5 free Lightroom al­tern­at­ives

The photo storage and man­age­ment software Adobe Lightroom seems almost in­dis­pens­able due to its extensive functions and ca­pa­cit­ies, but the downside is that it is re­l­at­ively expensive. There are, however, free photo man­age­ment tools that are adequate Lightroom al­tern­at­ives. Let’s take a look at the best Lightroom al­tern­at­ives.

Why do I need a photo man­age­ment tool?

In contrast to pure image pro­cessing programs such as Photoshop, the focus with photo man­age­ment tools is less on the creative design and more on the correct archiving, ad­just­ment and present­a­tion of the images. With digital image formats, a dis­tinc­tion is always made between com­pressed and raw image files.

The most common com­pressed format for digital images is JPEG (‘Joint Pho­to­graph­ic Experts Group’ format, usually written as .jpg or .jpeg); other very well-known formats include PNG, GIF and the container format, TIFF.

On the other hand, there are also raw files. They contain the un­pro­cessed image in­form­a­tion of the original file and are therefore of the highest quality. Raw files are very large and therefore take up con­sid­er­ably more storage space, which often makes them im­prac­tic­al to use. For this reason, photo man­age­ment software are ideal for creating storage-friendly formats.

A com­par­is­on of free Lightroom al­tern­at­ives

Raw­Therapee – the flexible all-rounder

Raw Therapee is a con­veni­ent al­tern­at­ive software to Adobe Lightroom. The open-source software is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. It offers many functions for archiving, con­vert­ing, and pro­cessing raw data and other image formats. This useful tool makes it in­cred­ibly simple to implement colour cor­rec­tion, sat­ur­a­tion, bright­ness, contrast, and sharpness, as well as crop and orient images. Raw­Therapee’s main strength, however, is the noise reduction function. Fur­ther­more, the preview tool allows less ex­per­i­enced users to edit files securely without damaging the original file. Users can easily return to older versions of the file, which are all stored in the cache history.

Raw Therapee’s user interface may seem a little cum­ber­some for beginners. One reason is that the save and settings functions, for example, are hidden at the bottom of the image view. The program is available for a total of 15 languages and has a wide range of practical functions, including the creation of fixed pro­cessing profiles and batch pro­cessing, which means several files can be optimised at once. It also uses popular file formats such as HDR DNG (16, 24, and 32 bit), JPEG, PNG (8 and 16 bit), and TIFF files (8, 16, and 32 bit). The Lightroom al­tern­at­ive loads common file formats such as JPEG, PNG, (8 and 16 bit), and TIFF (8, 16 and 32 bit). After fa­mil­i­ar­ising yourself with the software and over­com­ing a few minor flaws in terms of editing and speed, the free Raw Therapee offers helpful options, es­pe­cially when con­vert­ing raw files.

Summary: With its far-reaching functions and flexible operation, Raw­Therapee is es­pe­cially re­com­men­ded for its soph­ist­ic­ated image man­age­ment. Its user-friendly interface alone only has a few small faults. Otherwise, it makes a perfectly adequate free Lightroom al­tern­at­ive.

darktable – intuitive and highly func­tion­al

Another bona fide, free al­tern­at­ive to Lightroom is the open source program, darktable. Ex­per­i­enced Lightroom users will im­me­di­ately notice darktable’s similar black and grey design as well as the user interface with folding control panels, making work a lot easier. However, the tool is mostly managed from the pure control panels, which requires some getting used to. Unlike its costly coun­ter­part, however, darktable does not allow users to create manual com­pil­a­tions, and instead auto­mat­ic­ally imports image galleries. darktable is fully com­pat­ible with Linux, macOS and Windows (64-bit).

With basic op­tim­isa­tion - from cropping and rotating to gradation curves, colour cor­rec­tion and some image effects, darktable users benefit from extensive functions. The tool also fa­cil­it­ates the creation, cropping, and ad­just­ment of slideshows. Despite this, the software does lack some practical auto­ma­tion functions. You therefore need to save in­di­vidu­al presets as a profile, which makes it easier to adapt to your favourite styles. Fur­ther­more, the live preview function enables users to see any changes in advance. The ap­plic­a­tion is somewhat cum­ber­some in certain areas, which means users need to spend some time to figure out and get used to the functions. With darktable, it’s possible to organise photos, adjust their metadata, and export them in the correct file folder – as JPEG, PNG, 16-bit PPM, and TIFF formats as well as PFM and EXR files. This way, everything can be compactly found in one place in your computer.

Summary: darktable is a great free al­tern­at­ive to Lightroom, in terms of its design as well as its functions. In com­par­is­on to Lightroom, the user interface and functions are similar, although the full range of tools is not entirely available. Fur­ther­more, when it comes to pro­cessing raw files, darktable is a reliable option for beginners and offers an enormous number of options for a free program.

LightZone – mul­ti­func­tion­al tool with an eye for detail

With the photo tool LightZone, which is now released as un­res­tric­ted open source software, users can optimise raw data loss-free as well as edit and export JPEG and TIFF files. It pays to be a little more ex­per­i­ment­al with the Lightroom al­tern­at­ive – the original images are auto­mat­ic­ally saved while editing and can be accessed at any time. In this way, you can design several versions without losing the original. In the flexible image view, you can either display all versions next to each other and compare them or simply keep the original view of the image folder.

With several practical style profiles, LightZone makes lightwork of op­tim­ising several photos in the same way. This is par­tic­u­larly helpful if the group of images should have the same format and look as it means you don’t have to start from scratch each time. Rather than gradation curves, LightZone offers the ZoneMap­per as a special feature that can identify 16 bright­ness zones in a photo and adjust contrast or colour values using a preview image. With col­lapsible sidebar menus, you can easily integrate your images into your desktop’s folder structure and change your metadata (i.e. title, value, image de­scrip­tion, author, and location). LightZone enables a loss-free op­tim­isa­tion of raw data as well as the pro­cessing and ex­port­a­tion of JPEG and TIFF files.

Summary: LightZone is a soph­ist­ic­ated image man­age­ment program that can satisfy prac­tic­ally every re­quire­ment. Its menus offer both a wide range of uses and are displayed clearly. The ZoneMap­per is a unique addition, offering the targeted pro­cessing of tonal values, which can satisfy the needs of both amateur and pro­fes­sion­al pho­to­graph­ers or designers. This free Lightroom al­tern­at­ive therefore makes it a solid all-rounder option for those with only a little prior ex­per­i­ence.

Google Photos – mobile, simple, and playful

Google’s browser-based image or­gan­ising tool, Google Photos, presents a rather more simplist­ic Adobe Lightroom al­tern­at­ive with its more whimsical display. As part of the Google Cloud plan, this program enables re­gistered users to archive, organise, and edit their images for free. An ad­di­tion­al benefit is its relative sim­pli­city compared to the pre­vi­ously mentioned desktop programs. The tool’s primary focus is on sharing and storing images of up to 16 mega­pixels and HD videos of up 1.080p. The software is ac­cess­ible on mobile devices, so it’s quick and easy to integrate pho­to­graphs taken on smart­phones and tablets. Users also benefit from the fact that the images are available via a server, meaning they can safely delete pictures from their mobile device as soon as they need the space. Photos saved on the computer can be auto­mat­ic­ally trans­ferred to the cloud.

The photos from this Lightroom al­tern­at­ive are saved to the Google Cloud and are made available for albums, collages, an­im­a­tions, and panorama photos. Users can crop and rotate images and change the bright­ness, colour, and sharpness with sim­pli­fied but intuitive tools. It’s also possible to add your images to a selected shared album, if you wish to share your snapshots with friends. The software even has a visual image search for facial re­cog­ni­tion, which makes it easier to organise and name groups of smart­phone images. One major dis­ad­vant­age is that Google collects a certain amount of user data to make this possible.

Summary: Google Photos is a great option if you just want a platform to edit, organise, and share photos quickly and easily. It’s an es­pe­cially practical tool for users with mobile devices. However, users who want to edit their images on a pro­fes­sion­al level, or make extensive changes to their files will quickly discover that Google Photos has its limits.

Pho­to­Scape – perfect for amateur pho­to­graph­ers

No-frills freeware Pho­to­Scape is the perfect Adobe Lightroom al­tern­at­ive for those who are un­fa­mil­i­ar with photo editing programs. With its clear, pre-set functions, you can easily manage your photos and optimise them with various features. With basic functions such as retouch, crop, effect filters, colour, and bright­ness cor­rec­tion, you can achieve everything that is necessary to edit an image quickly and simply. As well as this, there are other fun effects, such as collages, adding text, frames, and speech bubbles. Photos can also be edited by batch pro­cessing using the window menu in­teg­rated into the desktop view.

Pho­to­Scape may be of par­tic­u­lar interest to users of image sharing social media platforms, as the program enables users to create simple GIF files. It is also practical that photos can easily be dragged and dropped into different collage templates and in­di­vidu­ally arranged with the combine function – ideal for present­ing photos of friends, family, and holiday snapshots. Thanks to its easy-to-use interface in­teg­rated into the desktop, in­ex­per­i­enced users can get to grips with Pho­to­Scape in next to no time. Fur­ther­more, Pho­to­Scape is com­pat­ible with both Windows and Mac (as Pho­to­Scape X) and the Lightroom al­tern­at­ive opens and converts raw formats into JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP and TIFF files.

Summary: Simple and fast: these are without a doubt Pho­to­Scape’s defining features. If you just want to use your photos for limited, private use, and prefer an intuitive design rather than more complex functions, you’ll find all the necessary tools here. For pro­fes­sion­als or ex­per­i­enced hobbyists, however, the tool is perhaps somewhat basic.