Photography isn’t my profession, but I love taking mediocre photos and making them beautiful through editing. I’ve been using Adobe Lightroom since I learned editing, and I never thought I’d switch to another platform.
This is a compliment to Adobe Lightroom. But the tool isn’t free—it costs almost $120 a year. Although there is 1TB of cloud storage with the subscription, it’s still not cheap, especially for someone who doesn’t do photo editing professionally.
I started looking for alternatives for this reason. After weeks of scouting online, I finally found something worth switching to. The best part is that it is free for everyone and is open source.
CalibRaw is a free and open source Adobe Lightroom alternative that saved me from paying Adobe $120 a year. Here is why I loved it so much and ended up ditching Lightroom for it.
CalibRaw feels very Lightroom-like, and it’s easy to get started
CalibRaw has everything I used in Lightroom
You don’t need to learn a completely new editing system if you switch from Lightroom to CalibRaw. It feels similar to Lightroom, so much so that I didn’t read the documentation on how to get started.
On its GitHub download page, the About section of CalibRaw proudly calls itself a “Free, open source Lightroom-style RAW editor.” After using it for a few weeks, I feel the same.
CalibRaw offers all the sliders and editing tools you expect from Lightroom or any other RAW editor. You get controls such as Light, Color, Tone Curve, Color Grading, Color Mixer, Effects, Masks, Lens Correction, HDR Merging, and more.
CalibRaw can also remove unnecessary objects using AI. The AI processing happens locally on your device, so I can work on my personal photos peacefully. I don’t need to upload large RAW files to cloud services for the AI tools to work.
I don’t use all these tools every day, and I don’t need to, but these are all essential editing tools that every photo editor needs. I felt at home because I was already familiar with them in Lightroom.
CalibRaw’s workflow features make the app a complete package
Workflow features are just as important. Editing software with a strong toolset doesn’t help much if I can’t work efficiently. CalibRaw handles this with workflow tools that keep you from repeating the same work across a collection of photos.
My favorite is the Presets feature. It lets you create any number of adjustment groups, masks, and profile choices, then apply them to the rest of the photos.
So you can edit a photo from a collection, save the settings as a preset, and then apply it to all your photos if you want the same edits everywhere.
I also love the Non-Destructive Edits feature. This ensures CalibRaw doesn’t change my original photos even after editing, letting me create multiple versions of the same RAW file.
Moreover, these files are easy to find in CalibRaw. I can find the exact image by using its Sort & Filter option in the Library. You can sort by date, filename, file size, flags, ratings, and whether it’s RAW or JPEG.
All these features make my job easier.
CalibRaw is also available on mobile
I love its Android app
Like Lightroom, CalibRaw has an Android app. It’s free to download and install, and you don’t need to pay anything to unlock any features, unlike Lightroom.
The CalibRaw Android app isn’t as capable as its desktop counterpart, but it includes many of my favorite tools, such as Presets, Curves, Masks, automatic straightening, and more.
Most mobile phone captures are in JPEG format, and you can edit those images in the CalibRaw app. It supports JPEG, PNG, and HEIC.
On my Android phone, I can open the same DNGs as on my desktop version. However, these features are relatively new and weren’t available when I first downloaded the app on my phone.
This gives me hope that CalibRaw will keep improving on Android, and I can’t wait.
I don’t miss Lightroom
I’ve been using CalibRaw for quite some time, and I never felt it lacked any of the features I used in Lightroom. However, I would love to see CalibRaw become more reliable with future updates.
I love the app even more on Android. Many of the tools available under the subscription are available for free in CalibRaw. Again, the only issue that I would point out for now is reliability.
However, given how fast it is improving, I’m sure the mobile app will be more stable with added features. CalibRaw is already one of my favorite photo editing tools on Android, and I’m ready to love it even more.
I have no reason to miss Lightroom.