Open Source Photography

What is Open Source Photography for me ?
Well, it mainly stands to be Free…

Free, in the freedom of choice,
Free, from having to pay,
Free, in the choice to sponsor,
Free, in the choice of Camera, unfortunately this is not completely free 🙂
Free, in the choice of Operating System
and Free in the choice of Photo Editing Software

Open Source Software does not explicitly mean “free”,
in most cases it is, but “open source” has more to do with the license, or the way it can be used.
Free Open Source Software – FOSS – is free in the sense of cost.

Usually this freedom will start with the choice of the operating system, specifically Linux.
However, much of this software is also available for Windows and MacOS.
In fact, at Microsoft, they had sensed the storm coming for some time, and have even provided their latest OS, Windows 11, with the ability to run Linux apps, more on that later*.

But what is available if I choose to be FREE ?
Well, below is an overview of the very best software that makes every other paying program unnecessary.
Can I really find every function or tool in this software ?
The further development of the software mentioned below is going fast, but no, you won’t be able to find every single tool, however, the question is whether we ‘really’ need those tools ? Also, it’s only a matter of time before they get developed and available in their Linux counterpart.
It is up to you to determine whether the cost for those exotic tools ‘right now’ is justified.

Click on the photo to go to the relevant website

RawTherapee – RAW processing – Linux, Windows, MacOS

Darktable – photography workflow application and raw developer – Linux, Windows, MacOS

digiKam – photography workflow application and raw developer – Linux, Windows, MacOS

Showfoto – digiKam without photo management system – Linux, Windows, MacOS

Gimp – much more than an ordinary image editor – Linux, Windows, MacOS

gThumb – viewer – Linux only

XnView MP – viewer on steroids – Linux, Windows, MacOS

Rapid Photo Downloader – enhanced SD card downloader – Linux, Windows 11 via Linux subsystem

Luminance HDR – HDR imaging – Linux, Windows, MacOS

Hugin – Panorama’s, Photo Stacking, Photo Fusion and more – Linux, Windows, MacOS

Kubuntu – Operating System – One of the many Linux versions, but I think also one of the best and easiest versions if you come from Windows, suitable for older and newer computers.

When people hear the name “Linux”, they think that this is a complicated and difficult to use operating system.
Nothing is less true.
The graphical shell that is now around Kubuntu looks like two drops of water to Windows or even MacOS, in fact, even the most basic programs that many people now use on Windows or MacOS are also the same here or very similar.
Internet -> Google Chrome or Firefox
Office -> LibreOffice or OpenOffice
Mail -> Thunderbird, Gmail or just any web based mail via Google Chrome
Videos -> VLC
Your PDFs, your photos, your music and documents in Word, Excel, whatever you can think of, it all opens and works the same way in Kubuntu.

Probably the biggest problem is that humans are creatures of habit.
How many times have I heard things like “yes, I’ve tried rawtherapee or darktable too, but it’s hard, it’s to difficult or I just can’t get used to it”
Amazing how those same people ever got used to Windows and Adobe PS ???

Be brave and be Free !

More on Free and Open Source Photography

* You don’t want to leave Windows, but like to use Linux alongside Windows :

Windows WSL – run Linux OS, tools and apps directly and alongside Windows – Windows

La Gallerie

The photo gallery of Open Source Photography, Olympus micro 4/3 system, Vintage Lens Photograpy, Film Simulation, PictureFX, HDR – Photographer : Marc R.