By selecting a color profile, you can correct the image automatically to look more like the processed JPEG version of the image generated by the camera. Lightroom, Photoshop Elements 14, and RawTherapee support loading color profiles provided specifically for these apps by camera manufactures. RawTherapee is perfectly capable too, but has a steeper learning curve and the default import settings for RAW images in Lightroom produce better looking images in my experience. GIMP is an open source editor that handles RAW images with the UFRAW plug-in, or if you already have a favorite editor, RawTherapee is an open source standalone RAW image processor.ĭespite the price tag, if you’re serious about powerful editing capabilities that are both quick and easy, Adobe Lightroom is the best choice. Google’s Picasa editor supports opening RAW images files, but isn’t a real RAW processor as it automatically converts the 12 or 16 bit RAW data to 8-bit so you can work with the image as if it were a JPEG. Lightroom offers a plethora of controls for image editing (Image Credit: Russell Smith) If you want a cheaper solution, but with more limited RAW editing support, Adobe Photoshop Elements is also worth a look. The default solution for most photographers is Adobe Lightroom, which is available as a subscription ($9.99/month), or you can buy the product outright ($149). But nevertheless, there are plenty of options available. Editing RAW imagesĪs you might expect, not all photo editing applications support RAW images. Only after a few seconds of processing will the actual RAW image be shown, and you’ll notice that it looks quite different from the JPEG preview, even quite dull and washed out in comparison, because it hasn’t had any of the camera processing applied to make it look good, that’s now your job. When opening a RAW image, you’re first presented with a JPEG preview that’s embedded in the RAW file. The Windows Store Photos app doesn’t support RAW images at this time. The default app for opening RAW image files in Windows 10 is Windows Photo Viewer, again rather strange since this is a legacy win32 program. There’s also a DNG converter that you can use to convert from propriety RAW formats to DNG. And while there’s no official support for anything post Windows 7, I’ve found the codec to work fine in Windows 10. But if you want to work with Adobe DNG files, you can download the codec here. It’s rather odd that support for Adobe’s DNG format isn’t included in Windows 10 out-of-the-box, considering it’s the format of choice for Lumia smartphones. The codecs available in the Microsoft Camera Codec Pack are built-in to Windows 10, but if you want to add support for Adobe’s DNG format, or other propriety formats not supported by Windows, you’ll still need to download a codec.ĭNG file format information being displayed in Windows Explorer with the help of Adobe’s DNG codec for Windows (Image Credit: Russell Smith) The links for Windows 8.1 (32-bit) and Windows 8.1 (64-bit) can be found here and here, respectively. In previous versions of Windows, you needed to download the Microsoft Camera Codec Pack, which provides support for viewing RAW image file format thumbnails and image information in Windows Explorer (Windows 7 and Vista). One additional complication is that many camera manufacturers save RAW image data in propriety file formats, such as Canon (CRW, CR2), Nikon (NEF), and Pentax (PEF) with Adobe DNG file format being the one open source exception to the rule. Pocket cameras and low-end smartphones don’t usually provide the option to save images in RAW format, but most professional digital SLRs and high-end smartphones, including Apple iPhone and Lumia 950, allow images to be saved in JPEG format, RAW, or both. For example, the ability to bring out details in the shadows or sharpening the photo might be quite restricted after the camera has processed the image and stripped it of the original detail. RAW image files on the other hand contain all the unprocessed light data captured by your camera’s sensor and are sometimes referred to as a digital negatives.Īlthough JPEG files are convenient for most amateur happy snappers, there’s a limit to what you can do with your photos after the event because much of the image data is no longer available. Using Lightroom to enhance a RAW image (Image Credit: Russell Smith)Īll digital cameras save images as JPEG files for convenience, but much of the original detail is lost because the camera processes photos to make them look better, and then compresses them to save space.
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