DarkTable or Adobe cs6?

[Washingtonium]

I want something to edit my photos on and preferably something that doesn't cost me anything. DarkTable is free and I've downloaded it. My family also owns Adobe cs6 and I used the tools like bridge and photoshop on it. But I haven't become a master at either of them. Which one is the best and has the most potential? Which one should I invest more time in learning?

 

[sluggy_warrior]

I want something to edit my photos on and preferably something that doesn't cost me anything. DarkTable is free and I've downloaded it. My family also owns Adobe cs6 and I used the tools like bridge and photoshop on it. But I haven't become a master at either of them. Which one is the best and has the most potential? Which one should I invest more time in learning?

I don't see any conflict of what you listed. darktable would be the equivalence of Adobe Lightroom. Both have DAM, and both DAMs use SQLite as the database for metadata.

The equivalence of Photoshop would be GIMP.

 

[Carey Brown]

I want something to edit my photos on and preferably something that doesn't cost me anything. DarkTable is free and I've downloaded it. My family also owns Adobe cs6 and I used the tools like bridge and photoshop on it. But I haven't become a master at either of them. Which one is the best and has the most potential? Which one should I invest more time in learning?

I haven't used DarkTable and I have Photoshop and Lightroom CS6.

Because CS6 is an older, non-subscription version, Adobe could prevent you from installing it at their whim. I have to call Adobe support when I upgrade my hardware to get CS6 installed on the new machine and so far it's worked, but... I've also had to edit one of the config files that lists the Nvidia graphics cards it is compatible with so that it will play nice with whatever my latest Nvidia card is. Also, if it's a family copy it can only be installed on two machines.

DarkTable, if it does what you want, is free and you can get the latest versions without wondering if you're going to be hung out to dry.

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Photos at http://inasphere.com

 

[David Lal]

I want something to edit my photos on and preferably something that doesn't cost me anything. DarkTable is free and I've downloaded it.

For a long, long time (30 years?) I've used Paintshop Pro, even professionally, in preference to Adobe Photoshop, which however, I have owned. Paintshop Pro was originally owned by JASC which sold out to Corel and I duly moved to Corel Paintshop Pro 2021.

Unfortunately, I am not really happy with PSP2021 - takes ages to load whilst it goes and does something online and the once straightforward user interface has become awkward and sometimes a bit temperamental.

I considered adopting Photoshop instead but it is expensive and I have become disenchanted with Adobe since it became impossible for me to activate my legally purchased copy of Adobe Acrobat X.

I do still use and like Adobe Illustrator CS6 with which I have no problems but it is a vector drawing program, not a bit-painting photo editor.

So, I too have been researching a replacement graphics editor and currently favour GIMP which you do not mention. It's free and very powerful. Looks like a savage learning curve but that is par for the course with any application of this type. Windows, Linux and Mac versions exist. It is multilingual. I like it.

I want only a graphics editor and no interfering attempts to organise my files.

DPR has a retouching forum - you could ask your question there as well.

 

[Ho72]

I've also had to edit one of the config files that lists the Nvidia graphics cards it is compatible with...

What CS6 file are you editing? I have a fairly recent NV card and all my GPU enabled functions seem to work but maybe I'm missing something.

--
Sometimes I look at posts from people I've placed on my IGNORE list. When I do, I'm quickly reminded of why I chose to ignore them in the first place.

 

[Washingtonium]

I want something to edit my photos on and preferably something that doesn't cost me anything. DarkTable is free and I've downloaded it. My family also owns Adobe cs6 and I used the tools like bridge and photoshop on it. But I haven't become a master at either of them. Which one is the best and has the most potential? Which one should I invest more time in learning?

I don't see any conflict of what you listed. darktable would be the equivalence of Adobe Lightroom. Both have DAM, and both DAMs use SQLite as the database for metadata.

Before I switched computers I exclusively used bridge and photoshop to edit my photos. Lately I've been using Imaging Edge Mobile but I haven't been satisfied with it.

The equivalence of Photoshop would be GIMP.

I also have that downloaded, in fact that's why I downloaded DarkTable because GIMP wouldn't open Sony awr files without it. Then I gave up on GIMP because it was too hard for me to open.

 

[Washingtonium]

I want something to edit my photos on and preferably something that doesn't cost me anything. DarkTable is free and I've downloaded it. My family also owns Adobe cs6 and I used the tools like bridge and photoshop on it. But I haven't become a master at either of them. Which one is the best and has the most potential? Which one should I invest more time in learning?

I haven't used DarkTable and I have Photoshop and Lightroom CS6.

Because CS6 is an older, non-subscription version, Adobe could prevent you from installing it at their whim. I have to call Adobe support when I upgrade my hardware to get CS6 installed on the new machine and so far it's worked, but... I've also had to edit one of the config files that lists the Nvidia graphics cards it is compatible with so that it will play nice with whatever my latest Nvidia card is. Also, if it's a family copy it can only be installed on two machines.

We have the small business creative suite for cs6 so we can have more than two copies at once thankfully.

DarkTable, if it does what you want, is free and you can get the latest versions without wondering if you're going to be hung out to dry.

That is definitely something to think about. Thank you.

 

[Washingtonium]

I want something to edit my photos on and preferably something that doesn't cost me anything. DarkTable is free and I've downloaded it.

For a long, long time (30 years?) I've used Paintshop Pro, even professionally, in preference to Adobe Photoshop, which however, I have owned. Paintshop Pro was originally owned by JASC which sold out to Corel and I duly moved to Corel Paintshop Pro 2021.

Unfortunately, I am not really happy with PSP2021 - takes ages to load whilst it goes and does something online and the once straightforward user interface has become awkward and sometimes a bit temperamental.

I considered adopting Photoshop instead but it is expensive and I have become disenchanted with Adobe since it became impossible for me to activate my legally purchased copy of Adobe Acrobat X.

Same for me actually. I should probably try un-downloading it and download it again but I don't really want to go to all that hassle.

I do still use and like Adobe Illustrator CS6 with which I have no problems but it is a vector drawing program, not a bit-painting photo editor.

So, I too have been researching a replacement graphics editor and currently favour GIMP which you do not mention. It's free and very powerful. Looks like a savage learning curve but that is par for the course with any application of this type. Windows, Linux and Mac versions exist. It is multilingual. I like it.

I tried downloading that a while ago, but it was too hard for me to operate and I've pretty much given up on it. I should give it another go though.

I want only a graphics editor and no interfering attempts to organise my files.

DPR has a retouching forum - you could ask your question there as well.

Thank you so much, I didn't know about that. I'll try them aswell.

 

[David Lal]

I tried downloading that a while ago, but it was too hard for me to operate and I've pretty much given up on it. I should give it another go though.

Yes, maybe you should give GIMP another go. I think all of these graphics programs are difficult to learn - after all, there is a lot to know - but I have a feeling that for me GIMP will be worth the effort.

Re Acrobat. I did indeed wipe it very thoroughly from my PC, including a registry clean. But it was all to no avail. 10 black marks for Adobe from me.

 

[sluggy_warrior]

Before I switched computers I exclusively used bridge and photoshop to edit my photos. Lately I've been using Imaging Edge Mobile but I haven't been satisfied with it.

I also have that downloaded, in fact that's why I downloaded DarkTable because GIMP wouldn't open Sony awr files without it. Then I gave up on GIMP because it was too hard for me to open.

GIMP and darktable are two very different tools with some overlapping features.

If you mainly shoot RAW and process them in bulk (e.g. 50 to 500 photos at a time), then darktable is a better workflow.

If you do a lot of retouching on individual photo/image that involves advanced layers and masks, then GIMP is the tool to use.

I mainly shoot at events (conferences, theaters, recitals, ...) and personal trips, so I rarely use GIMP. darktable makes it easy to process hundreds of RAWs, mainly adjusting brightness/contrast/WB/color, cropping/rotating, denoise/sharpening, lens correction, ...

darktable has both drawn and parametric masks, they're more than enough for my limited needs:

Loading…

docs.darktable.org

 

[XiaoDeer]

Adobe Photoshop (including CS6) rocks and is probably THE most powerful image editor notwithstanding the Adobe licensing issues which suck.

There's a lot to learn but it's worth it!

BTW, I too got tired of Acrobat and purchased a copy of PDF-XChange Editor which has worked out really well for me.

 

[David Lal]

Adobe Photoshop (including CS6) rocks and is probably THE most powerful image editor notwithstanding the Adobe licensing issues which suck.

There's a lot to learn but it's worth it!

BTW, I too got tired of Acrobat and purchased a copy of PDF-XChange Editor which has worked out really well for me.

Yes, undoubtedly Photoshop is the zenith of graphics editors but just too expensive, then there is the licensing and finally who's to say I would not find some years down the line my pricily-bought product would fail activation as has happened with my Acrobat?

No, I've had it with Adobe products.

MS Office Word had a nice Acrobat add-in but my work around now is to open the MS Word file in LibreOffice Writer which is free and has very good pdf export functionality or pass the file to CutePDF printer.

 

[XiaoDeer]

Yes, undoubtedly Photoshop is the zenith of graphics editors but just too expensive, then there is the licensing and finally who's to say I would not find some years down the line my pricily-bought product would fail activation as has happened with my Acrobat?

No, I've had it with Adobe products.

I feel the same way but will hang on to my copy of CS6 for as long as I can.

MS Office Word had a nice Acrobat add-in but my work around now is to open the MS Word file in LibreOffice Writer which is free and has very good pdf export functionality or pass the file to CutePDF printer.

Done with MS Office too after my copy of Office 2000 failed to run properly on Windows 10. Like you, I use LibreOffice.

 

[ddharriman]

Darktable.

 

[Scott_Eaton]

Both DarkTable and Raw Therapee have a formidable tool set.

Problem for me is the GUI for each is also formidable and the biggest handicap of either. Just getting them to enable image preview was a ridiculous endeavor, and their forums seem almost proud of this.

 

[sluggy_warrior]

Both DarkTable and Raw Therapee have a formidable tool set.

Problem for me is the GUI for each is also formidable and the biggest handicap of either. Just getting them to enable image preview was a ridiculous endeavor, and their forums seem almost proud of this.

Not sure, though, darktable has always been intuitive to me. I'm very efficient at it, can process hundreds of RAWs (from events) in a night.

I heard ART, a fork of RawTherapee, focused on user-friendly GUI. People who can't stand darktable/RT tend to like ART better.

Bitbucket

bitbucket.org

 

[Daken]

I still use InDesign CS5.5, and Illustrator, Fireworks and Photoshop CS6 for my work. I have purchased Affinity apps to handle more recent formats (e.g. WEBP) but still prefer my Adobe software.

I have recently installed all of the above on a new Windows 11 system without any product key or activation issues.

I would say that basic image handling in the CS5.5/6 apps is easily as good, and maybe a little better than the newer Affinity apps. That said, Affinity apps are very cheap compared to Adobe software, and so far, well worth the money.

 

[Mika Y.]

I want something to edit my photos on and preferably something that doesn't cost me anything. DarkTable is free and I've downloaded it. My family also owns Adobe cs6 and I used the tools like bridge and photoshop on it. But I haven't become a master at either of them. Which one is the best and has the most potential? Which one should I invest more time in learning?

I might be wrong in which case I'm sure someone will correct me, but my understanding is that CS6 isn't receiving updates anymore. So while it might currently provide all the functionality you need, products that are currently under active development (Darktable, more recent Adobe software, etc) may be more future-proof option.

 

[Chris Dubea]

I don't see any conflict of what you listed. darktable would be the equivalence of Adobe Lightroom. Both have DAM, and both DAMs use SQLite as the database for metadata.

The equivalence of Photoshop would be GIMP.

Darktable does not provide the function of a DAM.

If you need a DAM, and are looking for a FOSS one, Digikam is your friend.

To the OP, give ART a lookie see. https://bitbucket.org/agriggio/art/wiki/Home

 

[sluggy_warrior]

I don't see any conflict of what you listed. darktable would be the equivalence of Adobe Lightroom. Both have DAM, and both DAMs use SQLite as the database for metadata.

The equivalence of Photoshop would be GIMP.

Darktable does not provide the function of a DAM.

If you need a DAM, and are looking for a FOSS one, Digikam is your friend.

To the OP, give ART a lookie see. https://bitbucket.org/agriggio/art/wiki/Home

Darktable's lightable is a DAM:

https://docs.darktable.org/usermanual/3.8/en/lighttable/digital-asset-management/

The SQLite is mainly used for its DAM (for storing and querying images' metadata).