The sheer level of complexity can also be a significant detriment. Here, the Lighttable interface is unusable until all the thumbnails can be properly re-loaded by the program. Glitches like this show up far more than I’d prefer. And while there is no doubt that Darktable can handle any image editing tasks you throw at it, including more advanced options such as tethered shooting, slideshows, and printing, there are a host of drawbacks, as well. This article is not meant to be a review of Darktable, but rather a tool to help you decide if this program is right for you. Proceed with cautionĪt this point, you might be ready to cancel all your editing software subscriptions and jump on the Darktable bandwagon.īut before you take the leap, I need to offer a few words of caution. There is also no mobile support, meaning photographers who rely on tablets or phones as essential components of their editing workflow will be left out in the cold. Drawing a mask, moving a slider, or even cropping an image often involves precious seconds of wait time, which can really add up when going through hundreds of images. Performing many of the editing maneuvers is an exercise in patience, even on a newer computer.

You can create masks of all shapes and sizes in Darktable, which are useful for applying edits in specific image locations.Īgain, I need to temper expectations. For frugal photographers, it would be difficult not to recommend Darktable, and for everyone else, it just helps to have some patience. I am still kind of amazed that all these features are in a free program that continues to be actively developed. While speed is important, it’s not everything, and many quibbles with Darktable are mitigated by its price.Īfter all, despite my issues with Darktable’s user interface and lack of polish, it’s impossible to overlook the cost. That’s not necessarily the only peg to hang your editing hat on, though. The latter will get the job done, but the former will do it way faster. Not that Lightroom and Capture One are speed demons – but comparing them to Darktable is like comparing a Ferrari to a Toyota Corolla. Scrolling through images, selecting pictures, editing metadata information, and other simple operations take far longer than other programs.

My biggest issue with Darktable is evident just from using the Lighttable module: overall responsiveness is not great. While things seem great up to this point, I do need to temper your expectations a bit. You can customize many different elements of the export process.

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