Originally, LightZone was a pioneer in using vector-based selective editing and making precise selections is quite easy. The photo adjustment tools work as layers and are both movable and stackable, with different blending modes available much like adjustment layers in Photoshop. One place that LightZone is known to excel, is in black-and-white photo processing. These two tools alone have won LightZone a number of die-hard fans.

One is its concept of Zone Mapping, which allows for selective adjustments via a unique layer-based system.Īnother is its Relight tool. Originally developed as commercial software, LightZone was later taken up by the LightZone Project as free software in There are definitely some strong conceptual differences between LightZone and other Lightroom-style apps. Have a play around with them and see which one suits your workflow.

Should you choose it over the aforementioned app, and is it really a decent Lightroom alternative? One place where RawTherapee really lags, though, is easy-to-find documentation.

Lightroom online alternative