An alternative

Look no more for a free editing software – Darktable is here. 

It is free editing software, which is comparable to Lightroom, a paid version. It is also an open-source photography workflow application and raw developer. 

Currently, Darktable consists of 61 operation modules to improve photo editing workflows. It is categorized into 5 operations – basic image, tone image, color image, correction modules, and effects / artistic image postprocessing. Besides that, it also features 21 translations, such as Albanian, Spanish, Czech, Danish, etc. 

Advantages / Instruments

Darktable is the most suited for beginners who are interested to try out basic photo editing, applying filters, and/or to do color correction on a photo. Similar to Lightroom, this software has non-destructive editing throughout, which means that the original images are never modified. It also possesses a wide range of types of files for exporting. Images can also be exported straight to Facebook, Flickr, or sent directly to your e-mail. Adding on, Darktable can read several types of image formats, including HDR, jpeg, jpg, PEM, RAF, and more. 

For images that have data of where it was taken, it will be bind to a geotag, which will be displayed on a map on the software. However, if the camera does not apply GPS Data to the images taken, it will not be shown on the map unless you manually enter the location onto the image. There are a wide range of maps available, ranging from Google Maps to Virtual Earth, to Open Cycle Map, and more. 

Contrast, brightness, and saturation tools are also available on Darktable, and it allows one to make their low-contrast photos stand out after simple editing. Another instrument, Grain, is used to give an effect of film photography to an image. This tool can be found under the Effects group. 

Additionally, it allows one to manage the masks easily. The masks can be stacked up and reused, and it consists of an array of modes which will create powerful combinations. The masks have a great degree of control, meaning that the contrast and saturation of an object can be adjusted while leaving the background untouched. 

Disadvantages

The software crash sometimes and it runs slightly slower. However, as the software is free software, it is expected that it will not be able to handle 50,00 images or more. 

Another downside is that Darktable does not have any mobile or online versions, which in my opinion will not affect many as most do their editing on their desktops. Furthermore, it is not possible to enter parameter values manually, which might be inconvenient for some. 

Adding on, it has a huge number of tools to be used, and this resulted in the interface being cluttered with tools, and this might be confusing for first-time users. 

Lastly, Darktable’s imported image will appear to be slightly underexposed compared to an image loaded onto Lightroom. After editing using Darktable and Lightroom, it can be seen that Darktable’s final image is not able to retain as many details in the brightness and darkest regions, unlike Lightroom. 

Conclusion 

Being free software, it is definitely acceptable to be used by beginners in trying out photo editing, before investing in a more robust software such as Adobe Lightroom. Furthermore, it is a powerful RAW image processor and also consists of a huge number of tools for one to play around with. 

As for professional photographers, it is recommended that you choose to use alternative software such as Adobe Lightroom or Affinity Photo. 

Summary

Pros

    • Free / $0

    • Non-destructive image editing

    • Open-source 

    • Supports RAW files from over 400 different cameras 

    • Powerful export system 

    • Basic image enhancement 

    • Management of photos using location

    • A great degree of control of masks 

Cons

    • No online or mobile versions

    • Runs slower than alternatives 

    • Does not allow one to enter exact parameter values

    • Cluttered interface 

    • Images are darker in Darktable