Englischdude
Senior Member
Hi all,
as a very keen Linux Mint 15 user it has been a very interesting process trying to find software which I can effectively use for the processing of my photos, either RAW or JPG. The search has taken me through most of the open source software options available, some of which I have to say, satisfy all of my needs as a hobbyist. I wont post any links, all the software can easily be found with a basic online search.
GIMP - Picture processing: I would call myself a PS poweruser, and therefore was quite sceptic when I was downloading GIMP. How can a free software compare or be compared to PS, I asked myself! The install was easy (package manager) and the user interface familiar, although alot of the function names, filters and descriptions are different from PS. GIMP is however a powerful and free open source tool which performs alot of the same retouching/layer and processing functions as PS. With the UFRAW plugin processing RAW images is a breeze.
Imagemagik - performs basic image manipulation functions with filters and effects, the UI however is extremely primitive looking, and the program was quite unstable.
UFRAW - a program which is available through the built-in package manager. Works very well for raw processing, lacks however some important functions such as colour fringing control. Does allow export directly into GIMP for further image manipulation. I use UFRAW when previewing my images as it gives me the ability to highlight all the raw files I want to look at, right click and open with UFRAW, the first one will be opened for me to preview where I can close or delete as required, as soon as that raw file is closed the next one will be opened automatically and so on, so I dont have lots of files open in one go.
Rawtherapee - A great program with a well laid out and very professional looking interface which I use regularly. This gives me all the functions I need for Raw processing and exporting to jpg, image manipulation, cropping etc.
And finally the TITAN of all LINUX Raw processing software... DARKTABLE. This is really an extremely sophisticated program. I am not a LR user so my first impressions of this program were overwhelming. If you have no LR experience as I, then the learning curve here will be very steep, if however you are used to LR and are looking for a high level Opensource alternative then this is definitely the one.
I also downloaded and tried the free trial of the commercial software AFTERSHOT, however with the couple of good alternative opensource solutions I found I see no reason to pay for this, so I did not spend much time analysing its potential. If you want however a commercial product for RAW processing in LINUX this is probably the best one you will find.
If anyone has experience with these or indeed any other LINUX image processing software, especially open source then please post! Also, if anyone feels that a certain LINUX distribution is more suitable for photo processing, it would be interesting to hear.
as a very keen Linux Mint 15 user it has been a very interesting process trying to find software which I can effectively use for the processing of my photos, either RAW or JPG. The search has taken me through most of the open source software options available, some of which I have to say, satisfy all of my needs as a hobbyist. I wont post any links, all the software can easily be found with a basic online search.
GIMP - Picture processing: I would call myself a PS poweruser, and therefore was quite sceptic when I was downloading GIMP. How can a free software compare or be compared to PS, I asked myself! The install was easy (package manager) and the user interface familiar, although alot of the function names, filters and descriptions are different from PS. GIMP is however a powerful and free open source tool which performs alot of the same retouching/layer and processing functions as PS. With the UFRAW plugin processing RAW images is a breeze.
Imagemagik - performs basic image manipulation functions with filters and effects, the UI however is extremely primitive looking, and the program was quite unstable.
UFRAW - a program which is available through the built-in package manager. Works very well for raw processing, lacks however some important functions such as colour fringing control. Does allow export directly into GIMP for further image manipulation. I use UFRAW when previewing my images as it gives me the ability to highlight all the raw files I want to look at, right click and open with UFRAW, the first one will be opened for me to preview where I can close or delete as required, as soon as that raw file is closed the next one will be opened automatically and so on, so I dont have lots of files open in one go.
Rawtherapee - A great program with a well laid out and very professional looking interface which I use regularly. This gives me all the functions I need for Raw processing and exporting to jpg, image manipulation, cropping etc.
And finally the TITAN of all LINUX Raw processing software... DARKTABLE. This is really an extremely sophisticated program. I am not a LR user so my first impressions of this program were overwhelming. If you have no LR experience as I, then the learning curve here will be very steep, if however you are used to LR and are looking for a high level Opensource alternative then this is definitely the one.
I also downloaded and tried the free trial of the commercial software AFTERSHOT, however with the couple of good alternative opensource solutions I found I see no reason to pay for this, so I did not spend much time analysing its potential. If you want however a commercial product for RAW processing in LINUX this is probably the best one you will find.
If anyone has experience with these or indeed any other LINUX image processing software, especially open source then please post! Also, if anyone feels that a certain LINUX distribution is more suitable for photo processing, it would be interesting to hear.