RAW converter vs GIMP/Photoshop

[Tom Pinchenzo]

Hi All,

I'm currently getting my head around GIMP and slowly learning the ropes though this question could apply to ARC and Photoshop

I'm using RawTherapee as a RAW converter and GIMP for the main processing. It feels like RawTherapee does a lot of the things GIMP does. My question is what actions should I do in RawTherapee and what should I leave for GIMP? Should I just do the minimum in RT and leave the majority for GIMP? At the moment I'm just adjusting contrast and colour in RT and doing sharpening and other bits in Gimp. As I understand it, when the file is converted it loses a lot of its information.

I know GIMP has a RAW converter - would it make more sense to use that?

Thanks in advance,
Tom

 

[john.margetts]

It makes sense to use the Raw converter to produce the best picture it is capable of and using the pixel editor for those things the Raw converter cannot do. The Raw converter will work on 16 bit files while Gimp is only 8 bit (edit: Gimp 2.9 is 16 bit).

When I had a Linux computer I used UFRaw as a Raw converter and Gimp as the pixel editor. Most of the time, UFRaw was all I needed to use.

 

[ianp5a]

Hi All,
I'm currently getting my head around GIMP and slowly learning the ropes though this question could apply to ARC and Photoshop
I'm using RawTherapee as a RAW converter and GIMP for the main processing. It feels like RawTherapee does a lot of the things GIMP does. My question is what actions should I do in RawTherapee and what should I leave for GIMP? Should I just do the minimum in RT and leave the majority for GIMP? At the moment I'm just adjusting contrast and colour in RT and doing sharpening and other bits in Gimp. As I understand it, when the file is converted it loses a lot of its information.
I know GIMP has a RAW converter - would it make more sense to use that?
Thanks in advance,
Tom

Raw Therapee's advantages:

1. RT Keeps your adjustments for any picture, for later re-use.
2. RT lets you go back and forth between adjustments. Only actually applying them when you are ready.
3. RT has the top de-noise and sharpening capabilities
4. RT Tone mapping, Retinex etc adjustments are nicer to interact with. (see 2)
5. RT Black and White mode is more convenient. (see 2)

If any of those are useful to you, then RT would be a good place to start. Finish off in Gimp for any local edits with masking or retouching.

 

[ianp5a]

Be sure to install the new release of GIMP 2.10.0. As it has some major changes that are worth having:

• Image processing nearly fully ported to GEGL, allowing high bit depth processing, multi-threaded and hardware accelerated pixel processing, and more.
• Color management is a core feature now, most widgets and preview areas are color-managed.
• Many improved tools, and several new and exciting tools, such as the Warp transform, the Unified transform and the Handle transform tools.
• On-canvas preview for all filters ported to GEGL.
• Improved digital painting with canvas rotation and flipping, symmetry painting, MyPaint brush support…
• Support for several new image formats added (OpenEXR, RGBE, WebP, HGT), as well as improved support for many existing formats (in particular more robust PSD importing).
• Metadata viewing and editing for Exif, XMP, IPTC, and DICOM.
• Basic HiDPI support: automatic or user-selected icon size.
• New themes for GIMP (Light, Gray, Dark, and System) and new symbolic icons meant to somewhat dim the environment and shift the focus towards content (former theme and color icons are still available in Preferences).
• See further details: https://www.gimp.org/release-notes/gimp-2.10.html

The change to the GEGL processing should not be overlooked. It had been around some time, but this release brings it to all the main GIMP commands.