Open-source Capture One alternatives

darktable is an open-source photography application that works as a virtual lighttable and darkroom. It keeps digital negatives in a database, lets you browse them in a zoomable lighttable view, and provides a darkroom where raw images are developed and enhanced without altering the original files.

Edited images can be exported to local or remote storage. The project runs on Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Windows 10 and later, and Apple Silicon Macs on macOS 14 and later, and it includes optional AI features. A Lua API is documented separately, and extensions can be obtained from the community. The README is explicit that darktable is not meant to be a free copy of Adobe Lightroom.

The software is written in C and licensed under GPL-3.0. The user manual, Lua documentation and website each live in their own repositories, and the main README covers requirements, building from source, using test or stable versions, and common questions such as camera and lens detection.

RawTherapee is a cross-platform program for processing raw photos, released as free software under GPL version 3. It is written mostly in C++ with a GTK+ front end and gives users detailed control over the demosaicing and development process.

Raw files are read with a patched dcraw plus an in-house solution that adds support for certain camera models dcraw does not handle and improves accuracy for some it does. The program develops raw files from a wide range of digital cameras, along with HDR DNG files and non-raw formats: JPEG, TIFF and PNG.

The target audience runs from enthusiasts wanting to understand digital imaging to semi-professional photographers, and some knowledge of color science helps. The README notes that professionals may miss peripheral features like digital asset management, printing or uploading, which are left to other specialized software. Documentation is provided in RawPedia, and a user forum is on pixls.us.