Darktable 5.4 has been released just before Christmas
https://www.darktable.org/https://darktable.info/en/welcome-to-the-modern-darkroom/No subscription
No AI stuff
Coming from Adobe PS (early 2000’s and LR since early 2007)
I switched to open source in 2024 for personal use. (Still use PS and LR on the job)
As user of both I can say that LR is easier to use, sometimes faster and for professionals definitely the source to go.
However, and that is a big however, Darktable offers a few things that make it unique. It’s advanced masks for every adjustment you can think of, even in multiple stacked modules (layers if you like) are missed in Lightroom and in some cases require you to switch to Photoshop.
The new AgX tone mapper gives very nice and controllable results. Capture sharpening gets most out of your high resolution sensor and also enhances sharpness from older sensors very well.
Despite all the AI noise capabilities of topaz DxO and Lightroom, I find that Darktable’s profiled denoise hold up pretty well with often more natural looks
For digital assets management, it has a very good lighttable option although DigiKam is still more versatile, also compared to LR
The learning curve is high, but truly rewarding. I find it a very valuable tool next to commercial options.
The only real downside is that it doesn’t support HE NEFs yet, but I use Adobe Raw Converter to convert them to dng in batch without issues. Uncompressed NEFs are no problem
