Functions like the “Contrast by Detail Levels” really give you control over your photograph in a structured and understandable way. You can even use the “Haze Removal” just like you’d apply a “Dehazer” in Lightroom.īut RawTherapee isn’t just a reorganized Lightroom. Instead of the basic “Contrast” “Clarity” and “Texture” sliders, RawTherapee offers you a giant “Contrast” panel, where you can adjust a lot of values like “Sharpening”, “Local Contrast”, or “Microcontrast”. To me, it feel like the sliders of the Shadows and Highlights work slower and softer in RawTherapee, while other sliders really need to be treated with caution. While the functions work a little bit differently than the “Basic” adjustments in Lightroom, you can create the same effects with a little practice. Even the L*a*b* Adjustments can add a little pop. “Exposure”, “Shadows/Highlights”, and “Tone Mapping” team up to a powerful basis in the “Exposure” panel. I am really happy with RawTherapee when it comes to the setup and function of each and every editing panel. When we are talking about developing a photograph, we mostly think about the overall exposure and contrast. So much about the “soft” editing of a photograph. However, this round definitely goes to Lightroom. I think transform and crop really belong together. That’s one step too many.Įven though I'm a bit disappointed about the user-unfriendly crop function, there is something positive: The perspective correction (horizontally and vertically) is nearby. You’ve got to switch off the overlay to get your clear image back. Even when you leave the “Crop” or the whole “Transform” panel. When you use a certain grid-like the rule of thirds – for cropping your image, it stays on top of the image. I really think that the final resolution of an image should be only defined when you export it and not already in the process of editing.Īnother issue is the crop grid. The “Crop” in RawTherapee seems to be designed to also define the export size.
While you crop your image in the “Crop” panel, you straighten it in “Lens/Geometry”. There are a few parts which I really don’t like. You can lock your ratio or crop freely and apply different crop guides. The “Crop” panel in RawTherapee is quite lucid, albeit not perfect. Round Two: CropĬropping and straightening an image usually is the first step when I develop a photograph. If I rated design too, probably Lightroom would make this round. While it takes a little more time to get a photograph ready in RawTherapee, I like features like the “Detail Window” and also prefer the organization of the panels. That’s very helpful because unluckily a 100 percent full preview takes a little time. What I really liked is the option of one or more small “detail windows”, where you can keep an eye at parts of your image in 100 percent preview. The panels are easily understandable, too. The navigation works well and you’ve got a few shortcuts that help you navigate quicker. A proper and understandable system, even though I didn’t really need “Advanced”, “Raw” and “Metadata”, yet. The editing panels on the right consist of “Exposure”, “Detail”, “Color”, “Advanced” “Transform”, “Raw”, and “Metadata”.
Everything works properly and appears very useful. RawTherapee offers you a useful histogram, a navigator with a detailed review about every pixel, your editing history, and snapshots on the left side. Once a photograph is properly loaded, you can start working on it. Funnily, these seconds seem to last way longer than the few seconds to start the program. Whenever I switch to another photograph, it’ll take a few seconds. I remember how long the full preview took a few years ago, especially when you didn’t build smart previews. Lightroom really has done a great job during the last years. What isn’t great, however, is the time it takes to load a photograph into the editor. That’s great because I'm generally an impatient person. It takes me only a few seconds to get RawTherapee started. Developing a photograph in the “Editor” is what the program is meant to do. It only leaves little space for organization. It wasn’t a fair fight, because RawTherapee isn’t really meant to manage your files.
In my last week’s article, I have taken a look at the limited capabilities of the “File Browser” in RawTherapee.
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