Impressed by RawTherapee

I am getting back into photography after a couple years off (personal stuff) and wanted to take it easy and start with processing some old Canon photos I've always postponed working on. My Sony edition of Capture1 won't work on CR2, so I downloaded RawTherapee. When I first tried it, it was a slow, clunky, crash prone and confusing app. Now, what a difference. I've been playing with it, on and off, and saw it getting better and better, but now I think it's at the point where it is a great alternative to a big name software for most photo enthusiasts - as long as you don't expect to do local edits in RAW (which I can live with).

(I also tried Darktable, but prefer RT for number of reasons).

I would like to know how many members are using RawTherapee. My version of the Adobe software doesn't support the latest .CR2 files so I'm looking at DPP and other (free) software. The latest version seem to do a good job according to the reviews

I've also been impressed by RawTherapee, although I've found it
to be rather daunting in some instances. It's installed, and I use it
from time to time, but I keep going back to CS6 because I've learned
to use it well for my purposes.

Somebody turned me on to the MetaRaw plugin, which enables
newer RAW files to be opened into Adobe's native RAW editor.
This has been fantastic for me since acquiring a 5D Mk IV.

Thanks Craig, I'll give it a try. Rawtherapee is not that easy to use right from day one, I'm also looking at Darktable now

Not only do I use RawTherapee, but I build RawTherapee for macOS. My latest development build is https://kd6kxr.keybase​.pub …4_5.8-2813-gbb08b6bed.zip (10.12 Sierra and higher)
RawTherapee (dev series) now includes the Local Adjustment tool for spot modification.

Good post, good to know.
When Adobe raises the price of their photo plan (when, not if) I think a lot of people will jump ship.
I think PS users will migrate to Affinity, Lightroom users will migrate to ON1 Photo Raw.
The big stick in the spokes is ACR which is a good raw development engine.
If RawTherapee can compete with ACR, that completes the circle and gives everybody what is needed to abandon Adobe's software rental scam.
Thanks. I'll take a look at RT.

SkedAddled wrote in post #19184103
I've also been impressed by RawTherapee, although I've found it
to be rather daunting in some instances. It's installed, and I use it
from time to time, but I keep going back to CS6 because I've learned
to use it well for my purposes.

Somebody turned me on to the MetaRaw plugin, which enables
newer RAW files to be opened into Adobe's native RAW editor.
This has been fantastic for me since acquiring a 5D Mk IV.

Meta Raw is new to me! I am glad i read about this. Thanks for posting.

SkedAddled wrote in post #19184103
Somebody turned me on to the MetaRaw plugin, which enables
newer RAW files to be opened into Adobe's native RAW editor.
This has been fantastic for me since acquiring a 5D Mk IV.

Too bad it doesn't seem to work with Lightroom. I'm stuck with 5.7 and acquired a 5D4 also, now I'm having to convert all files to DNG if I want to keep using Lightroom

RawTherapee has a lot going for it, agreed. Because it's FOSS and can run on Mac/Linux/Windows I think I'd use it for any intro teaching on RAW editing (along with GIMP). I'm amazed that it continues to be so actively supported.

SkedAddled wrote in post #19184103
Somebody turned me on to the MetaRaw (external link) plugin, which enables
newer RAW files to be opened into Adobe's native RAW editor.
This has been fantastic for me since acquiring a 5D Mk IV.

Coimbra wrote in post #19207499
Too bad it doesn't seem to work with Lightroom. I'm stuck with 5.7 and acquired a 5D4 also, now I'm having to convert all files to DNG if I want to keep using Lightroom

Man, that's a bummer.
I've not used Lightroom, so I wasn't aware of that.
Yet, doesn't LR use the same Adobe ACR to open the RAW files?
I've never known, either way.

CyberDyneSystems wrote in post #19207200
Meta Raw is new to me! I am glad i read about this. Thanks for posting.

Likewise for me !

The great thing about RawTherapee is that you don't have to wait for and pay for the newest version to be able to work with your new camera.

I use and really like the results I get with DxO; I have DxO Optics Pro 9 Elite and DxO Photolab 2 with all the bells and whistles; however, bought-and-paid-for programs, such as DxO, only recognize a given range of cameras and refuse to recognize and edit RAW files from anything else; not so with RawTherapee = I believe it will work with just about any RAW file ever made.

DxO 9 recognizes the CR2 files from our 7D, yet will refuse the CR2 files from our 7DMkII; this behavior is purely extortion.

I have little admiration for DNG files and find them to be little more than a glorified jpeg; DxO, by the way, will not recognize a DNG, at least not either of my versions of DxO.

A Canon CR2 file is a CR2 file; if a program works with a CR2 from one camera, it should work with all of them, regardless of camera; however, most paid-for programs recognize RAW files according to camera model and refuse to acknowledge CR2 files that do not have specific camera models associated with them = this is just a money racket.

RawTherapee is very capable, and therefore has a huge learning curve; it takes me an hour or more to accomplish in RawTherapee what I can do in DxO in a few seconds; that's not RawTherapee's fault, but my own lack of knowledge in understanding the program.
Try as I may, I cannot replicate my DxO results in RawTherapee (my fault, not RawTherapee's); but, the few cameras we have that DxO refuses to recognize work fine in RawTherapee.

If I were smart enough to use it, RawTherapee is all I would ever use for RAW files.

BuckSkin wrote in post #19227947
A Canon CR2 file is a CR2 file; if a program works with a CR2 from one camera, it should work with all of them, regardless of camera; however, most paid-for programs recognize RAW files according to camera model and refuse to acknowledge CR2 files that do not have specific camera models associated with them = this is just a money racket.

There have been many versions of Canon's own free Digital Photo Professional RAW converter released only to extend the app's compatibility to the latest camera models, without any functional upgrade.

SkedAddled wrote in post #19184103
Somebody turned me on to the MetaRaw plugin, which enables
newer RAW files to be opened into Adobe's native RAW editor.
This has been fantastic for me since acquiring a 5D Mk IV.

CyberDyneSystems wrote in post #19207200
Meta Raw is new to me! I am glad i read about this. Thanks for posting.

You're very welcome, Jake.
I'm a bit surprised this was news to you.

I have an email today about an update, to version 3.10.
I purchased the lifetime license; such is likely why I was notified.

I wouldn't expect any new functionality other than additional cameras
supported in their native raw format. After all, this plugin simply
passes the file immediately to Adobe's RAW Converter for processing.

I'd be curious to know how well it passes native raw files
into the older Photoshop versions. Anyone care to chime in?