With the recent crop of new/updated programs that work on RAW files there are a lot of different options that can value add to a basic RAW editor. If you prefer minimal processing this is going to be the most important part of the program and I'd recommend one that allows local adjustments if possible. All programs will have this ability but the more complete program will have many more tools to work with. This is the bread and butter component of a program that enables management of white balance, dynamic range, cropping, noise etc. Maybe something free exists here too.īasic editing tools. Note though that there are also cataloguing programs if you choose a RAW editor with limited/nil file management tools. Some RAW programs like Lightroom have a file management tool set some don't. If you don’t have many photos this tends not to be a problem, but in 5 years time you could have thousands of images and you’ll need to find them. However RAW programs can do more than just edit a RAW file so I’ll list some points to consider during your search:įile management. I have no experience with the free RAW editors, I have used the GIMP a fair bit in the past though and if that’s anything to go by you may not need to pay for a program at all. Can I suggest you consider some of the points raised by Jatrax? A program that develops RAW files is one thing, but as the range of options today has completely changed it is best to reflect on more than just the ability to process a raw file. This question can draw out some opinions, hopefully though, all will be useful. The chance are you will end up using more the software you learn first (whether it is good or bad). wait to hear from a few folks here before you make your choice and deep dive into it. I have been meaning to use RawTherapee but looks like I have stuff that I still need to learn in LR before switching to another software and for all you know LR is the last piece of software I may need to learn given its popularity and the community support it has. I think standalone versions of LR are still being offered although they will cease to exist soon if not sooner. Now I do not know about the JPEG rendering engine intricacies between the 2, so someone needs to shed some light on that. Also I found out eventually that I could do everything in PhotoDirector that I could do in LightRoom (Per my daily needs) so I keep using PD often despite having LR. Apart from cloudified offering LR is a little clumsy to use. So I had resistance but then I started using DNG and now struggling with LR interface quiet a bit. But then I thought may be I should use light room for the work that I sell and then jump shipped again to LR version that apparently does not support K-1 (PEF). so I switched to the Photodirector (got it free at that time on a rebate) and then learned it pretty quickly as it was quiet intuitive and fast. I got my hands early on Pentax DCU worked like a charm but was cumbersome on a volume of images. and I am kind of struggling with not asking this before learning a post processing software. Others will be along shortly with lots of good suggestions I am sure. Really learning how to use a program well takes months of study and learning, not something to lightly toss off and move on. So I no longer have any recommendation except to carefully think about what you want to achieve. Unfortunately with the current subscription only model and cloud focused development I can no longer recommend Lightroom to anyone unless they are handling (and selling) a significant number of images. Not that long ago I would have said just bite the bullet, buy Lightroom and be done with fooling around with wanna-be software. But if you plan on doing a lot of volume, perhaps sell images or print them then a more sophisticated program might be in order. A simple free program should be fine for a few images a month or week. What are your goals? What are you looking to achieve? How many images are you expecting to process? How many images do you have in your archive? What do you plan on doing with them? It might seem like I am prying but those are questions you should be asking yourself before settling on a program. The amount of time invested in learning a program FAR exceeds any monetary expense. You are very wise to try and settle on a good development program and stick with it rather than jumping to the 'program of the month'.
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