I’m neither a technical expert on photo software or an internationally-renowned photographer, but I’ve been using a variety of raw conversion apps for over 15 years (that surprised me) and have fairly exacting standards. However, there are a few that stand out from the crowd, but these have differing strengths and weaknesses and will appeal (or not) to photographers across a wide range of different criteria, such as:Įasy management of images for large cataloguesĪvailability of plugins for additional functionalityįocus on quick-fixes or fine control of adjustments There are some reasonable offerings out there, particularly if value-for-money is a key consideration, that will give reasonable results. The truth is that, across all the apps available, there isn’t a ‘best raw converter’, whatever anyone tells you. Meanwhile, an app like OnOne’s Photo Raw does a decent job of raw conversion, but really excels for photographers that want to manipulate images and even copes well with compositing techniques.
For example, Adobe’s dominant Lightroom is both a raw converter and digital asset management system (DAM), whilst also increasingly offering elements of Adobe’s class-leading Photoshop image-editing software. The mixture of views and opinions you’ll find in magazines and online is amplified by the way in which apps that are built on raw conversion also creep up and down the workflow. It is, indeed, possible to do all your fixing and finalizing (dodging and burning, noise reduction, sharpening, tonal adjustments, lens correction, effects, etc.) in Lightroom and perhaps never give Photoshop much thought.Like most serious photographers, I’m always looking for ways to squeeze more performance out of my workflow, whether this is the camera system, asset management, raw processing, image manipulation or printing.Īcross all the the elements of workflow, probably one of the most contentious amongst photographers and certainly the one that sees constant updates and upgrades is raw conversion software. It uses the same raw processor as Photoshop and allows for non-destructive image editing in fact, a great deal of Photoshop’s editing tools are found in Lightroom, with the most glaring omission being layers. Lightroom has emerged as the cure-all in the eyes of many photographers.
Coming to a fair conclusion on the best photography software requires scoring various elements of the software with a universal criteria.
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