Underneath the sections you see a Histogram (the colored chart) and below that a row of buttons. Now you are automatically moved into the darkroom section of Darktable. To start editing a photo, double click on the image. In the top right of the program, you can see (highlighted) in which section of Darktable you are currently working. Now your photos will load in the Lighttable section of Darktable. Note: If you only take JPG pictures with your digital camera, Darktable is not for you! You should look into GIMP. Select the folder in which you have stored the RAW files of your digital camera. You can do this for many photos at once by clicking on ‘folder’ in the left sidebar in the ‘import’ section.

When the program is opened, you need to load a photo collection. Therefore I like to present the absolute basics of photo editing with Darktable. For many people, getting started can be daunting. The negative is kept, and the photo (the positive) is developed from the negative. I like to compare it to developing a photo. Darktable is aimed at non-destructive photo editing. It can be used to change photos in many ways, including cutting things out of the picture or pasting things into the picture.

GIMP is aimed at destructive (the image is changed when saved) photo editing. In the Free and Open Source world, there are 2 amazing alternatives: GIMP and Darktable. When I was starting in the world of amateur digital photography, I learned about 2 software programs that everybody was using: Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom.

Darktable software