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Free Lightroom alternative: Moving your images from Darktable to GIMP

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This is the final part of a five-part series on the free and open-source Lightroom alternative, Darktable by photographer Chris Parker. Chris didn’t write a post to accompany the fifth video in the series, but we didn’t want to leave the series of posts unfinished, so here we are.

If you missed them, check out parts 1-4, covering Getting started with Darktable, Importing your images into Darktable, Processing your RAW files in Darktable, and Exporting images from Darktable for editing in another application. Another application like GIMP (which is also free and open-source). And that’s what this final video is about.

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Free Lightroom alternative: Exporting images in Darktable

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This is part four of five in a series. Check out Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. Now that you’ve completed your editing, you’re ready to share it with the world. But how? Well, the answer lies within this tutorial.

It should be noted that edits to your image are not saved directly to the image file. Instead, the editing data is recorded in darktable’s database and an XMP file if the preference default settings are left unchanged. To share your images, you’ll need to “export” them, and the edits you applied will be included.

If you’re ready to learn how to export your images with darktable… let’s do it!

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Free Lightroom alternative: Processing and editing images in Darktable

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Feeling a little overwhelmed with editing in Darktable? After using Lightroom exclusively for 13 years, I too found myself scratching my head when I first fired up darkroom. A lot of the editing tools are similar to Lightroom. Although, those tools have more built-in features vs. Lightroom. Plus, there’s a bunch of new tools that not even Lightroom has!

This is part three of five in a series. Check out Part 1 and Part 2. In today’s tutorial, I’d like to share some basic edits to help you get started with editing in Darktable. If you’re ready… let’s do it! Oh, and here is the before and after image that I’ll be demonstrating for you…

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Free Lightroom alternative: Importing images into Darktable (quick start guide)

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This is part two of five in a series. You can see Part 1 here. Before you can start editing your images with Darktable, you must first import them! There’s a couple of things we should get out of the way first. One, Darktable does not create a catalog like Lightroom! Two, your image files are not being imported.

So, what you see is a preview of your original file. Therefore, do NOT use Darktable as a way to back up your files… since that’s not what it was designed for. Okay, now that we have that out of the way, let’s explore two different options for importing your images; via your hard drive or your camera.

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Free Lightroom alternative: Getting started with Darktable part 1

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Darktable is a fantastic alternative to Lightroom. It has more tools, and those tools have more advanced features to help you achieve your creative vision.

Today I want to show you how to get started with Darktable. This is part one of five in this series. At the bottom of this tutorial, you’ll find a link to the next article for getting started with Darktable.

Ready to cut the Adobe cord?  Awesome!  Let’s get started…

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Darktable just dropped 3.4.0 with improved tethering and live histogram, and color calibration

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Darktable has just released its 3.4.0 version. As always, it’s completely free and available for Windows, iOS, and Linux. The open-source alternative to Lightroom has been more and more popular among photographers, and the new version brings a bunch of improvements. Some of them are improved tethering and live histogram, as well as color calibration. So let’s dive in and see what you get when you install Darktable 3.4.0.

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RGB vs Lab colour – What it is and how you can use it when processing your images

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Most of us probably never leave the realm of editing our images in a regular RGB colour space. But many applications also allow you the option to edit your images using Lab colour. What is Lab colour? How do we use it? and how does it benefit us?

Aurélien Pierre, developer of filmic module for the open-source editing software Darktable, recently put together a massive article (English version) covering everything you need to know about working in Lab colour. And while some of the steps might be specific to Darktable, the principles can be applied to many different editing applications.

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Here is a comprehensive introduction to Darktable – a completely free alternative to Lightroom

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Lightroom is still considered to be the leading software out there for digital asset management and raw processing. But it’s not the only one. There’s Capture One, Luminar, Exposure X4, and a host of others. But there’s one that seems to always be improving in popularity and functionality, and that’s Darktable.

Darktable is available for Windows, Mac and Linux, and it’s completely free. This video from Rico Richardson, coming via Anthony Morganti, is an overview of the basics of this pretty powerful RAW processor, and how to go about getting started with it for processing your images.

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Open source Lightroom alternative Darktable is now available for Windows

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To use their own words, “Hell froze over”. Yes, that’s right, the open source raw processor Darktable has finally been ported over to Windows. And they intend to support it fully in the future. There are still a few features missing, like lack of printing support, and you need special drivers for tethering, but it’s here and it’s usable.

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