Adobe lightroom install on Linux Mint? + Linux alternatives

[Baphomet13]

I run Linux Mint 17 on a 64bit system.

I am quite new to video/photo editing. I want to edit my RAW files like somebody, who would do it with Adobe lightroom. I know the alternatives darktable and RawTherapee. I have them installed. My problem though is, that I can't find really good documentation and tutorials like on Adobe lightroom. For example I tried to put together a series of photos into a time lapse movie. I could not figure out, how this works in darktable or RawTherapee. In Adobe lightroom it is fairly simple.

So my idea was, I buy and install Adobe lightroom and learn with the loads of tutorials available, how to use it. Then I compare with the freeware versions for RAW editing available for Linux, which certainly lag behind the commerical version. But I would deal with it - once I knew, what I am doing there, what I am looking for, what is possible and what not.

Did anybody install Adobe lightroom 5.x successfully on a 64bit system?

I know, it has to be done either with Wine or a virtual maschine, VMware or virtualbox. I ask, because I found this link in wine:

https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager. ... n&iId=5839

version 5.x 64bit rating: garbage

If there is a successful way, could I plz have a howto?

Thanks.

[phd21]

Hi Baphomet13,

Save your money (or get your money back) and use the excellent FREE video and photo editing options that are available in Linux and Linux Mint and which easily rival most if not all commercial products (some are commercial products). There are also numerous very good tutorials for any these Linux applications available on the developers websites, the Internet, including YouTube.

It would help to have more specific information on your system setup, see FYI below.

Please be more specific on what you want to do. You mentioned "RAW" files, so do you have a camera that you are getting pictures from? If so, what make and model and how do you connect it to your Linux Mint system, USB, Firewire, etc..? You want to make a "time lapsed movie" from some images. There are so many way to do this with many free Linux programs from the Desktop GUI (Graphical User Interface) or the console terminal command line. What is your goal with this "movie" to play on your computer or other peoples computers, to put on a DVD, to put on a website, to play through your home network, to put on your phone, etc... All these options have various requirements and programs (applications) to do them, so need more information.

There are numerous free really good Linux video editors: Lives, Kdenlive, Lightworks (free & paid for), Flowblade, OpenShot, shotcut, Avidemux, Handbrake, etc ...

There are also numerous free really great free Linux photo editors: Gimp (probably in your menus) and Gimp plugins, Gwenview, Inkscape, Blender3D, and many more, etc...

There are also numerous really great free Linux programs to access your camera or video camera as well, including those already mentioned: digiKam, shotwell, videoporama, etc ...

photo image management workflow & editing: rawstudio, gtkrawgallery, darktable, etc...

"Videoporama" claims to be able to do exactly what you you wanted. "gtimelapse", etc...

A lot of these programs are available in your System Menu, Software Manager, or Synaptic Package Manager (SPM).
If you type in "raw". "raw photo", or "raw image", "digital camera", in the Software manager or SPM, you will see many programs that you might like to try.


FYI: It would help everyone here to have more information about your system's setup: like what edition and version of Linux Mint are you using, Cinnamon, Mate, KDE (my favorite), or Xfce; version 17 or 17.1, or What?; 32-bit or 64-bit? Some more information about your hardware would be useful as well. You can get this information from top of your system menu's Welcome screen, System Information program(s), and the best is by typing in "inxi -Fxz" from a console terminal prompt, which you can then copy and paste back here. This information helps anyone here in this forum to be able to answer any questions you may have better , thanks. You can even add this information (abbreviated) to your signature using the control panel link in the above left of this forum screen; then when you post a question or reply to one, that info will automatically be there, ex: see mine and others below their posts.

[richyrich]

Take a browse through this site to see if their free linux program will work for some part of what you want to accomplish. . .

http://www.openshot.org/

[rbmorse]

As much as I appreciate phd21's enthusiasm for the tools he mentioned, I must disagree that any of them can hold a candle to Lightroom/Photoshop for serious photography, especially the workflow management aspects.

The closest I've found, and the one I use, is Corel AfterShot Pro 2 https://store.aftershotpro.com/1184/pur ... aQodmaYDDg It is available in a native Linux version with installers for .deb and .rpm distributions.

AfterShot is not free software (but not terribly expensive). There's a 30-day trial period. It's not open-source software, so some Linux users will be allergic to it on religious grounds. I respect that, but when I come home from a field shoot with a couple of thousand images to sort and edit with a deadline of yesterday I want a tool designed to handle that kind of workload.

If you've been around awhile, AfterShot Pro will look familiar. It's the old Bibble Pro package with a different hair-do and a new dress.

[Baphomet13]

I got a Canon 700D with Magic Lantern on it. I can even connect the Camera with USB cabel to Linux mint and it recognizes the files. Then I download the RAW files.

I want to optimize my RAW images like it is done in Adobe Lightroom by professional photographers. I also want to be able to do time lapse for i.e. landscape photography. I need focus stacking for macros. I do wildlife photography. I want to be able to do HDRs, which I saw, is maybe possible with Gimp. I need to be able to compete with other photographers, who are either professional or amateurs, i.e. I am member in a community, who shoots Macros of insects. I got some okish pictures so far, but I am not competitive. I had already some great motives, but I was not able to produce the same quality like the others, because I have no idea to process them on Linux with software like the others. Problem is, they are all windows/adobe lightroom people.

I also want to do video interviews with the Camera and a h4n zoom recorder + Lavalier micro.

I have already a list of Linux programs, which might help me. Most of them installed: Darktable, RAWTerapee, Avidemux, blender, gimp etc.

If I search Tutorials with google or on YT, for the Linux programs I get only bit by bit some information, how I can reach similar results. Often the YT tutorials for Linux are made by very young guys, who made 1-2 vids and then they lost interest. While I find for Adobe Lightroom great classes and series like i.e. from Anthony Morganti. I would start some tutorial Vids myself to help the community. I already figured out, how SSR (simple screen recorder) works. But first I have to understand the programs and find solutions myself. First I have to understand, how professional photographers work (with low budget).

[Hoser Rob]

It's a rose tinted myth that you can always find linux apps that are as suitable for pro use as their win/os x 'equivalents'. For example Gimp does not have working pantone support, which makes it useless for professional. I know an artist who has been using photoshop for over 20 years ... to make his living ... and if gimp actually worked he would have been running linux for years.

Besides, if you want to turn pro then you have to use the standard tools.

I actually don't even have any windows anymore but if I was doing certain things (like that) I'd have at least one windows partition.

You hinted at the answer in the first post. Clearly wine doesn't work. It often doesn't. You need to run windows in a virtual machine. Virtualbox is best for less technical users.

As mentioned, though, you didn't mention hardware or the DE Mint version you have. These sorts of media programs are not lightweight, and running virtualbox will use even more resources. You may want to use a lightweight DE.

[phd21]

Hi Baphomet13, and anyone else,

Since others have posted the "professional" aspect of photo and video editing, I thought I would continue my thoughts on this.

1. First, I don't think that Baphomet13 is a professional photographer based upon their comments, no offense intended.

2. Secondly, there are commercial products available that are "cross platform" which means they run on Linux too that do cost some money. I do not see anything wrong with a professional, or anyone else, in their "field(s)" of interest, such as photographer, spending money on their system and software. And, I am not saying that all Linux programs are a perfect fit for all professionals, but that with a little effort even professionals in whatever field can find suitable workable Linux applications and programs that are often as good or better than their Ms Windows or Mac counterparts. I updated my previous post to include even more options for this and there are still more available.

As another user "rbmorse" pointed out there is also a program "AfterShot Pro2" that is supposed to be really good for $55 US.
http://www.aftershotpro.com/en/products ... pro/#tab=1

User "Hoser Rob" claims, " Gimp does not have working pantone support, which makes it useless for professional. ". I think that there are many professional photographers, and other professionals, that might take issue with that. If I am not mistaken, Pantone seems to be for printing stuff with "color calibration". There is a program called "Scribus" which works on Linux and can use the proprietary "Pantone" palettes, see link below. There might be other programs & applications that can use "Pantone" as well ... From what I have read most users find that with a good printer that Gimp and its add-ons (plugins) like gimp-gutenprint, and other program and utilities can produce excellent printing results.

There are also programs like "icc-profiles", which can integrate with Gimp, DigiKam, Krita, Scribus, Cinepaint, etc... I think provides similar functions to "Pantone". I do not know how to use these (yet), but others do.

How to legally obtain spot colour palettes for use in Scribus 1.3.3.x and later versions
Getting and Using Pantone COLOR BRIDGE® Palettes; Getting and Using Pantone Goe™ Palettes
http://wiki.scribus.net/canvas/How_to_l ... r_versions

3. It is the results that matter. Obviously finding tools that help make getting those results that you want better, faster, and easier, are a good thing. And, considering this user is using Linux Mint, I would highly recommend at least trying some the available Linux programs to see if they will work for their projects and interests.

4. Do not discount tutorials on YouTube, or anywhere else, just because you think a younger person created them because that would be biased and illogical. There are some brilliant young people out there that have prepared all kinds of things including very nice tutorials, some as young as 13 years old have contributed to Linux Mint development as well. That is not to say that I have not seen some terrible tutorials from people of all ages. But, you do have to make some effort in locating good sources for anything. There are a lot of good people in this forum and elsewhere that will gladly point you in a good direction, if you ask nicely. The developers of these applications (programs) often have excellent manuals, & tutorials on their websites, and if you search on the internet, like YouTube, you can find others. If you install "YouTube DL" and "YouTube DL GUI", then you can download the video tutorials that you do like to your local machine to view and learn offline as well.

Example: PhotoAdvanced has really great tutorials for Gimp, Inkscape, Blender, etc ...See their "playlists" which you can download entire playlist, or one video, easily with Youtube DL GUI.
https://www.youtube.com/user/PhotoAdvanced

Linux digikam
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... ux+digikam

digiKam is an advanced digital photo management application for Linux, Windows, and Mac-OSX.
The people who inspired digiKam's design are the photographers like you who want to view, manage, edit, enhance, organize, tag, and share photographs under Linux systems. You can take a look into the digiKam Overview page to take a tour or the Features page to see more advanced information about.
https://www.digikam.org/about/overview

AfterShot Pro2 vs Lightrooom Video
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... +lightroom

AfterShot Pro2 tutorials
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... 2+tutorial



Hope this helps ...

[phd21]

Hi Baphomet13, and anyone else,

Additional Topic: HDR Photography on Linux (HDR = High Dynamic Range)

Note: in the Software Manager, search under "HDR" to find related programs ...

HDR-image-plugin-for-digiKam
https://github.com/SOUMAJYOTI/HDR-image ... or-digiKam



Articles and Posts on HDR and Linux

Ian Hex a talented photographer whose workflow is completely under Linux, joins us to discuss his must have open source photo management tools for Linux, how he creates his amazing HDR images, and his thoughts on strengths and weakness of using Linux for photography.
http://www.jupiterbroadcasting.com/4984 ... as-s30e06/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mpM3izXpFg

HDR photos with the GIMP by PKM
http://www.instructables.com/id/HDR-pho ... -the-GIMP/


Best Free High Dynamic Range (HDR) Software
http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-fr ... ftware.htm

Luminance HDR in your Software Manager. Luminance HDR is an open source graphical user interface application that aims to provide a workflow for HDR imaging.

Linux Tools For Serious Photographers
http://scribblesandsnaps.com/linux-tool ... ographers/

What software should I use for HDR processing on Linux?
http://photo.stackexchange.com/question ... g-on-linux

Process HDR images using "darktable".
http://www.darktable.org/2012/10/proces ... darktable/

6 of the Best Free Linux HDR Imaging Software
http://www.linuxlinks.com/article/20100 ... aging.html

* Good article - The Grumpy Editor's guide to HDR with Linux - shows original photos then HDR versions (using CinePaint)
https://lwn.net/Articles/225652/

Exposure blending with digiKam (and KIPI-plugins)
http://bing-photography.com/?p=101

Stitch Panoramas in digiKam
http://scribblesandsnaps.com/2012/10/17 ... n-digikam/


DigiKam humiliates Photoshop in HDR challenge
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/36596927

http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/32-d ... nge-4.html


Again, hope this helps ...

[Flemur]

Good thread here....

I want to be able to do HDRs, which I saw, is maybe possible with Gimp.

I tried some gimp plugin/script for HDR - forget which one - and it was pretty poor.
The windows programs Photomatrix Pro / Essentials run well under wine.

For panoramas, autopano has a linux version.

[Baphomet13]

Thanks for the great answers phd21.

About my level as photographer: Pretty much noob/rook. I got my Canon since May. My goal is, if I join a competition with lots of professional photographers in it, I want the difference to be small. I also see a lot of amateurs, who are really good. I just do not know yet any Linux users among them, especially in my country.

I also searched yesterday for alternatives. I found other tools like ensue and hugin. I'll post later more.

If somebody knows, whether lightroom 6 (no CC) runs in a virtual box/VM ware or wine (I have a 64bit OS) and whether there are complications, I still would like to know it. My PC should be able to handle the 20 % (?) more usage of resources.

[ramk]

Hi

Interesting post and the series of replies afterwords.

Am hearing some folks talk about the fact that linux software cannot hold a candle to some of the pro-stuff out there, and that Linux users are wearing rose tinted glasses.

Maybe , just maybe. But lets look at some facts shall we- in the context of still photography.

The actual art of capturing stuff does not have anything to do with the equipment or the post process follow up. It is a creative art in the eyes of the beholder.
After saying that - the next crucial piece of this puzzle is the physical equipment - the pro stuff is amazing ., it makes a world of difference in the final output. This pro equipment costs big money - semi pro stuff is less expensive and can deliver very good results.

Now there are a plethora of low end high mega pixel stuff. One realises their short comings in terms of quality only when editing or comparing with results from a high end camera. The gear list is endless and one can spend a lot of money just improving all aspects of the gear.

The third aspect to this equation is the software - to do a few things

• organize
• shortlist and select the best images
• raw image processing
• edit - crop, touch up , clean, enhance, recolor (or any of the fancy digital make up one wants to do ** a caveat here - am a nature photographer and am not in favor or digital manipulation of the image
• HDR processing
• Panorama's etc

and anything else.

**
Over the last 15 years I have used a variety of camera's and have quite a lot of pictures , to Store across multiple disks , manage, access, reaccess, name, tag , sort, find and use for reports, printing etc.

The tools i use are
Digikam for almost everything -

• it does everything from importing the images into any folder organization one needs
• it organizes by date , by folder, by tags , by sub tags ,
• castore in multiple locations but still provide all the info in one place- this is a boon for people with large volume of pictures
• it displays raw very well, so does away with the need to have raw+jpeg - this is a huge saving in space and also in time when processing.
• can run multiple bulk / batch functions - incredible if one wants to resize, rename, watermark and more in one shot.
• it can create panorama's
• it has a virtual light table to select between similar images
• it can upload directly to favored sites (or not at all)
• access to external editors - so from within digikam i can access any other software that is installed
• One can create tags and organize pictures by tags. The tags per picture is endless - so be very careful when downloading tagged images from the net onto digikam they tend to be full of crap tags (the downloaded images i.e)

The digikam list is endless - it has a harder learning curve but at the end it saves a huge amount of time.

Rawtherapee for raw image processing
its quite simple and the results are very very good. There are other tools too , i find this pretty good

Other to use when special features are required
1. Inkscape for vector drawings
2. gthumb for fast viewing and quick renaming etc
3. Imagination for still picture based video creation, with effects and sound
4. gimp for fancy digital art creation (as well as inkscape)
5. hugin for panorama's - (digikam uses th hugin functionality when creating panorama's ) but hugin has more options

***

However the point i am trying to make here are these -

1. Linux has the tools, and one just has to prep for it - the solution you are looking for may not be built into one software buy maybe in two or more processes.
2. There are adequate tutorials on almost every aspect of Linux based photo - editing.
3.. The money saved from buying expensive software would be better spent on a) better hardware b) better photography education books etc.



hope this is useful
ram

[BenTrabetere]

About my level as photographer: Pretty much noob/rook. I got my Canon since May. My goal is, if I join a competition with lots of professional photographers in it, I want the difference to be small.

My advice to you is to concentrate on learning to take photographs. Learn to see an image before you look through the viewfinder. Learn about composition and light. Learn how to critique your 'As Shot' images.

The best way I've found to develop skills is to give yourself an assignment - a reason to drag out the camera. An interesting assignment I recently found is the Two Dozen: Stand one spot and make 24 unique photographs while standing in the same place. It is a lot harder than you would think. You can find this exercise (and a dozen more) at

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/pho ... rs?BI=4906

At this point I would discourage you from trying to be competitive. I encourage you to enter competitions and to allow other photographers to critique your images. Just don't go into it expecting your images to be equal or better than more advanced, experienced photographers - that path leads to disappointment and frustration.

Also learn to use your equipment. I while I firmly believe a good photographer can take great photographs using inferior equipment - Jimi Hendrix didn't need '68 Olympic White Stratocaster to play like Jimi Hendrix - I will not deny that in the hands of an experienced photographer better (or more appropriate) equipment will give better results. A 700D is a capable piece of gear (I shoot a SL1/100D, which has similar specs), but it does not give you the same control you would get with professional kit like, say, a 5D.

You didn't mention which lenses you use, but if all you have is the EF-S 18-55mm "kit" lens, an entirely adequate piece of gear IMO, but it is a general-purpose lens. Great for snapshots, okay for landscapes, and entirely inadequate for macros. A macro you take with a 700D and the "kit" lens is not going to be anywhere close the quality of image taken by a professional using a 5D and a EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro. Keep that in mind when you compare your macros to those from more experienced people in the group.

As for software....

I have no idea to process them on Linux with software like the others. Problem is, they are all windows/adobe lightroom people

...who know how to use Lightroom. This is definitely a case were experience using a tool has more bearing than the tool itself. I have used Photoshop for nearly 20 years, and I am still learning to use it. While GIMP would be a suitable replacement for much (not all) of what I do in Photoshop, I stick with Photoshop CS2 because it works well under Wine. If I were starting today I would use RawTherapee and GIMP.

A good friend of mine was a photographer at the Dallas Morning News, and in another past life he was an university-level instructor. He spent one month taking pictures using only his iPhone. Even though he has and knows how to use Photoshop and Lightroom, all of his images are processed using ... iPhoto. His workflow rarely extends past cropping, straightening and very basic color correction. He is able to have such a simple workflow because he is working with images that don't need much post-processing.

[ramk]

Hi Ben ( BenTrabetere)

Very nice , and thank you for the links.

Just to add another picture quote, something that i like a lot for what it says about being creative.

And there is a (likely apocryphal) story that tells the tale of an encounter between famous novelist Ernest Hemingway and famous photographer Ansel Adams. In the story, Hemingway is purported to have praised Adams’ photographs, saying, "You take the most amazing pictures. What kind of camera do you use?"

Adams frowned and then replied, "You write the most amazing stories. What kind of typewriter do you use?"

this is from here http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/10/ ... a-vs-dslr/

regards
ram

[ac015]

So, how to install Lightroom in the end?

I know there are great alternatives, I use them sometimes, I know they're great and I know how to install them. I need help with Lightroom.

Why do I need it when there are so many good Linux programs? I know to work in it, and sometimes I don't have the time to explore or experiment. Sometimes I just need the job done quickly. I want it working on my computer, it makes me feel safe, it has nothing to do with Linux not having good programs. Maybe I don't even need it, but I want it working. Running it on Linux might mean that I might never need Windows again. Please help!

I have Mint 17.3, Nvidia GeForce GTX, Intel Core i7, I'm running Photoshop and Illustrator on PlayOnLinux, WINE didn't seem to work right.

Nice resources, btw!

[prestonR]

Seems to work with 5.7 but is it reliable? Defeats the purpose if the install needs a lot of maintenance.
https://youtu.be/sbCtDuxbPHU

[baldrick.777]

For my 2 cents. ..

I think its pretty unfair to say that compared to ps or lr, open source alternatives don't rate.

I've been using only open source software since I began with photography around five years ago. Albeit with a little flutter with the above forementioned Aftershot Pro.

I have used the latest versions of raw therapee, darktable and others. All are excellent and extremely capable - some even offer more useful plugins than ps or lr.

One site you really ought to visit is discuss.pixls.us. It's where anyone can ask questions, find tutorials and even converse with the various software developers.

The latest software I'm trailing is an appimage for the latest dev version of gimp, which is found on this site. In it it had Photoflow (a non destructive raw editor) plugin and the ever popular g'mic filter plugin, making this a very powerful all-in-one editor. The whole thing is also fully colour managed and caters for upto a massive 64bit floating point precision.

To get some idea of what open source can do, feel free to check out some of my work in my sig below or at https://flickr.com/photos/fotonutnz.

It will take some time to learn, but it will be worth the effort. Rome wasn't built in a day, as the saying goes. In the last two years alone I have won two local photography awards using only what open source had to offer, that's way ahead of the proprietary apps the others used. I think that speaks volumes for the quality that is open source.

Check out professional photographers like Pat David and Riley Brandt among many others who just use the same open source photography software.

I really recommend the gimp appimage and the pixls.us as a great starting point.

All the best, and don't be in any hurry to learn!

Cheers.

[caz]

@ baldrick.777

Just checked out your photo gallery. The one of Tasha had me laughing, that's one grumpy looking cat