When it comes to editing raw, you don’t actually need to shell out for Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom… or do you?
When you buy a camera you usually get some kind of basic raw-editing program in the box. It’s exactly that, though – basic – so here we will take a look at some of the better-known free raw editors before considering whether you can actually get away with just using them.
Canon Digital Photo Professional
The latest version of Digital Photo Professional (DPP) software is version 3.13.0, and it supports new Canon lenses and recognises RAW format files from the more recent Canon EOS DSLR cameras.
If you’ve got an older version of DPP already installed on your computer it’s free to update it (you can download and install DPP for free from here).
DPP has always been one of the better free raw editors, and the latest version enables you to rate images by star rating or check mark, before moving on to the actual raw editing. DPP makes it easy to change white balance, and you can also use the ‘Click white balance’ eyedropper to sample an area that should be a neutral white.
Two other very handy tools are Noise Reduction/Auto Lighting Optimizer, which enable you to reduce chrominance or luminance image noise and to auto correct problems with brightness or contrast.
Meanwhile the Compositing tool (first seen in DPP 3.11) enables you to import a background shot and then use the Composite Method drop down menu to adjust the way the photos mix together (in a similar way to Photoshop’s layer blending modes). The Digital Lens Optimizer also works with a wide range of Canon lenses.
Canon has also developed the irista photo management platform, so once you finish editing your images in DPP (or any of these free raw editors, for that matter) you can upload them securely to the cloud.
Olympus Viewer 3
The rather creaky Olympus Master software that used to come with your camera has been replaced with this shiny new program, which you can get from here.
As well as batch processing, exposure and tone tweaks, basic raw editing and noise reduction, you can add and customise Olympus Art Filters, including some not available on the camera.
These work with raw images too, and the Art Filters are well regarded by Olympus users.
Nikon Capture NX-D
Capture NX-D is Nikon’s latest free raw editor and if you didn’t get it with the camera, it can be downloaded from here. While it hasn’t got as many features as Canon’s DPP, it’s got everything you need for straightforward raw editing.
As well as the usual tools for exposure compensation, white balance, and Picture Control, an Active D-Lighting option prevents loss of detail in highlights and shadows.
Meanwhile, Image Dust Off, helps avoid those dreading ‘dust bunnies’ appearing on your images. The camera records a reference image that maps the location of dust on the low-pass filter (or on the optical filter, in the case of cameras without a low-pass filter).
Subsequent photographs can automatically be compared to the reference image to mitigate the effects of dust. Batch processing is also supported and the display format can be easily customised.
Other free raw editors
Sony provides RAW Viewer, a relatively stripped down tool for processing raw files from its cameras, while Panasonic provides the splendidly named SILKYPIX Developer Studio SE Version.
Again, it’s a fairly basic package for basic raw processing, noise reduction and fixing lens distortion.
So you do still need Photoshop and Lightroom?
In a word, yes. Although the best of the free raw editors from camera-makers give you enough tools to process and save out a raw image, and introduce a basic but effective workflow system, they can’t compete with the plethora of tools in Adobe’s packages. To be fair, they don’t set out to.
These free raw editors are best used as a quick and effective solution when you don’t need to fire up Photoshop or Lightroom, and are particularly useful for noise reduction and fixing distortion on various lenses (as the software is designed to work specifically with raw files from your camera).
Since they are free, you can also install them on as many computers as you wish. But with Adobe now offering Photoshop and Lightroom in a bundle for £8.57 a month via the Creative Cloud subscription, why not have the best of both worlds – your camera-maker’s handy free programs for simpler raw editing jobs, and the Adobe suites when you need to do more complex processing on a ton of files?
Some of the new tools in Lightroom 5, such as the Radial Filter, are so good that it’s worth subscribing for them alone.
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