
It doesn’t matter if we are talking about open source or commercial products. User experience and intuitive interfaces are the key features for any software, at least to me. Instead of taking days to understand the program, most of its basic functions were clear at first sight. The histogram and buttons work well, but they need an update in my opinion. I have the feeling that wherever I shifted one slider in Lightroom, I need to shift three sliders in Darktable: make an adjustment, counterbalance it, and soften the effect.

Still, there are far too many panels and sliders. Once you find a suitable workflow, however, this program will help you gain full control of your image. There is simply too much going on in the software - too much to discover, too much to consider. Still, I found the program really hard to understand. Of course, a few sessions of editing with Darktable couldn’t replace my years of experience with Adobe. With little or no expectations, my first impression still was disappointing. But as I wanted to write a fair review of the program, I had to be patient. In the beginning, it was really hard to deal with new concepts of editing and to not have all those shortcuts which are written deeply into my muscle memory. I really like the path tools in Darktable.ĭarktable was the first software I used after a decade of experience with Adobe. I can fine tune compression and size to get under certain limits without doing a bunch of trial and error adjustments.Great design and full control. I like how when you are exporting to JPG it will actually show you a preview and estimate file size. Gimp has more brushes and things like that, layers, and artistic effects. Curves and levels and that kind of stuff you can pretty much do in anything. I love its paremetric masking capabilities, and how each tool can remember and use the masks. Have to be very careful with that one to just bring things out a little and not overdo them. I really like its contrast equalizer for bringing out fine details. Color temperature adjustments, chromatic aberration, RAW denoise. I agree with acommonsoul Gimp is Photoshop's equivalent and Darktable is Lightrooms.

Yeah, a lot of apps especially the open source/freeware stuff is slow to catch on to new file formats like canon CR3. Gimp won't open RAW files though will it?

Gimp will actually open fit files and will export jpg, tiff etc.

Kind of gave up on rawtherapee, seg faults right out of the gate with Canon EOS R files. Strangely I've found dark table as well as rawtherapee kind of wonky for my daytime photography.
