Darktable
Version: 2.4 Web: www.darktable.org
Over a year has passed since the last stable update of Darktable (see LXF235 for an indepth look) was released, so we were pleased to review this outstanding member of the open source software world. Darktable is a professional-grade tool for processing RAW images taken with a D-SLR or any other type of camera that’s capable for shooting images in the RAW format. Outside the Linux ecosystem, Darktable competes with such commercial heavyweights as Adobe’s Lightroom and Apple’s Aperture, and this alone confirms that Linux, in general, is mature enough to meet the tough requirements of professional photographers. Rendering RAW images and carrying out tasks such as the live preview of effects takes up a lot of CPU power. Thankfully, Darktable makes use of sophisticated, optimised code to deliver a fine degree of performance. As an example, we chose to view a very large bitmap image of the night-time view of
“Darktable is a tool for processing RAW images taken with a D-SLR”
the Earth from NASA. This is a massive JPEG file that weighs in at 220MB. Most Linux image viewers failed to open it, even on systems fitted with 8GB of RAM, but Darktable does the job swiftly even on low-end configurations.
So what’s new in version 2.4 of Darktable, apart from almost 3,000 commits and over 340 closed issues? The latest release features the new Haze Removal tool, which is handy for improving shots that have been taken outdoors, and fixing the effects of a dirty lens. The Local Contrast module now features a local laplacian mode, and the Undo history now supports masks. Fujifilm compressed RAFs and floating point HDR DNG files are fully supported too.
There are many more tasty new additions for you to discover, and if you regularly play around with RAW photos, you’ll definitely notice improvements under the hood, too. Features such as grouping steps in the Undo history, the Tone Curve tool, de-mosaicing filter, map location tool and others all have been improved for a better and smoother user experience.
Get the latest Darktable copy from the project’s website or check your distro’s repositories for the update.