On July 3rd darktable announced the release of version 3.6. The free digital darkroom promised a lot of improvements and new features and seemed ready to compete with its commercial counterparts. So I decided to give it a try.

Since its launch in 2009, darktable has offered photographers a high-quality photo editing experience without the financial burden of expensive software or endless monthly subscriptions. The application is also open-source, which is always an added bonus. With features like customizable panels and cinematic color adjustments, the new update seemed like a game changer and I was curious to see how it compared to similar commercial software.

"The darktable team is proud to announce our second summer feature release, darktable 3.6. Merry (summer) Christmas!" the team behind darktable said in a blog post. "This is the first of two releases this year, and from now on we plan to release two new feature releases each year, around the summer and winter solstices."

Okay, maybe not everything, but everything that's important.