#GIMP VS RAWTHERAPEE HOW TO#
#GIMP VS RAWTHERAPEE DOWNLOAD#

Once done in RAW Therapee I use the Gnu Image Manipulation Program. For example you could export two different exposure levels.Īt this time Raw Therapee has a very limited ability to apply local adjustments, so it is often a good idea to take the image into another program to fine tune details. You can export multiple versions of one image to combine in layers in the GIMP. tif to bring into either the GIMP or one of the Topaz programs. Once you have processed a photo in Raw Therapee you can open it in the GIMP as an external editor. I use a custom processing profile that I made, it applies the processes that I use most often so I can focus on customizing the exposure for each photo. These include sophisticated de-mosaicing options that combine methods (de-mosaicing is the process that turns the raw data from the camera sensor into a picture). Raw Therapee has many really powerful photo editing tools. I then use the Editor in Raw Therapee to convert raw files to photos and do global editing. I use Raw Therapee to view the photos and can select the ones I want to use by flagging them with a color or star rating. I can also search for the keywords within the operating system, bringing up, for example a list of the folders where I was at the Forbidden City. I can use the JPG folders to preview photos from a shoot at a large size. For example: a folder might be named -ARW-raindrops. The second part is file type (in my case ARW and JPG) and the optional third part is a descriptor, such as Japanese Garden, anvil cloud, sunset, etc. In a nutshell: for each day I take photos I create a folder that has the four digit year, two digit month and two digit day as the first part of its name. I describe it in detail in this post: Digital Asset Management Step 1. The first part of my workflow is the folder system I use to store photos. Darktable is more popular at the moment but I rarely have liked it’s output better and the workflow with it is awkward.

I mostly use Raw Therapee with the raw files, because it flows more smoothly to use the GIMP as an external editor for Raw Therapee than to use DarkTable as a plug-in for the GIMP.

#GIMP VS RAWTHERAPEE HOW TO#

My post Get going with the GIMP outlines how to set up the open source programs. The parts are my folder structure containing the photo files and two open source photo processing programs. I have settled in to a work flow that uses three parts, all available for free. It took quite a bit of experimentation with several something elses to finally find a workflow that both worked and flowed.

#GIMP VS RAWTHERAPEE DOWNLOAD#

Combining that with a new camera not supported by my older, stand-alone version of LR, and the fact that I cannot download my old, licensed, version onto a new computer has led me on a journey to find something else. Being dependent on the cloud doesn’t work for me. Second, and the more egregious, is that I often travel to places where I do not have internet access consistently (my father has a place in Arizona with very bad connectivity), or it is blocked (my son lives in China). It is a lovely program that “does it all”, including very good catalog management, but it went to subscription only. If you don’t mind subscriptions and dependence on “the cloud”, then LR is a really good program.įor several years I used LR exclusively and very happily. It is impressive what can be done with it…and I was using a pretty old version (LR5). I found a good solution in Adobe LightRoom (LR) and spent quite a bit of time learning to use it. As I looked closer at pictures and became pickier about results I was driven slightly crazy by the dreaded purple fringe. First it was Adobe’s LightRoomĪt first I thought it was the camera, and it kind of was.

Although, with good tools, it isn’t difficult to get great results. Turns out photo processing is a lot more complex than I imagined. Over the years I’ve learned a bunch and had to change up the tools I use. I started taking snapshots here and there along the way I took a few pictures that I really liked and wanted to be more consistent in getting good images. You’ll have your own style of photography, computer set-up, and taste in processing. Quick note: Photo processing tools vary widely in how they are laid out, what computer resources they need, and what they do.

Gimp vs rawtherapee