kinross Posted June 25, 2023 Share #1 Posted June 25, 2023 Advertisement (gone after registration) I have been away from Lightroom for about 2 years due to health issues I have done very little photography and not likely to. I updated my Mac Pro 5.5 to apple mini and did not include Lightroom as I do not want to pay subscription for very little use. I would like to start using camera again, M10R. As I am still familiar with LR user interface I am thinking that Darktable would be a good free program to suit my needs. Have any forum members experience or advice that I might find helpful. Sorry if this a rather open ended enquiry but any help and advice would be appreciated. Mike. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted June 25, 2023 Posted June 25, 2023 Hi kinross, Take a look here Darktable. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
RexGig0 Posted June 25, 2023 Share #2 Posted June 25, 2023 Bookmarked, and following this discussion. I dislike the subscription model, whether it is “free” requires payment. I do hope and pray that your health issues improve. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
frame-it Posted June 25, 2023 Share #3 Posted June 25, 2023 (edited) Edited June 25, 2023 by frame-it Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wda Posted June 25, 2023 Share #4 Posted June 25, 2023 Mike, I am sorry to hear of your health issues. I use an old version of LR which continues to serve me well. I use a ColorChecker to produce accurate colour. I have no experience of other programmes. For modest cost you could also consider Photoshop Elements which has improved immeasurably since earlier versions. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pedaes Posted June 25, 2023 Share #5 Posted June 25, 2023 49 minutes ago, kinross said: Sorry if this a rather open ended enquiry but any help and advice would be appreciated. Good to read you are back to photography. If you can correct heading you may get more replies. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinross Posted June 25, 2023 Author Share #6 Posted June 25, 2023 Hi David. I would be more than happy to use an older version of LR. I started out with LR5 but do not know how to go about obtaining an older version now. Not at all worried about no updates etc. just want to edit photos. thanks. Mike. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinross Posted June 25, 2023 Author Share #7 Posted June 25, 2023 Advertisement (gone after registration) Sorry did not notice that mistake. Being entirely ignorant can someone give me instructions to correct a heading. thanks. Mike. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeitz Posted June 25, 2023 Share #8 Posted June 25, 2023 I assume that "apple mini" is a new M1 or M2 MacMini which uses Apple silicon ARM technology and that you use macOS Ventura. I also suspect Darktable, and the others Raw Therapee and GIMP, don't use the ARM instruction set and run using Apple's Rosetta translator. Perhaps others forum members can verify that the old LR versions run on Ventura. I have tried Darktable and GIMP out of curiosity on an Intel MacMini. They tend to use technical terminology which can be a little confusing at first. eq "Global Chroma" and "Enter Location (URI)". Also remember that free means you are at the whim of the developers for updates and problem resolution. The programs didn't grab me enough to spend the time to delve into them deeply. Download a variety of image processors and see which one you like the most. Remember you also have Photos installed already. Photos has improved substantially. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobitybob Posted June 25, 2023 Share #9 Posted June 25, 2023 Take a look here https://pixls.us/ for a collection of free/open source software. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wda Posted June 25, 2023 Share #10 Posted June 25, 2023 1 hour ago, kinross said: Hi David. I would be more than happy to use an older version of LR. I started out with LR5 but do not know how to go about obtaining an older version now. Not at all worried about no updates etc. just want to edit photos. thanks. Mike. Adobe makes it very difficult. You could ask them if you could download your last registered version. Some years ago, when replacing my old Windows computer, I copied the contents of the old main drive to its replacement. Several old legacy programmes were successfully transplanted, much to my amazement and delight. I managed to register the move with Adobe. I am currently learning Snapseed which has surprised me when working on an Android tablet. It even includes old Nik plugin with Control Point technology, which Google bought at one time before selling on to DXO, I believe. That might work with Apple. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff S Posted June 25, 2023 Share #11 Posted June 25, 2023 1 hour ago, kinross said: Sorry did not notice that mistake. Being entirely ignorant can someone give me instructions to correct a heading. thanks. Mike. Use the report button… top right each post. Jeff Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anbaric Posted June 25, 2023 Share #12 Posted June 25, 2023 (edited) 2 hours ago, kinross said: I would be more than happy to use an older version of LR. I started out with LR5 but do not know how to go about obtaining an older version now. Not at all worried about no updates etc. just want to edit photos. If you still have the LR5 licence key, you can download the installer here : https://prodesigntools.com/lightroom-5-ddl-comparison-vs-lr4.html and if you also have an LR6 licence, you can get the installer here: https://prodesigntools.com/adobe-lightroom-6-cc-direct-download-links.html Note that LR6, but not LR5, requires online activation. I suspect that won't be available for much longer, because Adobe have announced that LR6 support will stop at the end of 2023: https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/lightroom-classic/help/lightroom-6-end-of-support.html When online activation stops, it will no longer be possible to install LR6 (unless Adobe provides an activation-free version, which they probably won't). LR5 should still be fine. Old versions of LR may not be compatible with recent Macs (Windows wil probably be OK). More recent versions of LR are subscription only. If you can't find your licence key but you have an Adobe account, it may be worth logging in to see if it's recorded there. You could also check old emails from Adobe to see if they sent it to you if you purchased LR online. It may also be possible to recover it from the old hard disk if you still have your previous computer: https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/where-can-i-find-my-license-key-in-lightroom/m-p/6803290 Edited June 25, 2023 by Anbaric 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
marchyman Posted June 25, 2023 Share #13 Posted June 25, 2023 4 hours ago, zeitz said: I also suspect Darktable, and the others Raw Therapee and GIMP, don't use the ARM instruction set and run using Apple's Rosetta translator. Perhaps others forum members can verify that the old LR versions run on Ventura. I believe Darktable added support in version 4. Version 4.4 has macOS install packages for both x86-64 and arm64. See https://www.darktable.org/install/ 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinross Posted June 25, 2023 Author Share #14 Posted June 25, 2023 Thank you all for your input. I have decided to give Darktable a try. It is free so nothing lost if I do not get on with it. Have tried to download LR 6 but as I am running Monterey on Apple mini it does not like 64 bit software. Adobe can help me download it but it may not be particularly reliable. I will download Darktable tomorrow and see how it goes. Thanks for suggestions. Mike. l 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anbaric Posted June 26, 2023 Share #15 Posted June 26, 2023 RawTherapee and the related package Art are also worth a look (and free): https://www.rawtherapee.com/ https://bitbucket.org/agriggio/art/wiki/Home You might want to look at some commercial non-subscription packages too: https://havecamerawilltravel.com/lightroom-alternatives/ Capture One is arguably the best, but the 'perpetual' licence is not cheap. There are less expensive but well-regarded options from ON1, Luminar and DxO. Affinity Photo is an excellent and inexpensive editor, but it competes with Photoshop as a single image editor rather than with LR, and doesn't have LR-style image browsing and management. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinross Posted June 26, 2023 Author Share #16 Posted June 26, 2023 Thank you Anbaric for those links. Have not downloaded anything yet but have been going through the above links and still seem to favour Darktable. Mike. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeitz Posted June 26, 2023 Share #17 Posted June 26, 2023 What MacMini do you have that does not like 64 bit? And please give Photos a try. It may be all you need or want. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinross Posted June 26, 2023 Author Share #18 Posted June 26, 2023 Hi zeitz.. It is not my mini that dislikes 64 bit, it is LR V6. With Adobe help I can download it, I used it way back, but they say it may not run reliably. Of course they may be trying to persuade me use LR classic. I have tried photos and did not get on too well with organising. May give it another go as it does all I need. Possibly not as good on editing but good enough my requirements now. Thanks for suggestions. Have just started reading through Darktable user guide, does seem very different and complicated, but might make more sense if I downloaded the program. I do not find learning new stuff quite as easy as I used to. I am in my mid 80’s. Says it all! cheers and thanks. Mike. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeitz Posted June 26, 2023 Share #19 Posted June 26, 2023 22 minutes ago, kinross said: I have tried photos and did not get on too well with organising. I totally agree with you on iPhotos and organization. I don't even like LR in this regard. I rely on Bridge + ACR + PS so I can open/save/save as/close from whatever folder and to whatever folder I please. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anbaric Posted June 26, 2023 Share #20 Posted June 26, 2023 17 minutes ago, kinross said: Of course they may be trying to persuade me use LR classic. I think that's pretty much standard behaviour from Adobe when anyone enquires about pre-subscription software 🙂. You'll probably get better advice in an independent forum. As you say, most packages make more sense hands-on, though the free and open source options tend to be a bit more cryptic than some. If you are a raw shooter, then I'd suggest doing some tests shots in raw + jpg mode so that you have the in-camera jpg as a reference. The default raw conversion output from different packages varies quite a bit, depending on things like the camera profile used by the software. You can eventually make a raw file look any way you want, but that might take more effort in some packages than in others. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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