UKH

I'm away from home at the moment with my aged laptop running Linux and a shed load of images just downloaded onto it.

The laptop was relegated to surfing the interwide web with Linix and not for anything more advanced that trolling on here because it would not play nicely with Windows 10.

Enough of all that, is there anything that I can use to view RAW images accurately?

I can view JPEGS fine and dandy however if I try to view a RAW image then all I get is some sort of 1970's crappy incorrectly processed from Boots. Its like the image has had a Ye Oldie filter added to the image which makes it look faded and drab.

Anybody know of any Linux software that will do the RAW files justice, or tell me what I am doing wrong with the installed software to make my images look crap?

In reply to The Lemming:

Darktable! Darktable is awesome.

In reply to Longsufferingropeholder:


Tried that but for some reason Darktable too, gives the 1970's makeover.

Either my laptop is too old or its down to user stupidity.

In reply to Longsufferingropeholder:


What he said.

In reply to The Lemming:
White balance set to something daft? Pretty sure when you first open a file it shows you what the camera thinks it should be.

Edit: if you export a jpeg from it does it still look rubbish?

In reply to The Lemming:

It's unlikely to be the computer... What's the camera? It could be a RAW format that Darktable doesn't handle very well... Otherwise it is a fairly steep learning curve - are you able to share any examples?

In reply to Longsufferingropeholder:

I don't have a scooby how to set White balance in Darktable. However for a split second the RAW image looks perfect and then in the blink of an eye the image looks all washed out.

JPEGS look fine and dandy.

In reply to The Lemming:

RAW from which camera (and model)?

In reply to The Lemming:

also: which distro (and version)?

In reply to The Lemming:
Even the ones spit out from darktable's interpretation of your RAW files??

In reply to robhorton:


the camera is a Panasonic GH4.

The poorly laptop struggles to play the 4k videos captured with the camera. Got a feeling that the laptop is too old and slow to render the videos.

In reply to strawbale:


Linux Mint 17.3

I tried installing some software while following some website and commands for the Command Line. I had to do all this in the Administrator account and then reboot. Something went tits-up and I can no longer boot up into the Administrator account. Some files are corrupted from this task. I will have to wait till I go home next week to reinstall Linux Mint.

Even before the fek-up with the software, I still had the image problem.

In reply to The Lemming:

what laptop (specs)?

In reply to The Lemming:

I can view JPEGS fine and dandy however if I try to view a RAW image then all I get is some sort of 1970's crappy incorrectly processed from Boots. Its like the image has had a Ye Oldie filter added to the image which makes it look faded and drab.

Isn't there a possibility that the unedited RAW files actually are 'crap' and that the cameras software has made the JPEG's 'look good' before viewing on your laptop?

In reply to Longsufferingropeholder:


The RAW files look awful, but strangely the thumbnails look perfect. Obviously something has gone wrong somewhere.

I even had a stab at reinstalling all my image viewing software in case this reset the settings back to default.

In reply to The Lemming:

Is this familiar http://imgur.com/6v0mbUb ? (linked from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7956417)

In reply to The Lemming:

Best to ask on a Mint forum, as, as far as I know, not all viewers work (well) on every distro.

Maybe gthumb: https://community.linuxmint.com/software/view/gthumb

In reply to Longsufferingropeholder:

Yep. The image on the left hand side of the first link is similar to my woes.

The second link does not work though, sorry.

In reply to The Lemming:
I think I'm leaning towards a suspicion of an inkling...
https://redmine.darktable.org/issues/10204
Your camera wasn't supported in old versions of darktable. The version of darktable in the ubuntu repos is a very old version of darktable (1.4-2).
The solution, which sounds academic now anyway, is either:
Install the latest from darktable.org or the PPA
or
Turn off the Base Curve module (click on original in the history stack then compress history stack)

In reply to Longsufferingropeholder:


Ahhh, that sounds better than my laptop being old and past it.

When I get home, I may tinker with a more current version of Linux Mint, provided its as reliable as the Long Term setup.

Thanks everybody for helping me out.

In reply to The Lemming:
New version of Mint won't necessarily change anything. I think it'll still grab an old version of darktable.
I'd recommend doing what https://launchpad.net/~pmjdebruijn/+archive/ubuntu/darktable-release says, i.e.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pmjdebruijn/darktable-release
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install darktable

Should work, and hopefully it'll help encourage you to make the switch

For when you get started: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmvlUro_Up1NBX7VK8UUuyWo1B468zEA0

In reply to Longsufferingropeholder:



No thanks. I have no desire to jump though any hoops. Why does Linux have to be so high maintenance especially when Google's Android has it nailed.

In reply to The Lemming:

Because there are more Linux distros than Google desserts

In reply to The Lemming:


xxd | less

In reply to The Lemming:

Linux is more flexible, and you have more choice of applications. Adding a repository and installing the application is still way easier in Linux than it used to be in Windows for example.

In reply to planetmarshall:
I have some objections to that:

1. less is only for slow readers.
1a. A good photo should make an impression immediately.
2. xxd and other hex dump tools are for young whippersnappers. Go binary or go home!



More sensibly: Does darktable use dcraw under the hood?

In reply to davidbeynon:

Pretty sure no: http://www.darktable.org/about/

In reply to davidbeynon:


No, it has its own developing routines. Source available on github -

https://github.com/darktable-org/darktable