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HOME RAW CMYK COLOR MANAGEMENT IMAGES & VIDEOS HARDWARE SOFTWARE ABOUT

RAW file convertering software provides non destructive conversions and editing for the RAW image data from your camera.

RAW data is the untouched, 3 grayscale data streams from the capture areas of the sensor of your camera. There are many RAW file formats, DGN, NEF, CR2 and ARW are examples. Those capture areas are defined as R, Red, G, Green and B, Blue with in general twice as many sensors dedicated to green as red or blue. To accurately give you any more information on the process is 3 pages in a book and is not going to help you decide if you want to shoot RAW and will bore you more then most want to be bored.

Below is a screen capture of the RAW file as shot in the camera, Nikon D3400, taken from about 35 feet and viewed as shot in Corel AfterShot Pro 3 as default settings.  In the image posted immediately below the top image you'll see the results of the edits in AfterShot Pro 3 and then a discussion on RAW use for image editing.

To save you time and the boredom of my ramblings I'll make the one obvious statement that needs to be made now, in my opinion if you choose to shoot and edit RAW files you will have the absolute most control of your post capture image processing possible, any other process is a significant compromise . Think of the RAW work flow as the 1975 darkroom enhanced.
 
 

The image seen below is the TIF file that was created from the RAW capture after processing in AfterShot Pro 3.  You'll see obvious differences, saturation, sharpness and improvements in contrast are the most obvious. Less obvious in this image is the slight noise reduction that was applied to the image. 

A note on noise reduction: I started out in the graphics business as a pressman and I still in many ways think like a pressman. Using noise reduction filters is a great deal like mixing ink, especially ink that has a very dark base color in the formula. A very little amount of a deep color goes a long way and same need be said about the use of noise reduction. Do it in small increments, you can always apply more later, or with RAW go back to the begining and start over anytime you desire.
   
 

The term RAW is an appropriate nomenclature for the file format, beyond the META data transferred from the camera in the file, the RAW data has zero color content, it literally is RAW grayscale data. In terms of color it's simply 3 grayscale data streams that are composited together in the RAW converting software to display as color. 

One grayscale data stream for each of the RGB color model colors and non destructive editing are the core aspects of the original RAW file and the RAW converter concept of work flow.

I've heard it said that different devices or software have flat RAW or poor RAW display.  It may be true that the first display you see of your RAW file looks of lower quality but in my opinion it's simply an arbitrary set of configurations used by the programmers of the software. The program has to have to have some reference point to start with and a poor start point is fine it is assumed that the user will make significant edits.  The more important part of the RAW converter is if the final display is accurate. In my opinion save for web images most RAW converters have a display that is lacking. 

Part of the RAW converters base functions is to immediately give you core information about the content of the RAW data of the selected image, which is the other non color information in the RAW data stream.  That's part of the programmed default setting as well. 

Upon opening a RAW file you'll see a histogram for a quick exposure check, shutter speed, F Stop, focal length, a concept if the image is in focus and ISO, to mention the core data required to make a judgement as to whether you want to continue editing or to place that image on the back burner. I suggest that you save your back burner files because as your skill level with the RAW converting softwarwe and associated technology move forward many marginal images may be able to be made into exceptional images.

I have tested many RAW converters and today many of those applications have blurred the lines between RAW converter and image editor. A RAW conversion does not require advanced image editing features, all it needs to do is to convert the 3 grayscale data streams into a RGB data stream, provide non destructive editing, assign an ICC profile and export the file in a manner that it can be opened in your image editor of choice.

These additional image editing features added to the RAW converters may have added value to the user, how you would measure that value depends on your work flow. The one key concept that I have found to all RAW editors and I can't stress this enough is that the edits are non destructive, you can always go back to zero and start again.

I regularly use AfterShot Pro 3, I have used Lightroom, Capture One and DXO to mention a few. In my view the tell of the tape is, if it suits your work flow and budget.  I would however suggest that you do not settle on one application without downloading and testing other applications, use them for the entire free test period, test many different applications. It really takes a few hundred hours to get the feel of a RAW or any image editor.

I use AfterShot Pro because it is more atuned to my concept of RAW editors. It allows all the core RAW edits, it has RAW noise removal and perfectly clear as features as well as Denoise in the application, batch processing, tone curves, color management and image management to mention a few features. 

All RAW editors that I've tested, in my opinion are all primarily RAW editors/image editors and not image editng applications designed to interface with a graphics suite, a process most of us need to deal with sooner or later.

Some have really attempted to be both RAW converters and image editors.  Some have done better at it than others but in my opinion none fit the bill. Most likely it's because I'm like most image editor professionals, we get used to using their image editing application of preference so for a RAW editor to fit the bill it would need to function as a completely functional RAW editing plugin to your favorite image editor/graphics suite.

I also use Corel Photo-PAINT 2020, 2021 and Corel PaintShop Pro 2021, GIMP, PhotoLine, Denoise,  Akvis and PhotoZoom Pro.  As shown in the images below, on the left is the RAW conversion done in AfterShot Pro 3, cropped for an up close view in Photo-PAINT.  After the conversion in AfterSot Pro where some noise and many other  enhancements took place, the image went back and forth between 2 other applications for noise reduction, cloning and other enhancements.

My advice is shoot RAW in your camera, test the RAW converters and remember that no one RAW converter or image editing application is the do all application for image editing.