Linux users - what software to edit photos?

Hello all, I'm new to photography and my friend who taught me doesn't do much (if any) editing of his photos in LR or PS; he believes in a "if it's not good enough from the camera, then you didn't take the picture well enough" theory. I am on board with this ideology, for a few reasons, including the fact that I want to take the best photo's I can, and spend as little time on the PC messing with them later. However, I do know that editing is going to be inevitable and at some point I'll be glad I know how to edit.

With that said, I work in the IT industry, and am a computer nerd (geek, whatever you want to call it) at heart, and run Linux on my PC's at home. My wife has a Macbook Pro, if I absolutely need to use LR or PS on there I can, but I'd prefer to edit on my PC, running OpenSuSE.


[TL;DR - here's the question]
What photo editing software do fellow Linux, photography enthusiasts use to edit their pictures? Also, do you have any good tips on presets that you find handy, or specific settings that you tend to use more often that I can get my feet wet with, within these applications?

If it helps you can see some of my photography on my Instagram @mattcandy to see my straight out of the camera shots thus far. I tend to stick to landscape and astrophotography mostly, here in the NJ Pine Barrens.

Thanks in adv.!

diablo2424 said:

diablo2424 wrote:
What photo editing software do fellow Linux, photography enthusiasts use to edit their pictures?

Click to expand...

GIMP. Unstable has support for 16/32 bit per colour channel precision. Also get the G'MIC plugin for GIMP.

More GNU/Linux** tools here:
https://pixls.us/software/

diablo2424 said:

he believes in a "if it's not good enough from the camera, then you didn't take the picture well enough" theory.

Click to expand...

Then you're leaving it up to the camera programmers on how best to render jpegs from the raw sensor data. How good are the algorithms which have to run within the power and memory constraints of an embedded device as compared to those designed to run on a PC?

** - nitpick: Linux is just the kernel

sasoph said:

sasoph said:

diablo2424 wrote:
What photo editing software do fellow Linux, photography enthusiasts use to edit their pictures?

Click to expand...

GIMP. Unstable has support for 16/32 bit per colour channel precision.

More GNU/Linux** tools here:
https://pixls.us/software/

Click to expand...

Thanks for the link, I'll check some of those out! Which do you use? GIMP? I've used GIMP over the years for digital image editing, but am not sure where to start with photo editing...

sasoph said:

sasoph said:

he believes in a "if it's not good enough from the camera, then you didn't take the picture well enough" theory.

Click to expand...

Then you're leaving it up to the camera designers on how best to render jpegs from the raw sensor data. How good are the algorithms which have to run within the power and memory constraints of an embedded device as compared to those designed to run on a PC?

Click to expand...

This is very true, however, I would think (hope) that the engineer's at Canon know more this than I do .

sasoph said:

** - nitpick: Linux is just the kernel

Click to expand...

**- correct, of course it is, however, I wasn't going to point out a specific distribution as applications can be repackaged or made from source if need be onto any distro. Also, getting into the nitty gritty, MAC OS X is based on a Unix kernel as well, so some applications for Linux are also made for MAC. But then again LR and PS have MAC editions, so that would be more wise to use as there are plenty of tutorials out there for them. Speaking of which, thank you for the side note, it's made me realize I should do some research and look for GIMP photo editing tutorials myself .

Aside from GIMP are there any other preferred applications that you use? Or should I just play around and learn how to edit within GIMP?

diablo2424 said:

sasoph said:

diablo2424 said:

diablo2424 wrote:
What photo editing software do fellow Linux, photography enthusiasts use to edit their pictures?

Click to expand...

GIMP. Unstable has support for 16/32 bit per colour channel precision.

More GNU/Linux** tools here:
https://pixls.us/software/

Click to expand...

Thanks for the link, I'll check some of those out! Which do you use? GIMP? I've used GIMP over the years for digital image editing, but am not sure where to start with photo editing...

Click to expand...

Indeed. I also forgot to mention the G'MIC plugin for GIMP.

diablo2424 said:

diablo2424 said:

diablo2424 said:

he believes in a "if it's not good enough from the camera, then you didn't take the picture well enough" theory.

Click to expand...

Then you're leaving it up to the camera designers on how best to render jpegs from the raw sensor data. How good are the algorithms which have to run within the power and memory constraints of an embedded device as compared to those designed to run on a PC?

Click to expand...

This is very true, however, I would think (hope) that the engineer's at Canon know more this than I do .

Click to expand...

I'm not suggesting that you write your own wavelet sharpening or decomposition functions . I was comparing in camera to the algorithms found within image processing software. In film days, good darkroom technique enhances your slide/negative. Ditto for postprocessing your sensor data.

Also, you'll be surprised at what a difference calibrating your lens/body/light combination makes to the accuracy of colours, which is a good starting point for you to then express your vision. You'll need to shoot RAW to do so.

diablo2424 said:

diablo2424 said:

** - nitpick: Linux is just the kernel

Click to expand...

**- correct, of course it is, however, I wasn't going to point out a specific distribution as applications can be repackaged or made from source if need be onto any distro.

Click to expand...

I understand what you meant by Linux. GNU/Linux contains the kernel and the myriads of programs required to run a working OS. The OS is GNU/Linux, irrespective of distro.

diablo2424 said:

Also, getting into the nitty gritty, MAC OS X is based on a Unix kernel as well, so some applications for Linux are also made for MAC. But then again LR and PS have MAC editions, so that would be more wise to use as there are plenty of tutorials out there for them. Speaking of which, thank you for the side note, it's made me realize I should do some research and look for GIMP photo editing tutorials myself .

Click to expand...

You can build Linux programs for OS X via MacPorts. Indeed, that's how I ran GIMP on work mandated Apple laptops (never again, as the hardware is flaky and Apple support is sh!te***).

As a big F You to the philosophy of sharing and cooperation, Apple keeps large parts of OS X proprietary, whilst taking advantage of community development. That the BSD license allows such selfish behaviour is why I won't touch Apple.

diablo2424 said:

Aside from GIMP are there any other preferred applications that you use? Or should I just play around and learn how to edit within GIMP?

Click to expand...

If you're shooting RAW, you'll need to use a RAW developer before importing into GIMP.

*** - Overheating GPUs frying logic boards when Apple were warned about the issue by the GPU manufacturer themselves long before, and Apple "Geniuses" claiming that since the GPU appeared fine at the time, there was no danger of overheating eventually. When the inevitable happened, I was given a farcical run around from Apple staff claiming that their GPU diagnostics couldn't diagnose anything. Not surprising, as the GPU had fried the motherboard, meaning the laptops wouldn't boot!

diablo2424 said:

Hello all, I'm new to photography and my friend who taught me doesn't do much (if any) editing of his photos in LR or PS; he believes in a "if it's not good enough from the camera, then you didn't take the picture well enough" theory. I am on board with this ideology, for a few reasons, including the fact that I want to take the best photo's I can, and spend as little time on the PC messing with them later. However, I do know that editing is going to be inevitable and at some point I'll be glad I know how to edit.

With that said, I work in the IT industry, and am a computer nerd (geek, whatever you want to call it) at heart, and run Linux on my PC's at home. My wife has a Macbook Pro, if I absolutely need to use LR or PS on there I can, but I'd prefer to edit on my PC, running OpenSuSE.

[TL;DR - here's the question]
What photo editing software do fellow Linux, photography enthusiasts use to edit their pictures? Also, do you have any good tips on presets that you find handy, or specific settings that you tend to use more often that I can get my feet wet with, within these applications?

If it helps you can see some of my photography on my Instagram @mattcandy to see my straight out of the camera shots thus far. I tend to stick to landscape and astrophotography mostly, here in the NJ Pine Barrens.

Thanks in adv.!

Click to expand...

I respect people who've stuck with Linux and I know it has real advantages. But I think you're going to find that doing photography on Linux will be a long, difficult and very narrow road. The choices seem to be "GIMP" and... well, that's it.

sasoph said:

diablo2424 said:

sasoph said:

sasoph said:

diablo2424 wrote:
What photo editing software do fellow Linux, photography enthusiasts use to edit their pictures?

Click to expand...

GIMP. Unstable has support for 16/32 bit per colour channel precision.

More GNU/Linux** tools here:
https://pixls.us/software/

Click to expand...

Thanks for the link, I'll check some of those out! Which do you use? GIMP? I've used GIMP over the years for digital image editing, but am not sure where to start with photo editing...

Click to expand...

Indeed. I also forgot to mention the G'MIC plugin for GIMP.

Click to expand...

Thank you!

Link for myself to download later when I get home - http://gmic.eu/gimp.shtml

sasoph said:

sasoph said:

sasoph said:

sasoph said:

he believes in a "if it's not good enough from the camera, then you didn't take the picture well enough" theory.

Click to expand...

Then you're leaving it up to the camera designers on how best to render jpegs from the raw sensor data. How good are the algorithms which have to run within the power and memory constraints of an embedded device as compared to those designed to run on a PC?

Click to expand...

This is very true, however, I would think (hope) that the engineer's at Canon know more this than I do .

Click to expand...

I'm not suggesting that you write your own wavelet sharpening or decomposition functions . I was comparing in camera to the algorithms found within image processing software. In film days, good darkroom technique enhances your slide/negative. Ditto for postprocessing your sensor data.

Also, you'll be surprised at what a difference calibrating your lens/body/light combination makes to the accuracy of colours, which is a good starting point for you to then express your vision. You'll need to shoot RAW to do so.

Click to expand...

Oh of course, lol. I have a few friends that learned processing with 35mm and the whole dark room thing, they always rave to me about how cool it was and the skill involved. Then I remind them how now with digital we can shoot, preview the image and if we don't like it, take it again (with a better angle, lighting, settings etc.) .

RAW is something I do want to start shooting in, so I can mess around with editing; since I didn't edit before, I never bothered with shooting in RAW. Thanks for the tips though, I'll look into those basic editing functions, and start messing around with my images.

sasoph said:

sasoph said:

sasoph said:

** - nitpick: Linux is just the kernel

Click to expand...

**- correct, of course it is, however, I wasn't going to point out a specific distribution as applications can be repackaged or made from source if need be onto any distro.

Click to expand...

I understand what you meant by Linux. GNU/Linux contains the kernel and the myriads of programs required to run a working OS. The OS is GNU/Linux, irrespective of distro.

Click to expand...

It's good to see another fellow enthusiast on these forums

sasoph said:

sasoph said:

Also, getting into the nitty gritty, MAC OS X is based on a Unix kernel as well, so some applications for Linux are also made for MAC. But then again LR and PS have MAC editions, so that would be more wise to use as there are plenty of tutorials out there for them. Speaking of which, thank you for the side note, it's made me realize I should do some research and look for GIMP photo editing tutorials myself .

Click to expand...

You can build Linux programs for OS X via MacPorts. Indeed, that's how I ran GIMP on work mandated Apple laptops (never again, as the hardware is flaky and Apple support is sh!te***).

As a big F You to the philosophy of sharing and cooperation, Apple keeps large parts of OS X proprietary, whilst taking advantage of community development. That the BSD license allows such selfish behaviour is why I won't touch Apple.

Click to expand...

True, you could do that, but it's not usually worth the effort, heh.

Yeah, one of the few reasons I'm not a fan of Apple myself either.

sasoph said:

sasoph said:

Aside from GIMP are there any other preferred applications that you use? Or should I just play around and learn how to edit within GIMP?

Click to expand...

If you're shooting RAW, you'll need to use a RAW developer before importing into GIMP.

*** - Overheating GPUs frying logic boards when Apple were warned about the issue by the GPU manufacturer themselves long before, and Apple "Geniuses" claiming that since the GPU appeared fine at the time, there was no danger of overheating eventually. When the inevitable happened, I was given a farcical run around from Apple staff claiming that their GPU diagnostics couldn't diagnose anything. Not surprising, as the GPU had fried the motherboard, meaning the laptops wouldn't boot!

Click to expand...

Okay, I'll look up a RAW developer... GIMP can't import RAW files?

Maybe, I will just grab the wife's old MAC or get PS/LR running in either WINE or a VM on my OpenSuSE box, just for editing, it may be easier.

*** - Don't even remind of this. The first MacBook Pro I bought my wife, back in 2008, that did just that, just over a year of having the $1,800 POS (I only buy Apple products for her refurbished or used now, usually from Apple Refurb, not terrible deals). Of course, that was JUST out side of the 1 year warranty, so they told me to go pound salt. I was furious, and explained to her why I enjoy my home built PC's running Linux, lol.

jimhughes said:

diablo2424 said:

Hello all, I'm new to photography and my friend who taught me doesn't do much (if any) editing of his photos in LR or PS; he believes in a "if it's not good enough from the camera, then you didn't take the picture well enough" theory. I am on board with this ideology, for a few reasons, including the fact that I want to take the best photo's I can, and spend as little time on the PC messing with them later. However, I do know that editing is going to be inevitable and at some point I'll be glad I know how to edit.

With that said, I work in the IT industry, and am a computer nerd (geek, whatever you want to call it) at heart, and run Linux on my PC's at home. My wife has a Macbook Pro, if I absolutely need to use LR or PS on there I can, but I'd prefer to edit on my PC, running OpenSuSE.

[TL;DR - here's the question]
What photo editing software do fellow Linux, photography enthusiasts use to edit their pictures? Also, do you have any good tips on presets that you find handy, or specific settings that you tend to use more often that I can get my feet wet with, within these applications?

If it helps you can see some of my photography on my Instagram @mattcandy to see my straight out of the camera shots thus far. I tend to stick to landscape and astrophotography mostly, here in the NJ Pine Barrens.

Thanks in adv.!

Click to expand...

I respect people who've stuck with Linux and I know it has real advantages. But I think you're going to find that doing photography on Linux will be a long, difficult and very narrow road. The choices seem to be "GIMP" and... well, that's it.

Click to expand...

That's what it is looking like. I just wanted to at least post here and see if anyone else knew about alternate applications I could use to GIMP. But that seems to be my best bet, unless I want to mess with LR/PS via WINE. Though, my PC has plenty of power, I may run LR/PS within a VM running Windows, or install Windows on my Core i7 laptop for LR/PS activity.

I'm not a Linux user, not regularly anyway, but one of the programs I use happens to have a Linux version as well as Mac and Windows. The open source software LightZone is an excellent raw developer.

There are supposedly Linux versions of LuminanceHDR , a specialty program I sometimes use for merging bracketed photos.

Personally, in order to have access to the highest quality and largest selection of imaging software, I recommend installing Windows. Add a second hard drive or partition your current drive for dual-booting.

Isn't Darktable a fairly decent RAW converter?

I haven't had a chance to play much with it, bit I've read that it has good potential.

My $ .02

jimhughes said:

diablo2424 said:

Hello all, I'm new to photography and my friend who taught me doesn't do much (if any) editing of his photos in LR or PS; he believes in a "if it's not good enough from the camera, then you didn't take the picture well enough" theory. I am on board with this ideology, for a few reasons, including the fact that I want to take the best photo's I can, and spend as little time on the PC messing with them later. However, I do know that editing is going to be inevitable and at some point I'll be glad I know how to edit.

With that said, I work in the IT industry, and am a computer nerd (geek, whatever you want to call it) at heart, and run Linux on my PC's at home. My wife has a Macbook Pro, if I absolutely need to use LR or PS on there I can, but I'd prefer to edit on my PC, running OpenSuSE.

[TL;DR - here's the question]
What photo editing software do fellow Linux, photography enthusiasts use to edit their pictures? Also, do you have any good tips on presets that you find handy, or specific settings that you tend to use more often that I can get my feet wet with, within these applications?

If it helps you can see some of my photography on my Instagram @mattcandy to see my straight out of the camera shots thus far. I tend to stick to landscape and astrophotography mostly, here in the NJ Pine Barrens.

Thanks in adv.!

Click to expand...

I respect people who've stuck with Linux and I know it has real advantages. But I think you're going to find that doing photography on Linux will be a long, difficult and very narrow road. The choices seem to be "GIMP" and... well, that's it.

Click to expand...

Totally disagree, this was true a few years ago, but now there is software available that at least matches Lightroom.

darktable is absolutely stunning.


The one thing that is so good that LR lacks (I think) are local edits in all modules, using a combination of parametric masks, drawn masks etc. Just take a look and see for yourself.

RawTherapee.


Long established, check out the RL deconvolution sharpening and the wavelet module.

Lightzone.


So my workflow would be.

Download using Rapid photo downloader.


View using Geeqie viewer.


Then use darktable to do all the editing including things like spot removal, so no need to go into gimp.

Just check all of these out and you will be pleasantly surprised, all this for free.

[No message]

Don't forget Corel After Shot Pro 3 which runs on Windows, OS-X and Linux.

I've used Linux as my pro photography platform for several years and am currently using Kubuntu (64 bit).

Reasons: There are 2 packages I use that require KDE - digiKam and Kdenlive. Kdenlive is also fussy about having current releases of KDE, something that Mint KDE has been a bit behind on. Kubuntu keeps up with the latest KDE and kernels better than Mint. DigiKam is an important part of a Linux photo workflow, especially for its management, tagging and captioning, and it NEEDS KDE to run properly.

I also use the following software:

Geeqie: I use it mostly for viewing and culling images, although it is capable of much more. It treats raw + jpeg as a pair so when you press "delete", both files are deleted together. It's also fast working with just raw files since it views the embedded jpeg rather than processing the raw data.

Rawtherapee: This is very powerful raw conversion software that delivers high-quality output. If it has a downside it's that it offers almost too many options and different ways of doing things, making for a steep learning curve. Fortunately the documentation is good. Another recommended program for raw is darktable.

Gimp: Be sure to install the extensions, including G'MIC.

Phatch: Stands for "photo" and "batch". Powerful, fast batch processing of folders of images.

Exiftool: Useful for many tasks. i use it mostly for extracting embedded jpegs from raw files and stripping out exif data.

Hugin: Panorama software that produces excellent output. Also for aligning stacks of images etc. I've used it for stitching as many as 84 images to produce high-res murals for clients up to 7 x 25 feet in size.

DisplayCAL: For calibrating my displays with a Spyder.

So, all of this is IMHO. Long time Ubuntu user. I've been on ASP3 iterations for about 5 years, and I find it to be solid. Darktable is starting to become appealing, but ASP3 works well is fast and the workflow is clean.

GIMP/G'MIC, and I work within ProPhotoRGB. Hugin is a gift, and it will take ProPhotoRGB TIF files. RapidPhotoDownloader is good. I use mirrored drives on a Synology NAS that is accessed via NFS (pretty fast).

Because you have Canon gear, and are clearly accustomed to tech, you should look at Magic Lantern (ML). On the 6D, the EV is about 1.5+ for jpg versus RAW. ML allows me to have a RAW histogram so that I can know I'm not blowing out my light sections (even though the jpg review would show that as such), and if you are doing much with flash, it'll work in the image review for a few seconds, too.

Kumsa said:

So, all of this is IMHO. Long time Ubuntu user. I've been on ASP3 iterations for about 5 years, and I find it to be solid. Darktable is starting to become appealing, but ASP3 works well is fast and the workflow is clean.

GIMP/G'MIC, and I work within ProPhotoRGB. Hugin is a gift, and it will take ProPhotoRGB TIF files. RapidPhotoDownloader is good. I use mirrored drives on a Synology NAS that is accessed via NFS (pretty fast).

Because you have Canon gear, and are clearly accustomed to tech, you should look at Magic Lantern (ML). On the 6D, the EV is about 1.5+ for jpg versus RAW. ML allows me to have a RAW histogram so that I can know I'm not blowing out my light sections (even though the jpg review would show that as such), and if you are doing much with flash, it'll work in the image review for a few seconds, too.

Click to expand...

Awesome, thank you for all the information.

I actually have ML already loaded onto my 6D (well loaded onto the SD Card ). I feel like a lot of the features are more useful for video recording than image taking though. Then again, it could be that I just am not sure how to use it properly. What features of it have you utilized for photography?

I've tried reading through their documentation, but it seems to be very lengthy and confusing, then again, though I am good with tech, I am still new to photography and the terms/acronyms used in it. The histogram that ML gives does seem better than the factory one, I also like the battery percentage that I now have. I've tried using the Auto ETTR, but don't think I was using it right. However, the exposure adjustment with the rear wheel while holding the set button is great!

Do you shoot just RAW or RAW + JPG?

Yes, ML doesn't exactly do training videos (which is another way of saying that there is a need for contributors, I guess). The functions that I find extremely useful:

• Trap focus. Using a handheld macro lens is difficult for capturing the right focus--but with trap focus, it's much, much simpler. I enable the trap focus in ML, manual focus for the lens, and then position myself. By gently moving the distance, when I get to the point of the focus, the camera will click. I can get very, very narrow DoF focus for sharp images.
• RAW histogram in Liveview (LV) that fixes (for me) the disparity between RAW and jpg EV. I usually capture jpg + RAW with a bracket of +1.5 EV. The jpg for the 0 EV and RAW for the 1.5. I'll use the RAW histogram when I'm really wanting to nail the maximum out of the scene, and when I'm working with flash. The only other alternative with flash is tethering. Darktable supports tethering for RAW images, so that's a possibility, but the delay is not something I'd use for many situations.
• Exposure Presets. Very nice for my T2i, as the 6D allows for two custom settings.
• Focus Peak. In LV this is pretty sweet for knowing for sure what's in range (I still need to be aware of the DoF to gauge the full range). It's especially useful when blending photos (e.g., landscape) where one image is focused in the foreground, one in the mid and one for the background.

The function that I wish was more useful:

• DualISO, this could be really cool, but I'm left running command scripts on the files. This is an area that I wish could be absorbed by Darktable.
• Rack focus. For macro, this can be really, really useful. However, I find that the set up and testing time to get everything working for a particular scene and lens combo to be tedious.
• Silent capture. This would be nice, but there isn't a preview (as it creates a DNG). It deserves another look, but the last time I wasn't that impressed with the end result.

When you get to printing, I can give some pointers with TurboPrint.