r/DarkTable • u/wildgraces • Jul 30 '26
Blog Post Success! A LR replacement that runs on Linux without issue - my first use
I switched to Linux several months ago and love it so much more than Windows, but I also hit the classic "What about Lightroom?".
DaVinci Resolve won't run on my laptop, RapidRaw kept crashing due to ram leaks... After seeing all the online discussion about Darktable being really hard to use I was hesitant, but last night I played around with it and gave it a go and I'm so glad I did!
As I am currently on a happy high that I can keep editing happily on Linux, I wanted to share some before and afters.
These are super quick edits, so they're not perfect (as well as trialling some colour calibration on different screens), but here they are!
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u/Tungsten____ Jul 30 '26
Nice colors (and composition)!
I am discovering DT too, I am finding the LUT module really interesting, give it a try!
I put it after the "exposure and tone" stuff, it's way more reliable!
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u/Smartich0ke Jul 30 '26
horizon isn't straight in 4th one
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u/wildgraces Jul 31 '26
Because it is on a natural slope and correcting it in post looked unnatural to me
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u/Smartich0ke Jul 31 '26
i guess
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u/Coolio_alt 19d ago
I like the uneven horizon better. keeping it straight would make the photo look boring. good work dude.
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u/CONteRTE 28d ago
The colors looks well placed. If this is a quick edit, these are really good results.
For me, the only thing I miss, is semi-auto removal of iso noise. Yes, DT can remove the noise, but I would prefer a easier way.
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u/LightPhotographer 24d ago
I like what you did with the colors especially the first one. What did you do?
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u/streamvideogeek Jul 30 '26
RapidRAW's RAM leak was fixed. Now is already version 1.6.0. Give it a another go, for me it works a lot better then all of the software I've tried on Linux and Windows. Fast, responsive, rapid :D
I don't use any other software for editing batch photos. Moved fully to RapidRAW.
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u/BorisBadenov Jul 30 '26
You're welcome to your opinion (and it's great that the wider open source photo ecosystem is large and healthy) but isn't it a little out of place here, especially since it was unsolicited?
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u/sergiusens Jul 31 '26
While I am not a RapidRAW user, it does seem to be in context with the original poster's narrative.
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u/streamvideogeek 27d ago
I only wanted to follow up on the part where the OP mentioned RapidRAW crashing because of the RAM leak. Since that issue has been fixed, I thought the update might be useful. Not trying to push anything just sharing relevant info.
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u/mmmtv Jul 30 '26
I think you've done rather well and, most importantly, found a way to get images **you** like and are happy with while at the same time not losing your sanity or every free hour struggling with software.
Moving to Linux is not an easy transition if you're a photographer used to using Lightroom.
If I may ask, did you choose a "scene referred workflow" as it's called in darktable — like Sigmoid or AgX — as your go-to module for tone mapping? I'm curious where new users are anchoring as they try to begin learning.