Linux users and a new application for image processing

[Phil_F_NM]

I've been a Linux user for about 5 years now and hung on to Windows for the image processing ability and wide distribution. Once I got used to GIMP and UFRaw, Windows kind of went by the wayside for me. I still maintain a small partition on my laptop with XP loaded in the case of needing some cross platform capability when I'm out on the road.

I don't own PS anymore, last version that I owned was PS-6. GIMP has since been brought up to the level of about PS CS2 in my opinion. There is no creative suite in Linux like the Adobe product, but I get by.

I have been looking for a GUI application for image management akin to Lightroom. Finally, I "found" Darktable which is at last stable and, based upon the applications which it is built to work with, quite powerful.

http://darktable.sourceforge.net/

I shoot a Leica M8 and use exclusively DNG capture so the other programs which have been available for some time have been incompatible since they don't support DNG from camera.

I've only been using Darktable for a day now but it integrates file management with UFRaw and GIMP in one non-destructive tool. I'm not proficient with it to say the least, but it looks like an application that is going to really change my workflow and productivity.

Just thought I'd put this out for you Linux / Mac OS users out there who don't have Lightroom.

Phil Forrest

[oftheherd]

Thanks for the info and URL. I will be looking into it as I have switched 5 year old Toshiba laptop to Linux. I used Windows on it for a long time, as there were some things on Windows that Linux didn't have. That's becoming less and less. More importantly, I am finding Linux doesn't have something Windows does; Confliker. That is one persistant little virus. Ubuntu also loads itself and applications much faster. Epson even wrote a Linus driver for my Epson 4870. I will keep XP on my netbook, but it will be dual booted with Ubuntu or Mint Linux. I am getting really happy with Linux. Of course it it easier for me as I fell in love with Unix when studying it 20 years ago when I went back to college.

So again, thanks.

[shadowfox]

Nice find. I have always wanted LighZone for linux, but already spent money on Lighroom.

[Phil_F_NM]

I contacted a Darktable developer today and learned that there is a much-improved version 0.6 which will be released in September.
While I'm looking forward to an update, the program which I see right now is already much more like Lightroom than what we've had available in the OS community.

Phil Forrest

[Mablo]

Great news and thanks for the pointer.

[Matus]

Interesting. Still - I kind of do not understand all the effort photographers put to use graphics program under Linux (I am a linux user, but for work) - there is still no way that I know of, to hardware calibrate your monitor. Seems like there is no demand enough toget Spyder3 or similar with software for linux.

[sevo]

Well, there still is no nice GUI calibration utility, but there is plenty of commandline Unix/Linux calibration software around. I started using calibration on SGI workstations, back in times when you could not calibrate any PC.

[LeicaFoReVer]

there are hardware calibration utilities on ubuntu, just search, I forgot its name. I will write later on.

I think ubuntu is great and it has everything regarding image processing for me...Only thing missing is scanner drivers for my epson v300.

How do you guys install darktable? do you need to compile or something?

[btgc]

With .jpg I were happy user of DigiKam.

[Gerald Grevrend]

I personnaly use digikam+ufraw to manage and process my images. I also use krita and rawstudio when I need some specific work. I am still waiting for gimp to support 48bits tiffss .
I will try this one, thanks.

Gérald

[naruto]

Here is a decent photo import/manager as well. http://yorba.org/shotwell/

[mabelsound]

This looks great, thank you!

[oftheherd]

Originally Posted by LeicaFoReVer

there are hardware calibration utilities on ubuntu, just search, I forgot its name. I will write later on.

I think ubuntu is great and it has everything regarding image processing for me...Only thing missing is scanner drivers for my epson v300.

How do you guys install darktable? do you need to compile or something?

The later Ubuntu GIMP versions have drivers for Epson V500s. You might want to see if it is backward compatible. My 4870 can scan documents with it, but not photos. For that, I had to get an Epson Linux driver. You can check their site. Surely if they have one for the old 4870, they will have one for the V300. Mine for the 4870 is a little clunky (or I just haven't figured out how to finesse it) but it works. This photo http://www.flickr.com/photos/45551180@N06/4853351057/ was scanned using the Epson Linux driver, with the negative laying flat on the scanner glass no less.

[kitaanat]

Looks cool. Thanks for the info and link. I'll try it asap because I'll use it as an image browser to search for my pictures.

Cheers,
kitaanat

[Phil_F_NM]

The newest release of Darktable, 0.6 was just released a few days ago.

There are RPMs packaged for 0.5 and looking from the Darktable page, there might be a RH/Fedora RPM already packaged & available on the project site.
There is a .deb available for Debian/Ubuntu users.
I'm a SUSE user, so I had to compile. I'm working on getting an RPM packaged.

I haven't even had the chance to work in this update, but there are a few improvements. One notable one is in darkroom mode, you can navigate from one enlarged image to another using a filmstrip to select images.

Phil Forrest

[LeicaFoReVer]

Lprof is the software you may use to calibrate your monitor with hardware...I did not try but that is it...

[LeicaFoReVer]

darkroom behaves strangly on my ubuntu lucid...I did not like it...I like GIMP better

[Phil_F_NM]

Darktable just recently released 0.7.1.
Right now we're discussing how to fix the Leica red edge problem with wideangles on the digital M bodies.
We could have it as a profile which could be loaded over the RAW in initial processing, effectively ending dependence on cornerfix.

I'm excited and so are my M9 and Super Angulon.

Phil Forrest

[bwcolor]

Originally Posted by LeicaFoReVer

there are hardware calibration utilities on ubuntu, just search, I forgot its name. I will write later on.

I think ubuntu is great and it has everything regarding image processing for me...Only thing missing is scanner drivers for my epson v300.

How do you guys install darktable? do you need to compile or something?

VueScan has a Linux version. Do they support your scanner?

[Phil_F_NM]

A bunch of the Epson scanner drivers are proprietary. I have issues with my 4490Photo scanner so I still use WinXP for that unit.

Phil Forrest

[bwcolor]

How does Darktable compare to Shotwell (Ubuntu's current Std. Photo-Ap)?

[colyn]

Originally Posted by bwcolor

How does Darktable compare to Shotwell (Ubuntu's current Std. Photo-Ap)?

Shotwell doesn't hold a candle to Darktable.

Another Linux app if you use the KDE DE is DigiKam otherwise if you use Gnome Gimp and Darktable is the way to go..

[MartinP]

I just upgraded the mobo and cpu on my ubuntu box, so this is the perfect moment for trying out a different photo-app. Thanks for the tip.

[divewizard]

I hope this works. The lack of a great photo app is the only reason I have not 86ed windows.

[titrisol]

Darktable is fine, need to generate profiles for Pentax Raw which look grrenish but otherwise is good.