I switched from Lightroom to darktable three years ago and I'm not going back. Not because I'm cheap ( well, partly ), but because darktable actually fits how I process photos. No subscription, no cloud nonsense, no Adobe account. Just open source RAW processing that works.
The thing nobody tells you about darktable: the default interface is overwhelming. There are like 60 modules visible and half of them have names that sound like they were translated from mathematical papers. But here's the secret— you only need about eight of them for 90% of your edits.
The Setup ( Or: Stop Clicking Random Modules )
First thing: hide everything. Open darktable, go to the bottom-left panel, and collapse every module you don't recognize. Keep these visible:
- exposure - white balance - filmic rgb - color balance - local contrast - sharpen - lens correction - denoise ( profiled )
That's it. Eight modules. Everything else is noise until you specifically need it.
The Workflow That Actually Works
I process every photo in the same order. No improvising, no "let me try this module just because." Here's the sequence:
1. Lens correction — activate it, done. No thinking required.
2. White balance — pick a neutral area with the spot tool. If the camera got it right ( it usually does ), leave it.
3. Exposure — bring highlights just below clipping. Use the histogram. This is not creative, this is mechanical.
4. Filmic RGB — this is darktable's magic. It replaces everything Lightroom does with tone curves and highlights/shadows. Set the black point, white point, and you're 80% done.
5. Color balance — lift the shadows, push the midtones. This is where the creative part starts. Warm it up or cool it down depending on the scene.
6. Local contrast — add a tiny bit of clarity. Less than you think. If you can see the slider moved, you've probably gone too far.
7. Sharpen — use the default, maybe bump amount to 1.5. Done.
8. Denoise ( profiled ) — only if you shot above ISO 1600. Otherwise skip it.
Filmic RGB Is Not Scary ( I Promise )
Everyone avoids filmic RGB because the UI looks like it was designed by an engineer ( it was ). But it's actually simpler than the old tone curve approach. You set three things:
- Black relative — where the darkest shadows start. Usually between 0 and -4 EV. - White relative — where highlights clip. Usually between 3 and 7 EV. - Latitude — how much of the midtone range to protect. Start at 8, adjust to taste.
That's it. Three sliders. And honestly, once you get the hang of it, you'll wonder why Lightroom makes you fight with four separate highlight/shadow/whites/blacks sliders when this does the same job better.
The auto-setting in filmic RGB is actually decent for most shots. Click the auto button, then fine-tune. If you're processing a landscape or street photo, the auto setting will get you 70% there in one click.
Set Up Styles, Stop Repeating Yourself
darktable has styles ( think presets in Lightroom ). I have three:
- "base" — lens correction, filmic RGB with my default settings, small local contrast bump. Applied to everything. - "moody" — base + lifted blacks + desaturated slightly + extra local contrast. For street and night shots. - "bright" — base + lifted shadows + slightly warmer white balance. For landscapes and daytime.
When I import 200 photos from a walk, I apply "base" to all of them, then switch the ones I like to the appropriate style. It cuts my editing time from hours to minutes. The key is having the discipline to not create a new style for every mood ( I had 17 at one point; that's not a workflow, that's hoarding ).
Culling First, Editing Never ( Well, Later )
Before touching a single slider, I cull. In the lighttable view, I flag rejects ( X key ) and picks ( flag key ). No editing, no second-guessing. If it's out of focus, reject. If the composition is boring, reject. If I took five nearly identical shots, keep one, reject four.
Then I filter by picks only, select all, apply my "base" style, and go make mate. ( Or coffee. But I live in Uruguay, so mate. ) When I come back, the previews are generated and I can start the real editing on 15 photos instead of 200.
Export Settings That Don't Suck
Here are my export settings for web:
format: JPEG
quality: 92
width: 2048 ( longest edge )
color profile: sRGB ( not Adobe RGB, not ProPhoto— the web is sRGB )
sharpen for screen: yes
metadata: strip EXIF ( nobody needs your camera serial number )For print, swap sRGB for the printer's profile and bump quality to 97. That's it. Don't overthink export settings.
Conclusion
darktable is not intuitive. The UI is dense, the documentation is written for people who understand color science, and half the module names sound like they were autogenerated from a physics textbook. But once you strip it down to the eight modules you actually need and build a consistent workflow, it's faster than Lightroom. And free. And runs on Linux natively. And doesn't phone home.
Start with the eight modules. Ignore the rest until you need them. And for the love of everything, stop paying Adobe $10/month for the privilege of editing your own photos.