This is clearly true that the lack of a full Raw development solution at the level of performance of something like Lightroom (or whatever pro picture development offer) under Linux is hampering our photographic activity on this platform. It’s true that many crude utilities exist, like DCRaw (and its natural complements). Somebody would easily remember the name of RawTherapee, which is providing a quality-oriented solution under rapid development.

You will also easily find amateur people definitely convinced by Lightzone (previously mentionned in Roumazeilles.net). But for Lightzone, you’d better have very powerful computer, big CPU large memory, to reach a satisfying level of comfort.

Often more snappy and available on Windows and Max as well as for Linux (it’s 50% cheaper on Linux), here is Bibble 5 Pro which has the notable advantage of providing a full solution totally operational from the management of a photo library to an end-to-end Raw development workflow.

Another tool worth writing about here is DigiKam. It targets Photoshop-level of features (of course, it’s less extensive but full of ambition) from inside KDE.

Clearly, DigiKam has progressed a lot since it version 1.0 (at the time of this writing, it’s up to v1.4) and nobody can neglect it anymore. Its importance on the market is reflected in the kind of issues reported by useful posts like those I could collect here:

• DigiKam – Light table
• Watermark Photos with DigiKam
• Retouching photos
• Correct Lens Distortion with DigiKam

DigiKam is no longer a kid’s toy.

Last but not least, I’d like to mention one more resource, since we have to admit that it is not yet possible to fully ignore the presence of Windows when you swithc to Linux: How To Use Photoshop Plugins On Linux could be useful reading for the Linux photographer.

Eiffel Tower, by night – Copyright (C) Yves Roumazeilles

Now, I would like to underline the quality of a full series of posts, published by Patrick Moll on Alpha Numérique, and dedicated to comparing as precisely as possible the various offers now on the market to develop and improve as much as possible the pictures that -sometimes- we must shoot using very high levels of ISO sensitivity (with the troubling levels of digital noise that come with big ISO levels).

The list of the software programs taken into account is quite respectable:

• Image Data Converter 3
• Lightroom 3 / Camera Raw 6
• DxO Optics Pro 6
• Aperture 3
• Bibble Pro 5
• Capture One Pro 5
• ACDSee Pro 3
• Silkypix 4
• Lightzone 3
• Raw Developer 1 (dcraw)

Not bad, eh!

Even if the comparisons done here are not only for Sony photo cameras, Patrick Moll applied its tests to a quite appreciable list of cameras too:

• A100
• A550
• A700
• A900
• A330 (not ready yet when I published this post)

Even if you are not reading French, I highly recommend checking these (most of the posts are made of image comparisons using the yellow buttons to select the software program results you want to see). Even if you are equipped with Pentax, Canon or Nikon gear, the lessons you will draw from this are applicable on all the photo camera brands, concerning strengths and weaknesses of each of these software tools.

To understand the review process and the methodology, I would recommend the reading of (here, all in French):

• Introduction
• Réduction du bruit et accentuation

With the tests, body by body, you will immediately recognize the excellent results of Lightroom 3/Camera Raw 6 (these two Adobe software programs share a single common RAW file management core). Just behind, comes DxO Optics Pro 6 which is a bit more violent (or more accentuation prone) and the (not famous enough) Bibble Pro 5.

From this point, you will always be able to get the best from the photos you were forced into shooting in poor lighting conditions which required big ISO figures.