Adobe Lightroom vs. Darktable in the Year 2024.

Is Darktable ready to take on the "Big guys"? Is Darktable a good alternative to Adobe Lightroom?

In this video I try to compare Adobe Lightroom Classic and Darktable, without actually comparing them. Both are digital image development applications, however, they are completely different from the ground up. Their purpose, their target audience and the way they work, makes them difficult to compare side by side. I'd much rather talk about which is the right one for you.

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Video segments:
00:00 - 00:31 Intro
00:31 - 03:04 Summary
03:04 - 04:55 How is Darktable better than Lightroom?
04:55 - 05:59 How is Lightroom better than Darktable?
05:59 - 08:43 Both are good, but...
08:43 - 09:27 Outro

#tutorial #photography #darktable

[StudioPetrikas]

0:15 Lightroom vs. Darktable, of course. Incredibly difficult not to get my tongue in a twist, and still managed to leave this one in... Embarrassing.

[antonvoloshin]

I've ditched all the Adobe products when they implemented their subscription-only policy, and when you start to study the alternatives, you're actually realize how crappy Adobe products was in the first place.

[triplewinlin]

Less than half of an hour before I watched this video, I was describing the difference between Darktable and Lightroom to someone. I used the analogy that DT is like a powerful racecar and LR is like a minivan! I nearly fell off my chair when I watched and heard your nearly identical comments!

[hkp]

I did choose Darktable because PS/LR were the last bit of software which stopped me to going to Linux.
Aurelien Pierre, the creator of a lot of Darktable modules, has a ~1h video on his basic darktable workflow.
After that, most people should be good to go and will get viable results.

The workflow in Lightroom often is learning by doing. Something I would not advice people to do with Darktable.
Also some tutorials of darktable are getting highly complex on how the software works on the background. So watch out for tutorials which will show you a workflow or people who will live develop their pictures to get new ideas on how to use the software to your liking.

In generally Iam happy that you now have waay more options regarding raw editing software. Like 7+ good and viable options with different forms of payments and for different operating systems.

[pedrorrodriguez]

Nice! Now that you have teased us with your incredibly long list of modules, I'd be interested to see a full edit from start to finish.

[terrypinfold]

This is a very fair comparison of DT. I found it interesting that I describe to my photography student that LR is the automatic car that is a pleasure to drive around town and to the shops for groceries and Darktable is the Lamborghini that you want to drive on the really fun roads. You make a similar analogy in your comparison.

[roberthavlik]

I've been searching for a comparison like that for quite a while now and finally found this one. I think it's fantastic and just long enough to tell the differences. Well done thank you!

[Andy-rkmu]

My editing needs are rather simple and LrC would suffice, but not being able to share/split/copy/manually manage database and photos was a true show stopper. Glad I came across DT and learned so much about the process as well.

[JHuffPhoto]

I was a long time LRc user. I had dabbled with darktable off and on for a few years. Last summer I switched over to darktable full time. It has been a learning experience. It takes a lot of practice and fiddling around to get the desired results. You are absolutely correct in that regard. I am running darktable on an M1 Mac mini and honestly the speed, while not as fast as LRc is plenty acceptable. If I were trying to make a living doing photography I would likely be using LRc since as you say it is fast and easy to get good results. However, I am not and I like having the absolute control of darktable. darktable is an incredibly powerful tool but it is easy to "crash into a wall" with it. It takes some time to learn what works and what doesn't work in different scenarios. I find myself taking a lot of photos of mundane things just to practice my editing skills in darktable. I find the DRM side of darktable to be perfectly useable but my needs are pretty meager. Thanks for the video it was interesting to see someone else's take on this subject.

[Gert-DK]

Some years ago (+10) I was doing sports photography. I had two regular clients and one occasionally. I did use Lightroom, it was the best I could find at the time. I will say I have not tried Darktable, I only know what I have heard here. I am just an old amateur photographer now.
For me, speed was number one. I was always at the event with a writing journalist. We both went home to finish our respective work. The articles were for online use. I had approx. an hour to get my pics ready. Usually 20-30 pictures. So it is around 2 min per picture. Selections out of about 200 pics, and touching up, and in the end export and upload. I would not have been satisfied with a slower program. Looking back, I wish I could have had the newest LR. Don't get me wrong, I am not an Adobe fan, but the speed LR works with now, was an unimaginable dream at the time.
My point: Speed is also a quality. That's why I think that programs, like LR, still have a big future. News are faster and faster, and it is all a battle getting the news online as fast as possible.

[BMSWEB]

Massive Thumbs up just for your analogy . . . loved it

[DevanGoodwin]

Great points. I've tried lightroom but I keep coming back to darktable. It's a little more work but it's worth it for me.

[grahambeal]

Liked it. I'll send the link on to my LR-using friend: he mentions doing some comparison stuff every now and then. Thanks.

[l.]

Great video as always! Being able to mask any module is such a crazy feature that I really miss when I'm on LrC. However, one thing I def miss from LrC when I'm using DT are the auto-selection tools when masking, big time savers.

[barselino]

darktable also allows you to essentially use a 3D LUT, with the ‘filmic rgb’ module acting as a log shaper (‘look’ section all zeroed out, e.g. contrast, latitude etc).

when you’re building the LUT, just make sure to undo the previous filmic rgb log shaper accordingly, re-do another log transform of choice, like arri logC or cineon, AND THEN add the display transform/image formation chain of choice, then export and use the LUT with the lut 3d module. so in theory you can use arri k1s1, AgX, or any image formation chain inside darktable.





(slight drawback would be the fact that the ‘filmic rgb’ module applied some chroma compressions to the upper and lower regions/values, which is not desirable if all you’re looking for is a simple log2 shaper/transform)

[Wistbacka]

I can appreciate what you said abput having full control and being able to go in and tweak every single option.

However, for me personally - who is very nerdy - still need the speed of being able to process many images fast. And I already think lightroom is still a bit too laggy at times, so seeing Darktable's refresh speed would drive me nuts.

[amsterdamguy]

Exactly this kind of comparison I was searching! I will give it a try.

[HarryMarkov]

Thank you Gus!
Beeing an Linux customer I'm completely blind to Lightroom realm but so much more I highly appreciate your comprehensive remarks on these image editing software. 👍

[drawerganizer]

The biggest disadvantage to Lightroom for me, is there is no way for me to use it. I've never used it, I'd like to give it a try. They do offer a trial, but it requires a creditcard and automatically starts a paid subscription after the trial period, which defeats the purpose of a trial. Photography is a hobby for me, I do it for people for free. I can justify a one time payment to buy equipment and software, but I can't justify paying for a subscription for a hobby. If Adobe offered a real trial then gave me the option to just let if end or outright buy the software, they might have some of my money.

Darktable is fine. The results are exquisite. I don't mind putting in a little more work editing each individual photo. I find it kind of therapeutic.

[OnboardG]

Not sure if it's a new version feature in Darktable but if you right click the slider it goes into continuous update mode so you can see the changes as you adjust the value by moving the mouse. It's done on a log scale too which is quite nice since it means sensitive adjustments are easier.