I have been a Photoshop user for several years now, a Lightroom one for over six months, I discovered darktable and today I first heard about RawTherapee.
From what I understand, Lightroom is (or at least, was) the go-to program for photographers, but in light of these recent 'discoveries' I made, I would like to know what the differences between them are. So far, I've gathered that:
Price:
- Photoshop, Lightroom & rest of Adobe CC = expensive
- darktable & RawTherapee = free?
- gimp = free
I also assume that RawTherapee has some advantages in RAW capabilities judging by its name.
I have also heard (and started using) Adobe Bridge, which turned out much better than expected.
Also, what is the difference/usability/point in Adobe Camera RAW, as to me it seems similar to Lightroom, darktable and even is incorporated into Photoshop itself.
I do not want to turn this into an "iPhone vs Android" debate, where everyone takes up sides and says the other is terrible, because of reasons. I am a relatively new hobbyist photographer, and would like to know what the differences are like nowadays. Several questions have already been asked, such as this one, yet they are rather outdated.
All your help is much appreciated - perhaps some re-wording to this question is necessary.