PHOTOMATOR VS DARKROOM (2023): WHICH IS THE SUPERIOR RAW EDITOR FOR YOUR APPLE DEVICES IN 2023?

Photomator and Darkroom are two of the most renowned RAW editors in the Apple AppStore known for its intuitive interface, extensive features and advanced AI. But which one is the better app for RAW editing? This is a question many viewers have been asking and after receiving many requests for a comparison I'm finally happy to oblige! In this video we do an in-depth analysis of features, performance and overall value of each app and at the end I'll give a final conclusion on which app is the one to get!

[@andricheli]

This was really helpful and timely! I have ditched Lightroom (done with them on so many levels), and had narrowed down my replacement apps to Darkroom and Photomator. As soon as I started using the apps, I immediately discovered Darkroom did not allow me to adjust masking (e.g., brush it on myself), which was a dealbreaker. But thanks to a helpful person on Mastodon and this app, I realized that Photomator has much more detailed masking capabilities that rival Lightroom. So I think Photomator is going to be my app of choice going forward.

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Glad was helpful. Yes Darkroom was innovative...back in 2022! I was surprised it didn't have a brush of any kind. Very weird implementation. It will be tough to catch up but I hope they do! Will be keeping an eye on them. 🙂

[@iangillan1296]

​@@takebetterphotos8132 Does Photomator still has no photo strip like Darkroom?

[@morganj1997]

This review helped me make my decision on which one to replace Lightroom with. I've been trialing them out for a day and I really like Darkroom for its preset features, but I found overall that it didn't appear as robust, and this video confirmed that for me. Thank you!

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Glad to help! Seems a lot of people replacing Lightroom these days! Is it because of the terms of service issue?

[@morganj1997]

​@@takebetterphotos8132 I did see that and I don't like that they have the rights to all your photos, but the driving point for me is that I prefer owning software than paying for subscription models. I'd rather pay $120 for Photomator outright and $60 for Affinity photo for more complex edits than having a subscription to Lightroom indefinitely. The fact that these apps are now actually competitive and not lacking features for absurd amounts of money (like Capture One) is what is making me switch now

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Yes people are sick of it. I've thought Adobe's monthly subscription w/ year long contract really anti-consumer particularly since they advertise it as a monthly subscription. I'll only consider a service if I can use truly from month-to-month. In fact there was a revolt last year when Capture One started promoting its subscription model. User's made it clear they'd rather pay for Capture One's enormous perpetual license than go for subscription.Capture One never removed it since then.😊

[@maryetdave]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on these 2 photo editing apps. Have tried them both and with photomator’s brush mask tool, you can edit certain areas of the subject to make them pop (like the eyes) . With some raw pictures, darkroom can detect features like the teeth’s or eyes of a subject, but its a bit of a hit or miss if the options shows up. Being that I can go deeper into the edits with photomator, I deleted Darkroom, but will still keep an eye on it for potential updates. Now Im playing around with Lightroom and photomator.

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Hi unlike yourself I did not see teeth, eyes, or sky showup ever. And I used Pro RAW images as well. Do you have to use Pro RAW for this? Darkroom should give a bit more guidance on this. I'm not a newb and I am very confused! 🙂

[@maryetdave]

@@takebetterphotos8132I only use iPhones raw, so Pro raw. I think that Darkroom scans the image once it loaded into Darkroom and shows the mask option of what it was able to detect. (if it didn’t see a subject, the subject mask option will not appear) Like I said, its a hit or miss. Unlike Photomator which shows the options of the mask regardless if it will detect it or not.

[@Lysander-Spooner]

The Pixelmator team is doing a great job. I hope they add the AI selections to Pixelmator Pro.

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Yes select sky and gradient tool would be nice. I'm sure it's coming at some point since all they need is to copy and paste from photomator 🙂

[@raw_pc]

Currently (July 2024) Pixelmator and Photomator are the best replacement to Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom combo. You can get the perpetual license for discounted price. Couldn't recommend it enough.

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Yes for mosts tasks except for complex hair or generative AI, Photoshop and Lightroom are overkill.

[@iFab7]

No one speak about how hot is my tablet with LR instead of Photomator (or Darkroom). But i feel to say that Photomator is better at the moment. Only miss rating system and flag reject/approve...

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Thanks for the comment. I actually did not notice this. Perhaps I did not use LR enough. Certainly Photomator is fast and efficient in mobile and desktiop.

[@UnicornMoto]

Very well done review. I was unaware of these tools and only knew about Lightroom. These look like worthy competitors.

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Yes these competitors are getting better particularly photomator

[@UnicornMoto]

@@takebetterphotos8132unfortunately photomator really messed up my colors on export. I didn't have that problem with LR or DR

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Sorry to hear that. In what way was it messed up.

[@samueleseverini]

Queste app posso leggere i metadati delle foto come Lightroom? Esempio giorno di scatto, posizione, rullino ..ect

[@takebetterphotos8132]

I don't think it can. It reads standard EXIF data from what I know. You can try Nitro Photo, that might do a better job.

[@Xer0.Visual5]

1ste photo is really bad on Darkroom! I also use both but photomator is just Better.

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Well glad you agree. I'm actually wondering if anybody will disagree with my conclusion. I thought the disparity was pretty large. I failed to mention in that Darkroom was slower in performance than Photomator. I did like Darkroom's implementation of. Luminance Mask though. Something Photomator should put as well.

[@ralfblattermann]

Both programs are completely unuseable. These cannot edit the RAW files (gpr) of the GoPro 11.

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Thanks for your feedback. Didn't know this. I suppose go pro 11 is not a mainstream format? I guess lightroom is the only choice here.

[@bitsandblocks7826]

⁠Darkroom uses the Apple Photos raw engine. If Apple Photos doesn't support the file neither will Darkroom. So worth checking Apple's list of supported formats to check your camera is there. I like Darkroom for quick edits on phone and integration with Icloud makes the workflow simple. Really enjoy your channel especially for the DXO Photolab tips.

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Glad it is helpful. I didnt realize until recently that DXO is pretty popular among RAW editors. It is strange though that Apple doesn't support GoPro, perhaps GoPro can just go with a standardized dng that all editors can handle. Not sure if that is possible.

[@WildestPotato]

Darkroom just annoy me too, they are tailing off the branding name of the open-source darkroom photo editing suite for PC/Mac/Linux. Their app also produces worse photos.

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Thanks for watching. Do you mean the open source darktable? Their pricing is too high given its main competition photomator does so much more and is cheaper.

[@WildestPotato]

Yep, the open-source "darktable", they basically ripped off the name in the hopes that people search for it in the App Store :/ Agreed, Photomator does an excellent job, replaced Lightroom for me completely@@takebetterphotos8132

[@takebetterphotos8132]

I thought they were ripping of lightroom by calling it darkroom! Anyway Photomator is supposed to have some exciting updates related to its photo manager in the next few weeks which will make it even more useful

[@TormodMalmgren]

Photomator is way better than Darkroom

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Glad you agree 🙂 Haven't heard anyone go for Darkroom.

[@TormodMalmgren]

In many cases its even better than Lightroom

[@user-yk6ek1no9t]

both software cant do simple edit, edit photo adjsut specific angle rotate cant sync to other image ( rotate multiple photo ) , LR win haha

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Hard to beat LR for sure. They basically compete in price. It is only $30 a year vs 120 for LR.