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02-09-2012, 08:47 PM   #1
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Linux Photography Applications

I am seriously considering switching to Linux from Mac (either by installing Ubuntu or another distro on my Mac, or buying a new laptop and installing a distro on it). This means I'll lose my Mac based apps (Aperture, Photoshop, and possibly my Nik plugins), so I'm looking for alternatives before I totally commit to switching. Photography is the only reason I haven't done it yet; everything else I do on my computer is platform independent. So, Linux users, what are the apps you use?

Further, which distro do you recommend? It's been years since I used Linux....the last time I used it seriously, Red Hat 7 was the distro most people used. This was long before Ubuntu came out, and your main choices for a consumer-level distro were Red Hat or Mandrake.

02-09-2012, 08:54 PM   #2
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I haven't used Linux much in the last couple years, found it harmed productivity, but I did have Photoshop working just fine under WINE, so that may be an option for you. Obviously that requires the Windows version of PS. Most plugins should work with that, although some that install their own executables may not.
02-09-2012, 09:08 PM   #3
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I've used Linux for a long time, more recently for an extended period of continuous years. I'm now using Kubuntu, but I was on Ubuntu for a long time before that. I'm thinking of looking at another distribution though.

Honestly, I'd probably consider a switch to an Apple if I had the type of funds to purchase the computer and software. As Philoslothical said, I feel it does limit some of my productivity. My Windows copy of CS5 works about 85%, although lately it has felt slower. I need to now dedicate some time to finding a WINE version and/or DLLS that gets some of the speed back. I'd just love it if Adobe had a native version of Photoshop/Lightroom on Linux..... I really wish they would because it would make things a lot better.

Besides photography, which I use Photoshop pretty exclusively for, I also do video editing and started getting into audio. Those are even more difficult, but I've found that Kdenlive and Lmms are "sufficient" for the time being. Just a few weeks ago, I was running a very current version of Kdenlive and it completely broke thanks to a library that broke. In Linux, it's best to find a stable setup and just leave it that way. The problem with that is that important features or bug fixes sometimes require a very current or dev. version of software, which can cause a number of issues with other software that use the same libraries. For example, I was having version problems with Lmms, WINE, and Lmms because I wanted to use the most current version of WINE in the hope that it would improve Photoshop compatibility. It forced me to use bleeding edge version of Lmms that caused issues in other ways.

I like Linux. I like not having to activate my OS if I change something or have to do forced upgrades like with Windows. I like that I can have multiple workspaces and I like the overall multitasking performance of Linux. The issue is creative software, or rather the lack. I've tried countless ones that are for or at least on Linux and never felt they could do what I needed in relation to things like Photoshop. I also long for some commercial quality audio and video editors, but I don't want to spend the money on Windows versions in the hope they will work well enough in WINE.
02-09-2012, 09:38 PM   #4
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I was hoping things had improved in recent years, what with the huge backing of Canonical. But it doesn't seem like Linux as a production OS is there yet. Thanks for your input! I may just save my shekels a little while longer and buy a MacBook Pro.

02-09-2012, 09:52 PM   #5
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Hi

I use Linux Mint Kde on both laptop and desk, if I need Windows it is on a Virtual machine using Virtual Box.
Digikam and Gimp will easily replace the other software and Openshot for Video work, also use Portrait Professional under wine
without any problems.
I don't understand why some people think it is not a "Proper" OS as it is the most used for the internet servers and major industrial systems and is
stable.
All the software you will ever need is available an no charge and very well supported.
No Canon, No Nikon, No Microsoft or Apple, if you are going to be a Rebel go all the way ! ; )
02-09-2012, 10:07 PM   #6
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I spent quite a while last year exploring the possibility of changing from Windows to Ubuntu. In the end, it's the absence of anything approaching Lightroom that tipped the balance for me. GIMP is OK as a Photoshop workalike, and I even use it on my Windows box now because there are no Windows drivers for my Epson 7600, and GIMP lets me use Gutenprint.

But, for me, it's not there yet.
02-10-2012, 01:19 AM   #7
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You may try out Aftershot Pro (which runs on Windows, Mac and Linux, so you can testdrive the 30 trial on your Mac), it's a somewhat comptetitor of Lightroom. Raw Therapee also runs on all three platforms, provides very good IQ, though user interface is not that polished. Darktable is also a nice developing app, though I think it's Linux only.

Since a few years I use OpenSUSE as Linux distro. Imho quite stable, up-to-date, doesn't force their choice of desktop environment (KDE, Gnome, Xfce, Lxde are all included in the installer), has Novell behind it with development team.

02-10-2012, 12:50 PM   #8
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QuoteOriginally posted by simico Quote
You may try out Aftershot Pro (which runs on Windows, Mac and Linux, so you can testdrive the 30 trial on your Mac), it's a somewhat comptetitor of Lightroom.
Yes, although there's a longstanding highlight recovery bug that AfterShot Pro acquired from its predecessor, Bibble 5. It's particularly bad on the K-5, apparently, though many other cameras exhibit the problem from time to time.

(You'll see that I posted all over that thread, giving them considerable grief about it.)

It's still not fixed, after having been reported a year ago. Though the developers swear it's their "number one priority."

So I don't particularly recommend AfterShot Pro for the K-5, not now. It pushed me into running Lightroom in a VMware virtual machine.
02-10-2012, 11:48 PM   #9
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Question, if you have a Mac, why switch? Linux is good, but photo software is more mature on Mac or PC.

IMHO. Gimp is OK, but it lacks many vital features, such as adjustment layers.
02-13-2012, 01:23 AM   #10
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QuoteOriginally posted by Quicksand Quote
Yes, although there's a longstanding highlight recovery bug that AfterShot Pro acquired from its predecessor, Bibble 5.
I know, I was the first to report it 1 year ago It's promised to be fixed in upcoming release - I do hope it happens soon.
Despite it's long standing bugs I still find it to be the best overall raw workflow app on Linux. Darktable is very nice, I miss some features (that others may not care about at all). I wanted to like Raw Therapee, but just can't get grasp with it (I don't know why exactly), and it's kind of slow.
02-13-2012, 03:13 AM   #11
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I've been chugging along happily on Linux for the last....well, forever really.

-Digikam is my cataloging, tagging, sorting/sifting and geolocation tool as well as doubling as a 16-bit image editor for things like geometry (shear, perspective & cropping), levels, curves and sharpening.
-GIMP does the 8-bit cloning stuff as well as the plugin-driven smarties (content-aware fill, liquid rescale etc.) and
-UFRaw does all of my RAW processing, sometimes hooked up to ImageMagick in a one-stop-shop batch mode.
-Hugin takes care of panorama's quite capably and
-LuminanceHDR is an absolute winner in terms of coming to a replicable consistent HDR "recipe"

I do find myself in Windows sometimes (at work) and most of the above have a Windows version as well although not always cutting edge, but on Linux everything runs way faster, more stable and predictable.

On the issues of library dependencies: there are none whatsoever as long as you use a distro that checks for them and make sure YOU do not introduce instabilities yourself (the most common cause of library issues).

Now, this is no advertisement or Linux fanboy stuff - it's what I use and if you have issues with those programs or with the platform just don't go there! If you feel more comfortable sticking with what you know, whether Windows or Mac: stay with it - maybe just test the waters with a dual-boot system. Going cold-turkey doesn't work for anyone.

What anybody could do just to get acquainted with the potential AND the quirks of opensource image-editing is to install them under your choice of OS and take your time to get used to them. All of the above-mentioned programs run on Windows as well (caveat: Digikam is still "not there" in terms of stability on Windows, unlike its native Linux version which is indestructible) which gives you time to try them out without getting thrown into a whole new OS as well.

Linux is NOT Windows NOR is it MAC - it is Linux, slightly different in many ways. Why not run a liveCD to try it out?
02-13-2012, 04:21 AM   #12
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Also using exclusively Linux over here.

My software / workflow right now is

- Shotwell for general photo catalogue.
- Darktable when I want to work on a set of photos.
- Hugin for panoramic photos. Luminance HDR well, for HDR.
- Gimp or Krita for stuff I can't do in Darktable.

So far I'm really happy with the setup.

I prefer Darktable over UFraw, but still for single image from time to time I use UFraw. Darktable is like LR.

Gimp has the 8 bit limitation thing (you can use GEGL) but most is done in Darktable anyways, so I use it when I want to work with layers. I also use Krita but I'm more used to Gimp. Krita has the advantage that it allows you to work with 16 bit per channel - if you really need that.

Hugin is just awesome for panoramic shots. Luminance HDR I really cool too, but I haven't used it much yet, so I haven't get the most out of it.

Cheers,

Florian
02-13-2012, 04:47 AM   #13
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QuoteOriginally posted by simico Quote
I know, I was the first to report it 1 year ago It's promised to be fixed in upcoming release - I do hope it happens soon.
I filed this bug support.bibblelabs.com - View topic - Clipped highlights with strong colour cast even longer ago. I guess Bibble/AfterShot just doesn't "get" Pentax. Btw. since I received no resolution to my problem for a long time I fiddled around a bit myself and found out that they actually use camera white balance in processing that happens in their pipeline before any of the controls available for the user .... so much about RAW being camera settings independent. (If anyone wants a longer explanation I am happy to give it). Anyway I moved away from them and would recommend anyone else to do the same.
02-13-2012, 09:26 AM   #14
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Thanks everyone for their replies. I can't move to Linux yet because I recently discovered my film scanner, the Plustek Opticfilm 7400, is unsupported in Linux. VueScan says it won't work, and according to some other googling I did that appears to be true. Of course, VueScan also says it doesn't work under Lion which is untrue. Does anyone use this scanner (or probably any Plustek scanner) under Linux successfully?
02-13-2012, 09:38 AM   #15
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QuoteOriginally posted by brofkand Quote
Thanks everyone for their replies. I can't move to Linux yet because I recently discovered my film scanner, the Plustek Opticfilm 7400, is unsupported in Linux. VueScan says it won't work, and according to some other googling I did that appears to be true. Of course, VueScan also says it doesn't work under Lion which is untrue. Does anyone use this scanner (or probably any Plustek scanner) under Linux successfully?
Download a Live CD of any latest Linux distro and give it a try. So far the scanners I've tested worked, Canon, HP, Epson.
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