapee for preparing raw files for export into Photoshop. Raw Therapee's demosaicing is far superior and adjustable as compared to Lightroom. Also, you have some very targeted and superior noise reduction and capture sharpening within Raw Therapee. Lightroom is too global in its adjustments.
Hi John! Thank you so much for watching and leaving some great feedback! I'm so glad the video was helpful! WIth extended use between the two, I've found #RawTherapee to be just a bit easier to use than #DarkTable and made it a primary tool in my editing process. I do believe #DarkTable also has some fantastic features (more options than #Rawtherapee in fact) and I may find myself looking to that took as I continue on my own journey of learning. Just for curiosity, what genre of images do you typically work on?
480P max???
Hi Aero Flux! Thank you for the comment - This is was one of my learning experiences in creating videos with #OBS. While the tool is amazing, I wasn't aware that the resolution had to be purposefully configured to record in HD. My mistake was that I had setup an HD camera (using 1920x1080) as a recording source and made the assumption that the output would follow the same. Someone kindly alerted me to this and I have since posted in HD going forward. Unfortunately, there is no way (that I'm aware of) in RUclips to swap out the video with a higher quality version after being uploaded. In any case, I hope the video was informative and helpful!
I prefer rawtherapee colors tones highligts blacks. Looks like a little less contrast LR or Capture one picture, very good look pictures.
DT has incredible tools but I can't have the look I like.
Hi Lowbarr Kate! Thank you so much for joining the conversation - This is a very interesting point and I'm curious to go explore this myself now! 😀
@@Photolearningism ok comparing rendering of multiple software is very interresting, I think RT is near to lightroom, with a lower constrast by default. I find DT has muted, shifted colors , and high and low tonalities are not as good. It's a pity cause DT has very powerfull tools.
I'd love to test Darktable, but since my Canon m50 uses .CR3 fileformat, i cant. Somehow Darktable doesnt support that but Rawtherapee does.
Thanks for the Video.. Linux is Life over here and Open Source is amazing. I never got into photo editing,while I suck at it, I enjoy the ease of some of the software as I work around GIMP. I thoroughly enjoy the world of Linux. I have no idea what Half the Things do in there, But i love just turning somethings up and down and see what happens. Basic photo editing for the most part on my side. ome things are a bit more complicated in gimp to achieve vs something like raw therapee or darktable.
Can you use plugins like Nik collection with Gimp or either of these 2 programs?
Hi Rocky Waters! Thank you so much for checking out this video and asking a great question! Nik collection was new to me (and surprising to learn it was a Google-acquired technology). I haven't been able to test this, but I did found some write-ups that suggest adding the Nik Collection to #GIMP is possible (although I can't yet vouch for stability or any potential hazards of doing so) - www.makeuseof.com/tag/get-started-googles-free-nik-plugins-photography/ - I'll look into this, but for the moment, perhaps this will help!
Tried both think DT is more powerful (?) I used the favorites to mimic Lightroom's layout. Like how it ties into Gimp. However my go to is Capture One Pro.
I was very impressed with DT as a stand alone tool. There was a lot of thought and design that make it very powerful and useful! I've heard of Capture One but haven't taken a deep look just yet - maybe it's time! :) Thanks for the feedback!
C'mon man 480p?
Hi Rano! Thank yo for the comment. During some of my earlier videos, I was unaware that OBS had to be manually set to record in HD, even through the camera settings were configured for HD. I've since fixed this, but unfortunately, there's no good way to upscale the old videos on my channel without replacing them all. I do very much appreciate you checking out this video and hope it was helpful!
Thanks!
Hi Nate, I've little experience with photography yet. Do you know how Digikam/ShoFoto compares to these?
Thanks for the question! I’ll check this out and post findings~
Hi, thank you for your videos ! If I may say you are missing the big difference between RT and DT : the masks. DT offers in every module the possibility to apply the changes to only a part of the image, part that you can draw or define with parameters, even more powerful than in LR. By the way I am surprised you don’t even mention LR in your video, even though DT (a bit less RT to my knowledge) is a fantastic and free alternative to LR. Thx again
Too less facts :-(.
Where is the difference between DT and RT?
Pros and cons?
Hi FreudeAmTanzen InFranken! Thank you very much for watching! This video is meant to be a high-level, somewhat raw experience to highlight some features, stimulate discussion, and encourage exploration surrounding these tools. Have you had an opportunity to try out either tool and test it's value?
@@Photolearningism thanks. I installed DT one week ago. (After using Lightroom for seven years.) Of course I need more practice, but in the first steps I had problems with combining masks or using one mask for different things (sharpen, highlights, colour).
... Now I was searching for detailed videos regarding the masks of Rawtherapee. And the differences in workflow to Darktable. But unfortunately I didn't found meaningful videos.
...
But perhaps you are right. I have to take the time and try RT on my own to find the pros and cons.
I use both both are great dark table is easier tbh but I love raw therpee too
I prefer RT but I really like the Filmic module in DT.
Hi Jose! Thank you so much for surfacing this feature of Dark Table! Just looked it up and am so excited to try this out!
@@Photolearningism I wish I had it handy, but there is a really interesting article by the author of the plugin. A French guy and he goes deep into the mathematics behind the plugin. The article is very technical and I am not going to pretend to understand it but it is interesting to take a look at. I want to say this feature is maybe a year old so there are not too many tutorials out there but I do know that you should disable the base curves and use this instead if you go with Filmic.
@@Being_Joe Awesome! Thanks - I've been very impressed with my initial look into this and will likely cover it within an upcoming video. Thanks so much!
I just discovered both Rawtherapee and Darktable, but can you do layers with either? I've been using On1 Photo Raw and Luminar 3. Do these compare?
Hi Tom! Thank you so much for watching! With #RawTherapee and #DarkTable, the "layer" equivalent would be the individual modules for adjustment, as each can be turned on or off. That aside, #DarkTable employs masking to refine module adjustments (I believe this is also coming soon in #RawTherapee). I've not yet tried out #On1PhotoRaw or #Luminar, but will give these a look and seed how they stack up! Thanks a ton for mentioning these!
I love darktable, I use it professionally. It has very advanced features and makes It easy to streamline your workflow with styles. I use it to preproces my RAW files.
Favorite features?
- styles / batch processing
- parametric blend modes
- advanced color correction/grading modules
- object removal module
- etc.
@Fox Ait yes but with mixed results though. I use Enfuse for that after exporting the files.
digiKam + Rawtherapee - on a base of Kubuntu.
Darktable is good too!
Hi barkingbandicoot! Thank you so much for watching and for noting #Kubuntu! After reading your commend I found that this is part of the KDE community and totally worth checking out! Thanks! kubuntu.org/
I also am the same frame of mind. DigiKam + RawTherapee. The video here seems to be rather skewed to DarkTable as a preference and occasionally mentioning RT as the sidekick alternative, but I personally prefer RT as I find the GUI more appealing and intuitive.
Hi@@tokyojerry ! Thank you so much for watching and joining in! I would very much like to explore RT more after reading all the great commentary from the community! In preparing for this video, I had previously implemented DT as a first option and then moved next to RT, which probably caused the natural feeling of sidelining it. I do find the interface a bit more intuitive within DT, but I'd like to see first-hand the quality output being discussed for RT, as it sounds very useful and worthwhile. Thank you so much!
@barkingbandicoot what's you digikam setup like? I'm building a NAS and thinking of putting the database part on the NAS as well as the photos
You had over 10 minutes to make the Darkroom image brighter, yet you managed not to do so. Why?
Show! XD
GNU Linux is also free. Try it :))) Btw, thanks for this video.
Hi Izmet! Thanks so much for watching! I've been seeing a lot of Linux recommendations as of late and have been considering running some tests to see the results for myself! 😀
@@Photolearningism My recommendation would be Ubuntu 16.04. I've tried a lot of different distros, but only Ubuntu 16.04 wasn't causing me any problems :)
@@pextrapex Great! Thanks so much for the insight! I'll check it out~
Basic editing tools 😂😂😂😂
My dude darktable is total crap it just is. I just installed it. First of all, buggy. Gave a database error the first times I tried to run. Keep minimizing for no reason. Finally it opened but ran sluggish like a dog. Then the colors are all off. Not black background as I see in your video. Light grey, horrible. I tried to open a file, nah, not even that works, shows directories in the worst least intuitive way possible like the idiots at Linux do, complicate too much what is easy. I chose the folder with raw images, for some reason this darktable crapfest doesn't show any files in there, I can't open files. Uninstall, this is horrible.
Hi A Grill Has No Name! That does sound like a bad experience and would absolutely understand not wanting to use it. While some of these troubles sound familiar, for my usage these have been atypical and uncommon. I would add that #DarkTable could do with more a intuitive interface, as it is often difficult to find what I need or how to use it. However, I do find that when I can find my way through, it does deliver the results I need. As with any free, open source tool, there can be struggles and issues, which are the trade off sometimes in place of buying a commercial tool. The advantage with open source is that new features are typically more rapidly applied, which can be used as a strategic edge. I do very much appreciate you checking out this video and leaving the comment! I do hope that you can find a tool that does suit your needs~