As I'm trying to get to grips with my own post processing workflow, I once again fell into the endless hole of what-ifs that is the choice of raw developers.
To gain some perspective, I'd like to hear your story of why you switched raw developers, and whether it was worthwhile.
For me, it was necessity. I had a permanent copy of PS6, but one of Apple’s OS upgrades rendered it useless and I needed to find a new package. I chose Capture 1, and I find it usable, good in some ways, but irritating to work with after many years of PS6. Its ‘catalogue’ and the way it handles it is a pain, but it gives me the results I want and I like it more the longer I use it. C1’s pricing policy verges on the mendacious - I bought a perpetual copy when there was a half price offer (every few months - don’t be tempted to pay full price). The monthly subscription is ludicrous - more than twice the price of LR/PS for the same functionality or a little less. Updates are annual and offer so little that it’s worth skipping three or four before updating.
I also bought a copy of Affinity Photo the other week - a perpetual licence at half price - so very cheap that it wasn’t even worth downloading the free trial. This will use Photoshop plugins - of which I have a few - and so was worth it to experiment. It’s a silly thing which doesn’t affect its functionality, but I hate the way that it refers to the various function modules as ‘personas’.
To summarise, I think I like C1 and intend to continue using it (except when I don’t….). Re-reading this, I don’t think I’ve been much help, but I’ll post it anyway!
I shoot wildlife with a 1" sensor Sony RX10iv, so high ISO (well, up to 6400) noise reduction is my primary concern. The consensus on the DPR forum was that nobody provides a better combination of accurate raw development and noise reduction while retaining details than DXO PL5 or 6. I often export to TIF and postprocess with Topaz Sharpen because it's decent at rescuing images with a bit of subject motion or focus errors.
I have some samples with that combination in this Flickr album. All are cropped to various degrees, but are posted at full resolution www.flickr.com/photos/32989985@N07/albums/72157719755805944
Sherm
For me, it was simple - I won't abide subscription software if there's a reasonable alternative. I used to use Lightroom when it had a non-subscription option; when it went sub-only, I started looking for alternatives. (And after Adobe's earlier statements about wanting to maintain a perpetual license option 'for the foreseeable future', my trust in Adobe went to zero, and I won't consider them if there is any alternative.)
My secondary criteria is interface; I won't work with a software package that has a bad interface by my standards if there's a reasonable alternative, no matter how good the results it might produce. A favorite maxim of mine is that if a feature's interface makes it too much hassle to use, that feature might as well not exist.
For now, I'm using On1 Photo RAW. It's far from perfect, but on balance it's the best option I've found. Capture One can sometimes give better results - but I dislike C1's interface and its cataloging system is a really bad fit for my workflow, so I only use it on an image-by-image basis when I get bad results from On1. Luminar can give good results, but again its cataloging system is not up to snuff, and I prefer a lot more manual control to Luminar's AI-centric approach. (On1 has AI options, but I prefer manual adjustments most of the time and only use the AI features sparingly.)
On1's biggest problem is a lack of polish. I frequently see glitchy behavior - sudden jams or jumps when using the cropping tool, metadata displays going blank when switching between photos, that sort of thing. It's not enough to overcome my preference for their interface paradigm, but it's irritating.
Just checked their side... It's only subscription... or I missed something ?
The rightmost option - "Own it. Works as a Standalone App". With a "Buy Now" button instead of "Subscribe". :)
I used LR (“classic”) since it was launched (mid-2000’s?). They then went to the subscription model and I rode LR6 as far as I could go. I used affinity photo (desktop and iPad) for a bit and while good, it wasn’t really a LR replacement for me. Switched to capture 1 and, I must admit, it’s a great bit of kit. Used it for a bit…. Then….
I really wanted to try a “mobile” workflow on a iPad. I also wanted to “use the cloud but ALSO keep images local”. There were no options but to use LRM, (LR), and LRC. Everything that I wanted …… so, back to Lightroom (and that HORRIBLE subscription model). I swallowed hard and did it.
I do love the Adobe eco-system (including PS) but I still dislike the subscription model.
Why did I switch? “Eco-system and syncing across devices”
Yep, that works.... I would never seen that....
BTW ... any stacking feature worth of mentioning or do I get Helicon that I tried and is fine ?
There is a focus stacking and an HDR module, but I haven't used either one of them; ononesoft.cachefly.net/content/ON1-Photo-RAW-2023-User-Guide.pdf covers focus stacking on page 200.
Interesting. It seems most people so far have switched tools because of external factors, not a lack of features in the software itself.
Personally, I am currently a bit frustrated with the white balance in Darktable, which seems to be a bit off compared to the camera JPEGs (and other developers). Previously, I had used Capture One, but didn't like how it tends to hue-shift high-saturation highlights towards primary colors (cyan skies, yellow skin, magenta roses), and how it is at times annoyingly slow to browse files. Currently I'm test-driving DxO...
I have never liked software like Photoshop, ON1, RAW Therapee, Dark Table etc because the layout is just so complicated, the icons too small, so navigating such software really slows up my flow. I use Luminar Neo because it is so simple and easy to get really impressive results really quickly. I also use Topaz Photo AI which is great for noise reduction, incredible enlargements and noise reduction for high ISO's
I changed back and forth between DxO PhotoLab 6 (PL6) and Adobe Lightroom Classic (LrC), because LrC has a great Auto Mode and it doubles as a DAM.
That is, until I developed my own DxO preset. Now I solely work in PhotoLab 6 for most of my camera photos, and use Topaz Photo AI as optional enhancement. Photos from my iPhone are still developed in LrC.
As an example, below is a comparison between SOOC JPEG and my developed JPEG from PL6.
SOOC JPEG
Developed JPEG
Gosh, those are remarkable photos. I recently bought this camera and I am struggling with all the bells and whistles. I'm not ready to give up yet but I know I bit off a lot.
Bought a Mac (I hate Windows, ran Linux) and realized I could buy DxO PhotoLab. It's easier to use than Darktable, which I still like.
One big advantage of Darktable is that the icon is pretty, unlike PhotoLab and Lightroom. 😵💫
Very same situation here: I just bought a Mac, and now have the option to run more than Darktable and Rawtherapee. Now I'm waiting for a sale on DxO Photo Lab. (The M1 is rather terrific for Darktable, too, though)
I really miss the top-bar menus, which I've grown to appreciate over the years. WTF are the menus? is my refrain on W10. Darktable looks good on Linux but seems bare on MacOS. DxO has a sale every November, if you can wait until then.
Capture One was installed for a while but I didn't like it, especially the catalog. Having photos organized in normal folders seems the most universal and durable solution. I bought Corel Aftershot, which Adobe ripped off to create Lightroom, but liked Darktable better. I never used Lightroom but Photoshop was very slow compared to GIMP.
I have bought, tested and owned pretty much all the well known RAW developers out there over the last few years. I stopped my Adobe subscription 4 years ago, but subbed, again, late last year as I wanted to work with the RAW files from my Gopro. Lightroom mobile is a great tool to have on my devices when I just need to do a little PP. When I have a noisy high ISO shot that I wanna fix, I bring it into Dxo Photolab 5 Elite. If I wish to enlarge or crop an image from like a cellphone for print, I use Topaz Gigapixel AI.
I should have probably stayed with an Adobe subscription (and saved some money in the process) because by the end of the day, the difference between the RAW developers out there isn’t that big, imo.
Dan
I started the digital adventure using Picture Window because I hated the incomprehensible complexity of Photoshop v6.01 :-).
Then I started using raw, and the only things available were terrible raw convertors from the camera manufacturers.
When 3rd party convertors became available I used a neat package that had no drop down windows whose name I forget which eventually got swallowed up into another package, so I switched to Bibble. I stayed with Bibble all through the interminable wait for v5 (which later got rebranded as Aftershot) then switched to LR when they were running the free beta programme.
I like LR and would still be using it now, if it weren't for the damnable subscription model. It's not so much the subs model that bothers me, but the way they operate it. If you decide to stop subscribing they should stop you importing but let you continue to edit your existing photos in perpetuity. The decision to chop of edit access to all those back catalogue of edit stacks that can't be exported to another program, just seems too much like holding your raw edits hostage to me. And the more files you have, the more work they hold hostage.
So currently running Ubuntu/darktable for new stuff, and win/LR 6.14 perpetual for older stuff in a dual boot config.
I really like darktable. It's gradually grown into an excellent program. Perhaps confusing for beginners, it can take a long while to figure out an effective workflow. But once you get there it's very powerful. In some respects it's almost like a blend of LR and Photoshop for some functions. The masking is great, as is the ability to re-use multiple instances of a processing module with separate masks. Kind of a bit like using PS layers in a raw environment.
