While Darktable is not an identical clone of Lightroom, there are a lot of similarities – most of which perform just as well and others that excel. Plus, it supports Mac OS, Windows and a bunch of other operating systems.

It features a full selection of functions and tools designed to support any level of a photographer. Upon first glance, you’d almost mistake it for Lightroom thanks to its structured layout and appearance.Īs for functionality, Darktable works as a non-destructive RAW image editing solution – meaning it makes completely reversible changes to your images. While you may initially think that an open-source piece of software is going to be hack-built, think again! Darktable’s a great looking, robust, powerful and comprehensive post-processing tool. I find it quite a nice concept when compared to the alternative being a corporate monopoly. What’s more, this isn’t a closed community but an open one that encourages everyone to get involved if they have the skills. Open source is a term used to describe software like Darktable that has been developed by a community of photography software nerds (said with the highest respect!)Ĭommunity members contribute to the development of the software as well as its ongoing functionality. In a nutshell, Darktable is a free, open-source software solution for photo editing and file management. Keep reading to find out the answers and much more in this Darktable review. This probably raises quite a few questions for you – it did for me too! Questions such as, ‘How does it compare to what I currently have?’, ‘How good can free software be?’ and ‘Is it suitable for pro photographers?’. (We already wrote a comparison of Darktable vs Lightroom.) I’ll explain what I mean in more detail shortly.Īdobe products dominate our consciousness due to their popularity, the company’s marketing strength, and the community bias towards them.īut, if you’re sick of paying for photo editing software and are looking for an alternative to Adobe, then Darktable may be for you. There are countless options for photo editing and file management software but all too often we fall into what I call the Lightroom Trap. In this review, we’re going to take an in-depth look at Darktable – a free photo editing solution that many consider an alternative to Lightroom and other paid apps.