Archives For RAW processor

There are several Lightroom alternative applications for editing your photos. LightZone is one of them works in Linux.

It’s a free and open-source professional-level digital darkroom and photo editor written in Java. It has less features than the popular Darktable and RawTherapee, but it’s good at processing black and white photos.

LightZone features include:

  • Windows, macOS, and Linux support.
  • Support RAW files for a variety of cameras.
  • Batch processing.
  • Range of available style filters
  • Many non-destructive tools
  • Raw tone curve modification

How to Install LightZone in Ubuntu:

The software has an official PPA so far with Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Linux Mint 21/20 support.

1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open a terminal window. When it opens, run command to add the PPA repository:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:lightzone-team/lightzone

Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks and hit enter to continue.

2. For Linux Mint and old Ubuntu 18.04, user need to manually refresh the system package index by running command:

sudo apt update

3. Finally, install this photo editing tool via command:

sudo apt install lightzone

With the PPA, you don’t have to run the apt command again and again, the future release page will be available to install in Software Updater (Update Manager) utility.

After installation, search for and launch the editor either from start menu or ‘Activities’ overview depends on your system.

Uninstall LightZone

To remove the photo editor, open a terminal window and run command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove lightzone

And remove the PPA repository either via “Software & Updates” utility under Other Software tab, or by running command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:lightzone-team/lightzone

LightZone, professional-level digital darkroom and photo editor, released version 4.2.0 a few days ago. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 19.10, and Ubuntu 20.04.

LightZone is a free, open-source digital photo editor software application runs in Linux, Windows, and Mac OS. Its main purpose is to handle the workflow, including non-destructive editing when handling images in various RAW formats.

The latest LightZone 4.2.0 features:

  • Lens Correction Tool – distortion / TCA correction using Lensfun
  • Film Grain Tool
  • Horizontal / Vertical Flip button
  • Better HiDPI support
  • Speed up Bayer demosaicking code
  • Migrated to Java 11

The new release changes also include: renew some of button icons using jIconFont, speed up Editor rendering by reusing tile cache from different zoom level, generate and include custom Java Runtime Environment bundle for Windows and macOS packages.

How to Install LightZone 4.2.0 in Ubuntu:

The LightZone official PPA contains the latest software packages for all current Ubuntu releases.

1. Open terminal by either pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard or searching for “Terminal” from application menu. When it opens, run command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:lightzone-team/lightzone

Type user password (no asterisk feedback due to security reason) when it prompts and hit Enter to add the PPA.

2. Then run command to install the photo editor application:

sudo apt install lightzone

Uninstall:

To remove LightZone, run command in terminal:

sudo apt remove lightzone

To remove the PPA repository, launch Software & Updates utility and navigate to ‘Other Software’ tab, and remove the repository line.

RawTherapee

RawTherapee 5.8, cross-platform raw photo processing system, was released a day ago. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 19.10, Linux Mint 19.x.

RawTherapee 5.8 release highlights:

  • New Capture Sharpening tool to automatically recover detail lost to lens blur.
  • CR3 support: image data is decoded, though metadata is not supported yet.
  • Improvements of various camera models
  • Speedups and optimizations to various tools
  • Better memory management and various bug fixes.

Download / Install RawTherapee 5.8 in Ubuntu:

The official Linux Appimage, single executable to launch the software (non-install), is available for download in the previous link.

For Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 19.10, Linux Mint 19.x, you can also install RawTherapee 5.8 via this unofficial PPA.

1. Open terminal by either pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard or searching for “Terminal” from application menu. When it opens, run command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:dhor/myway

Type user password (no asterisk feedback due to security reason) when it prompts and hit Enter to add the PPA.

2. After that, upgrade the software via Software Updater if a previous version was installed:

or run commands one by one in terminal to install RawTherapee:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install rawtherapee

How to Remove:

To uninstall the free raw developer, run command in terminal:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove rawtherapee

And remove the PPA via Software & Updates utility under Other Software tab, by removing the line says “http://ppa.launchpad.net/dhor/myway/ubuntu”.

Darktable 2.2.5

Darktable announced the new major 2.6.0 release today many great new features and lots of new cameras support.

Darktable 2.6.0 release highlights:

  • New module retouch allowing changes based on image frequency layers
  • New module filmic which can replace the base curve and shadows and highlights
  • New module to handle duplicates in the darkroom with possibility to add a title, create standard or virgin duplicate, delete duplicate and quickly compare with a duplicate
  • New logarithm controls for the tone-curve
  • New mode for the unbreak profile module
  • Add mask preview to adjust size, hardness before placing them
  • Make it possible to change the cropped area in the perspective correction module
  • Complemente the mask blur with a guided-filter to fine tune it
  • Color balance module has two new modes based on ProPhotoRGB and HSL
  • Experimental support for PPC64le architecture (OpenCL support needs to be disabled, -DUSE_OPENCL=OFF)
  • And numerous other changes.

Darktable 2.0.6

Download / Install Darktable 2.6.0:

There’s a stable PPA maintains the most recent Darktable packages for Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04 and higher.

The maintainer now is building and testing the new packages. And the 2.6.0 stable packages will be now is available in 1 or 2 days.

At that time, you’ll receive updates through Software Updater after adding the PPA via command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pmjdebruijn/darktable-release

Darktable PPA for Xenial

upgrade darktable

To remove the PPA, launch Software & Updates and navigate to Other Software tab.

RawTherapee

RawTherapee RAW image editor released version 5.5 last night with exciting new features. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 18.10, Ubuntu 18.04.

RawTherapee 5.5 release highlights:

  • Filter to remove striping artifacts and banding artifacts for any camera has a PDAF entry in camconst.json.
  • Ability to specify custom working color spaces through the workingspaces.json file.
  • Unbounded processing – allows you to decide whether out-of-gamut colors should get clipped.
  • New Shadows/Highlights tool (replaced previous one).
  • Contrast threshold mask which divides an image into areas of high and low detail, allowing the effect of certain tools (Sharpening, Post-Resize Sharpening, Microcontrast, Demosaicing) to be focused where it matters most and to mitigate the effect on areas where it would be undesirable.
  • Dual-demosaic algorithms, making use of the new contrast threshold mask, allowing one to use a combination of demosaicing algorithms where one is best for details and the other best for plain areas.
  • New color toning methods: Grid and Regions
  • Support for Blackmagic and Canon Magic Lantern lj92 encoded files.
  • New Soft Light tool which enhances contrast and saturation by emulating the effect of blending an image with a copy of itself in “soft light” blending mode in GIMP.
  • New Haze Removal tool to reduce the effects of haze or fog.
  • The Resize tool allows you to specify whether you want it to upscale or only downscale.
  • New icon and cursor theme. New cameras support, and new input color profiles.
  • Other new features, enhancements, and bug fixes.

Download / Install RawTherapee 5.5 in Ubuntu:

The official Linux Appimage, single executable file to launch the software, is available for download at the link below:

Download RawTherapee (Linux Appimage)

Go to file’s properties, allow executable file as program, and finally run it to launch RawTherapee 5.5.

There are also a few PPA repositories that contain RawTherapee packages for Ubuntu. I’ll update the tutorial once the 5.5 release package is available.

UPDATE: For Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 18.10, Linux Mint 19.x, you can install RawTherapee 5.5 via the unofficial PPA.

1. Open terminal either via Ctrl+Alt+T keyboard shortcut or by searching for “Terminal” from app launcher. When it opens, run command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:dhor/myway

Input your password (no asterisks feedback when typing) when it prompts and hit Enter to add the PPA.

2. After that, upgrade the software via Software Updater if a previous version was installed:

The upgrading process may be kept back if you were installing it from Ubuntu Software.

A workaround is simply running following commands instead to install or upgrade RawTherapee:

sudo apt-get install rawtherapee

How to Remove:

To uninstall the free raw developer, run command in terminal:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove rawtherapee

And remove the PPA via Software & Updates utility under Other Software tab, by removing the line says “http://ppa.launchpad.net/dhor/myway/ubuntu”.