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 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 color 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 optimized 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 fa­mil­iar­iz­ing 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 gray 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 op­ti­miza­tion - from cropping and rotating to gradation curves, color 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 favorite 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 organize 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 optimize 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 op­ti­miz­ing 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 color 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 op­ti­miza­tion 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 or­ga­niz­ing 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, organize, 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, color, 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 organize 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, organize, 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 optimize them with various features. With basic functions such as retouch, crop, effect filters, color, 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.