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| One file. Four versions. No destruction. No change to the original. That's the power of raw. |
Paid Software
N.b.: I have not personally used any paid raw processing software, so I cannot comment on the quality of any of these programs.
Adobe Lightroom - this is the software that you will most commonly hear about. I would guess that most professional photographers use Lightroom for their raw file processing. Adobe currently offers a photography subscription package for US$9.99 per month for a year, which will get you both Lightroom and Photoshop (another powerful editing program) plus 20GB of cloud storage, as well as a Lightroom plan for the same price, which will get you access to Lightroom plus 1TB of cloud storage. Lightroom also offers file management functions. If you want access to lots of books, tutorials, and presets, and you're willing to pay a bit of money, this is probably your best bet.
Capture One - this is another piece of software used by many photography professionals. Unlike Lightroom, it does not operate on a subscription model. A free 30-day trial is available.
DxO PhotoLab - again, this software is used by many photography professionals and does not operate on a subscription model. It offers two editions, Essential Edition and ELITE Edition, as well as a free trial.
Free Software
darktable - this is my current choice of software for raw development. darktable is a powerful program that allows for file management and image processing, as well as select other functions. darktable has a significant learning curve, but I personally find the interface to be reasonably intuitive, and there is a wide variety of available tools. darktable lacks somewhat in existing tutorials; nonetheless, I have found that Lightroom tutorials will often translate reasonably well into darktable. Note that darktable offers global as well as local editing (i.e., you can make changes to the entire image or to particular areas of it); I find this flexibility very important in my own workflow. darktable will probably be the raw software I most often discuss on this blog.
RawTherapee - another popular free file management and raw development program. RawTherapee is powerful and fairly intuitive, and it supports most raw formats, as well as common image formats (e.g., JPEG and TIFF). Unlike darktable, RawTherapee does not support local editing; edits are applied to the entire image (with a few exceptions).
LightZone - an interesting piece of software based on photography master Ansel Adams's Zone System. LightZone operates a bit differently than most other raw processors, and may therefore suit some users who are unhappy with other options. I used LightZone until I had difficulties with how it rendered some of my photographs; I was unable to find support for my particular issue (I suspect it was camera-related) and reluctantly abandoned it in favour of darktable. LightZone also supports JPEG editing and offers batch-processing options for efficient workflow.
Other
Many camera companies offer their own raw processing and conversion programs. These are certainly worth looking at. They may not be as powerful as some of the other options, but they are typically free (provided you own one of their cameras) and are often sufficient for the average user's needs. I personally used Canon's Digital Photo Professional until I decided I wanted something more powerful, and I was reasonably pleased by the results (which include many of the earlier images posted on this blog).
Other editing programs such as Adobe Photoshop (paid) and GIMP (free) offer limited raw support. If you prefer to do all of your image editing in one program, and/or you are already familiar with one of these programs, you may wish to determine whether its raw editing functions are adequate for your needs.
Go forth and raw!
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