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I'm looking for a free RAW editor/converter on Windows. Can you tell me some strong/weak points of them comparing with Capture NX and/or Adobe Photoshop Elements?
EXIF editing would be a nice bonus. Related: |
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The camera manufacturer can sometimes offer an excellent RAW->JPG convertor. One reason to use the manufacturer's software is that no one else knows better how to interpret the RAW information. All the light and lens-specific data especially can be quite tricky to fully interpret and post-process. In the Nikon world, there's ViewNX, which ships for free with the DSLRs and is also downloadable for free here. It's excellent for first-pass editing of photos, including Exposure, White Balance, Sharpness, Contrast, Brightness, Highlight and Shadow Protection (very impressive), Color Booster, D-Lighting HS, and Axial Color Aberration. You can also do all your Metadata edits here. Of course, it's not as full-featured as their expensive, and terribly slow pay version: CaptureNX. And also not surprisingly, Nikon inhibits you from one very basic editing option in ViewNX, which is photo cropping (with the hopes that you'll buy CaptureNX just to be able to crop?). So sometimes I'll do my first pass of major edits in ViewNX, convert to RAW in ViewNX, and then crop the JPG in Picasa. Cumbersome, but free and still very high quality. Canon's own Digital Photo Professional (DPP) is included with every Canon DSLR. Updates may be downloaded free from Canon's website, but you must have a previously installed version or an original disc to install the update. Apart from the obvious lack of no additional expense, the primary advantage to using DPP is that the same proprietary algorithms used to encode .crw and .cr2 files are used to decode them. It has a fairly full list of features of non destructive adjustments that can be made on a global level including a basic HDR tool. RAW files may be exported as 16 bit TIFFs to other image editors for further adjustment when desired. For Sony cameras it would be the Image Data converter software. It used to be two separate programs called Image data lightbox and Image data converter SR, but they combined those into one package in 2012. No requirements for download, as there is for Canon and Olympus. It processes RAW files, but offers next to nothing for images already in JPEG format. Link to Sony eSupport software pages Olympus offers Image Viewer 3 for Olympus camera owners. The download will not begin without a camera serial-number filled in a field on the download page. Image Viewer 3 is a nice upgrade from the old Olympus Master 2 and the not-so-old Image Viewer 2. Selection of possible operations is good for RAW and also for images already in JPEG format. Link to Olympus software download |
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There is UFRaw, supported through GIMP on Windows. |
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Simplest is possibly Picasa, it supports most raw formats transparently. |
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In terms of RAW conversion, Nikon's ViewNX is free and will convert Nikon RAW files (NEFs and NRWs) using what is basically a cut down version of the RAW conversion engine in Capture NX2, i.e. it does a good job if you only want to tweak basic development parameters before conversion - it allows setting of picture controls, exposure, white balance, etc. but not much more than that. ViewNX also has some very basic editing features and metadata editing capabilities too. |
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I've personally been using RawTherapee on my Windows machine for light editing for a while now, and it seems good. Granted it's not Lightroom, but when it comes it basic adjustments without the need for catalogs, presets, virtual copies, etc... its pretty decent and does the job! |
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You might also want check out Scarab Darkroom. It's easy to use and relatively fast. Similar to RawShooter Essentials. |
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Image View (Plus More) 2.3 (disclaimer: the original author of this community wiki post is the author of the software, too) is a small footprint viewer and editor that has many (very) advanced features. It supports most raw formats and it allows you to control the development of the raw pixel data. Most image viewers just extract the jpeg thumbnail or develop the raw data with default (e.g. bad quality Bayer conversion and some type of clipping and gamma function and using one of the white balances from the file - either "daylight" or "as set when photographing") . In Image View plus more you can decide how much to clip (if at all), choose between different Bayer conversions, white balance, gamma, etc. You can read the meta data, copy paste them to the clipboard, but not edit them. When you have opened the images you can then sort them, copy to new folder, batch convert (including some processing like resize, relight, sharpen, and correcting for lens distortion), or retouch them (like remove spots on the skin, or turn everything greyscale (many different types) except the foreground object, your imagination sets the limits). The downside is that it has a disting learning curve, because the user interface is very shortcut driven (like emacs) for optimal viewing space. You can get it here if you want to try it. The most useful shortcut keys are:
Edit: I have now started making video tutorials. |
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Your question seems to indicate you want to convert RAW files created with a Nikon camera. Several others have offered excellent answers when that is the case. For others who may be reading this question and would like to convert RAW files created on a Canon camera, there is Canon's own Digital Photo Professional (DPP) that is included with every Canon DSLR. Updates may be downloaded free from Canon's website, but you must have a previously installed version or an original disc to install the update. Apart from the obvious lack of no additional expense, the primary advantage to using DPP is that the same proprietary algorithms used to encode .crw and .cr2 files are used to decode them. Some of the features of DPP: View and sort images, display the thumbnail list at high resolution, batch rename files, and check shooting information. RAW adjustments include: brightness/darkness, shadows, highlights, Picture Style, contrast, skin tone, saturation, sharpness/unsharpen mask, white balance (color temperature, several presets, or custom), cropping (trim/angle/aspect ratio), auto or manual dust deletion, basic cloning/removal, Auto Lighting Optimizer, noise reduction (luminance and chrominance), lens aberration (distortion, CA, peripheral illumination, color blur), and Digital Lens Optimizer. All adjustments are non destructive and contained in a "recipe" that is added to the file's metadata. Recipes can be saved and later applied to other files as well as batch applied to selected files. The recipe is applied to the image when converted and saved to JPEG or TIFF. DPP can convert and save files individually or in batches. You may also transfer a RAW image to Photoshop as a 16 bit TIFF. There is a basic tool that can composite several images, but it is nowhere near as advanced as using layers in Photoshop. There is also an HDR tool that can be used on 1-3 files. There is tone/color control (brightness, saturation, and contrast) and Detail Enhancement (strength, smoothness, and fineness). If you use the HDR tool on RAW files, some of the adjustments made to the image in the RAW adjustment tab are carried into the HDR module (such as color temperature, dust removal/cloning, picture style, NR) while others do not appear to be (ie: saturation and contrast, which are adjusted inside the HDR tool). You may also use the HDR tool on JPEGs or TIFFs. |
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