When comparing Lightroom vs Darktable, the Slant community recommends Darktable for most people. In the question“What is the best photo editing software?” Darktable is ranked 6th while Lightroom is ranked 8th. The most important reason people chose Darktable is:
There are a lot of different modules.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Excellent asset management capabilities
Lightroom allows, for example, organizing images based on folders, color labels, flags, rating, keywords, GPS location, it can automatically create smart albums (albums that automatically update based on set rules) and it can be set to automatically backup, rename based on set rules, apply default processing, add keywords to images on import. It offers that functionality in an intuitive way and allows extensively customizing layout, behavior and workflow of managing assets to better suit your needs.
Pro HDR support
Can merge multiple shots into one in order to expand dynamic range.
Pro Facial recognition helps find and tag people
Lightroom has built-in facial recognition support that can be used to find the same person in any collection of photographs.
Pro A good number of cameras have built-in lens profiles for lens distortion correction
Lightroom has over 900 lens profiles from all kinds of manufacturers, including major lens brands like Canon, Nikon, Leica, Pentax, Ricoh, etc. You can see the full list of supported lenses here. Lens profiles will in most cases speed up the process of correcting lens distortion down to 1-2 clicks.
Pro Intuitive interface that's streamlined for a photographer's workflow
At a high level the interface is organized into broad groups of tools called workflow modules. Modules like "Library" for asset management and "Develop" for manipulating the photos. Each module displays only those tools that are needed for that task. This allows you to separate concerns between tasks and reduces interface clutter. When you're, for example, developing the image, you're not bothered by interface tools relating to exporting it.
Within each module tools are grouped in a logical manner. Develop module, for example, will group tools relating to basic image adjustment, lens correction, and effects.
And there are a plethora of keyboard shortcuts that improve the workflow speed even further. At all times you can easily navigate between images you're working via arrow keys, quickly compare images before and after making edits with \
, or see side by side comparisons with y
.
Pro Supports tethered capture
You can connect your camera directly to Lightroom and have Lightroom display images as soon as they are captured.
Pro Feature rich
There are a lot of different modules.
Pro Fast and Flexible
A very well considered UI makes edits fast and fluid. You can redo or undo any step without disturbing any other part of your edit. The UI doesn't get in the way.
Pro Good batch editing capabilities
Darktable allows applying the same set of operations to multiple images and saving your history stack as a style (you can pick exactly which modules).
Pro Edits are saved to a separate file
Original files are untouched by any edits. No worries on what was done before or if an accidental save occurs. All work is separate from the originals.
Pro Customizable
Darktable allows favoriting modules and remapping hotkeys.
Pro Allows for local adjustments
Most modules, by default, affect the whole image, but have the option to only be applied to masked-off areas (be those drawn masks, parametric ones, or a combination of the two).
Pro Supports tethered capture
On the camera set it to use USB Remote. Open Darktable, on the left side under Import, click scan for devices. The camera should appear. Click on tethered shoot. Next on the right side look for the gear icon above the battery n/a and click it. go to the session options tab, and change the base directory to the location you want to save photos. close that settings window and try taking a picture. It should come right up.
Cons
Con No layer-based image editing capabilities
There are no layers removing any ability to blend images, create composits, overlay text, etc.
Con Hot folder option could be better
It can take a couple of seconds for Lightroom to check the folder for incoming images and that can noticeably slow down the workflow. Additionally, only the last image is imported as active.
Con There's a learning curve
Con Telemetry
Adobe is interested in what you do with "their" software. Just install wireshark and see the story unfold. Don't have that or too difficult? Just take a bank note, scan it. See if you can get it on your screen...
Con Expensive and subscription
As with other software offerings, Adobes portfolio keeps giving. For the customer/ user however, this means that you never own your software, but you rent it. Until the point your landlord throws you out.
Con Proprietary
As all Adobe software it is proprietary, closed source.
Con Can be overwhelming
There are a lot of different modules. You're going to need some time watching tutorials to understand how to get the best out of it.
Con For tethered capture on Linux you may need additional software installed that is not a dependency for Darktable
First make sure you have gphoto2 and libgphoto2.
Con No official Windows version
Whilst official builds exist for Linux and OSX, this isn't the case for Windows (though unofficial versions do exist).
