Processing RAW files with RawTherapee

Digital Darkroom

© raven, Fotolia

© raven, Fotolia

Article from Issue 95/2008
Author(s):

RAW format images offer more options for editing than JPEG formats – RawTherapee brings this potential to Linux.

Just imagine the disappointment: When you get back from vacation and check your snapshots on your PC, you find out that your favorite image is color cast and the darker sections totally lack contrast. If you used the typical JPEG format, even the most capable image manipulation program would offer little help in restoring the shots. RAW format images, on the other hand, contain far more image data, which provides greater opportunity for post-processing (see the box titled "RAW Digital Negatives"). For example, you can correct underexposed images without affecting the quality of the original.

Camera manufacturers such as Canon and Nikon use proprietary RAW formats, and you typically need a commercial Windows program to open them. To avoid the Windows trap, try the freeware program RawTherapee [1] (Figure 1), which is based on DCraw [2]. RawTherapee can open nearly any RAW format, and it has a huge set of manipulation features. The project website [3] compares RawTherapee with other RAW converters. The program is also useful for editing JPEG- or PNG-formatted files.

In this article, I describe the stable version 2.3. A beta version of the 2.4 release is also available for download. Version 2.4 offers comprehensive metadata support (Exif and IPTC), that 2.3 lacks.

[...]

Use Express-Checkout link below to read the full article (PDF).

Buy this article as PDF

Express-Checkout as PDF
Price $2.95
(incl. VAT)

Buy Linux Magazine

SINGLE ISSUES
 
SUBSCRIPTIONS
 
TABLET & SMARTPHONE APPS
Get it on Google Play

US / Canada

Get it on Google Play

UK / Australia

Related content

  • Perfect Balance

    The current RawTherapee version finally adds selective image editing, among other long-desired features, to help it compete with king of the hill, darktable.

  • Free Therapy: RawTherapee as of Version 3.0 Under GPLv3

    RawTherapee is undisputedly the number one Linux program for reworking digital images into RAW format. With the license change the program becomes free software.

  • ART – Another RawTherapee

    RAW converters are the first tool to use in editing photos, and new solutions and programs have the potential to make users' lives easier. How does ART stack up?

  • Introduction

    This month in Linux Voice and Elvie.

  • Dance on a Volcano

    The RAW converter Vulkan darktable outpaces its competitors with a modern node-graph-based architecture and massive use of the GPU.

comments powered by Disqus
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters

Support Our Work

Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

Learn More

News