Best Alternative to Adobe Lightroom?

[DrJones]

I've been going to a friend of mine's and using his old copy of Lightroom to do my RAW image processing.

 

I would like to get some software of my own, but don't want to spend an outrageous amount for a permanent license or subscribe for $10 US a month.

I'm really just an amateur photographer, so I don't see spending money on software I may only use once a month.

 

What are the good, cheap alternatives to Lightroom? Everywhere I go, it lists so many, and so I don't know which really are the best overall.

Once again, I'm not looking for some big professional suite.

 

What I find myself doing most is using the brush tool to process things in small areas, as well as adjusting white balance because I never seem to get that right when I take the shot.

I like Lightroom's ability to do those sorts of things easily while not being limited. I also enjoy the ability to add graduated filters and the like.

[Guest]

I've used LightZone and Raw Therapee. I didn't like the workflow of either (due to being used to Lightroom so thoroughly), but they get the job done for free.

[DrJones]

1 minute ago, Legendarypoet said:

I've used LightZone and Raw Therapee. I didn't like the workflow of either (due to being used to Lightroom so thoroughly), but they get the job done for free.

I've heard many ups and downs of LightZone, which has partially led to my indecisiveness in all this. What scares me most about it is I keep reading that's it's great at editing but not so much at processing a RAW image, and is best used in conjunction with a processor.

 

I've heard of RAW Therapee, I'll look into it. Thanks!

[Sam.]

Hey, check out luminar. It is about $40 to preorder now. It's above your budget but I'm not sure if you can get anything good for under that unfortunately.

Edit: GIMP is a free alternative to photoshop.

[Sam.]

You can also try an online page, like Pizap

[DrJones]

51 minutes ago, Sam. said:

Hey, check out luminar. It is about $40 to preorder now. It's above your budget but I'm not sure if you can get anything good for under that unfortunately.

Edit: GIMP is a free alternative to photoshop.

That looks pretty cool, at first glance, I was afraid it was only filters across the entire image, but they show a section with more and advanced and precise tools. I think I'm going to give Rawtherapee a shot, and if it suites me, great, but if not, I'm definitely looking into this. The interface seems much easier to work with, and they seem to have workflow better laid out.

$40 one time is fine, I just don't want $120/year

EDIT: It's $60, but same plan. Trying RAWtherapee, if not, looking further into Luminar.

[DrJones]

Okay wow, so I've just spent about 40 minutes looking into Luminar and they had me sold with the simplicity of filters and the idea behind the brush tool. I was skeptical because it just seemed like other preset filter sort-of software; but when these guys say it's a competitor to Lightroom, they're not kidding.

 

I can see professionals maybe sticking with Lightroom as it's familiar to them and offers great processing tools along with the image editing. But for an amateur like me, Luminar 2018 is extremely easy to follow and still gives you a few RAW processing tools to go with it. It's kinda like Lightroom made easy I guess.

 

A link to a video on the beta: https://macphun.com/video-galleries/macphun-live/first-look-luminar-for-windows-public-beta

The first good half of it showcases the filters, effects and such. Then it goes into Q&A where at 30:00, he talks about masking and the brush which is really what I need. I like to go into my image in detail rather than adjusting the entire thing with filters.

[thekillergazebo]

I just picked up luminar and have been loving it. The only down side is it doesn’t have a file management system like lightroom has, but they said they will be adding it. I picked it up for $50 with some extra stuff. If you do landscapes I highly recommend it. 

[DrJones]

18 minutes ago, thekillergazebo said:

I just picked up luminar and have been loving it. The only down side is it doesn’t have a file management system like lightroom has, but they said they will be adding it. I picked it up for $50 with some extra stuff. If you do landscapes I highly recommend it. 

I just got it with the extras $60 which isn't too bad. I've got some grand canyon pictures I took last summer that I still want to do so I'm looking forward to it.

[Radium_Angel]

On the Linux side I have used Corel's AfterShot (pro) but the UI is a disaster, as in it doesn't conform to the Linux UI, but ports over the Windows UI, which is jarring.

It works, and pretty well, but after being so used to the workflow in LightRoom, it's more of a backup plan if I ever move to Linux full time, as opposed to a replacement for LightRoom.