this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2025
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I've been on Linux as my primary OS for around a year now. I'm still looking for a replacement for Lightroom and camera raw that doesn't absolutely crush any image I'm working on.
Have you tried raw therapee? At least for what I do I find it to be an excellent Lightroom replacement.
ART, a fork of RawTherapee, is also very good.
Terrible name for SEO but sounds cool! 🤪
It sounds like it might be closer to a 1:1 replacement for Lightroom than Raw therapee. (I haven't installed it, I'm just reading the description. https://art.pixls.us/)
I haven't used Lightroom, so I can't comment on how similar they are either. But there are enough good options that hopefully anyone switching can find one that meets their needs. :)
I have, but with terrible results. Can you recommend some tutorials? The behavior of various tools always surprises me, coming from Adobe raw and Lightroom.
For example, reducing contrast in Adobe tones down highlights and shadows while doing that in dark table and rawtherapee turns everything washed out and grey.
Hmm, unfortunately I don't have any good recommendations. I've just tinkered with it until stuff I like happens, and it's been so long since I used Lightroom I can't speak to specific differences.
With the contrast example it sounds like maybe the RT/DT tools are more literal, and Lightroom is more "smart" perhaps? I usually use the curves panel for this sort of thing, like if I want to bring down some highlights, I'll find whereabouts they are on the histogram and target that area specifically. If I want a lower-contrast image in general I may compensate for some dullness with the local contrast and saturation tools, or if it's the common scenario of a washed out sky, I'll probably use a graduated filter to darken the sky without messing with the foreground.
I'm just guessing though, so I don't know if this is helpful at all.
Any information is helpful and I truly appreciate you taking the time to summarize your workflow. I've actually never monitored the histogram outside of snapping the photo, so that alone is a great suggestion. I generally edit by eye and kinda feel my way through, but using a metric sounds like a great idea! It also makes a lot more sense if you're right about RT/DT being more "literal."
I know I haven't given enough time to either piece of software, but I've been so shocked by how little of my process carried over, that I kinda ran away in fear almost immediately.
Well I'm glad that helps! I enjoy this stuff.
The histogram is neat, I used to just look for "lump in the middle = good exposure" but there are so many other way to make use of it.
There's a panel that I think is present by default in RawTherapee, in the upper left corner, that shows a histogram, and when you hover your mouse over your photo, it has a sort of gauge across the bottom that marks where the pixel under your mouse is at. This can be helpful with determining which bit you want to target with adjustments.
There's also a neat way I've found to get the most out of some images...in the curves panel, starting from the bottom/left/black, make the curve climb steeply where the histogram spikes, and then level off a bit (not totally level, but less steep) where the histogram dips. This seems to give more apparent contrast, without pushing the highlights or shadows too far apart. I hope that makes sense. It'll take some trial and error but might give you something like what you were getting in Lightroom, with shadows and highlights both near "correct" exposure, but avoiding washed out and dull.
I've seen people on the internet suggesting Darktable as a solid Lightroom replacement... I don't know anything about photo editing, but am curious - how bad is it?
From darktable's FAQ:
https://www.darktable.org/about/faq/
In my personal experience it's pretty good, but I've never used lightroom nor do I have nearly any idea what I'm doing with RAW processing, or photography in general, but I've been happy with the few photos I've put through it!
Yeah, so here's my general process batch-editing photos in Adobe Camera Raw:
When I'm done, I have a stark, professional looking photo to export. In darktable, trying this leaves me with a grey mess. I've also tried rawtherapee, but with even worse results. I'm 96% sure that the problem is me, though.
Since 2003 here.
Best of luck in that case!