Linux photo workflow software

[Madhias]

Since VMware constantly brakes when using a rolling release distro (but simple to fix mostly, as right now again), and I always felt bad and dirty to use VMware (namely VMware Workstation Player), Windows and Adobe software for private use (I bought every Lightroom release so far, no abo), I am again ready to try out and use another photo workflow software than Adobe Lightroom.

What do you use for photo editing, sorting out bad shots, exporting to smaller sizes with nice sharpening on Linux (sorry, GNU/Linux)? What has a 'future' and a good user community?

I have no fancy sorting things going on like face recognition, I don't even tag my pictures, just sort by date and name the folders. The software should run on Linux and Mac OS.

[ramnes]

I use Geeqie for browsing, Rawtherapee for RAW to PNG development, Gimp for editing.

And GNU Coreutils for sorting.

More seriously, nothing comes close to Lightroom and Photoshop, but you should definitely take a look at Rawtherapee. I found it sufficient for my needs, and it's getting better and better with time.

[Findecanor]

I have heard good things about Darktable as a Lightroom clone but I've never tried it myself.

[Madhias]

I've installed Rawtherapee, and have a look. Some values from the *.xmp sidecar files I always save in Lightroom seem to be imported, great. There are so many options, oh my, but interesting, I instantly like the GUI. It also seems to be fast so far (my RAW images have about 40-50MB). But I will really have to have a deeper look and report back after a while. Tips and Tricks appreciated though!

Also it was a little bit hard to get it running, but I discovered it was just the font I was using. I always got when enabling debugging mode and starting with gdb and error like:

Code: Select all

Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_box_gadget_distribute: assertion 'size >= 0' failed in GtkScrollbar

Code: Select all

rawtherapee: cairo-scaled-font.c:459: _cairo_scaled_glyph_page_destroy: Assertion `!scaled_font->cache_frozen' failed.
Thread 1 "rawtherapee" received signal SIGABRT, Aborted.

When switching to another font (namely Monospace) it works, so no problem - but would be nice to have it working with Terminus font (like I defined it in Xresources) But I am really by no means an expert in these things...

[Madhias]

I have played a little bit with Rawtherapee, but only for a short time for now, about 2 hours. So far I really like it, unfortunately there is no local editing currently possible =( Like spot and dust removal, or other local adjustments. But as I read it is already in the pipeline (maybe here: https://github.com/Beep6581/RawTherapee/issues/3421)! And I am not trying to find an excuse not to use RT... But I really don't want to use another application when editing images, I also never use Photoshop for example. So I could use GIMP now for local adjustments? Could be that I missed some options also in RT.

What is interesting about RT that there are so many fancy adjustments, wow. Like in some synthesizer software! I have just used the sliders a little bit, but some of them produce ugly effects looking like cheap HDR images. In Lightroom I always use only some adjustment settings, like white balance, exposure, and basic settings.

Also I discovered https://pixls.us/ and its discussion board.