Digital Photography with Linux: Reference Guide

[cedm]

Digital Photography with Linux: Application Guide

Here's a list of recommended applications for photographers using Linux.
Rather than being extensive, the list focuses on applications best fitted for the job.

I tried to cover all area of interest.
Feel free to complete the list and share your tips. Thanks!


Photo Managers

- digiKam http://photography-on-the.net/forum/images/icons/icon14.gif digiKam is an advanced digital photo management application with extensive editing options. It offers image enhancement tools such red-eye removal, color management, image filters, special effects and batch processing. DigiKam supports 16 bit/channel images.

Website: http://www.digikam.org/
Screenshots: http://www.digikam.org/drupal/node/323
Documentation: http://www.digikam.org/drupal/docs
Supported color depth: up to 16 bit/channel
Licence: open source
- Shotwell http://photography-on-the.net/forum/images/icons/icon14.gif
Shotwell lets you import photos from disk or camera, organize and view them in various ways, and export them to share with others. Editing is non-destructive. You can rotate, crop, reduce red-eye, and adjust the exposure, saturation, tint, and temperature of each photo.

Website: http://www.yorba.org/shotwell/
Screenshots: http://www.yorba.org/shotwell/
Documentation: http://trac.yorba.org/wiki/UsingShotwell0.7
Supported color depth: up to 8 bit/channel
Licence: open source
- F-Spot
F-Spot is a full-featured personal photo management application. It provides intuitive tools to help you share, touch-up, find and organize your images.

Website: http://www.f-spot.org/
Screenshots: http://www.f-spot.org/Features
Documentation: http://www.f-spot.org/User_Guide
Supported color depth: up to 8 bit/channel
Licence: open source
- gThumb gThumb is an image viewer and browser. You can organize and view images as catalogs, or as a slideshow, bookmark folders and catalogs, and add comments to images. gThumbs includes basic image editing.

Website: http://gthumb.sourceforge.net/
Screenshots: http://gthumb.sourceforge.net/screenshots.html
Supported color depth: up to 8 bit/channel
Licence: open source
- Rapid Photo Downloader http://photography-on-the.net/forum/images/icons/icon14.gif Import your images efficiently and reliably with Rapid Photo Downloader. This application generates meaningful, user configurable file and folder names. It can also download images from multiple devices simultaneously and perform backups automatically as photos are being imported.

Website: http://damonlynch.net/rapid/index.html
Screenshots: http://damonlynch.net/rapid/features.html
Licence: open source



Tethered Shooting (remote capture via PC)

- digiKam digiKam offers remote capture via its "Import" facility ("Import", then "Cameras", select your camera model (auto-detected), then click the "Capture" button).

Website: http://www.digikam.org/
Screenshots: http://www.digikam.org/drupal/node/323
Documentation: http://www.digikam.org/drupal/docs
Supported color depth: up to 16 bit/channel
Licence: open source


- Darktable Darktable proposes tethered shooting since v0.6. (Open the "device" tab (top left), under your camera name, click the "tether shoot" button. Then open the camera settings" tab (top right) and click on the "capute image(s)" button).

Website: http://darktable.sourceforge.net/
Documentation: http://darktable.sourceforge.net/documentation.shtml
Supported color depth: up to 16 bit/channel
Licence: open source


- gPhoto2 Command line interface only. Visit site for details.

Website: http://www.gphoto.org/doc/remote/



Simple Photo Viewers

- Geeqie Geeqie is a lightweight image viewer. It supports EXIF, IPTC and XMP metadata browsing and editing, as well as, fast preview for raw image formats. Geeqie comes with tools for image comparison, sorting and managing photo collection.

Website: http://geeqie.sourceforge.net/
Screenshots: http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/geeqie/wiki/screenshots
Supported color depth: up to 16 bit/channel
Licence: open source


- Eye of Gnome The Eye of GNOME (eog) image viewer is the official image viewer for the GNOME Desktop environment. With it, you can view single image files, as well as large image collections.

Website: http://www.gnome.org/projects/eog/
Screenshots: http://www.gnome.org/projects/eog/screenshots.html
Supported color depth: up to 8 bit/channel
Licence: open source
- Gwenview Gwenview is a fast and easy to use image viewer for KDE, featuring folder tree window, thumbnail view and basic lossless manipulations.

Website: http://gwenview.sourceforge.net/
Screenshots: http://gwenview.sourceforge.net/screenshots/
Licence: open source
Supported color depth: up to 8 bit/channel
Note: default image viewer for the KDE desktop



Raw Viewers/Converters

- Darktable http://photography-on-the.net/forum/images/icons/icon14.gif Darktable is a photography workflow application: a virtual lighttable and darkroom. It enables you to develop raw images and enhance them. All editing is fully non-destructive.

Website: http://darktable.sourceforge.net/
Documentation: http://darktable.sourceforge.net/documentation.shtml
Supported color depth: up to 16 bit/channel
Licence: open source
- UFRaw http://photography-on-the.net/forum/images/icons/icon14.gif UFRaw is a utility to read and manipulate raw images from digital cameras. It can be used on its own or as a Gimp plug-in.

Website: http://ufraw.sourceforge.net/
Documentation: http://ufraw.sourceforge.net/Guide.html
Supported color depth: up to 16 bit/channel
Licence: open source
- Rawstudio Rawstudio is a program to read and manipulate RAW images from most digital cameras. It will convert your RAW files into JPEG, PNG or TIF images which you can then print or send to friends and clients.

Website: http://www.rawstudio.org/
Screenshots: http://www.rawstudio.org/screenshots.php
Supported color depth: up to 16 bit/channel
Licence: open source
- RawTherapee Raw Therapee is a RAW converter and digital photo processing software. It offers ICC color management, thumbnails browsing and numerous post processing in 16 bit / channel mode.

Website: http://www.rawtherapee.com/
Supported color depth: up to 16 bit/channel
Licence: open source (since version 3)
- Corel AfterShot Pro AfterShot Pro is a fast, flexible photo workflow solution that combines robust photo management, advanced non-destructive adjustments and complete RAW processing.

Website: http://www.corel.com/corel/product/index.jsp?pid=prod4670071
Supported color depth: up to 16 bit/channel
Licence: closed source, $100



Image Manipulation & Photo Retouching

- GIMP http://photography-on-the.net/forum/images/icons/icon14.gif GIMP is a popular free software for photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer or an image format converter.

Website: http://www.gimp.org/
Screenshots: http://www.gimp.org/screenshots/
Documentation: http://docs.gimp.org/
Tutorials: http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/ http://www.gimp-tutorials.com/
Supported color depth: up to 8 bit/channel
Licence: open source
- Krita Krita is a painting and image editing application for KDE. It contains both ease-of-use and fun features like guided painting and high-end features like support for 16 bit images, CMYK, L*a*b and even OpenEXR HDR images.

Website: http://www.krita.org/
Screenshots: http://krita.org/screenshots
Documentation: http://userbase.kde.org/Krita
Supported color depth: up to 32 bit/channel
Licence: open source
- Cinepaint CinePaint is a deep paint image retouching tool that supports higher color fidelity than ordinary painting tools. CinePaint is used to retouch feature films and in pro photography. CinePaint opens high fidelity image file formats such as DPX, 16-bit TIFF, and OpenEXR, and conventional formats like JPEG and PNG.

Website: http://www.cinepaint.org/
Screenshots: http://www.cinepaint.org/pix/index.html
Documentation: http://www.cinepaint.org/docs/index.html
Supported color depth: up to 32 bit/channel
Licence: open source
- digiKam digiKam does not limit itself to photo & album management; it also provides extensive photo manipulation options (color management, exposure, levels, lens distortion correction, noise reduction, etc.). A true one-stop software solution for your photography needs.

Website: http://www.digikam.org/
Screenshots: http://www.digikam.org/drupal/node/323
Documentation: http://www.digikam.org/drupal/docs
Supported color depth: up to 16 bit/channel
Licence: open source
- Fotoxx Fotoxx is a small application to edit or enhance image files from digital cameras. It includes the usual tools for color and contrast enhancement, red-eye removal, sharpen, etc. plus HDR and panorama image compositing. Unlike similar applications, Fotoxx focuses on ease of use through a restricted set of options.

Website: http://kornelix.squarespace.com/fotoxx/
Supported color depth: up to 16 bit/channel
Licence: open source
- Tintii Tintii is a small application that does only one thing, but does it well: it takes full colour photos and processes them into black and white with some select regions highlighted in colour. The technique is known as colour popping or selective colouring - tintii makes it easy.

Website: http://www.indii.org/software/tintii
Licence: open source



HDR

- Luminance HDR Luminance HDR is an open source graphical user interface application that aims to provide a workflow for HDR imaging.

Website: http://qtpfsgui.sourceforge.net/
Screenshots: http://qtpfsgui.sourceforge.net/?page_id=35
Documentation: http://qtpfsgui.wiki.sourceforge.net/
Supported color depth: up to 32 bit/channel
Licence: open source
- Exposure Blending (standalone or as plug-in for digiKam) Exposure Blending fuses bracketed images with different exposure to make pseudo HDR images. It can also be used to merge focus bracketed stack to get a single image with increased depth of field.

Website: http://kipi-plugins.org
Licence: open source
- Exposure Blend (plug-in for Gimp) exposure-blend is a GIMP plug-in for contrast blending 3 bracketed images.

Website: http://turtle.as.arizona.edu/jdsmith/exposure_blend.php
Supported color depth: up to 8 bit/channel (GIMP dependent)
Licence: open source



Panorama Stitching

- Hugin http://photography-on-the.net/forum/images/icons/icon14.gif Hugin is panoramic imaging toolchain based on Panorama Tools. With it you can assemble a mosaic of photographs into a complete immersive panorama, stitch any series of overlapping pictures and more.

Website: http://hugin.sourceforge.net/
Screenshots: http://hugin.sourceforge.net/screenshots/
Documentation: http://hugin.sourceforge.net/tutorials/index.shtml
Supported color depth: up to 16 bit/channel
Licence: open source
- Pandora (plug-in for Gimp) Pandora is a GIMP script which helps in stitching together multiple images to make a panorama.

Website: http://shallowsky.com/software/pandora/
Supported color depth: up to 8 bit/channel (GIMP dependent)
Licence: open source



Batch Processing

- Phatch Phatch is an easy-to-use Photo Batch Processor and Exif Renamer with a nice graphical user interface. It can batch resize, rotate, apply shadows, perspective, rounded corners, ... and do much more actions in minutes.

Website: http://photobatch.stani.be/
Screenshots: http://photobatch.wikidot.com/interface
Documentation: http://photobatch.wikidot.com/tutorials
Supported color depth: up to 32 bit/channel
Licence: open source


- ImageMagick ImageMagick is a software suite to create, edit and compose bitmap images. Use it to translate, flip, mirror, rotate, scale, shear and transform images, adjust image colors, apply various special effects, or draw text, lines, polygons, ellipses and Bézier curves.

Website: http://www.imagemagick.org/
Documentation: http://www.imagemagick.org/Usage/
Supported color depth: up to 32 bit/channel ?
Licence: open source


- digiKam and GIMP also provide extensive batch process capabilities.


Color Management Profiler

- dispcalGUI dispcalGUI is a GUI frontend for the Argyll CMS, which helps to calibrate and profile your display using a measurement device.

Website: http://hoech.net/dispcalGUI/
Licence: open source
- LPROF LPROF is an open source ICC profiler with a graphical user interface. It can be used to create ICC version 2 compliant profiles for cameras, scanners and monitors.

Website: http://lprof.sourceforge.net/
Screenshots: http://sourceforge.net/project/screenshots.php?group_id=146038
Licence: open source
- Argyll CMS Argyll is an open source, ICC compatible color management system. It supports accurate ICC profile creation for scanners, CMYK printers, film recorders and calibration and profiling of displays.

Website: http://www.argyllcms.com/
Licence: open source
- GAMMApage GAMMApage is a small gamma-adjusting utility for your monitor. Able to adjust gamma on the fly and save settings to be used at each login (on a per-user basis. GAMMApage will only write to the user's home directory.)

Website: http://www.pcbypaul.com/software/GAMMApage.shtml
Licence: open source



Backup Tools

- Déjà Dup http://photography-on-the.net/forum/images/icons/icon14.gif Déjà Dup is a simple backup tool. It hides the complexity of backing up the Right Way (encrypted, off-site, and regular). It supports local, remote, or cloud backup locations (e.g. Amazon S3), compresses and encrypts your data, provides incremental backups and schedule options.

Website: https://launchpad.net/deja-dup
Screenshots: http://live.gnome.org/DejaDup/Screenshots
Licence: open source



File Recovery

- PhotoRec PhotoRec is a data recovery software tool designed to recover lost files (including JPEG & CR2) from digital camera memory, hard disks and CD-ROMs. PhotoRec ignores the filesystem and goes after the underlying data, so it will still work even if your media's filesystem has been severely damaged or re-formatted.

Website: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec
Licence: open source



Print

- PhotoPrint PhotoPrint is a utility designed to assist in the process of printing digital photographs. It allows you to print photographs 1-up, 2-up, 4-up or with any user-selectable number of rows and columns, create posters, split over several pages. PhotoPrint sends 16-bit data to the printer, to avoid "contouring" problems in smooth gradients.

Website: http://blackfiveimaging.co.uk/index.php?article=02Software%2F01PhotoPrint
Supported color depth: up to 16 bit/channel
Licence: open source




Using Windows-compatible applications on Linux

It is possible to run some applications written for Windows on Linux through Wine*.

The following softwares have been reported to work well:

- Adobe Photoshop version 7 to CS2
- Noise Ninja Standalone version 2.1
- Adobe DNG Converter
- Google Picasa

While Wine gets frequent updates and the number of supported applications grows with each release, most softwares written for Windows are still unusable on Linux.

(*) Wine is an emulation software that provide a compatibility layer to run Windows applications on a Linux system. The Windows operating system itself is therefore not needed.



Get the softwares / installation

Most of these applications are available from your distribution software channel and requires no manual installation. Select the applications you want from your package manager and click the install button. You may have to enable extra repositories to access them all. Please refer to your distribution manual for more details.

For softwares not available through your distribution software channel, refer to the application's website and follow their instructions.



Further Reading

- Linux Photography (blog)

Linux Photography is a blog dedicated to digital photography on Linux. Its author, Joel Cornuz, discusses color management, workflow, photography techniques, printing and much more. Think of it as a giant tutorial.

Website: http://jcornuz.wordpress.com/

- Gimp 2 For Photographers (book)

GIMP 2 for Photographers" has evolved from the classroom materials which the author developed and taught in courses and workshops on image editing with the GIMP. It covers the basics of image editing and guides the reader through the functions and tools of the GIMP from simple adjustments to more advanced techniques of working with layers and masks

Website: http://oreilly.com/catalog/9781933952031/

[dpastern]

Good idea - you missed gimpshop though under image manipulation etc. I'd also recommend xnview and irfanview for inclusion in the photo manager section. Might not be bad to mention dcraw in the RAW section, since it's the daddy of them all :)

Dave

[cedm]

Good idea - you missed gimpshop though under image manipulation etc. I'd also recommend xnview and irfanview for inclusion in the photo manager section. Might not be bad to mention dcraw in the RAW section, since it's the daddy of them all :)
Dave

IrfanView.. well, it's a Windows application, so it doesn't really belong here, and I'm not fond of adding all "wine-compatible" apps here either.

Gimpshop? I'm only worried that is not actively developed anymore. It's still using Gimp's old code base and I saw no mention that they would re-sync it with the current Gimp tree. Do you have any news?

I added xnview.

dcraw... yes... but it it's mostly used as a library which other applications depend on. I prefer to opt it out to keep the list readable (not going to list imageMagick either for the same reason, we would end up with a 3 pages list if we go this path).

[dpastern]

Fair enough. I was unaware that gimpshop was no longer being actively developed, that's a bit sad. That said, I think Krita is only going to keep continuing to eat into the GIMP users portion. I was sure that Irfanview offered a Linux version, but it seems not. xnview it is then.

Dave

[bomberman]

Thanks... This is a useful thread for me. I guess not too many other people are interested, but at least you'll get a free bump.

[cedm]

Thanks... This is a useful thread for me. I guess not too many other people are interested, but at least you'll get a free bump.

Thanks bomberman.

I just added Fotoxx and PhotoPrint to the list, as well as a quick description for each softwares. Enjoy!

[scokar]

both GNOME and KDE programs will also work with either desktop as long as their supporting libraries are installed. more choices.

[javaprog]

digiKam has batch RAW conversion

Based on the link I would not call Fotoxx an image editor on par with gimp or krita. An Image editor should have brushes or pens or something similar. with the exception of HDR and panorama stitching digiKam can do everything shown in that Fotoxx link and more.

[TTGator]

Never used Fotoxx... is the HDR processing any good? Comparable at all to Photomatix?

[darosk]

V. useful thread - thanks a lot :)

[cedm]

digiKam has batch RAW conversion

Based on the link I would not call Fotoxx an image editor on par with gimp or krita. An Image editor should have brushes or pens or something similar. with the exception of HDR and panorama stitching digiKam can do everything shown in that Fotoxx link and more.

I wasn't quite sure how to categorize Fotoxx, it doesn't fit well in any of these categories, yet it's not specific enough to have a category of its own. "Image Manipulation" is probably the "less worse" match.

digiKam can indeed do a lot of things and a better description of it would make it better justice for sure. I may also add it to the "Image Manipulation" category, or just review the categorization altogether. I put this list up pretty quickly and tried to keep it brief. Feel free to provide some copy :)

[cedm]

Never used Fotoxx... is the HDR processing any good? Comparable at all to Photomatix?

I've never used Photomatix, so I can't tell.

As for Fotoxx, I added it to the list mostly because of its originality. The user interface is weird and doesn't match the rest of the desktop, but it's a no brainer to use: all tools are a click away. Very different from the traditional image manipulation softwares (Photoshop, Krita, Gimp...).

I haven't tested Fotoxx enough to tell about the output quality. Try and let me know, ok :)

[cedm]

Alright, quite a few more updates...

- removed XnView from the "Photo Viewers" list (development stalled 3 years ago).
- added Cinepaint under the "Image Manipulation" list.
- added digiKam under both "Photo Management" & "Image Manipulation" list
- improved description for some of the applications
- added new category "Further Reading"
- added supported color depth information to all application (please help me correct any error).

and a few more goodies will come later... :)

[dpastern]

Just because something isn't actively developed doesn't mean that it's not usable.

Dave

[cedm]

Just because something isn't actively developed doesn't mean that it's not usable.
Dave

I've never said so. I'm compiling a limited list of applications best fitted for the job, not an extensive one. I see no point listing all possibilities for the sake of it.

In this context, I prefer to promote up-to-date applications over oldies any day. Especially when these recent applications do everything the old ones did and in a more pleasant way. Xnview's main interest is its large support for eclectic formats, but in a photography-related environment it's close to useless. Not to mention the lack of updates poses security concerns.

[cedm]

I added new category: Batch Processing.

It's still incomplete and notably miss the RAW softwares listed above.

Give it some review and come back to comment, thanks!

[bieber]

Any chance we could get someone to sticky this thread? I keep having to go searching to find it, which is a little tricky when you can't remember the title...

[dow]

Any chance we could get someone to sticky this thread? I keep having to go searching to find it, which is a little tricky when you can't remember the title...

+ 1 here. Definitely a great resource.

Bump for a Sticky request. :D

[cedm]

There we go, we're a sticky now, under Canon Digital Photography Forums (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/index.php) > 'Sharing Knowhow' section (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=7) > RAW, Post Processing and Printing (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=18) > Computers (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=129)

Thanks to the moderators!

[::John::]

There we go, we're a sticky now, under Canon Digital Photography Forums (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/index.php) > 'Sharing Knowhow' section (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=7) > RAW, Post Processing and Printing (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=18) > Computers (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=129)

Thanks to the moderators!

You are very welcome.

[strmrdr]

Photoshop cs2 works great under wine
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Install-Photoshop-CS2-on-Your-Ubuntu-PC-77260.shtml

With a little work noise ninja plugin will also work fine.
noise ninja standalone works just by installing it.

[cedm]

Photoshop cs2 works great under wine
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Install-Photoshop-CS2-on-Your-Ubuntu-PC-77260.shtml

With a little work noise ninja plugin will also work fine.
noise ninja standalone works just by installing it.

Thanks. I added a new section about running Windows softwares through Wine.

Let me know if there is any other major photo-related software that works well through Wine.

[strmrdr]

Thanks. I added a new section about running Windows softwares through Wine.

Let me know if there is any other major photo-related software that works well through Wine.
Elements 7 is the next goal but it is about 6-9 months out.
CS3 mostly works but is not stable.
CS4 will likely never work because of the openGL acceleration.

[em21701]

Argyll CMS (argyllcms.com) should be added to the Color management section. It natively supports many colorimeters, creates and installs color profiles in linux. I used it with my Spyder2 and the results were amazing.

Eric

[cedm]

Argyll CMS (argyllcms.com) should be added to the Color management section. It natively supports many colorimeters, creates and installs color profiles in linux. I used it with my Spyder2 and the results were amazing.

Eric

Thanks, I'll add it to the list by this weekend.

Btw, can you create a color profile with Spyder2 using Linux only? That'd be valuable info to add here too.

[Heffo_J]

Hi there,

I'm new to the forum and use a Canon 1000D (from Santa). I also use Linux Mint.

I have followed the development of Fotoxx for a while now. It seems to be moving in leaps and bounds with new features added with each release. It is still a little rough.

I use Geeqie as my viewer. It has forked from another stagnant view GQview (I think it is). It handles RAW and has a convenient link page to your favourite editors.

Best regards
John H

[cedm]

Hi there,

I'm new to the forum and use a Canon 1000D (from Santa). I also use Linux Mint.

I have followed the development of Fotoxx for a while now. It seems to be moving in leaps and bounds with new features added with each release. It is still a little rough.

I use Geeqie as my viewer. It has forked from another stagnant view GQview (I think it is). It handles RAW and has a convenient link page to your favourite editors.

Best regards
John H

Thanks, I'll take a look at Geeqie. It looks interesting.

[cedm]

Been a while since I last updated this thread...

I just added PhotoRec (http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec) under category "File Recovery" (new), and Geeqie (http://geeqie.sourceforge.net/) as Image Viewer.

Geeqie is still in beta, but it's definitely worth trying. I use it as my default RAW browser/viewer without any issue.

In other news, RawTherapee (http://www.rawtherapee.com/) is now available in version 2.4 and comes with:
Exif/IPTC support
Theme switching
Improved GUI layout
Improved filebrowser
Ranking support
Basic file operations possible (delete, remove, rename)
Filtering based on Exif data
Configurable thumbnail caching
Live thumbnails (showing the images in the processed state)
Resizable thumbnails
Configurable thumbnail layout (left - right, top - down)
Basic batch processing
Controllable workqueue
Copy/Paste processing profiles (or only parts of them)
Direct sending of images to the workqueue
Improved auto-exposure and spot white balance
"Send to Editor" feature (Gimp, Photoshop, custom editor)Panorama sticher Hugin (http://hugin.sourceforge.net/) reached version 0.80, improving with:
Fast preview window
Celeste sky identification
New panorama projections
Batch processor
Translation for Slovenian and Chinese TraditionaldigiKam (http://www.digikam.org/) is nearing version 1.0 with the release of a beta 3 last month. This version will include a new batch queue manager, a first run assistant, support for PGF wavelet format, liquid rescale, XMP metadata, etc.

Enjoy!

[Spacemunkie]

This is excellent. Just installed Ubuntu on one of my PCs and this is a great resource for a total Linux noob. Ta :)

[photogs_spouse]

Following tip is originally from message 11 here: http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=277806
Gimp uses "Scripts" rather than "Actions" as in Photoshop.
Differences between PS actions and GIMP scripts http://osp.wikidot.com/gimp-scripts

There are several different script languages and you might need more downloads to handle the Python-Fu versions. Script-Fu should be fine.

Gimp Plugin Registry http://registry.gimp.org/
a search for GIMP FX will net you one install to get tons of scripts.

Word to the wise: pay attention to script versions because the older the script, the less likely it may be that it will work in newer GIMP versions.
----------------------

We had no end of difficulties with WINE, so we installed VirtualBox instead.
You then install the desired version of Windows into that VirtualBox area and our Canon software works fine.
Why? DPP has the settings for camera owner in the software, rather than in hardware and no plans for a linux version when I checked earlier this year.
Personally, I use the VirtualBox for much less software than I believed I would.
(A recipe manager, a genealogy program, birding software, and ,rarely, DPP.)

[Amamba]

Every year or so, I start playing around with Linux, mainly out of sheer curiosity rather than anything else - I honestly think XP is the best home user OS I've ever dealt with, even though most other Windows flavors were total or partial POS...

My previous experience with Linux was mixed, at best. Some distros didn't run well at all, some ran sort of, I was never able to get FlashPlayer or Shockwave working, printing was always a challenge, sound was a lottery, etc.. I guess the longest one was Ubuntu 6.x, just as a backup measure until I grew tired of video screw ups on my ancient Riva TNT2 card, fighting with Grub's default boot list after each upgrade, and so on, and removed it completely.

Well, I am now on my 4th day of trying OpenSUSE 11.1, and it surely looks like there was a lot of progress over the last couple of years. It's much easier to install and configure than any of the past distros I tried, it's very stable, and doing simple things is finally getting, well, simple.

So, I found this thread... the selection is huge, but what I am really interested in is not just the list of available programs, but the personal opinions of people who used them. What's a better Raw program (I tend towards UFraw). What's a better viewer ? How does Gimp compare to Krita ? Was anyone able to run PS7 under Wine ? Any tips & tricks ? And the most important question - is there anything on the Linux side, photography wise, that is unavailable in Windows or would cost major $ ?

[cedm]

So, I found this thread... the selection is huge, but what I am really interested in is not just the list of available programs, but the personal opinions of people who used them. What's a better Raw program (I tend towards UFraw). What's a better viewer ? How does Gimp compare to Krita ? Was anyone able to run PS7 under Wine ? Any tips & tricks ? And the most important question - is there anything on the Linux side, photography wise, that is unavailable in Windows or would cost major $ ?

Which software is the best for the job is a matter of personal preference, really. There are tons of imaging software on Linux but I only listed the most compelling solutions here. All these are good at what they are made for.

To process raw files I also like to use UFraw and then finish the work in Gimp, but I know many people like more integrated workflow solutions or application that mimics Lightroom. RawTherapee does that. Some other people only swear by Bibble. When it comes to integrated workflow, digiKam is probably the most complete solution. That said, all the open source Raw converters are based on the same DCraw library.

Krita goals are quite different from Gimp, so they are not direct competitors (unlike Gimp and Photoshop for instance). Krita focuses on painting whereas Gimp focuses on image retouching. However Krita can be of interest to photographers for its native 32-bit/channel support. Gimp is still 8-bit/channel only, although 16-bit is progressively been implemented as we speak (partially coming in Gimp 2.8 and hopefully complete by v3.0).

For deep color depth support, Cinepaint is also an alternative, but the user interface is far from being friendly (it's actually a fork of Gimp from the 90s).

Photoshop 7 works very well through Wine. My wife is using it and has never complained about it.

As for your most important question, softwares developed for Linux are mostly all open source applications made to run on any Unix system (we call that POSIX compliance) rather than being restricted to a single OS. More and more of these are ported over to Windows too nowadays (the whole KDE 4 environment -including digiKam and Krita-, Gimp, UFRaw, etc.).

You could run most of these software on Windows too, but they are much better integrated to Unix systems and desktop environments as they are built for them in the first place.

As far as money is concerned, well I'm sure you already know open source applications are FOC. That you won't be forced to buy an upgrade of your Raw application because you got a new, unsupported, camera.

All that said, just use whatever you're comfortable with and does the job. What matters is the end result, not the tools you used.

[Amamba]

...
Photoshop 7 works very well through Wine. My wife is using it and has never complained about it.
...


I am getting an error message when I try to run PS under wine, something about not being able to load personalization settings.

I tried DigiKam. A very nice application, however CR2 files that were underexposed looked weird when exposure was bumped up, with lighter areas getting sort of "neon glow" effect. Had the same thing in UFraw although less profound. It may be that I just don't know how to do it right yet, I get spoiled by DPP.

[cedm]

I am getting an error message when I try to run PS under wine, something about not being able to load personalization settings.

You may need to tweak wine settings to make it work. Or you can use crossover (http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxlinux/) instead, which will take care of the configuration for you.

[cedm]

Waking this thread up a bit...

Just added Rapid Photo Downloader (http://damonlynch.net/rapid/index.html) to the list.

This application is dedicated to importing photos from the camera to the computer. That's all it does, but it does it well and with truly useful options!

Main features:
Generates meaningful, user configurable file and folder names
Downloads images from multiple devices simultaneously
Backs up images as they are downloaded
Easy to configure and use
Runs under Gnome, KDE and other Linux desktop environments
Available in twelve languages
Program configuration and use is fully documented

[ions]

How do you Linux users upgrade your cameras firmware?

[cedm]

How do you Linux users upgrade your cameras firmware?

The same way as any operating system:
download the firmware from Canon website
copy the file to the CF card
turn on the cameraThe tricky part is that Canon provides the firmware as an self extracting executable for Windows or as a dmg image file for Mac OS. The firmware itself is the same, but are encapsulated in two different archive formats.

To make it short, if you download the Windows version, use 'wine' to extract the firmware. If you download the Mac OS version, 'use' dmg2img and follow onscreen instructions.

[ions]

Ah. Ok. I'll look into dmg2img. No interest in Wine/Windows. Thanks!

[bieber]

Ah. Ok. I'll look into dmg2img. No interest in Wine/Windows. Thanks!

Wine is in no way connected to Windows, it's just a compatibility layer for Windows' executable format.

[ions]

Wine is connected to Windows in that it is a, well, as you pointed out, "compatibility layer for Windows' executable format." When I left Windows behind 7 years ago I wanted to leave it all behind. Even use of software that "emulates" their API is dirty to me. I know to most rational people it's not a big deal, to me it is.

[bieber]

software that "emulates" their API.

lol. Wine stands for "Wine is not an emulator." Just sayin'

[ions]

Thus the quotes around it but what it does do is create that extra layer, like an emulator. The semantics around the splitting of technical hairs is not a concern to me because, pedantic quibbling aside, the point is I really don't want to use anything that is MS related. A matter of personal preference.

[cedm]

Added "dispcalGUI" in the Color Management category.
dispcalGUI is a GUI frontend for several utilities from the open source color management system Argyll CMS (http://argyllcms.com/) by Graeme Gill, specifically dispcal, dispread, colprof and dispwin, which when used together allow you to calibrate and profile your display using a measurement device.
http://hoech.net/dispcalGUI/

[bieber]

That's awesome. Maybe I'll actually calibrate my screens now...

[cedm]

One more raw converter worth giving a try:

DarktableDarktable is a virtual light table and darkroom for photographers: it manages your digital negatives in a database and lets you view them through a zoomable light table. It also enables you to develop raw images and enhance them.
Editing is fully non-destructive. Released under GPL 3 license. Currently in available in version 0.5, so it's still very much under development.

http://darktable.sourceforge.net/

[bieber]

One more raw converter worth giving a try:

DarktableDarktable is a virtual light table and darkroom for photographers: it manages your digital negatives in a database and lets you view them through a zoomable light table. It also enables you to develop raw images and enhance them.
Editing is fully non-destructive. Released under GPL 3 license. Currently in available in version 0.5, so it's still very much under development.

http://darktable.sourceforge.net/

Thanks for the heads up, that's looking awesome. I might just have to see if I can pitch in on this one: I've been looking for a good F-Spot replacement for a while

[robscomputer]

Great guide!

I've been using Linux at work and at home, I am going to see if I can find a solution for Lightroom that works decently good.

[ions]

Lightroom works very well in Sun's Virtualbox. At least LR2.x does. LR3 is much much slower for me running in that same VM.

And I hate to admit it but I like LR far far better than any FOSS options... it's not even close how much better LR is (to me).

[bieber]

Great guide!

I've been using Linux at work and at home, I am going to see if I can find a solution for Lightroom that works decently good.

I've been using F-Spot for the last couple of years. It's a really sucky substitute for Lightroom, but it works. I'm planning on making a new photo manager that will run on Linux targeted more at serious users than the current crop of free photo managers: I just made a thread about it in this forum, feel free to stop in and let me know what kind of features you're looking for. It won't be reality for a while, but it's something I really want to make happen.

[dow]

I'm using Bibble Pro (http://www.bibblelabs.com with good luck. Not free, but it works great.

[photogs_spouse]

Lightzone is another paid Linux software.
http://www.lightcrafts.com/lightzone/

Shotwell http://www.yorba.org/shotwell/
release notes:
http://www.yorba.org/blog/allison/2010/07/shotwell-061-released.html
This one is replacing F-Spot in Fedora and Ubuntu.

[[JKD]]

This guide was excellent :)
Thank you for putting it together.

[cedm]

;10714480']This guide was excellent :)
Thank you for putting it together.

You're welcome.

I constantly keep it up to date, although there isn't much new software to add lately. All the good ones are there already.

I plan on adding Shotwell once it is mature enough and better than F-spot (which it is aimed at replacing), Darktable when it reaches version 1 or becomes feature complete enough.

Gimp 2.8 is scheduled to be released at the end of the year (luckily not delayed much), will feature layer grouping, single-window mode (optional), much improved text editing tool, etc. http://www.gimp.org/release-notes/gimp-2.7.html

DigiKam is adding automatic face detection and tagging: http://adityabhatt.wordpress.com/2010/08/10/digikam-gsoc-face-tags-progress/

[robscomputer]

I'm about 80% converted to Linux but ran into a slight problem. Is there an application to create lower resolutions images, but keeping the same image size? In Photoshop this would be "save for web"?

I had problems working this out with Gimp.

Thanks!

[tonylong]

Hmm, Save for Web resizes images to "fit" the Web, and sets a Quality setting for a "reasonable" file size, so I'd guess that in the Gimp you would use a basic Resize function to get the image size to a viewable set of pixel dimensions, then Save As to get a jpeg where you set the jpeg Quality to your specific file size needs.

[cedm]

As Tony pointed it out, you can resize your pictures in Gimp and save them.

Most other applications (Krita, digiKam, Shotwell, etc.) can also do that.

If you want to resize in large batch, Phatch or ImageMagick are perfect for the task.

No "Save for web" in Gimp, but the standard save dialog will give you the same options anyway.

[4Deuce]

As for the "Save for Web" function in PS, I don't believe it resizes the image. It does warn you if your image size is considered too large for web viewing. It states that you may have memory problems if you continue. It also gives you the option to include the ICC profile embedded in the image, convert to sRGB on the fly, and also the ability to optimize the image for web use. Not being very versed it GIMP I am not sure if all these features are available in the standard save dialog. Just wanted to point these out.

My experience with Digikam has been kind of a love/hate experience. I think it has great potential as being a one-stop shop package but the workflow is a little disorienting/confusing but the biggest reason I no longer use it is it seems to have issues with correct color rendering. Even if I turn on the color management it still does not show colors correctly. I would love to figure out what the problem is because I think it is a decent program. I have read other posts from people who have mentioned the color issues with Digikam but no solutions are mentioned. Can anyone help?

Hey what about adding xicc in the Color Management section. This lets you set the ICC Color profile for the X display. The way I understand it, it allows you to load a profile for system-wide use to color manage apps like Gimp, Krita, Eye of Gnome, Gnome Viewer, Ufraw, Inkscape, etc. With a small script it can run at startup. Just thought I would mention it.

Great resource! I hope it continues to get updated. Linux is gradually evolving and this is great info for us photographers. Thanks!

[cedm]

Can't help you much with your color management issue in digiKam. I don't have a color managed workflow myself so it's something I have hardly any knowledge in. Best is to ask on the digiKam mailinglist or bug tracker. Or ask Gilles Caulier directly (he's the main developer).

Thanks for introducing me to xicc. I had a quickly look at it. Do you know about the "Gnome Color Manager"? It does the same thing, but also allows you to set ICC profiles for your printer or any other device that can be color managed. Comes with a friendly GUI as well:

http://projects.gnome.org/gnome-color-manager/

[tonylong]

You might want to check out this thread:

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=953296

He was dealing with color management issues. By page 3/post 31 he had gotten some things worked out then went to Linux and the Gimp and tried out his learnings in Gnome and digiKam and decided that Gnome can be color managed but evidently not digiKam.

Maybe read some of the beginning of the thread to understand the issue he was dealing with, then he gets some resolution in page 2, all working with Photoshop, but then in post 31 he starts with the Gimp stuff.

[cedm]

I have close to zero knowledge in color management, that's why I advised him to go talk straight to the digiKam developers: they will be able to give him a clear answer.

As far as I know, digiKam is fully color managed, and comes with extensive options to set color profiles to screen, scanner, camera and printer. I've just never bothered myself about it since I don't have a color calibration device and couldn't even get my hands on the default icc profile for my laptop monitor...

Color management is disabled by default in digiKam, so one will have to activate it first. DigiKam handbook got a lengthly color management section. always worth checking..

[tonylong]

Well, maybe you can chime in on that thread and ask him about his experience. A color managed program should see little if any difference between an image in aRGB and the same image converted to sRGB, and he wasn't seeing that in digiKam but he was seeing it in the Gimp and Gnome (when it was set to manage color).

[cedm]

yeah, I may as well learn how to color manage my workflow. Will join that thread :)

[tonylong]

Well, color management gets discussed here a lot and there are two useful stickies in this section on Color Management an Color Problems you might want to check out. But that thread does have some good stuff!

[4Deuce]

Does the Gnome Color Manager just set the profiles for devices or also for the applications. xicc is a system-wide profiler for the applications only. But the Gnome Color Manager looks a lot easier than writing the script and using xcalib.

Thanks for the info.

[cedm]

Does the Gnome Color Manager just set the profiles for devices or also for the applications. xicc is a system-wide profiler for the applications only. But the Gnome Color Manager looks a lot easier than writing the script and using xcalib.

Thanks for the info.

It does set the profiles for the screen itself, so all applications will benefit from it. If you select "Make default", it will also set the profiles system-wide (for all other users).

I'm not 100% sure the profile is set at the X server level, or just within a Gnome session. I'll have to check that more closely.

[exwintech]

Robscomputer - Gimp does have a very adjustable Save for Web - has 3 formats, JPEG, PNG 8/24, and GIF. You can adjust Quality and Smoothig, Optimise, choose whether to leave Exif in, or strip it, etc... See Pic1.

Also - Kim - on right-Click after being installed from Repos - has many options for Resizings, Presets or Custom, and also has choices of Compression including Custom. Web-Export in 3 common sizes does leave Exif in. See Pic2.

Dave.

[robscomputer]

Robscomputer - Gimp does have a very adjustable Save for Web - has 3 formats, JPEG, PNG 8/24, and GIF. You can adjust Quality and Smoothig, Optimise, choose whether to leave Exif in, or strip it, etc... See Pic1.

Also - Kim - on right-Click after being installed from Repos - has many options for Resizings, Presets or Custom, and also has choices of Compression including Custom. Web-Export in 3 common sizes does leave Exif in. See Pic2.

Dave.

Thanks Dave!

For some reason I can't find the "save for web" and my Linux machine is not in front of me. Good to know that it is there for future use. :)

[cedm]

Thanks Dave!

For some reason I can't find the "save for web" and my Linux machine is not in front of me. Good to know that it is there for future use. :)

"Save for web" in Gimp is a third party plugin, it doesn't come as part of a default installation.

[4Deuce]

Great find Dave! I will play with it this weekend.

cedm - Yeah I came across that plugin last night. I am not sure it is available for my version of gimp. I am on Mint 7 (Jaunty) and using gimp 2.6.6. I will also be checking that out as well.

I think once I work through my color management questions and issues I may actually be able to have a decent workflow. Obviously the biggest concern or hurdle is making the jump from PS to Gimp. But it cannot be as bad as the jump from MS to Linux :-)

[cedm]

Some updates....

Added a new section to cover tethered shooting. Listed digiKam, Darktable & gPhoto2 as application supporting remote capture. If you know any other, please let me know and I'll add them to the list.

Btw, I will add Darktable to the Raw converter section when version 0.8 get released.

[cedm]

Added Darktable to the list of RAW converters.

Darktable is a photography workflow application: a virtual lighttable and darkroom for photographers: it manages your digital negatives in a database and lets you view them through a zoomable lighttable. it also enables you to develop raw images and enhance them.


All editing is fully non-destructive
Core functions operate on 4x32-bit floating point pixel buffers
Support for tethered shooting
Built-in icc profile support
XMP sidecar files
etc.


http://darktable.sourceforge.net

[robscomputer]

Thanks for keeping this thread alive! :)

[tonylong]

Does Darktable work as a stand-alone app, or is it a Gimp-only plug-in?

[cedm]

Does Darktable work as a stand-alone app, or is it a Gimp-only plug-in?

Completely standalone. It's pretty similar to Lightroom in the way it looks and works.

I think it's the best raw converter available for Linux at the moment. At least in terms of workflow.

[cedm]

Thanks for keeping this thread alive! :)

You're welcome :)

[robscomputer]

I've been debating how to make Linux as my main photography workstation. The only attachment I have to Windows is Lightroom3, which I could run via VirtualBox or VMware Workstation, as a Windows 7 virtual machine. I typically do not process a large amount of photos and keep all of the images on a USB drive.

My somewhat worry is switching to a Linux application and having the photo app (with lots of my non-destructive data) loose support for the latest version distro I'm running next year. I know if I stick with the popular apps I should be ok, but it's a slight problem. :)

[cedm]

I've been debating how to make Linux as my main photography workstation. The only attachment I have to Windows is Lightroom3, which I could run via VirtualBox or VMware Workstation, as a Windows 7 virtual machine. I typically do not process a large amount of photos and keep all of the images on a USB drive.

My somewhat worry is switching to a Linux application and having the photo app (with lots of my non-destructive data) loose support for the latest version distro I'm running next year. I know if I stick with the popular apps I should be ok, but it's a slight problem. :)

You'll be fine with any popular and healthy (as in actively maintained) project. Software like digiKam, UFRaw, shotwell, etc. are safe.

The only real risk is with niche applications that are no longer maintained upstream. These are the most likely to have their support dropped from distributions.

Darktable is pretty new and not in any distributions' offical repository as far as I know, but the devs are committed to provide packages on their own for Ubuntu & Fedora.

If you plan to migrate a large photo collection over to Darktable, I would wait until it reaches version 1.0. It's still in development and can be a bit buggy at times.

[ions]

I've been debating how to make Linux as my main photography workstation. The only attachment I have to Windows is Lightroom3, which I could run via VirtualBox or VMware Workstation, as a Windows 7 virtual machine. I typically do not process a large amount of photos and keep all of the images on a USB drive.

Other than storing the images on a USB drive, which may cause problems (slowness in particular), that's what I do with no problems. Not to discourage you from using a complete FOSS photo editing solution, just sayin.

[robscomputer]

Thanks,

I'll give it a shot this weekend, I already have another computer running where I can download all of the photo apps from the repo to test. The downloading shouldn't be an issue, use standard naming nothing special.

[4Deuce]

Hey I have a question about Darktable 0.8 and color management. I have installed this along side all the other similar programs (Bibble 5.2, Lightzone, Digikam, Raw Therapee, etc) and set the profiles to the same profiles in the other apps. I then pull up the same images in all the apps and Darktable is way off. In fact I did the same test using the same images (jpgs) as I did before in this thread (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=953296). Even when I open the raw image it is really dark. As I determined from the previous testing color managed programs should render the same exact image the same as another program does.

I am wondering if anyone else is noticing a difference compared to other color managed programs? I like how DT appears. I am not impressed with the service from DT devs but I am willing to give the program a shot if I can get the color profile to work.

Thanks

[cedm]

Hey I have a question about Darktable 0.8 and color management. I have installed this along side all the other similar programs (Bibble 5.2, Lightzone, Digikam, Raw Therapee, etc) and set the profiles to the same profiles in the other apps. I then pull up the same images in all the apps and Darktable is way off. In fact I did the same test using the same images (jpgs) as I did before in this thread (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=953296). Even when I open the raw image it is really dark. As I determined from the previous testing color managed programs should render the same exact image the same as another program does.

I am wondering if anyone else is noticing a difference compared to other color managed programs? I like how DT appears. I am not impressed with the service from DT devs but I am willing to give the program a shot if I can get the color profile to work.

Thanks

I have the same problem since version 0.8 was released. They changed their core engine in this release, so it may be related. Darktable is still under heavy development, so bugs like this are to be expected.

[cedm]

I have the same problem since version 0.8 was released. They changed their core engine in this release, so it may be related. Darktable is still under heavy development, so bugs like this are to be expected.

Replying to myself -and that may work out for you too 4Deuce-, I fixed the issue by purging my darktable configuration files:

$ rm -rf .config/darktable
$ rm -rf .gconf/apps/darktable
$ rm -rf .cache/darktable

Now everything is fine. Hope it helps.

[4Deuce]

Thanks cedm. I actually ended up figuring it out on my own as well. I now have it up and running on both my laptop and office computer.

I am having a hard time determining a standard workflow. They all do the basics but each of them offers different features that the others don't. It makes it hard. I find myself using Photivo more than the others with Darktable right behind. The biggest thing I don't like about Photivo is the speed. Way too much time to make adjustments. Much like DT in the previous version.

Thanks

[cedm]

One more RAW converter:

Photivo

Photivo is a free and open source photo processor for RAW and bitmap images with 16 bit precision. Photivo tries to give the user as much control as possible to express his creativity and to allow flexible adjustments for the various needs in photography.

http://photivo.org/photivo/start

Not the easiest software to use: Photivo is not intended for beginners, but would suit advanced users looking for full control over the RAW conversion. Photivo provides a choice 10 demosaicing algorithms, flexible and powerful denoise, sharpen and local contrast (fake HDR) algorithms.

[cedm]

Just added a new section: Backup Tools. Makes me wonder how I could have missed it in the first place :)

One entry so far:

Déjà Dup
Déjà Dup is a simple backup tool. It hides the complexity of backing up the Right Way (encrypted, off-site, and regular). It supports local, remote, or cloud backup locations (e.g. Amazon S3), compresses and encrypts your data, provides incremental backups and schedule options.

Website: https://launchpad.net/deja-dup
Screenshots: http://live.gnome.org/DejaDup/Screenshots
Licence: open source

[photogs_spouse]

The Lightzone website has vanished. Apparently in September 2011. The developer has a new job in the industry elsewhere.
Corel released AfterShot Pro (http://www.corel.com/corel/product/index.jsp?pid=prod4670071&cid=catalog20038&segid=6000006&storeKey=us&languageCode=en) for US$100. There is a Linux version. seems to fit in the RAW/ workflow categories. I haven't done the free trial for lack of free time on my part.

Browsing my repositories recently yielded these:
Delaboratory (http://code.google.com/p/delaboratory/) : color correction utility

ExpoBlend (part of Kipi plugins/Digikam) could be a standalone now.

Mashup (http://kornelix.squarespace.com/): image print and layout

tintii (http://www.indii.org/software/tintii): selective color, color pop or color splash effects. Linux version is free. other versions for Windows and Mac plus plugins for Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro.

You don't mention any metadata tools/viewers. Sometimes, you need to fix metadata (dates, hardware) or replace what was removed by your image editor.
exiftool (http://owl.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/): nonbatch or batch command line editor.

[BroX]

Corel released AfterShot Pro (http://www.corel.com/corel/product/index.jsp?pid=prod4670071&cid=catalog20038&segid=6000006&storeKey=us&languageCode=en) for US$100. There is a Linux version. seems to fit in the RAW/ workflow categories. I haven't done the free trial for lack of free time on my part.

Corel purchased Bibble (http://bibblelabs.com/press/pr20120109.html) Labs, and AfterShot Pro is based on Bibble 5. Bibble 5 customers can upgrade to AfterShot Pro for €15/$20.

[cedm]

Thanks guys, I'll update the thread when I got time.

[Doug Pardee]

The Lightzone website has vanished. Apparently in September 2011.

Light Crafts is no longer operating and LightZone is no longer being sold (officially), but existing LightZone users continue to be supported by the unofficial, volunteer LightZombie Project (http://lightzombie.org/).