I'm moving to Darktable

[algreen345]

Aftershot Pro keeps deleting my files. If I edit a file, then move to select another file that I want to delete ASP will delete the file I edited too. Its done this several times and I've lost many photos. It is irritating as heck. I still love the program but this, plus the lack of progress in updates and the extremely poor communication from Corel push me over the edge. Darktable is making great progress. Their latest git versions have camera specific noise reduction (non-local for luminance, and wavelet for color) which produces amazing results with almost no loss in detail and noise reduction calibrated by ISO. The learning curve is steeper. There aren't as many wonderful presets and plugins. The interface takes some getting used to. But with Darktable I am seeing stunning development progress done transparently before my eyes. I send notes to the developers and they respond hours later. And their OpenCL implementation really works.

Image quality is better. Communication is better. And Darktable posts stable updates quarterly. On their unstapple PPA, I get updates daily.

I'm making the investment to move. ASP has potential, but the innovation is in the past. The file delete thing was the last straw.

[steje44]

Yes, I moved to LR4...!

[TheDude]

Darktable is making great progress. Their latest git versions have camera specific noise reduction (non-local for luminance, and wavelet for color) which produces amazing results with almost no loss in detail and noise reduction calibrated by ISO.

DT is an amazing project. Did you notice, that you can also instantiate modules multiple times in the git version? As far as I know they developed it, in order to allow local editing on regions (c.f. masks branch). For me, the layer method for selective is ASP' s killer feature. I think and hope, that there is a fair chance to find a competitive feature in dt in the future. Combining a selective editing method with the blend-if methods, already implemented in dt, should offer a lot of possibilities for creative editing.
I think I won't switch too fast, because ASP still works for me and I still like the generic editing concepts of bibble... but I'm afraid, Corel did not understand the potential of bibble (or they simply don't care) and unfortunately there is not much progress to expect.
However, moving to LR won't be an alternative for me. First of all there is no native Linux support. And although LR seems to be stable and has sophisticated data management features, I feel, that there is not as much innovation in terms of editing methods as in dt.

[fcoiffie]

I agree with you : for Linux users, there are not many choices.
For the moment, ASP still works correctly and Darktable usage is really different from ASP. So, it will take me several weeks before being efficient with DT.
But, with DT, I won't feel failed (as it open source and free) like with Corel...
About LR4, there is the cost of the licence and it's not so smooth to use through a virtual machine.

It's a pity that there is no other viable challenger for Linux...

[TheDude]

I agree with you : for Linux users, there are not many choices.

I don't think, the situation is that bad.
However, I think LR is overrated

[t3mujin]

I have Darktable installed in both my PC's but haven't seriously looked at it. Keep us updated on your switch to Darktable.

[afx]

I don't think, the situation is that bad.

There is nothing providing a decent workflow on Linux.

However, I think LR is overrated

Yup.
IQ is ok (since v4), image adjustments are ok (since v4), but the UI is a nightmare of inefficiency. and the featureset is rather inconsistent.

cheers
afx

[TheDude]

There is nothing providing a decent workflow on Linux.

Depends on your definition of a decent workflow.

[afx]

There is nothing providing a decent workflow on Linux.

Depends on your definition of a decent workflow.

If I come home with several hundred images, I do not want a tool that requires me to save settings explicitly or where I have to use arcane non-efficent keyboard commands or the mouse to navigate through. Or waiting several several seconds for a zoom or an image switch.
Or outputs that can not be easily run in parallel batches. Or a UI that requires me to remember silly icons for tools.
Programs like Dartable or RawTherapee all fall short here. It gets worse with things like Photivo.

cheers
afx

[t3mujin]

Or a UI that requires me to remember silly icons for tools.

Overall I find Darktable interesting (haven't tried it with large catalogs) but that's one of my major annoyances!

[tundraquad]

DT has many irritating little things such as:
to delete an image, you must go back to Light-table mode. Even there, you must play with the mouse. The [Delete] key on the keybrd doesn't even delete the file from the disk, but removes it from the Collection (usesless!) ; The file name doesn't show nor on the thumbnail & in darkroom mode ; As afx mentionned, you'd better know your icons ; no handy magnifier ; no capability to physically browse a folder/subfolder...
Anyway. So many basic workflow features that are not handy at all.

[Trucks]

Or a UI that requires me to remember silly icons for tools.
Programs like Dartable or RawTherapee all fall short here. It gets worse with things like Photivo.

+1

[algreen345]

I agree with all the criticisms of DT and have submitted a list of them to the developers. Lets see how long it takes them to respond and how they respond:

http://www.darktable.org/2012/12/releas ... ment-10765

[algreen345]

Well, it took the Darktable devs 11 minutes to respond to my note:

parafin on January 11, 2013 at 17:33 said:

1. rejection flag exists exactly for purpose of marking photos for deletion
2. filename usually is some irrelevant number with prefix and it’s displayed in metadata module
4. there’s folder view in collect module
5. it’s possible via filmstrip and I think via shortcuts
6. one click does make some sense, this probably can be discussed

I'm not sure they completely understood the nature of my comments, but they responded so fast. We don't get a response from Corel in 11 weeks! Now, you guys could help us all out by going to the response and chiming in on your issues and ideas...

[afx]

Now, you guys could help us all out by going to the response and chiming in on your issues and ideas...

Been there, done that.
No interest in wasting more time there.

cheers
afx