What is Reddit's opinion of
LightZone?
From 3.5 billion Reddit comments
12 reviews of this app found across Reddit:
Photographer here! If you've got some cash to spend, there's nothing on the market I like more than Adobe Lightroom. It has nearly all the editing power you'll need, is highly extendable, and is the choice of pro photogs all over. You can buy a copy on Amazon for $150 US, or better (in my opinion), get the Adobe CC Photography plan for $10 a month and get a legit copy of Photoshop, too. Going the CC route also gives you access to Lightroom Mobile (both Android and that other platform). I don't know if the non-subscription model has access to this or not, but it's a nice perk to toss in (I don't really use it much in my workflow, so I can't say if it's any good or not. Has decent reviews on Google Play, though!)
If cash is an issue, or you're like the many people who hate subscription software, there's a free, open source Lightroom alternative called LightZone. This is awesome since it works on Mac, Linux, and Windows. I've used it a bit just to be in the know, and it sounds like a solid alternative. I hear that some of the Lightroom presets around can even work in LightZone. The big turn off for me is that I've just become so accustomed to the way Lightroom manages photo collections, it's hard for me to switch.
For storage, I've got a combo of a paid CrashPlan account to backup my photo RAID (which gets everything, including my lightroom presets, library configs, etc) and then another copy of final edits on Amazon Photos (they do straight RAW for some cameras, but if you can convert to DNG, that should let you upload anyhow).
I use both LightZone (http://lightzoneproject.org) which is free, not opensource and reqiures registration, Darktable and find them to be very acceptable. I also use GIMP and Fotoxx (Linux only). I am far from a professional but get good results.
It depends on what you mean when you talk about "photo editing". If you're looking for something along the lines of a "digital darkroom" rather than "photoshopping", LightZone is a great product.
It has 16 "zones" for light/mid-tone/shadow (dodge/burn), controls for hue, saturation, color temp, etc. Allows for limited cloning (e.g., removing imperfections), and is 100% non-destructive.
Use Adobe DNG Converter. It's completely free, and converts your raw files into .dng files, which are universally compatible raw files.
Then download RawTherapee or LightZone to edit your .dng files.
Do you shoot RAW? If so there's a couple of good free editors out there that compete with Lightroom
My favorite is Lightzone http://lightzoneproject.org/
RAW Threrapee is also well regarded
GIMP is a nice free Photoshop competitor, although the UI is a bit tough to deal with if you're used to PS.
Free alternatives to Lightroom:
http://rawtherapee.com
http://www.darktable.org
http://lightzoneproject.org
I personally have baught Lightroom and don't use any of those and can't comment on their quality. A coworker of mine I think uses Darktable tho and is pretty happy with it.
Well, you could always give a few free options a spin and see if they meet your needs. All of these do support e-m10 mk2
Of these, Darktable probably has most features and I rarely use / need any other tools unless I need to do pixel level manipulation. However, it's only available for Linux and Mac.
It is possible to reduce the noise in most post-processing software for photographs, but that will always reduce the detail in a picture.
I personally use Lightroom 5 for such tasks, but I heard that Lightzone is also very nice. Especially if you consider that it's free :)
But to be honest, considering that this picture is already lacking details, I don't think the outcome will be much better. Sometimes pictures simply can't be saved.
Since you say that you can't afford LR, and I'm not one to push anyone towards piracy, I'm going to give you the best free alternatives:
Don't use GIMP for RAW editing, the interface isn't well suited for it. When you see the interfaces for LR and similar programs, you'll understand what I mean. The simple layout really helps you to experiment with all the sliders and options, which is definitely not the case in GIMP (unless it's changed in recent times).
Also, LightZone is an excellent photo workflow and editing software available for Linux (used to be proprietary but is now free of charge). To get it, you have to follow a strange registration process on their website, though: http://lightzoneproject.org/
Edited for clarification: Its not open source AFAIK.
That's a blog post from 2010. Here's the projects home page: lightzoneproject.org.
It looks like it's being updated, but I don't understand why you need to register and be approved in order to use it...
Looks like they have their own youtube channel with videos as well.