Is there any free software that's similar to LightRoom?

[RichW9]

My Adobe contract comes to an end this month and I don't want to continue my subscription. I'm very much against pay per month software and feel I was misinformed that there would be a monthly charge. I just want to pay a set price for software and use it indefinitely.

Is anyone using a similar software to LightRoom that is free, or not pay monthly, that I can use for photo editing? What is a more recent (2021) software that people are using? The simpler the better. Thank you very much for any advice.

 

[Retune]

As you shoot Nikon, have a look at NX Studio:

Nikon | Download center | NX Studio

Review: Nikon NX Studio answers our plea for a free, all-in-one editing app

Nikon's new NX Studio software suite combines the company's previous ViewNX-i and CaptureNX-D applications into a single one-stop solution for editing Raw files from your Nikon digital camera. Find out more about its updates and enhancements in our review.

www.dpreview.com

and Capture One Express:

Buy Capture One

Get Capture One's flagship photo editing software, trusted by pros and studios worldwide. Capture One Pro supports files from all major camera brands.

www.captureone.com

Free packages not limited to Nikon include:

Home

rawtherapee.com

darktable

darktable is an open source photography workflow application and raw developer

www.darktable.org

LightZone | Open-source digital darkroom software for Windows/Mac/Linux

lightzoneproject.org

Packages with fixed prices include:

Welcome to DxO - Best Photo Editing Software

Unlock your potential with DxO's advanced, award-winning photo-editing software: PhotoLab, ViewPoint, PureRAW, FilmPack and Nik Collection. Free trials available.

www.dxo.com

Raw Photo Editor | Buy Raw Photo Editing Software Online - ON1

Unlock your creativity with the ultimate raw photo editing software. ON1 Photo RAW makes raw photo editing effortless with the help of AI. Edit, organize, and process your photos while maintaining the highest image quality. Purchase or subscribe to Photo RAW raw editing software from ON1 now!

www.on1.com

For a Photoshop rather than a Lightroom replacement Affinity Photo is excellent (currently half price):

Affinity Photo – award-winning photo editing software

The only fully-loaded photo editor integrated across macOS, Windows and iPad, Affinity Photo is the first choice of millions of professionals around the world.

affinity.serif.com

and the current version of GIMP is also nice:

GIMP

GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program: The Free and Open Source Image Editor

www.gimp.org

 

[RichW9]

Wow, that's brilliant I will take a look at those, thank you very much! Appreciated.

 

[lindsay]

I've just been editing with NX Studio on my 2015 iMac 8Gb Big Sur, and whilst it does seem to offer much of what LR does, it doesn't run quickly enough - every change I make takes about 3 secs to render on the screen. It probably would work much better on an M1 Mac or a fast pc.

 

[Ben johns]

Capture 1 express is really good but it doesn’t have local adjustments like the brush, graduated or radial filter. For general stuff I prefer it to Lightroom though

 

[RichW9]

I've just been editing with NX Studio on my 2015 iMac 8Gb Big Sur, and whilst it does seem to offer much of what LR does, it doesn't run quickly enough - every change I make takes about 3 secs to render on the screen. It probably would work much better on an M1 Mac or a fast pc.

Capture 1 express is really good but it doesn’t have local adjustments like the brush, graduated or radial filter. For general stuff I prefer it to Lightroom though

Thanks both! The thing I like about LightRoom is the import to Library aspect, I can just plug my camera (D500) into my computer and it will import the ones I select, the export after editing is also really easy. Can you do that with NX or Capture 1?

I don't really do massive jobs with Lightroom, just change the exposure when I mess up my camera settings (often lol) and increase vibrance a bit, maybe sharpen a little, that sort of stuff. So I think both those programs will work well. It's just the import and export functionality I would like to know more about.

 

[Retune]

Thanks both! The thing I like about LightRoom is the import to Library aspect, I can just plug my camera (D500) into my computer and it will import the ones I select, the export after editing is also really easy. Can you do that with NX or Capture 1?

I don't really do massive jobs with Lightroom, just change the exposure when I mess up my camera settings (often lol) and increase vibrance a bit, maybe sharpen a little, that sort of stuff. So I think both those programs will work well. It's just the import and export functionality I would like to know more about.

NX Studio does have some local adjustments (Control Points and the Retouch Brush). It doesn't really have the same concept of a library as LR, but importing and exporting files is straightforward:

NX Studio Help

Online help for NX Studio from Nikon, detailing how to use application features.

nikonimglib.com

The Download Process

nikonimglib.com

Saving Pictures in Other Formats

nikonimglib.com

Capture One has catalogues and libraries, though features are more limited in the free Express version:

An overview of Catalogs

Click here to learn more about Sessions A Catalog is a primary method of working in Capture One and it’s where all of the various steps in your workflow will be carried out, including image importi...

support.captureone.com

 

[Retune]

Incidentally, this looks interesting:

agriggio / ART / wiki / Home — Bitbucket

bitbucket.org

It's a derivative of Raw Therapee with what's claimed to be a streamlined, easier to use interface, with some stuff added, other stuff rewritten, and less useful stuff removed. Not much documentation at the moment, but could be worth a look.

 

[Ben johns]

Thanks both! The thing I like about LightRoom is the import to Library aspect, I can just plug my camera (D500) into my computer and it will import the ones I select, the export after editing is also really easy. Can you do that with NX or Capture 1?

I don't really do massive jobs with Lightroom, just change the exposure when I mess up my camera settings (often lol) and increase vibrance a bit, maybe sharpen a little, that sort of stuff. So I think both those programs will work well. It's just the import and export functionality I would like to know more about.

Capture 1 express can only export to a folder, whereas Lightroom can do that but can also be linked to a Flickr account as well as a few others. As for importing you just drag photos or folders and a separate tab appears on the left with the date of import for those photos. I’ve only messed around a little bit with but I’m looking at switching to Fuji in a bit so I’ll be using it most of the time

 

[RichW9]

Thanks all, will give them a try when my LightRoom subscription runs out at the end of the month!

Incidentally, this looks interesting:

agriggio / ART / wiki / Home — Bitbucket

bitbucket.org

It's a derivative of Raw Therapee with what's claimed to be a streamlined, easier to use interface, with some stuff added, other stuff rewritten, and less useful stuff removed. Not much documentation at the moment, but could be worth a look.

Interesting indeed! I didn't know there was som much choice out there other than Adobe. Could have saved myself some money!

Thanks again.

 

[RichardC27]

My Adobe contract comes to an end this month and I don't want to continue my subscription. I'm very much against pay per month software and feel I was misinformed that there would be a monthly charge. I just want to pay a set price for software and use it indefinitely.

Is anyone using a similar software to LightRoom that is free, or not pay monthly, that I can use for photo editing? What is a more recent (2021) software that people are using? The simpler the better. Thank you very much for any advice.

How have you been misinformed that there was a monthly subscription? Lightroom has been subscription only for years now

 

[vintageman]

ACDsee does everything LR can do and more.
Here's a comparison of its features and most of the other suggestions here.
Prices are in US dollars as I can't find the uk link although I downloaded and paid with £