As somebody who has been trying to decided which of the RAW photo editors to use, I can tell you that Darktable has a steep learning curve over Lightroom. The UI is incredibly dense and the names of sliders don’t make sense unless you’re an image science expert.
Comment on List of Alternatives to Adobe Programs
anamethatisnt@sopuli.xyz 18 hours agoWith GIMP 3.0 it’s a bit better at least, they’ve finally added non-destructive editing:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfaq-Cm1ZkA
Full changelog here:
www.gimp.org/release-notes/gimp-3.0.html
I’d dare say that unless you’ve already learnt Photoshop (and have to unlearn it) then Darktable+GIMP works fine for home photo editing.
If you’re used to Photoshop and your skills with it is what puts bread on the table… then I completely understand not switching tools.
doxxx@lemmy.ca 17 hours ago
anamethatisnt@sopuli.xyz 17 hours ago
I’ll take yournword for it, I’ve never used Lightroom.
Whenever I played around with Darktable it seems finding a tutorial to get the effect I wanted was just a minute of searching away, and there’s a ton of beginner tutorials available too.
www.darktable.org/2024/12/howto-in-5.0/But then I was the kid that rtfm the game manual on my way home from the store and love dense UIs as an adult. :)
jwiggler@sh.itjust.works 16 hours ago
Darktable is a godsend to me for converting film negatives.But I pretty much only use image conversion, RGB curve, then fidget with the exposure and RGB sliders in negadoctor a little more then I’m done. No idea how to do anything else.
LandedGentry@lemmy.zip 18 hours ago
Yeah but it should tell you something that they just figured out non-destructive editing by 2025
umbraroze@slrpnk.net 14 hours ago
GIMP didn’t “just figure out non-destructive editing by 2025”. You’re talking as if it was something that the GIMP development team just decided to randomly add recently, ignoring user demands.
The foundation for that functionality (GEGL) has been in development for ages and was also used for some functionality in 2.6 for a long time. The reason why it took this long is that it’s a pretty fundamental change to how the app works. Also, that meshed with other upcoming changes at the time. Also, small development team.
LandedGentry@lemmy.zip 12 hours ago
I have said several times I have and support them. I didn’t think they just discovered it - I’m saying the fact that in 2025 they just implemented it is indicative of why I say they’re behind.
They do good work. Yes they’re a small team. It doesn’t change the fact that the software has limitations.
anamethatisnt@sopuli.xyz 17 hours ago
My understanding is that a lot of tech debt has been removed with the release of 3.0 and I’m hopeful it will make future updates simpler and faster. :)
LandedGentry@lemmy.zip 17 hours ago
Rooting for them! I have had it installed for like 15 years lol