RAW converter options

- When you shoot in raw mode on your camera, a bunch of data is read off the sensor and written directly to the card. That data cannot be viewed as an image until it is processed. You typically take the images into your computer and use raw conversion software there to do that. Now, the advantage of this is that raw files have a lot more editability than an already processed JPEG image. The disadvantage is you got to go through that extra raw processing step. These days, both the Mac and Windows operating systems have raw converters built into them, but so does Photoshop.

So does Capture One. So do lots and lots of other packages. You have a choice to make when you are choosing a raw conversion application. Your camera probably ships with some raw conversion software of its own. So, what should you choose? I use Lightroom, which is built around Adobe's Photoshop Camera Raw. It's the 10,000 pound gorilla of raw converters in the room. It is certainly the most used raw converter and the best known. Now, where people will start arguing one raw converter over another is that there's no standard for raw conversion, so every company that does it does it in their own way.

And camera companies are likely to tell you that their raw conversion software is going to be best for their cameras because they know all sorts of hidden things about their camera and so can do a better job of raw conversion than someone like Adobe can do because Adobe has to reverse engineer all of this and try and hack into the system and try to figure out how to do a raw conversion. There are other reasons that you choose a piece of post-production software. There are editing tools, workflow considerations, and so on and so forth. So, raw converter choice gets a little tricky because you may say, "Well, I like this workflow tool," like Lightroom, "but Nikon says that I'm going to get much better results "if I use their Capture NX-D software." The answer to all of this is to compare raw converters.

And when you do that, you'll typically find that absolutely without a doubt, sure enough, some raw converters are better at converting some images than other raw converters. The thing is, in almost every case, in almost every test I've ever done, you can then find other images that go the opposite way. So maybe Nikon Capture is better at converting some images than Lightroom or Capture One is, but then you can find other images that work better in Lightroom and Capture One than in Nikon Capture. I also find that the level of difference we're talking about with raw converters is pretty small.

When you find that one raw converter does a better job than another, it's probably not so far out of the realm of your lesser raw converter that you can't correct one into the other. What I'm getting at is raw conversion choice isn't that big a deal these days because all of these packages are very good. Also, where Nikon, you might hear the argument that, "Oh, but Nikon knows stuff about their cameras, "and so they're going to do a better job "in their raw processor." I would find it pretty hard to believe if someone claimed that Nikon hadn't worked with Adobe to improve Adobe's processing of Nikon raw images.

I know other camera vendors have. The fact is, Adobe is a dominant platform. Camera vendors want their images to look good in Lightroom and Photoshop because not looking good in Photoshop is a reason to not buy a camera. Camera vendors don't want to believe that, but it's true. So, I really don't think there's a huge difference between raw converters, but the fact is, if there is, you can correct that difference away. So, that means that you can really keep your post-production choices down to other issues: workflow, other image editing tools, and that kind of thing.

So, if you've been trying to make a choice of raw converter, don't get too hung up on it. These days, any choice is going to be a good choice. Choose other criteria for working out your post-production pipeline. If you'd like to know more about raw conversion and the whole raw shooting mess, check out my raw shooting course.