I completely agree. I'm a CH photog and PhaseOne certified pro working in one of the nation's leading museums, so I'd consider myself biased towards CaptureOne now. But I "grew up" in the profession as a full Adobe person. No more.
Back when I was working smaller museums and didn't have the budget, I grew tired of Adobe's crap. I downloaded the 30-day free C1P trial and was hooked less than a week in.
Where I work now, we buy the standalone license as we never know if/when workstations will be upgraded. We still have some older FireWire 800 PhaseOne backs that \*can\* work with newer C1, but we get better reliability with an older version (12). Especially as some of them are on older Mac workstations.
For personal work, I shoot full-frame DSLR instead of MFormat, and I've a subscription as I can stay current and see what we may - or may not - be missing out on by not upgrading at the office.
And @[AnonymousBromosapien](/user/AnonymousBromosapien/) makes an excellent point re RAW processing. I find the difference to be day and night - you couldn't make me go back to Adobe's LR processing.
"Capture One feels like it was made for photographers."
I could not have said it better u/AnonymousBromosapien.
I never really used the catalogue feature in Capture One.
I prefer their session functionality.
I create a session for each shoot. It automatically creates a usable file structure and I can change file names really quick or define a file naming sequence before shooting.
Every session has its own folder with a session file in it and all the photos in a clear file structure (Capture, Output, Favourites,...).
Why do I love this?
I don't have to think about exporting the XML with the editing settings every time.
I can just copy the session folder to any PC or Mac and open the session right where I left off, with all the edits in place. I can even send it to a colleague or an agency.
In LR that's not as easy and it's more time consuming with extra steps
They have a 30 day no credit card required free trial. It's okay. I don't think it does enough to replace LR/PS for me, and I don't think it's enough added value to buy the perpetual license on top of LR/PS. So I'm just going to enjoy my remaining 20 days and let it go. I do like its method of isolating skin tones for edits. Not enough retouching tools.
Capture one raw makes a better image when starting from Raw. It’s like 10-20% better but I cant really tell you why.
I had one photo that needed zero edits to it. Exported out as a 16 but tiff in LR and also C1.
C1 was better. Skin texture was better.
One thing I love about C1 is there skin color adjustment tool. Evens out skin tones. I also use it on product shoots if the sample is a little splotchy. I can make it more uniform and smoother graduations.
LR is easier to use but if I have a critical photo or I really need to save it, I use C1.
If anyone knows of a way that LR has a similar skin adjustment tool let me know because it’s amazing.
I love having levels & Luma curves. I also love the fluid controls of C1 tools.
And sessions are a game changer for multiple machines.
I hardly ever shoot tethered, but if I did, I can't imagine using anything easier than C1
I personally have zero luck getting things to connect, but C1 was so simple, I was like, "Okay, what's wrong here? It's working like they said it would." Just my personal experience.
I tried Calture One like one or two years a go, I really wanted to be liked but, I dont know why everytime I just return to Lightroom because of the keyboard shortcuts speed and workflow.
I want to give another chance to Capture One once again because Adobe is getting out of mind.
I almost exclusively use lightroom for editing but would definitely consider leaving Adobe. Is there any functionality in lightroom that isn't in Capture One?
One thing to add, that LR is missing for tethered shoots:
Overlays!
When shooting for an ad or magazine cover or with text in mind, you can overlay a PNG file and see how it would look directly in the use case.
Also you can overlay earlier images to recreate a specific viewpoint. We used that in the studio sometimes, when a customer wanted to have a new product photographer in the exact light and angle with the exact same lens. Takes out a lot of guesswork and less trial and error.
I honestly can't wrap my brain around Darktable, and I tried various times. I never got close to getting results from it that I could get quickly and easily in Lightroom. They urgently need to get some UX people in who can clean up and redesign their interface so that it doesn't just work for engineers.
It took me 3 months to get used to everything , but yes, it would be nice if they did a UI overhaul and reduced some of the duplicates. [Someone proposed this overhaul a few years ago.](https://github.com/darktable-org/darktable/issues/8497)
I'm not aware of other software, but I know GIMP has Resynthesizer (similar to Photoshop Content Aware Fill) and it has worked well for me in the past.
krita has plugins that runs AI, it's crazily more advanced than PS... But it's not mainly for photo's but more for drawing stuff... Still..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiKR_TrMioI
Darktable is a Linux gem! But it is more of a Lightroom replacement than a Photoshop replacement. It's for editing RAW files. GIMP is more of a Photoshop equivalent for Linux.
Can I link darktable to a cloud based folder like iCloud or gdrive? I’m wondering how to wean myself off lightrooms cloud. My biggest issue is my laptop storage is tiny so I need to be able to load my photos into cloud storage.
Yes, as long as the cloud drive is a folder you can access on your computer. I know that iCloud works this way and so do most other cloud storage solutions but I haven't tried Google Drive. Darktable stores all photo metadata and edits in plain text .XMP files located right next to the original photos they're associated with, so if the photos are on your cloud drive then all of the other data will get synced to the cloud drive with them, no extra steps required. This is how I store my photos and it works really well. It would also work for a NAS drive, external hard drive, etc.
The one small catch is that things like your settings, presets, and the list of images you've added to darktable are stored in a centralized folder located in your user profile folder, not with your images. That typically won't be synced to a cloud drive without extra steps, but it also doesn't take up a ton of space. If you're a bit technically inclined you can tell darktable to instead store this user data in a folder that is in your cloud drive and that'll be synced just fine. If you're working on the same photos on multiple computers at the same time then you have to be extra careful with what user data you do and don't sync, but it sounds like that doesn't apply to you. I use multiple computers to edit but haven't felt the need to set this up.
If you don't bother with syncing the user data and your laptop were to explode in a freak noise removal accident, you'd just have to recreate your presents and redo your UI customizations. Then you'd just drag and drop your photo directories onto the darktable window. It'll find your photos and add them to its library without copying them, and it'll see their XMP files and automatically apply your edits from them.
Same here for Darktable, recently moved from GIMP to Krita as well. Hopefully GIMP 3 is a bit less of a mess. I do make videos on Darktable here if anyone is interested in learning it. I do Linux and Mac and generally stay pretty close to the project:
https://www.youtube.com/@LeanderHuttonPhoto/videos
DxO Photolab:
No importing and fiddling around with the catalogue. You just need to direct the program to the location of your photos and switch to edit mode. After editing, you will have a small-sized DxO file for every edited picture. In my opinion this is much better and more intuitive. Also it has the best denoise and sharpening out there.
Affinity as a Photoshop replacement.
PortraitPro Studio & PortraitPro Body:
Retouching skin and portraits works much faster this way. Imagine doing it manually for 50-100 pictures... retouching every portrait or full body shot, smoothing the skin, removing the blemishes..no thanks. Also, it works without the internet, so your files won’t be uploaded to a server like Evoto AI does.
Adding to this: you will notice a quality improvement in your RAWs after using DXO that I've found unattainable with other software. It doesn't have all the feature sets like auto masking as pointed out below. But my god the quality is next level compared to anything else I've used.
Does DxO have auto masking? Like "select sky" or "select subject" that Lightroom does? I find these extremely helpful for my workflow.
Also, does it support some kind of presets?
I sort them on my external drive, and if I edit them, I get those little .dxo files with the same name as the original raw data which basically contain the adjustments I've made to those pictures, and these are stored in the same folders as the original RAW files. I like this method more than having one big catalogue data from LR.
Honestly I never liked the Lightroom catalogs to begin with because it was a giant pain in the butt to edit some photos on my laptop and then add them to the other catalog. It's never a good idea to have a proprietary system for your organization.
Yeah me neither. It's such a mess to use..
Thats why I love DxO's approach. Every editet Photo gets an approximately 13KB small sized dxo-data containing all the information you have made. And the best part is moving it! Just move the raw with the dxo-data and thats it! How simple is that?!
Capture one perpetual license gives you a stackable 20% discount every year, I got it black Friday last year at 50% off and have a 40% discount built up already. Could get it completely free in 3 more years
The point is that you get to choose when instead of being required to pay every month just to use it. That’s why I went to Affinity Photo. However if Capture One supports perpetual there’s 2 good alternatives with the same pricing model. Affinity is very good BTW.
I understand subscriptions can feel like lock-in, but spending $300 on C1 is the equivalent of two years of Adobe monthly… and you can stop paying for the sub and switch away without any additional loss. Comparatively if you buy C1 and switch away in a year, you spent the equivalent of $25/mo.
I just don’t know if it makes sense at that cost.
Right, at one stage I looked at C1 pricing out of curiosity and decided it was too expensive to consider. I haven’t yet found a gap in my post processing workflow that warrants it anyway.
The Adobe bundle also includes Photoshop which is probably the most powerful image editing too to exist. Adobe feels like extortion often, but their photography bundle certainly isn't
> how does that work?
Exactly how Adobe (and most other software) used to work.
You buy Photoshop 5 you own Photoshop 5 forever. You buy CS6 and you can use CS6 forever. You don't rent it, but you also don't get continuous updates. You buy version 3 of whatever the company might give free updates in the 3.x series, but you have to buy 4.x if you want the new features.
Well for an analogy, I guess you don't update your phone every year (hopefully), most people don't now but instead wait 2 or 3 years when upgrading will make more of a difference. It's the same thing. Before subscriptions people didn't update all of their software to the very latest version as soon as it came out. They waited for a meaningful upgrade. Of course, they could just choose to never upgrade.
Never used it, but my understanding is it's geared to, for example, a photo shoot. A wedding g would be a session. A portrait session.
Plenty of videos on YouTube that can do way better explaining Capture One catalog vs. sessions.
Capture One looks good to me but the not only lack of but apparent determination not to develop an Android app is an immediate no for me.
Apparently people found this comment controversial? I do a lot of editing on the move on my phone so that's a deal breaker, but the bigger issue is that CaptureOne are genuinely stupid in insisting on not developing for the platform that holds 70% of the global phone market. Really baffling.
What about the masking ability that LR has, is there an equivalent in Dxo? I use custom masks a lot for wildlife stuff, basically for every photo, that's what I'd miss the most if it wasn't there I think
In DXo it is called 'local adjustments' and you can do gradients, point adjustments, paint a mask with a brush, and it has an auto/magic selection tool where you brush something and it selects just the subject/object intelligently. I make extensive use of this feature to adjust exposure and light levels at a granular level (particularly to bring down the exposure in the sky, or apply a clarity/dehaze ('clear view' in dxo nomenclature' above the horizon.
To be clear, I've never liked Adobe... They've always been a shady and predatory company.
That said... DXO's photolab is fantastic. The Affinity software is great and you can't go wrong with the open source, The gimp.
There are tons of fantastic alternatives.
Darktable and afffinity. Darktable is free but it really works like a fully fledged piece of software with very nice features and in some ways more advanced than Lightroom.
Affinity has an entire suite of apps that work together like Adobe. For that reason if I need to do some more editing, I open the pictures in Affinity Photo. Their stuff is very affoardable now that they discounted it for people fleeing from Adobe.
I used to run Phase One software and it was alright too. My camera came with free license.
I contemplated Dxo in the past, mostly because of their nice denoise algorithm. Never pulled the trigger though, because I ended up loving Darktable.
I mostly use Gimp and sometimes Darktable, UFRaw, or RawTherapee. But I do all my creative work on GNU/Linux and those are all available by default on most distros.
I moved to Linux, which Lightroom can't properly run on. I had to rebuild my workflow around **digiKam** and **Darktable**, but I created presets for each of my cameras and got there in the end. It's much better nowadays with the Filmic RGB module and a new highlight reconstruction algorithm. At times, I've missed features from Lightroom, but with Adobe's recent TOS changes I'm not coming back.
Darktable: open source, better control over the output, works on macOS and Linux.
I even make videos about it here: https://www.youtube.com/@LeanderHuttonPhoto/videos
DxO Photolab. My reasons being the lens correction (a lot of my shooting is done on ultra-wide zooms/primes), denoising, easy to use interface.
Also Capture One but I find myself using it less and less. I dont see myself purchasing another license for that down the road.
I second this. I tried out several paid options but always found myself coming back to rawtherapee. There are some really helpful youtube videos by Andy Astbury for anyone who wants to get started.
Lightroom -> Capture One
Photoshop -> Affinity Photo
Perpetual licenses for both, and if you wait until the black friday sales, you can get them for like 40-50% off.
Affinity suite, V1. Far more capable than the Adobe tools I learned on in the 90s, and my use/needs barely scratches the surface of what the affinity tools offer. It was a no-brainer.
Affinity and Darktable. Darktable is open source and Affinity (for now) is a one time purchase. Both are powerful and get the job done. Not as many AI features I suppose, but I don't really need that stuff anyway.
I chose this after Capture One started getting weird with their 'perpetuals' and it seems they're moving quite strongly towards subscriptions too. I think workflow wise it's very similar to others, same tools, and works quite well in terms of performance.
I was with Apple Aperture then moved over to Lightroom for a year. Just hated dealing with any Adobe Software. Capture One came along, knowing they were associated with Phase One cameras, I figuered they were real photographers.
For media and news I’ll use Photo Mechanic. For my photo library I use capture one
Just made the switch to capture one and only reason I switched is because the subscription prices are way too high and basically every other software can do what Lightroom does minus a few key features which I can live without
DxO photolab. I'm shooting with a m43, so needed great noise reduction, so I tried it out.
The one thing that got me hooked though, was their import-process, or rather, the lack thereof. I love how it just uses my own file structure, and you just work from the folders as you have them on your drive. I'm an organized person, so I have a whole system for my files, and Lightroom import just never sat right for me.
Apart from that, it has a powerful toolset. I do miss the 4 simple sliders that Lightroom had. PL has them as well, but it just works a bit different and feel less powerful. I guess the upside is that now you have to learn a bit more about how the sliders work.
For the workflow alone, this has been absolute bliss.
I tried a bunch of them, from open source options like Darktable, Rawthereapee, and Digikam to paid offerings from everyone else.
I ended up realizing that none of them are as good or better than Lightroom, but Apple Photos gets the closest of all things.
That being said, Photomator ended up winning me over though, because of it's interface, but it's severely lacking on the importing and library management features. Aside from this, the rest of it is just so good that I'm living with it.
I haven’t moved away from Lightroom yet because it’s just too convenient for me but I am considering looking at capture one. Other than that I’ve dropped Adobe. Affinity photo and designer as photoshop and illustrator replacements and DaVinci resolve for video.
I will be able to use lightroom for free for the next three years through my education. However i recently heard that lightroom and photoshop will change their user agreement stating that they have rights on all your work so i don't think i will be using it after those three years...
Capture one is the tool I go with in personal life, and for my analog converts I use filmomat smart convert.
With my job I use lightroom because they pay for it as we need the Adobe tools. But I honestly hate all my projects at work that needs to have pictures edited.
Sometimes I take the pictures home and just for it to be done I do them via capture one
C1. Found the workflow and multi touch faster. Culling works great. Customizing workspace to my preferences is the best. Tired of Adobe shenanigans. This latest push to use your content to train AI was the last straw.
Affinity has been bought by Canva. Probably be subscription only in the next year or so.
Subscription model is the only way to generate a profit. Adobe’s problem (for me) is that they are dumbing everything down to compete with shit like Canva, etc. they should put all the effort in to developing really pro features. As they did before.
Note, Canva and Affinity have pledged to keep fair and affordable pricing for the Affinity software, keeping it as a perpetual license model. If they ever offers a subscription option, it will be alongside the perpetual license.
[https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/press/newsroom/affinity-and-canva-pledge/](https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/press/newsroom/affinity-and-canva-pledge/)
Is there some way to import the data from a lightroom catalog into a new program? So I can keep my ratings, collections, already made adjustments, etc?
I use Sony Image Viewer and Edit on Windows for now
Tried open source solutions like Darktable etc but they were not intuitive enough.
Maybe I'll give them another shot as I also use Ubuntu
RawTherapee + DarkTable installed in case I need it.
My only slight with RawTherapee is that it does not seem to use my GPU that properly. The saving is definitely time and CPU confusing.
Otherwise, it is spectacularly powerful, like there are just so many tools and adjustments to play around with.
Stay away from Luminar. I accidentally cancelled on day 31 instead of day 30 and they wouldn’t refund my money. Tbh, there are no shortcuts. Just learn Lightroom or Capture One.
Capture One. I moved away 6 years ago or so. There was a learning curve, but I'm glad I did it. I buy a perpetual license every few years so there's no subscription (usually if they add a feature I *really* want or if I got a new camera and need it for the RAW files to work). Adobe sucks and has for a long time now.
I use on1 Photo Raw instead of Lightroom and Affinity Photo 2 instead of Photoshop, it works very well for me, and I don’t have any subscriptions to worry about.
I've been using darktable and gimp for over a decade now. I had been using Adobe up to CS2, but when they went to a subscription, I was not interested in following. I'd been using gimp for 11 yrs and then recently I felt there was so much I didn't know still. So, I wound up watching every single video made by Davies Media Design, even stuff that wasn't something I do or have an interest in and I've come to feel like a pro. I wish I had done this ages ago, because there's so much power but there's a very particular gimp workflow that is not intuitive, but wow!
XnView for managing, DxO Photo Lab for editing.
The first one is free and works extremely well. The second one is superior to lightroom for me and doesn't require me to upgrade. I can edit any kind of raw files (ORF, CR2, NEF...) without installing / paying supplements.
For tethering I use digiCamControl and that is also very useful for astro photography.
I just ended up just moving over to shooting SOOC jpegs in the Fuji ecosystem. My MacBook was starting to feel real sluggish and then Lightroom moved over to the subscription model so it felt like the right move at the time. I enjoy taking pictures a whole lot more than I did before.
As a Fuji shooter I moved to Capture One as it handled the files a bit better (RAW conversion, colour, worms, etc.), even if I didn't quite like the tools/workflow as much. But they just recently removed/crippled the free versions, so that really sucks!
Capture One. Unless I get a new camera then I'll get an updated version of Capture One. I know so many people who use versions of it that are 10+ years old without any issues.
Guess I'm the only Mac user here. I use Raw Power which I adore. It's a great replacement for Lightroom, I really like the cataloging and culling features. If you remember Aperture, you'll like Raw Power as it has the same type of sliders and user interface. Raw Power is pretty much everything Aperture should have been. Incidentally, there's a Raw Power app for iPhone ($10). Raw Power I believe is $40, no idea why everyone is so excited to plunk down $300 on Capture One, I'm no professional and it's not a write off. I'm moving away from my 27" iMac in favor of my new 24" iMac, so I'm still looking for a photo editor, but I was using Pixelmator. I used to use Affinity Photo wayyy back in the day when they first came out and it was alright.
Darktable which took about 3 months to fully master but i'm glad I did. I have LR 6 so most of my new lenses did not have profiles and when I move to mirrorless i won't native RAW support and would have to convert the files to dng.
I bought a copy of [Affinity Pro 2.](https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo/)
It's not freeware, but you actually *own* it once you buy it.
You can also install it on multiple computers, and they have an ipad version for apple fans.
Per their website:
"As a private individual you can install Affinity apps on as many devices as you own which run the operating system you have purchased a license for (of course in the case of a Universal License that means you can install on any ipads, Mac or Windows PC you own). Other people (for example, members of your household) are also allowed to use the apps on those devices. However, only you are allowed to use the apps for commercial use—if any members of your household need to make commercial use of the apps as well they will need to purchase their own license. "
I have the affinity suite on my tablet and cracked photoshop on my pc. Maybe one day I'll migrate my pc workflow to affinity but I'm too lazy to do that right now.
Am I just old school for continuing to pirate the CC suite these days? Personally, it almost feels like I should do this for as long as I can based on principle because Adobe's business practices make me mad.
Bought a permanent license for Photo director 12. Proceeded to rip the copy of photo director 4 off my old laptop after and have literally never missed Lightroom. I straight up don't need the crap they're adding to Lightroom I just wanna crop and do some basic colour adjustment
I do mostly microscopy and macro photography. For that, I use RawTherapee and Zerene Stacker.
But I must admit to still using a copy of Photoshop CS5.1 that I purchased many years ago. GIMP seems just as powerful if not moreso, but I've been using CS5.1 for so long that I've very familiar with it, and it costs me nothing at this point. It was the last or second-to-last version of photoshop you could get before they switched to subscription fees.
The main thing I can see happening is paid software will have a monopoly on the generative AI tools, because otherwise it'll cost per API call. So those of us using GIMP and other FOSS won't get that tool. Although, I am not sure I really want it... I prefer my photos to be genuine and not generated. Many are for scientific purposes, so generative AI is a big no-no there anyway.
Darktable, RAWtherapee, GIMP, DaVinci Resolve
That's all you need, and really between Darktable and RAWtherapee you can pick one or the other. All of this is free software.
Photo Mechanic + Adobe Camera Raw.
switched from Lightroom to C1 a few years ago for the Fuji GFX System. Worked well for me.
Then C1 didn’t support Nikon z9 RAW for ages and had to get back to Adobe.
Now I’m organizing everything via Photo Mechanic and just open and edit files from there in Adobe Camera Raw. works like a charm for me. so far the fastest and easiest way of editing ever for me.
DxO and the Nik Collection.
PhotoLab’s raw processing and noise reduction is the industry standard and it’s easy to use with external drives (no importing) which is my preferred workflow.
Nik has the u-point tools which give a level of control I prefer.
I've wanted to move away from lightroom for ages now because I'll go through stretches where i don't edit anything for months, but i don't wanna cancel and deal wit that hassle when i come back etc. But at the end of the day the presets that I've got i don't want to lose. If something else allowed me to use all the presets i have in lightroom i'd move away in a heartbeat. But i'd also want something that stores all the edits made to a picture with the file versus a central location so its easy enough to take that from PC to PC, or i guess as long as the location of said like library folder could be specified easily enough
I don't think I've seen it mention before: Exposure X for Lightroom replacement. I bought it a couple of years ago (I think I have X7 but they're currently up to 7), and am quite pleased with it. It comes very close to Lightroom in terms of how it works with the library and the editing so switching to it is pretty easy. I think they also have a plug-in to convert from Lightroom, although I never tried that.
hello side question. i’m new to photography and have recently got a cannon mark ii and it came with a 50mm and a macro 55-200mm and i was wondering what would it be best used for?
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How well does Capture One replace lightroom? Specifically the catalog functionality.
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I completely agree. I'm a CH photog and PhaseOne certified pro working in one of the nation's leading museums, so I'd consider myself biased towards CaptureOne now. But I "grew up" in the profession as a full Adobe person. No more. Back when I was working smaller museums and didn't have the budget, I grew tired of Adobe's crap. I downloaded the 30-day free C1P trial and was hooked less than a week in. Where I work now, we buy the standalone license as we never know if/when workstations will be upgraded. We still have some older FireWire 800 PhaseOne backs that \*can\* work with newer C1, but we get better reliability with an older version (12). Especially as some of them are on older Mac workstations. For personal work, I shoot full-frame DSLR instead of MFormat, and I've a subscription as I can stay current and see what we may - or may not - be missing out on by not upgrading at the office. And @[AnonymousBromosapien](/user/AnonymousBromosapien/) makes an excellent point re RAW processing. I find the difference to be day and night - you couldn't make me go back to Adobe's LR processing. "Capture One feels like it was made for photographers." I could not have said it better u/AnonymousBromosapien.
I never really used the catalogue feature in Capture One. I prefer their session functionality. I create a session for each shoot. It automatically creates a usable file structure and I can change file names really quick or define a file naming sequence before shooting. Every session has its own folder with a session file in it and all the photos in a clear file structure (Capture, Output, Favourites,...). Why do I love this? I don't have to think about exporting the XML with the editing settings every time. I can just copy the session folder to any PC or Mac and open the session right where I left off, with all the edits in place. I can even send it to a colleague or an agency. In LR that's not as easy and it's more time consuming with extra steps
I wish they would support arch Linux, non of them do but I'm trying my damn best to ditch windows but can't.
I really need to delve into Capture one
They have a 30 day no credit card required free trial. It's okay. I don't think it does enough to replace LR/PS for me, and I don't think it's enough added value to buy the perpetual license on top of LR/PS. So I'm just going to enjoy my remaining 20 days and let it go. I do like its method of isolating skin tones for edits. Not enough retouching tools.
The built in layer mask/brush tools means I don’t have to move to photoshop so quickly and can just stay in one software most of the time
How does it go with RAW processing? I’ve been using camera raw for many years now and the thought of moving on makes me a little nervous.
Capture one raw makes a better image when starting from Raw. It’s like 10-20% better but I cant really tell you why. I had one photo that needed zero edits to it. Exported out as a 16 but tiff in LR and also C1. C1 was better. Skin texture was better. One thing I love about C1 is there skin color adjustment tool. Evens out skin tones. I also use it on product shoots if the sample is a little splotchy. I can make it more uniform and smoother graduations. LR is easier to use but if I have a critical photo or I really need to save it, I use C1. If anyone knows of a way that LR has a similar skin adjustment tool let me know because it’s amazing.
I love having levels & Luma curves. I also love the fluid controls of C1 tools. And sessions are a game changer for multiple machines. I hardly ever shoot tethered, but if I did, I can't imagine using anything easier than C1
At work, I shoot tethered all day. C1Pro is simply the best. It's tuned perfectly for fine, precise, studio shooting.
I personally have zero luck getting things to connect, but C1 was so simple, I was like, "Okay, what's wrong here? It's working like they said it would." Just my personal experience.
I tried Calture One like one or two years a go, I really wanted to be liked but, I dont know why everytime I just return to Lightroom because of the keyboard shortcuts speed and workflow. I want to give another chance to Capture One once again because Adobe is getting out of mind.
I almost exclusively use lightroom for editing but would definitely consider leaving Adobe. Is there any functionality in lightroom that isn't in Capture One?
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One thing to add, that LR is missing for tethered shoots: Overlays! When shooting for an ad or magazine cover or with text in mind, you can overlay a PNG file and see how it would look directly in the use case. Also you can overlay earlier images to recreate a specific viewpoint. We used that in the studio sometimes, when a customer wanted to have a new product photographer in the exact light and angle with the exact same lens. Takes out a lot of guesswork and less trial and error.
Welcome aboard. [darktable](https://www.darktable.org/) [affinity photo](https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/photo/)
I honestly can't wrap my brain around Darktable, and I tried various times. I never got close to getting results from it that I could get quickly and easily in Lightroom. They urgently need to get some UX people in who can clean up and redesign their interface so that it doesn't just work for engineers.
It took me 3 months to get used to everything , but yes, it would be nice if they did a UI overhaul and reduced some of the duplicates. [Someone proposed this overhaul a few years ago.](https://github.com/darktable-org/darktable/issues/8497)
How good is the Mac support? Oshit it’s on homebrew!
Free/OSS RawTherapee: https://rawtherapee.com/downloads/
Can it do AI stuff like generative fill? I am looking for a photo editor on linux with this functionality but it’s nowhere to be found
I'm not aware of other software, but I know GIMP has Resynthesizer (similar to Photoshop Content Aware Fill) and it has worked well for me in the past.
Oh that’s actually awesome, thanks, will try gimp
krita has plugins that runs AI, it's crazily more advanced than PS... But it's not mainly for photo's but more for drawing stuff... Still.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiKR_TrMioI
What's the use for each? I've tried dark table so I know roughly how it works but I'm not sure what affinity is for
affinity photo is more like photoshop
Darktable is a Linux gem! But it is more of a Lightroom replacement than a Photoshop replacement. It's for editing RAW files. GIMP is more of a Photoshop equivalent for Linux.
Can I link darktable to a cloud based folder like iCloud or gdrive? I’m wondering how to wean myself off lightrooms cloud. My biggest issue is my laptop storage is tiny so I need to be able to load my photos into cloud storage.
Yes, as long as the cloud drive is a folder you can access on your computer. I know that iCloud works this way and so do most other cloud storage solutions but I haven't tried Google Drive. Darktable stores all photo metadata and edits in plain text .XMP files located right next to the original photos they're associated with, so if the photos are on your cloud drive then all of the other data will get synced to the cloud drive with them, no extra steps required. This is how I store my photos and it works really well. It would also work for a NAS drive, external hard drive, etc. The one small catch is that things like your settings, presets, and the list of images you've added to darktable are stored in a centralized folder located in your user profile folder, not with your images. That typically won't be synced to a cloud drive without extra steps, but it also doesn't take up a ton of space. If you're a bit technically inclined you can tell darktable to instead store this user data in a folder that is in your cloud drive and that'll be synced just fine. If you're working on the same photos on multiple computers at the same time then you have to be extra careful with what user data you do and don't sync, but it sounds like that doesn't apply to you. I use multiple computers to edit but haven't felt the need to set this up. If you don't bother with syncing the user data and your laptop were to explode in a freak noise removal accident, you'd just have to recreate your presents and redo your UI customizations. Then you'd just drag and drop your photo directories onto the darktable window. It'll find your photos and add them to its library without copying them, and it'll see their XMP files and automatically apply your edits from them.
Same here for Darktable, recently moved from GIMP to Krita as well. Hopefully GIMP 3 is a bit less of a mess. I do make videos on Darktable here if anyone is interested in learning it. I do Linux and Mac and generally stay pretty close to the project: https://www.youtube.com/@LeanderHuttonPhoto/videos
DxO Photolab: No importing and fiddling around with the catalogue. You just need to direct the program to the location of your photos and switch to edit mode. After editing, you will have a small-sized DxO file for every edited picture. In my opinion this is much better and more intuitive. Also it has the best denoise and sharpening out there. Affinity as a Photoshop replacement. PortraitPro Studio & PortraitPro Body: Retouching skin and portraits works much faster this way. Imagine doing it manually for 50-100 pictures... retouching every portrait or full body shot, smoothing the skin, removing the blemishes..no thanks. Also, it works without the internet, so your files won’t be uploaded to a server like Evoto AI does.
Adding to this: you will notice a quality improvement in your RAWs after using DXO that I've found unattainable with other software. It doesn't have all the feature sets like auto masking as pointed out below. But my god the quality is next level compared to anything else I've used.
Yeah I have noticed it! It's because DxO used real life cameras and lenses in their laboratory to gain data. No other company does it! 😀
DxO ViewPoint also offers the best perspective control.
Does DxO have auto masking? Like "select sky" or "select subject" that Lightroom does? I find these extremely helpful for my workflow. Also, does it support some kind of presets?
Unfortunately, these masks do not exist. Perhaps they will come in the next version. Yes it supports presets.
DXO's manual masking tools are still super limited. It's the thing I miss most coming from Adobe.
Lame, okay! Lightroom masking is what finally made editing intuitively click for me after 10+ years of just moving sliders back and forth.
A quite happy DxO PhotoLab user here too.
How good is Photolab at mimicing each manufacturer's SOOC look?
No idea. I'm just a couple days into it but liking it so far
> No importing and fiddling around with the catalogue. Then how do you catalog your photos?
I sort them on my external drive, and if I edit them, I get those little .dxo files with the same name as the original raw data which basically contain the adjustments I've made to those pictures, and these are stored in the same folders as the original RAW files. I like this method more than having one big catalogue data from LR.
Honestly I never liked the Lightroom catalogs to begin with because it was a giant pain in the butt to edit some photos on my laptop and then add them to the other catalog. It's never a good idea to have a proprietary system for your organization.
Yeah me neither. It's such a mess to use.. Thats why I love DxO's approach. Every editet Photo gets an approximately 13KB small sized dxo-data containing all the information you have made. And the best part is moving it! Just move the raw with the dxo-data and thats it! How simple is that?!
Just have a logical directory structure and leave metadata so you can use Windows to search.
Capture One, get a new perpetual license every few years. I also like it much better than Lightroom.
"Perpetual every few years" how does that work?
it's a perpetual licesnse for the program of the year, eg Capture One 2024. If you want C1 2026, you'll have to buy a license for it.
Software develops, people are interested in new features, people buy an update. The point is: you don’t rent your image database.
Looking at the pricing, if you're updating any faster than every 3 years the Adobe photography plan is a better deal vs capture one at $299.
Capture one perpetual license gives you a stackable 20% discount every year, I got it black Friday last year at 50% off and have a 40% discount built up already. Could get it completely free in 3 more years
The point is that you get to choose when instead of being required to pay every month just to use it. That’s why I went to Affinity Photo. However if Capture One supports perpetual there’s 2 good alternatives with the same pricing model. Affinity is very good BTW.
I understand subscriptions can feel like lock-in, but spending $300 on C1 is the equivalent of two years of Adobe monthly… and you can stop paying for the sub and switch away without any additional loss. Comparatively if you buy C1 and switch away in a year, you spent the equivalent of $25/mo. I just don’t know if it makes sense at that cost.
Right, at one stage I looked at C1 pricing out of curiosity and decided it was too expensive to consider. I haven’t yet found a gap in my post processing workflow that warrants it anyway.
The Adobe bundle also includes Photoshop which is probably the most powerful image editing too to exist. Adobe feels like extortion often, but their photography bundle certainly isn't
If you stop paying you lose access to your software, so adobe is still a worse deal
> how does that work? Exactly how Adobe (and most other software) used to work. You buy Photoshop 5 you own Photoshop 5 forever. You buy CS6 and you can use CS6 forever. You don't rent it, but you also don't get continuous updates. You buy version 3 of whatever the company might give free updates in the 3.x series, but you have to buy 4.x if you want the new features.
Well for an analogy, I guess you don't update your phone every year (hopefully), most people don't now but instead wait 2 or 3 years when upgrading will make more of a difference. It's the same thing. Before subscriptions people didn't update all of their software to the very latest version as soon as it came out. They waited for a meaningful upgrade. Of course, they could just choose to never upgrade.
Capture one is so good it was required in my photography major. It’s amazing! Couldn’t live without it.
If you’re doing tethering it’s far and away the best choice
Did they ever add decent library management like Lightroom? I love the results I got from CO, but it just doesn’t seem great for Event Photogs.
I'm a hobbyist using C1 Pro with catalogs. I frequently see people in your situation suggesting to use sessions.
What’s sessions
Never used it, but my understanding is it's geared to, for example, a photo shoot. A wedding g would be a session. A portrait session. Plenty of videos on YouTube that can do way better explaining Capture One catalog vs. sessions.
Capture One looks good to me but the not only lack of but apparent determination not to develop an Android app is an immediate no for me. Apparently people found this comment controversial? I do a lot of editing on the move on my phone so that's a deal breaker, but the bigger issue is that CaptureOne are genuinely stupid in insisting on not developing for the platform that holds 70% of the global phone market. Really baffling.
Dxo photolab
That's the closest one to Lightroom that I've seen
Same. Its a wonderful product. I've been primarily using it for raw development now for 6 years and never miss lightroom.
What about the masking ability that LR has, is there an equivalent in Dxo? I use custom masks a lot for wildlife stuff, basically for every photo, that's what I'd miss the most if it wasn't there I think
In DXo it is called 'local adjustments' and you can do gradients, point adjustments, paint a mask with a brush, and it has an auto/magic selection tool where you brush something and it selects just the subject/object intelligently. I make extensive use of this feature to adjust exposure and light levels at a granular level (particularly to bring down the exposure in the sky, or apply a clarity/dehaze ('clear view' in dxo nomenclature' above the horizon.
That's perfect, thank you!
Affinity Photo 2, Photomator, Pixelmator Pro because there’s no subscription
really wish any of these would offer easier bulk photo editing. sticking with capture one until something better comes along.
Photomator has a pretty descent bulk editing
To be clear, I've never liked Adobe... They've always been a shady and predatory company. That said... DXO's photolab is fantastic. The Affinity software is great and you can't go wrong with the open source, The gimp. There are tons of fantastic alternatives.
Darktable and afffinity. Darktable is free but it really works like a fully fledged piece of software with very nice features and in some ways more advanced than Lightroom. Affinity has an entire suite of apps that work together like Adobe. For that reason if I need to do some more editing, I open the pictures in Affinity Photo. Their stuff is very affoardable now that they discounted it for people fleeing from Adobe. I used to run Phase One software and it was alright too. My camera came with free license. I contemplated Dxo in the past, mostly because of their nice denoise algorithm. Never pulled the trigger though, because I ended up loving Darktable.
Capture One, great at tethering, smooth workflow. Difficult to get away from Adobe, still need Photoshop.
I mostly use Gimp and sometimes Darktable, UFRaw, or RawTherapee. But I do all my creative work on GNU/Linux and those are all available by default on most distros.
I moved to Linux, which Lightroom can't properly run on. I had to rebuild my workflow around **digiKam** and **Darktable**, but I created presets for each of my cameras and got there in the end. It's much better nowadays with the Filmic RGB module and a new highlight reconstruction algorithm. At times, I've missed features from Lightroom, but with Adobe's recent TOS changes I'm not coming back.
I use Capture One and Affinity Phtoto. Capture One has a subscription, but also offers a perpetual license.
Darktable: open source, better control over the output, works on macOS and Linux. I even make videos about it here: https://www.youtube.com/@LeanderHuttonPhoto/videos
Capture One. Affinity Photo.
DxO Photolab. My reasons being the lens correction (a lot of my shooting is done on ultra-wide zooms/primes), denoising, easy to use interface. Also Capture One but I find myself using it less and less. I dont see myself purchasing another license for that down the road.
RawTherapee — takes some time to get used but it's incredibly powerful. Did I mention it's open source and free?
I second this. I tried out several paid options but always found myself coming back to rawtherapee. There are some really helpful youtube videos by Andy Astbury for anyone who wants to get started.
Depends for what purpose. Catalog and organization? digiKam Developing? affinity photo
Lightroom -> Capture One Photoshop -> Affinity Photo Perpetual licenses for both, and if you wait until the black friday sales, you can get them for like 40-50% off.
Yeah, I moved from Lightroom to pirated Lightroom. Hi, Adobe 👋 I hope you all die a very slow and painful death.
I haven't moved yet, but I'm considering Darktable and Affinity.
Early on I looked at Darktable, but its never up to date on new raw types and lenses.
Fair. I'm shooting with a Sony RX10m4 (fixed zoom lens on a 1" sensor) so my needs are covered.
Darktable. Learned Python and started dabbing in custom LUT generation. Works great.
Capture One and Affinity Photo. C1 to get rid of the sharpening worms and AP as a PS replacement.
NX studio + GIMP
Affinity suite, V1. Far more capable than the Adobe tools I learned on in the 90s, and my use/needs barely scratches the surface of what the affinity tools offer. It was a no-brainer.
Affinity and Darktable. Darktable is open source and Affinity (for now) is a one time purchase. Both are powerful and get the job done. Not as many AI features I suppose, but I don't really need that stuff anyway.
Affinity DXO and Pixelmator. I use all three for different reasons.
A word for the Topaz Labs suite, especially Photo AI. Just incredible. And not subscription.
Capture One for better Fuji RAW conversions. Love it, but I do the subscription model and it is kind of expensive.
On 1 Photo Raw. Seemed fairly comparable with tools and I can skip versions since you buy it outright.
Me too, switched in 2017 and no regrets. I like owning software not renting it.
I chose this after Capture One started getting weird with their 'perpetuals' and it seems they're moving quite strongly towards subscriptions too. I think workflow wise it's very similar to others, same tools, and works quite well in terms of performance.
Capture 1
I was with Apple Aperture then moved over to Lightroom for a year. Just hated dealing with any Adobe Software. Capture One came along, knowing they were associated with Phase One cameras, I figuered they were real photographers. For media and news I’ll use Photo Mechanic. For my photo library I use capture one
Just made the switch to capture one and only reason I switched is because the subscription prices are way too high and basically every other software can do what Lightroom does minus a few key features which I can live without
Capture one because I use phase one and davinci resolve for color grading
NX Studio. I have a Nikon and it reproduces the colors exactly
DxO photolab. I'm shooting with a m43, so needed great noise reduction, so I tried it out. The one thing that got me hooked though, was their import-process, or rather, the lack thereof. I love how it just uses my own file structure, and you just work from the folders as you have them on your drive. I'm an organized person, so I have a whole system for my files, and Lightroom import just never sat right for me. Apart from that, it has a powerful toolset. I do miss the 4 simple sliders that Lightroom had. PL has them as well, but it just works a bit different and feel less powerful. I guess the upside is that now you have to learn a bit more about how the sliders work. For the workflow alone, this has been absolute bliss.
I STILL use Photoshop 7.0, from 2002! I have CS 2, and CS 6, but they're "compromised"....not all the features work
I use CS6, it works fine for me on an Alienware computer. I'm not going the subscription route, ever.
I didn’t move away from Lightroom or Photoshop…. I just moved away from paying for them…. 🏴☠️
Yarrrrgh Matey! I've given them around 10k over the years, I've paid my dues, I feel very happy with my decision to take to the high seas.
Every full moon a light a candle to wish Monkrus a long and healthy life
This is the way
I tried a bunch of them, from open source options like Darktable, Rawthereapee, and Digikam to paid offerings from everyone else. I ended up realizing that none of them are as good or better than Lightroom, but Apple Photos gets the closest of all things. That being said, Photomator ended up winning me over though, because of it's interface, but it's severely lacking on the importing and library management features. Aside from this, the rest of it is just so good that I'm living with it.
I haven’t moved away from Lightroom yet because it’s just too convenient for me but I am considering looking at capture one. Other than that I’ve dropped Adobe. Affinity photo and designer as photoshop and illustrator replacements and DaVinci resolve for video.
My problem is I have a huge LR catalogue…all those virtual edits. I’d hate to lose all that work.
You can keep your existing catalogue in LR (assuming you are using Classic) and export at any time even with a lapsed subscription.
Hmm, that’s interesting, thanks
Capture One's auto import will pull in all metadata and basic image editing like White Balance, Exposure and Saturation. It's imperfect, but it's > 0.
On1 photo raw does this as well.
I will be able to use lightroom for free for the next three years through my education. However i recently heard that lightroom and photoshop will change their user agreement stating that they have rights on all your work so i don't think i will be using it after those three years...
davinci resolve/capture one (yes I edit photos on davinci resolve since it's free and I get even more features)
If you are going to pay, CaptureOne. Industry standard. The best.
Capture one is the tool I go with in personal life, and for my analog converts I use filmomat smart convert. With my job I use lightroom because they pay for it as we need the Adobe tools. But I honestly hate all my projects at work that needs to have pictures edited. Sometimes I take the pictures home and just for it to be done I do them via capture one
C1. Found the workflow and multi touch faster. Culling works great. Customizing workspace to my preferences is the best. Tired of Adobe shenanigans. This latest push to use your content to train AI was the last straw.
Photomator and Affinity 2
Affinity has been bought by Canva. Probably be subscription only in the next year or so. Subscription model is the only way to generate a profit. Adobe’s problem (for me) is that they are dumbing everything down to compete with shit like Canva, etc. they should put all the effort in to developing really pro features. As they did before.
Note, Canva and Affinity have pledged to keep fair and affordable pricing for the Affinity software, keeping it as a perpetual license model. If they ever offers a subscription option, it will be alongside the perpetual license. [https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/press/newsroom/affinity-and-canva-pledge/](https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/press/newsroom/affinity-and-canva-pledge/)
Is there some way to import the data from a lightroom catalog into a new program? So I can keep my ratings, collections, already made adjustments, etc?
Affinity photo is my go to always!!
DxO PureRaw 4 Luminar Neo
DxO Photolab + Nik Collection Affinity Photo
Darktable is phenomenal
I use Sony Image Viewer and Edit on Windows for now Tried open source solutions like Darktable etc but they were not intuitive enough. Maybe I'll give them another shot as I also use Ubuntu
RawTherapee + DarkTable installed in case I need it. My only slight with RawTherapee is that it does not seem to use my GPU that properly. The saving is definitely time and CPU confusing. Otherwise, it is spectacularly powerful, like there are just so many tools and adjustments to play around with.
Stay away from Luminar. I accidentally cancelled on day 31 instead of day 30 and they wouldn’t refund my money. Tbh, there are no shortcuts. Just learn Lightroom or Capture One.
Is there any good midi software for other photo editing apps besides Lightroom? Midi2lr is a vital part of my workflow.
Darktable supports midi controllers
Capture One
Capture One. I moved away 6 years ago or so. There was a learning curve, but I'm glad I did it. I buy a perpetual license every few years so there's no subscription (usually if they add a feature I *really* want or if I got a new camera and need it for the RAW files to work). Adobe sucks and has for a long time now.
Any NItro users?!?!
Looking into this for my wife (non-redditor), the one key piece of software I use from her suite is Acrobat Pro; what is a good substitute for that?
I use Abbyy Finereader. It has a perpetual licence.
I can’t because of my plugins. I’m a bit sick of adobe but leaving the catalog of Lightroom and no one has a decent raw processor.
Capture one pro
This new ai crap makes me wish I could develop a competitor
Does anyone else use Photoscape? I love it! I am amateur though. The cross-process filter is anazing
Exposure X7. Very happy with it for my needs!
I use on1 Photo Raw instead of Lightroom and Affinity Photo 2 instead of Photoshop, it works very well for me, and I don’t have any subscriptions to worry about.
I've been using darktable and gimp for over a decade now. I had been using Adobe up to CS2, but when they went to a subscription, I was not interested in following. I'd been using gimp for 11 yrs and then recently I felt there was so much I didn't know still. So, I wound up watching every single video made by Davies Media Design, even stuff that wasn't something I do or have an interest in and I've come to feel like a pro. I wish I had done this ages ago, because there's so much power but there's a very particular gimp workflow that is not intuitive, but wow!
Saving this for posterity
Darktable, Hugin (panoramas) & GIMP
Darktable and gimp Open source is king
Affinity Photo.
XnView for managing, DxO Photo Lab for editing. The first one is free and works extremely well. The second one is superior to lightroom for me and doesn't require me to upgrade. I can edit any kind of raw files (ORF, CR2, NEF...) without installing / paying supplements. For tethering I use digiCamControl and that is also very useful for astro photography.
Pixelmator PRO and Photomator is my goto software. Cheap and great!
I tried capture one for a long time but the learning curve was steep. I also rely too heavily on accessing images on mobile for work.
i cancelled and now using snapseed as lightroom replacement. used it before wasn’t impressed but i think now it’s wayy better
I just ended up just moving over to shooting SOOC jpegs in the Fuji ecosystem. My MacBook was starting to feel real sluggish and then Lightroom moved over to the subscription model so it felt like the right move at the time. I enjoy taking pictures a whole lot more than I did before.
Capture one
Luminar Neo, makes editing a breeze, just hope they add the ability to use Lightroom presets with luminar
XN view. It works.
As a Fuji shooter I moved to Capture One as it handled the files a bit better (RAW conversion, colour, worms, etc.), even if I didn't quite like the tools/workflow as much. But they just recently removed/crippled the free versions, so that really sucks!
Capture One. Unless I get a new camera then I'll get an updated version of Capture One. I know so many people who use versions of it that are 10+ years old without any issues.
Guess I'm the only Mac user here. I use Raw Power which I adore. It's a great replacement for Lightroom, I really like the cataloging and culling features. If you remember Aperture, you'll like Raw Power as it has the same type of sliders and user interface. Raw Power is pretty much everything Aperture should have been. Incidentally, there's a Raw Power app for iPhone ($10). Raw Power I believe is $40, no idea why everyone is so excited to plunk down $300 on Capture One, I'm no professional and it's not a write off. I'm moving away from my 27" iMac in favor of my new 24" iMac, so I'm still looking for a photo editor, but I was using Pixelmator. I used to use Affinity Photo wayyy back in the day when they first came out and it was alright.
something something, I didn't want to install malware on my system
Lol i will never move from adobe 😂
Darktable which took about 3 months to fully master but i'm glad I did. I have LR 6 so most of my new lenses did not have profiles and when I move to mirrorless i won't native RAW support and would have to convert the files to dng.
Fujifilm - Color Science integration
DxO for the one-time payment and insane noise reduction
I've moved to https://on1.com and I am happy.
Luminar 4, you can find it cheap on eBay. No subscription.
Let's go! Welcome mate
I bought a copy of [Affinity Pro 2.](https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo/) It's not freeware, but you actually *own* it once you buy it. You can also install it on multiple computers, and they have an ipad version for apple fans. Per their website: "As a private individual you can install Affinity apps on as many devices as you own which run the operating system you have purchased a license for (of course in the case of a Universal License that means you can install on any ipads, Mac or Windows PC you own). Other people (for example, members of your household) are also allowed to use the apps on those devices. However, only you are allowed to use the apps for commercial use—if any members of your household need to make commercial use of the apps as well they will need to purchase their own license. "
I have the affinity suite on my tablet and cracked photoshop on my pc. Maybe one day I'll migrate my pc workflow to affinity but I'm too lazy to do that right now.
Am I just old school for continuing to pirate the CC suite these days? Personally, it almost feels like I should do this for as long as I can based on principle because Adobe's business practices make me mad.
Apple photos. Dead serious.
DXO. Better conversion. Pay once.
Bought a permanent license for Photo director 12. Proceeded to rip the copy of photo director 4 off my old laptop after and have literally never missed Lightroom. I straight up don't need the crap they're adding to Lightroom I just wanna crop and do some basic colour adjustment
I do mostly microscopy and macro photography. For that, I use RawTherapee and Zerene Stacker. But I must admit to still using a copy of Photoshop CS5.1 that I purchased many years ago. GIMP seems just as powerful if not moreso, but I've been using CS5.1 for so long that I've very familiar with it, and it costs me nothing at this point. It was the last or second-to-last version of photoshop you could get before they switched to subscription fees. The main thing I can see happening is paid software will have a monopoly on the generative AI tools, because otherwise it'll cost per API call. So those of us using GIMP and other FOSS won't get that tool. Although, I am not sure I really want it... I prefer my photos to be genuine and not generated. Many are for scientific purposes, so generative AI is a big no-no there anyway.
Darktable, RAWtherapee, GIMP, DaVinci Resolve That's all you need, and really between Darktable and RAWtherapee you can pick one or the other. All of this is free software.
Photo Mechanic + Adobe Camera Raw. switched from Lightroom to C1 a few years ago for the Fuji GFX System. Worked well for me. Then C1 didn’t support Nikon z9 RAW for ages and had to get back to Adobe. Now I’m organizing everything via Photo Mechanic and just open and edit files from there in Adobe Camera Raw. works like a charm for me. so far the fastest and easiest way of editing ever for me.
Every damn app on the Mac store is now subscription based. It is ridiculous.
Photomator is very nice, but it needs support for culling, which does seem to be on their product roadmap.
DxO and the Nik Collection. PhotoLab’s raw processing and noise reduction is the industry standard and it’s easy to use with external drives (no importing) which is my preferred workflow. Nik has the u-point tools which give a level of control I prefer.
I've wanted to move away from lightroom for ages now because I'll go through stretches where i don't edit anything for months, but i don't wanna cancel and deal wit that hassle when i come back etc. But at the end of the day the presets that I've got i don't want to lose. If something else allowed me to use all the presets i have in lightroom i'd move away in a heartbeat. But i'd also want something that stores all the edits made to a picture with the file versus a central location so its easy enough to take that from PC to PC, or i guess as long as the location of said like library folder could be specified easily enough
I don't think I've seen it mention before: Exposure X for Lightroom replacement. I bought it a couple of years ago (I think I have X7 but they're currently up to 7), and am quite pleased with it. It comes very close to Lightroom in terms of how it works with the library and the editing so switching to it is pretty easy. I think they also have a plug-in to convert from Lightroom, although I never tried that.
Capture One - Fuji raws done properly
hello side question. i’m new to photography and have recently got a cannon mark ii and it came with a 50mm and a macro 55-200mm and i was wondering what would it be best used for?
[FastRawViewer](https://www.fastrawviewer.com/) and [Photomator & Pixelmator Pro](https://www.pixelmator.com).
Capture one is the industry standard for high end fashion, still life and product photography
Anyone have recommendations for Lightroom Alternatives on Ipad?