Free and Open Source Software for Photographers and Graphic Designers (part 1)

A picture taken by my 12 year old photography enthusiast sans edititing.

As a mum of a keen tween photographer, I nod my head fervently when someone says that photography is a costly hobby. Good quality cameras and lenses alone cost a fortune, not to mention the other gear like tripods and what nots! And there is a lot more to photography than just clicking away on a camera.

But fortunately when it comes to software, there are a lot of open source and free software which can (almost) take the place of high end propietery software like the wonderful Adobe Creative Cloud. And the best part is that these software are not just for hobbyists. Some of these programs are powerful enough for professional photographers and graphic designers.

Being a hoarder of free stuff from around the web (I am the owner of a free educational technology magazine) I am sharing a list of free software for photographers, illustrators, graphic designers and everyone inbetween.

Image Viewers

1. Fast Stone
   FastStone Image Viewer is one of the best free RAW viewer you’ll find. It can view, organize, and even convert individual RAW files into other formats if necessary. Only available for Windows.
2. Geeqie
   Open all major photo formats quickly with color management. Geeqie can also display EXIF data, histograms and more in side bars and widgets so you can only choose the information you need to see. Unfortunately it is only available for Linux.

Monitor Calibration

1. DisplayCal
   DisplayCal has many advance features, such as measuring ambient light and a test chart editor.

Color Control:

1. Color Checker Passport
   Create custom color profiles on your camera for consistent images.

Photo and Meta Data Management:

1. Raw Therapee
   An alternative to Adobe Lightroom. It has the same ability to collect, organize, process, develop, and touch up many different photos.
2. Darktable
   Darktable is similar to Raw Therapee but is only available for Linux. Many users think it is superior to Raw Therapee.
3. DigiKam
   This application also provides a comprehensive set of tools for importing, managing, editing, and sharing photos and raw files across all three platforms, i.e. Windows, Mac and Linux.

(This is the first part in the series. Also check out the second part, third part and fourth part.)

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