First, GIMP is simply an excellent program and equal to Photoshop in many ways, with a zero on its price tag. You will need to rely on an additional program or plugin to send your RAW photo for demosaicing and then to GIMP in TIFF format.Īt this point, you may be asking yourself why we have chosen to open a list of “Best Free RAW editors” with a program that cannot natively perform this task. On its own, GIMP lacks the ability to open RAW photos natively. To work with RAW photos in GIMP, the community’s contributions prove necessary. When you download GIMP, you get more than the program - you gain an active community of fellow editors, eager to provide tutorials, develop plug-ins, and increase functionality. Layers, masks, curves, brushes, clone stamps, perspective changes - they’re all here. There are not many bells and whistles you don’t get with GIMP. We have selected six programs we believe represent the cream of the crop.

Just as important, though, are usability, interface, and how well a program suits a user’s experience level. Rendering, processing, batch processing, and asset management are critical functional elements to consider. When compiling a list of free applications for editing RAW, many factors come into play. Thankfully, just as RAW has become democratized, so too have the programs needed to work with these files. As such, the highest power options often come with a price tag to match.

No wonder, then, that more photographers than ever are on the hunt for software powerful enough to edit these files without compromising their unique quality.Īny RAW editor is an advanced piece of software, relying on complex processing and rendering to get the job done. Even cell phones are now capable of capturing - and editing - the unparalleled color, detail, and dynamic range RAW files have to offer. One of the most exciting advancements in digital photography over the last several years has been the rapid increase in the ability to shoot and edit RAW photos.

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