[LA_Photographer]

I'm thinking of ditching Adobe altogether and moving the majority of my editing over to Capture One (I shoot with several different camera brands). However, my 645z isn't supported by that particular piece of software. I don't do a ton of shooting with it, but I still need to edit some RAW files from time to time. Has anyone here come across a good Lightroom alternative?

[Zooland]

I’ve used Darktable, can’t say it’s as good as Lightroom.

[cport]

DXO (now they should have some special summer offers), ON1 Photo RAW (a nice all-in-one solution)

[Larrymc]

I'm thinking of ditching Adobe altogether and moving the majority of my editing over to Capture One (I shoot with several different camera brands). However, my 645z isn't supported by that particular piece of software. I don't do a ton of shooting with it, but I still need to edit some RAW files from time to time. Has anyone here come across a good Lightroom alternative?

Two Thumbs up for DXO PhotoLab 2.2 Elite hard to beat this program.....in my opinion. They support your 645Z and 11 different lens. Download the free trial of PhotoLab Elite. I don't regret buying it at all.

[UncleVanya]

I'm not shooting 645z or D. I'm using the k3. I do however love DXO photolab. I find it easier than Lightroom to use. It doesn't have full cataloging features however.

[BigMackCam]

I'm thinking of ditching Adobe altogether and moving the majority of my editing over to Capture One (I shoot with several different camera brands). However, my 645z isn't supported by that particular piece of software. I don't do a ton of shooting with it, but I still need to edit some RAW files from time to time. Has anyone here come across a good Lightroom alternative?

I’ve used Darktable, can’t say it’s as good as Lightroom.

In terms of raw development, Darktable is every bit as good as Lightroom if you learn how to get the best from it... and that takes time (the learning curve is quite steep at the beginning). I would consider myself fairly skilled with Lightroom 6, but switched to Darktable some time ago and haven't looked back. There are a few things Lightroom does better, and a few that Darktable does better. On balance, they're both excellent. Where Lightroom wins hands down is in image library management. I now use digiKam for that functionality, and it's a little clunky - but it works very well...

[Trickortreat]

You could try Rawtherapee... its free. And it has probably the best support for Pentax files as far as free software goes.
It can be overwhelming for a first time user, but stick to the basic group youll do just fine. And if you master all the advanced tools - it pretty much beats all other software for RAW developing, even commercial ones

[stevebrot]

Has anyone here come across a good Lightroom alternative?

It depends on what aspects of Lightroom one uses. There are several good suggestions above for RAW processing, but for LR's broader functionality, I found no realistic contenders when I did full market research about a year ago. Missing or inadequate from the competition are:

• Digital asset management
• Comparable virtual copy functionality (probably LR's strongest suit)
• Soft-proof for publication
• Color management for editing and publication
• Integration with external editors
• RAW processor performance (not universally poor, but some contenders are slower than molasses and quite simply suck overall despite having attractive interfaces and pricing)
• Migration tools that are able to leverage LR processing metadata to the new environment

Yes, Adobe is (traditionally) in league with the Devil in regards to their sales model, but a realistic replacement remains elusive.


Steve

[Arved]

In terms of raw development, Darktable is every bit as good as Lightroom if you learn how to get the best from it... and that takes time (the learning curve is quite steep at the beginning). I would consider myself fairly skilled with Lightroom 6, but switched to Darktable some time ago and haven't looked back. There are a few things Lightroom does better, and a few that Darktable does better. On balance, they're both excellent. Where Lightroom wins hands down is in image library management. I now use digiKam for that functionality, and it's a little clunky - but it works very well...

Bruce Williams has an awesome set of very thorough tutorials on DarkTable hosted on Youtube:

Tutorial Series

I wish there was something similar for DigiKam. I love how tags migrate from Lightroom into DigiKam.

Lightroom has tremendous momentum going for it, but as more and more of us smell the coffee, well, competition in a free market economy is a wonderful thing.

All the best,
- Arved
(Awaiting delivery of my first Pentax camera in 40+ years)

[stevebrot]

(Awaiting delivery of my first Pentax camera in 40+ years)

Yay!


Steve

[UncleVanya]

It depends on what aspects of Lightroom one uses. There are several good suggestions above for RAW processing, but for LR's broader functionality, I found no realistic contenders when I did full market research about a year ago. Missing or inadequate from the competition are:

• Digital asset management
• Comparable virtual copy functionality (probably LR's strongest suit)
• Soft-proof for publication
• Color management for editing and publication
• Integration with external editors
• RAW processor performance (not universally poor, but some contenders are slower than molasses and quite simply suck overall despite having attractive interfaces and pricing)
• Migration tools that are able to leverage LR processing metadata to the new environment

Yes, Adobe is (traditionally) in league with the Devil in regards to their sales model, but a realistic replacement remains elusive.


Steve

My 2 cents worth (worth at least 1 penny!) is that of this list the following are fine in DXO:
Virtual Copy - not sure the precision of what you mean here. I make virtual copies in DXO and process them on different paths all the time. It's easy and works. If that's not what you mean please clarify.
Color Management? I know I can use color profiles but I don't know that this is what you mean.
Integration with external editors - ironically it integrates well with Lightroom... lol.
Performance - top notch. The only slow thing is when I use prime noise reduction and it isn't very slow even on an aging laptop (i5).

Not sure about the others.

[BigMackCam]

It depends on what aspects of Lightroom one uses. There are several good suggestions above for RAW processing, but for LR's broader functionality, I found no realistic contenders when I did full market research about a year ago. Missing or inadequate from the competition are:

• Digital asset management
• Comparable virtual copy functionality (probably LR's strongest suit)
• Soft-proof for publication
• Color management for editing and publication
• Integration with external editors
• RAW processor performance (not universally poor, but some contenders are slower than molasses and quite simply suck overall despite having attractive interfaces and pricing)
• Migration tools that are able to leverage LR processing metadata to the new environment

Yes, Adobe is (traditionally) in league with the Devil in regards to their sales model, but a realistic replacement remains elusive.

If I'm reading them correctly, these are strong points, Steve - especially for those who need them.

Where darktable is concerned, digital asset management is - as I previously mentioned - it's big weakness compared to LR. It does, however, offer good virtual copy functionality, using one input file (the original image) and saving to individual XMP sidecar files. Full soft-proofing and gamut checking, too. Colour management is excellent and flexible, IMHO. I believe it's missing integration with other editors (at least, in the version I'm running) - however, I manage my own workflow from digiKam, and tend to approach things in a serial manner. It hasn't proven an issue in the last couple of years. Raw processing performance is very good, though certain specific tools - some of the noise reduction options, for instance, and especially the "watermark" facility - require a fairly decent processor for good performance. Migration from LR is non-existent, and was perhaps my biggest concern. As it stands, I rely on the TIFF files I created during my LR workflow, or else start again with the raw. It's a tough decision to move, but I'm generally glad I did...

[pid]

I changed to CaptureOne V12 with my K1

[AggieDad]

I play with ON1 (pretty good asset mgmt & my current go-to); Affinity (no asset mgmt); and Luminar (I use the previous version as my personal experience with Luminar 3 with asset mgmt has been problematic). Luminar has a really neat interface that I think is very easy to learn.

Also, if you have a Mac, don’t ignore Photos. It has excellent asset Mgmt, a good, quick editor for everyday shots, and it will let almost any other program be a plug-in. That means I can use Photos for asset management and use Affinity and/or Luminar for editing. I also have some smaller specialty programs as plugins for serious erasing/healing and black-&-white editing.

Don

[tokyoscape]

I bookmark this url sometime ago. check it out

15 Free Alternatives to Adobe Lightroom, Illustrator, and Photoshop