RAW development software not named Adobe Lightroom...

[ObviouslyNotAGolfer]

[This topic has been discussed to death on the various photography forums, and I risk being lynched if I bring it up there. Also, I'm interested in the mustachian perspective on this.]

I have been an avid nature, landscape, and travel photographer since the age of 10. I have a number of museum/gallery exhibits with some of the scientific micrography I have done.

I shoot exclusively raw images when using a dSLR or compact digital camera, and I have used and liked Adobe Lightroom since version 1 in 2007, up through version 6 in 2020. A few years ago, Adobe decided to stop supporting/releasing stand-alone versions of this software, but rather to offer it only with the Creative Cloud suite 10$/mo (as of now). Now that I have switched over to a new PC, I am looking at alternatives.

As much as I like and appreciate LR, I really, really, really dislike the "software as a service" model, along with anything else I have to pay for on a recurring basis. Some of these things are actually really cheap, but they ADD UP very quickly, and are usually a PITA to cancel. Additionally, most of the BEST software I have ever used is FREE SOFTWARE: Audacity, Foobar 2000, Libre Office, EPIM (Free version), so why not explore some free versions of raw development?

I am especially interested in RawTherapee and DarkTable (both free), as well as paid, stand-alone versions by Corel (forget the name) and Phase One.

I have a ton of .ORF Olympus raw files from 2007 - 2017, and now, that I use mostly Nikon, I have a ton of .nef Nikon raw files. So, I would need the software to develop both. I was not a super-advanced user of LR, but I did know how to use most of the post-processing features, if not the DAM and library features. I never liked the requirement to import images in order to work on them. Some images I just want to edit once, export, and never see again (documents I photograph instead of scan). I need lens profiles to correct distortion in my Nikon 18-140-a great walk-around lens, but, prone to pincushion and barrel distortion like any long zoom. 

Does any one have thoughts on RawTherapee, Dark Table, PhaseOne/Capture One, or any other such raw development software?

 Thanks.

[LennStar]

My first impulse was to write "there are tons of threads on the net for this", but it seems you know it ;) so I don't have anything to say on that topic.

I do want to add that I also really really really hate SaaS models, for the simple reason that you pay more in the long run (and have more troubles with activation/DRM/connection).
Of course that is 90% of the reason why companies do that.

For the file problem, maybe convert those formats? I don't know if IrfanView does it, but that old loved child of software can do practically every format with the plugin, and has batch capabilities.

[lemanfan]

I'm easing myself into Capture One now, and I must say I like it.  It's evolving with new features and I think it handles colors really well, at least for my cameras (Nikon and Fujifilm).   It seems to work fine with the ORF files from the Olympus I owned a short while too.  The one thing to check when first starting is that there are several steps in the sharpening process depending on preferred output and the default may be TOO sharp.

Free trial and lots of tutorials online - just make sure you check videos relating to version 20 or later.  Some parts of the user interface is perhaps a bit strange if coming from Adobe.  And it's not a direct replacement for Photoshop.

It is available both as a subscription and as a "pay once" model - in the latter case you might have to pay money at some point when they go from the current "Version 20" to 21 or whatever number they chose.  And for the "pay once" model, keep an eye out for discounts.  I paid less for a perpetual full version than one years subscription would be in my country.  Keep an eye out for those discounts.  :)

Edit:  I have not compared to modern versions of the other softwares you mention like DarkTable.

[AMandM]

My son's input:

I found darktable somewhat hard to get used to, lots of the modules are hidden in menus and take a little while to dig out. However, once you've found the ones you use you can set them to keep on top/put in custom menus.
It was slow to export files and I found the files often ended up rather....grainy? muddy? More than LR does. It looked like it over-sharpened everything even when I wasn't applying that much sharpening (or any at all)
I've heard it sometimes has trouble with Olympus but I shoot Canon so I don't know a ton about that.

I recently got Capture One and I really really like it. Having to import the files is a pain, but it's a total beast of a program. Very customizable and powerful.
The color modules are super good - I don't know if you do much portraiture but the skin editor is incredible. It's also very computer-efficient.. my PC isn't all that powerful but I can import a couple hundred photos from a shoot and start working on them nearly instantly.
And ditto about waiting for sales.... It's over $300 if you buy it normally but take your time and eventually one will come along.

[bacchi]

Gimp?

https://www.gimp.org/

[lemanfan]

Gimp?

https://www.gimp.org/

It's a little bit of a different beast. 

At least Adobe Lightroom, Capture One and Darktable that are discussed above are more made to be workflow tools handling large libraries of pictures and to do e.g. raw file conversion and some more "whole picture" edits, sometimes the same edit on many pictures from one photo session.

GIMP is more comparable to Photoshop, more made for deeper edits of a single picture. As far as I understand, raw file conversion is made using external software, not in GIMP itself.  I personally use GIMP only for smaller edits like resizing a Jpeg image before posting online or such so I might miss something, but I think GIMP is also pretty far behind Adobe Photoshop for stuff like content aware scaling and other automated stuff. 

[Catica]

[This topic has been discussed to death on the various photography forums, and I risk being lynched if I bring it up there. Also, I'm interested in the mustachian perspective on this.]

I have been an avid nature, landscape, and travel photographer since the age of 10. I have a number of museum/gallery exhibits with some of the scientific micrography I have done.

I shoot exclusively raw images when using a dSLR or compact digital camera, and I have used and liked Adobe Lightroom since version 1 in 2007, up through version 6 in 2020. A few years ago, Adobe decided to stop supporting/releasing stand-alone versions of this software, but rather to offer it only with the Creative Cloud suite 10$/mo (as of now). Now that I have switched over to a new PC, I am looking at alternatives.

As much as I like and appreciate LR, I really, really, really dislike the "software as a service" model, along with anything else I have to pay for on a recurring basis. Some of these things are actually really cheap, but they ADD UP very quickly, and are usually a PITA to cancel. Additionally, most of the BEST software I have ever used is FREE SOFTWARE: Audacity, Foobar 2000, Libre Office, EPIM (Free version), so why not explore some free versions of raw development?

I am especially interested in RawTherapee and DarkTable (both free), as well as paid, stand-alone versions by Corel (forget the name) and Phase One.

I have a ton of .ORF Olympus raw files from 2007 - 2017, and now, that I use mostly Nikon, I have a ton of .nef Nikon raw files. So, I would need the software to develop both. I was not a super-advanced user of LR, but I did know how to use most of the post-processing features, if not the DAM and library features. I never liked the requirement to import images in order to work on them. Some images I just want to edit once, export, and never see again (documents I photograph instead of scan). I need lens profiles to correct distortion in my Nikon 18-140-a great walk-around lens, but, prone to pincushion and barrel distortion like any long zoom. 

Does any one have thoughts on RawTherapee, Dark Table, PhaseOne/Capture One, or any other such raw development software?

 Thanks.

I've been using Capture One for the past 15yrs and it's excellent. I do not use it as DAM. You can use sessions meaning you don't import any images to it, just point it to the folder where the images are.
You can also use Adobe Camera Raw, which comes free with Photoshop/Bridge. It uses the same processing engine as Lightroom and no need to import images.

[StashingAway]

I have used Darktable for periods. It is really hard to switch between that and Lightroom for me, as others have mentioned it's difficult to get used to. I found that it didn't really have as much of an "easy mode" as Lightroom. It is almost too powerful with too many tools out in the open. Takes a lot of tutorials to figure out how to set it up for your particular process. Once I get on a role with it it becomes more intuitive. But if my wife didn't already have Adobe suite for work, it is what I would be using.

[ObviouslyNotAGolfer]

Just downloaded and started wading into RawTherapee, and so far I think it is freaking awesome! It is amazing how much functionality and flexibility this thing has for a program of any price, much less something that is free! I was not a super-advanced LR user, but from what I see, it seems that RawTherapee has at least as much of a feature set for raw development (if not DAM and other things), if not more.

I have been watching a few tutorials, and I also downloaded the 550+ page manual. I plan to really learn this software, so it will be an interesting adventure. And a FREE one!

[lemanfan]

Interesting.  I'll have to try.  :)

[Glenstache]

Bringing this topic back up as my laptop with LR is dying and I am looking at these exact same options for the next computer. I will look into RAWtherapee based on the recommendation above. I shoot in the Canon system but have not worked with the Canon programs. Does anyone have any direct experience with them? I am also curious about the availability of lens-specific corrections in the various programs. I liked and used that feature often in LR.

[ObviouslyNotAGolfer]

To my surprise, the lens profile for my Nikon 18-140 mm zoom was already loaded and applied automatically to all of my photos (taken with this lens). Of course you can undo it and do the distortion correction yourself if you like--which I do once in a while (as in LR). But, for the great majority of my photos taken with this lens, it is one less thing I have to do compared to LR. OTOH, RT looks to be incredibly flexible, with seemingly many features that are hidden away or non-existent in LR. Have a look at the tutorials by Andy Astbury:

https://www.youtube.com/c/AndyAstbury/search?query=raw%20therapee

[Just Joe]

Shotwell or Digikam (Showfoto)?

Wikipedia can lead you to interesting alternative software. Look up the title you know and then look for "also see" links within the article. Also, they generally can lead you to software homepages. Occasionally it can be hard to find the original page and not some download page on another website when searching via search engines.