Skimpin’ Aint Easy, But It Sure Is Fun
Shot at Nelson Ghost Town, edited with Darktable.
Gear costs money, and then you learn about editing. Our RAW photos are just a starting point, and editing programs can be an onerous (and sometimes recurring) expense. Fear not, true believers; photography need not be a black hole that subsumes all your cash. Free open source software (FOSS) is available that can give you professional-level editing results, provided you invest the time to learn to use these programs to their fullest. You won’t be spoon-fed, but you won’t go hungry.
For every major editing program the pros swear by, there is a FOSS alternative. When photography caught my eye, I wasn’t sure if it would be a fling or the love of my life. I didn’t want to whip a huge amount of money at it at first for this reason, augmented by my fundamental cheapness. Free editing programs could give me enough experience to see if I would love it enough to stick with it, and to determine whether the paid programs were vital to my photography. I found out that yes, I do love it, and guess what? The free programs were all I needed.
For fundamental photo editing, I use Darktable, developed by Aurélien Pierre. This program is analogous to Adobe Lightroom. It is actively updated, and there are plentiful online resources for education. Most of my questions can be answered in the online manual, which is succinct and highly organized. If I need to see a process from start to end, there are several YouTube channels devoted to editing with DarkTable (I recommend Rico Richardson, Riley Brandt, and Bruce Williams). Once you learn your way around the interface, I’ve found the best way to learn about the more nuanced features is to learn to do a specific thing, which will probably teach you about a couple of modules you haven’t used much yet. This is how I learned to do masking, split toning, and color grading. As an added bonus, once I learned my way around Darktable, I was also able to translate the vast plethora of Lightroom tutorials to the corresponding Darktable equivalents. Just find a photo you like the look of, find one of your RAWs you can use to practice, then find a video about the technique. Too easy, and totally free.
Composite of 4 images shot locally, combined and elements added using GIMP.
Darktable is great for fundamental photo editing, but different tasks require different tools. GIMP is your move here. GIMP is analogous to Photoshop, opening up a wide variety of weirdness for your creative whims. I have used GIMP to composite, distort, align, and clone out. I have also found it very useful and much more precise for editing portraits, particularly touching up skin and whitening teeth. You can make some basic skin edits in Darktable, but for more extensive retouching, GIMP is superior due to the ability to zoom way in and make changes on a tiny scale. This leads to a much more natural result. For clear, concise tutorials, my absolute fave is the Logos By Nick YouTube channel. There are plenty of GIMP tutorials out there, but Nick gets straight to the point and can teach in 5 minutes that which takes others 20. Again, I have come at my GIMP learning through investigating specific editing techniques as I need them. This ratchets down the intimidation factor of all those buttons and menus, and gently eases new users into familiarity with the program.
My most recent experience has been with Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve (the free version). I decided to give video a try, having been inspired by some travel videos I watched. One of the great things about DaVinci Resolve is that Blackmagic has made their training available online, for FREE. I have so far completed the editing module training, and about half of the color module training. The instructors are great, and the training is well-paced and thorough. As an added bonus, I learned a lot about sequencing video clips from watching the editing videos. This is an absolutely incredible resource, and I am excited to continue using it to create my video projects. Blackmagic Design has proven their commitment to education and the art of videography with their generous free offerings.
A simple video of a fire pit and market lights, edited with DaVinci Resolve.
The three programs I mentioned in this post have proven to be more than suffienct for my editing at this point. Your experience may differ, and paid programs may be right for you. I do think that it’s a good idea to give the free programs a go first, as you may be surprised by how well they meet your postprocessing needs. With a firm grasp of your range of software options, and an even firmer grip on your wallet, you can wisely outfit your editing arsenal.
