Need to replace Photoshop (SOLVED)

[OrdiDoc]

I'm working with RAW formats for my pictures and i need something that can do about the same as Photoshop lightroom and if i read correctly what's on the web for that, Gimp is not the best solution.

I have KDE Full Monty on my second laptop that i'm going to use for my pictures, is there any software already there that i can use or do i need to find something else with synaptic.

Thanks again

[OMSkates]

It seems you may have to develop a workflow using more than one application.  Have you looked at DarkTable?

[Neal ManBear]

I'd recommend using something like xnconvert to convert your images to another format - png, for example. Then you can use gimp. After, if you need the image in raw format, convert it.

We have a variety of graphics tools available. You may want to test a few of them.     

[Just17]

I'm working with RAW formats for my pictures and i need something that can do about the same as Photoshop lightroom and if i read correctly what's on the web for that, Gimp is not the best solution.

I have KDE Full Monty on my second laptop that i'm going to use for my pictures, is there any software already there that i can use or do i need to find something else with synaptic.

Thanks again

There are several applications in the repository for dealing with RAW images.

You need to do a search to find the application/s which suit your purpose.

darktable
ufraw
rawstudio
ufraw-gimp  (Gimp plugin)
Qtpfsgui

and others.

regards.

[newmikey]

I'm working with RAW formats for my pictures and i need something that can do about the same as Photoshop lightroom and if i read correctly what's on the web for that, Gimp is not the best solution.

Why don't you start by getting your requirements down and in order? There is no program that is called "Photoshop lightroom" so people might find it hard to imagine a proper replacement for a non-existing piece of software. Also we don't know what exactly did you read on the web that indicated Gimp might not be the best solution - best solution for what?

If however you were looking for replacements for Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Lightroom or the combination of both programs:

Photoshop:
I consider Gimp + UFRaw to be the full equivalent of Photoshop/ACR (with the possible exception of 16-bit depth) and in many cases far superior to Photoshop because of its flexible plugin/addon structure and its CLI capabilities which allow Gimp to be scripted.

Lightroom
DigiKam is the equivalent to Lightroom in as far as cataloging, rating, (geo)tagging, sorting, organising etc. etc. your images. The Kipi-plugins give it direct links into any major image-hosting site as well as added (batch) editing capabilities.

Photoshop + Lightroom
If you use Digikam for organizing and 16-bit image-wide edits (Rotation, perspective, shear, levels, curves, vibrance, whitebalance, noise-reduction, sharpening) and Gimp for pixel-level 8-bit edits (cloning, liquid rescale, resynthesis based content-aware fill etc.), you have the best of both worlds and something that can easily stand the comparison with any other image suite out there, on any OS, full stop.

Note: Tex has been so kind to add Gimp Paint Studio (GPS) to the repos when I pointed it out. It greatly enhances the capabilities of Gimp with a multitude of presets, brushes, backgrounds, patterns etc.
A second must-have is the GMIC plugin for Gimp

All programs described above are available through Synaptic with the exception of Photoshop and Lightroom.

[Just17]

@newmikey,
                    Nice concise post ......  very informative for those moving from Windows apps. 

[newmikey]

@newmikey,
                    Nice concise post ......  very informative for those moving from Windows apps.  

Hey thanks!

As to your suggestions:

• darktable

very capable raw converter, everything but the kitchen sink included, somewhat quirky interface, nice results if you "treat her well"

• ufraw

quality-wise simply the best out there, philosophy suits Linux (do one thing only, but do it extremely well), an absolute doddle to script in bash

• rawstudio

this is one I never got the hang of really, kind of DCRAW on steroids, very straightforward

• ufraw-gimp  (Gimp plugin)

if you'd only use Gimp as your main tool it is fine, but if you use Digikam for 16-bit edits before passing on to Gimp or if you use Ufraw-batch with ImageMagick from a script you really do not need this one as an 8-bit plugin but rather as a 16-bit standalone

• Qtpfsgui

Newer version is called LuminanceHDR and it is absolutely awesome! Just found out from the Flickr group that it does its work from the command-line as well and immediately scripted it into a right-click servicemenu for Dolphin. For real, multishot HDR's I still use the GUI but for pseudo-HDR's from a single raw file, the scripted version through bash is a real boon!

Let me add two:

• RawTherapee

Quality-wise maybe the best one around bar none but its extremely slow development cycles disturb me somewhat. The newest version (4.01) is a pig when it comes to memory - don't even go near it with 2Gb. A 32-bit system like ours will just about do with 4Gb but it will only really be workable on 64-bits with >4Gb I'm afraid.

• photivo

A beast to compile due to its many dependencies but this must be a geek's raw converter - it does anything and everything with the possible exception of making you coffee! It does deliver some serious quality results though.

[/list]

[longtom]

What a great thread!!  Thanks for all the info, especially newmikey.

Now let me play with some of those ...

[T6]

for some people, replace photoshop is the worst idea, it seems that you are thinking the same

why replace it?, if you can run it in wine, that is ok

if not, virtualbox can be your best friend

i personally use alot gimp but of course, i know very little about image edition

[craesz]

@newmikey,
                    Nice concise post ......  very informative for those moving from Windows apps. 

+1

[Archie]

newmickey, that was top-notch. Thanks.

[newmikey]

As an example I eluded to some of the power of Digikam when I wrote the below post for the PentaxForums.com in May of last year - this is still actual right now - Digikam has a huge amount of possibilities and ever since version 2 came out (not yet on the repos I'm afraid) it has progressed in leaps and bounds:
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

For a lot of people this will sound like old news as it was already published back in March on the digikam website with the release of the newest version of Kipi-plugins. For those who do not yet know the parent-program, DigiKam:

"digiKam is an advanced digital photo management application for Linux, Windows, and Mac-OSX.

The people who inspired digiKam's design are the photographers like you who want to view, manage, edit, enhance, organize, tag, and share photographs under Linux systems."

I have only now downloaded "Expoblending" with a recent update of my PCLinuxOS system but as shown on the DigiKam website, it is also available on MacOS and Windows - free of course as it is OpenSource. Expoblending uses align_image_stack(http://sourceforge.net/...itle=Align_image_stack#What_is_align_image_stack.3F) to register hand-held exposuresand Enfuse(Enfuse - PanoTools.org Wiki) to fuse the exposures.

Expoblending can work with JPEGs, TIFFs and even directly off of RAW files (including PEF and DNG) , where a bitdepth of 16 is maintained). Except for selecting the files to be processed and checking off a few options when processing the final images, the whole thing is fully automated. I have given it a try on a few handheld shots of the cathedral in Brussels that I took this weekend I'm quite satisfied with the userfriendliness of the processing and with the end-result. You can be the judge.

These were the original exposures (normal, -2 en +2 stops):


Lets start Expoblending:


And add three jpeg files (the eventual result will be an 8-bit PNG file):

or of course the RAW files, Pentax PEFs in this case(the eventual result will be a 16-bit PNG file):


We can now choose to have the three hand-held shot automatically registered:

This does take some time, especially when processing RAWs:

After which we are ready for the next and final step:


A few parameters can be adjusted to taste for Enfuse, which is normally a command-line tool such as having the levels adjusted automatically. You can obviously leave the last step out to be executed to taste in an image-editing package, like the GIMP.


And the final result can be saved:


This is the endresult, after some USM:


All of the screenprints are on my Fotki page Expoblend album | Mike Bing | Fotki.com

I feel that with exposure-blending the result remains more natural looking than with any HDR process I used. On top of that, noise is kept to a minimul, different lighting sources are replicated more as I remember having seen them and the amount of detail is exquisite. Not to mention the fact that a tripod is no longer essential!

[Taco.22]

Can I also suggest Cinepaint, which can work in 16 bit imaging.  This link http://www.behrmann.name/cms/cinepaint/bildbearbeitung/cinepaint_ccorrection_1.3.html gives lots of good instruction.

Another option is ImageJ.  It can handle many formats, including raw and 16 and 32 bit.  This link http://rsbweb.nih.gov/ij/features.html should give you a starting point.

Both these apps are in Synaptic.   

[newmikey]

Can I also suggest Cinepaint, which can work in 16 bit imaging.  This link http://www.behrmann.name/cms/cinepaint/bildbearbeitung/cinepaint_ccorrection_1.3.html gives lots of good instruction.

Another option is ImageJ.  It can handle many formats, including raw and 16 and 32 bit.  This link http://rsbweb.nih.gov/ij/features.html should give you a starting point.

Both these apps are in Synaptic.   

Cinepaint is excellent, heavy-duty editing program fit for industrial use but regretfully it has not kept up with mere computer-users/consumers requirements. The interface sometimes seems stuck in the eighties and the availability of plugins or a proper scripting language is limited to non-existing.

I haven't looked at ImageJ yet - interesting idea to do this in java! Gonna dig a little deeper, thanks for the tip!

[Just17]

@newmikey,
                    yes I remember the cathedral pics and the post you quoted. It is indeed impressive.

Thanks for adding the further info.

This is a 'must-visit' thread for those interested in photography and the processing of images.

regards.