free easy raw software

[kevin bursey]

hi

can anyone recommend free raw conversion software easy to learn to use- ive always shot in jpeg only and want to learn to shoot in raw. looking for videos also to learn from ground basics up. also what are your jpeg settings you shot in for conversion to raw

[TCav]

Try Irfanview.

[VTphotog]

Irfanview is good, and pretty easy to use. It doesn't have the range of settings, though, to give you very much better results than the camera will produce using jpeg. Unfortunately, raw developing software which does create superior results is not terribly easy to learn. If you want to take the trouble, Raw Therapee is free and very good.

[Novicus]

I know it`s a year-old post , But I`m just wondering Why Nikon shooters often ask about Free RAW software for Nikon`s,...when there`s an Exellent , if not the Best RAW developer and is downloadable for Free !!,....Nikon Capture NX-D..

https://downloadcenter.nikonimglib.c...ture_NX-D.html

[TCav]

Actually, probably the best option is to convert RAW files to Adobe's Digital Negative format, so that your RAW images will ALWAYS be able to be opened by any image editing application.

[Novicus]

Originally Posted by TCav

Actually, probably the best option is to convert RAW files to Adobe's Digital Negative format, so that your RAW images will ALWAYS be able to be opened by any image editing application.

That`s 1 way of doing it...yet imho there`s a Better way.

After Debating/Consulting Webmasters and Printing pro`s , Here`s what I do :

Shoot RAW with camera set to 1) Uncompressed and Highest bit rate ....2) process in Nikon Capture NX-D....3) Export in JPeg for Web use ....Export in TIFF for Printing and other Applications such as Adobe.

Highest Possible Quality is Retained , Fully Compatible with all systems.

Camera set to J-peg and /or RAW Lossles Compression will yield Good , even Great results,...However, to Obtain the Absolute Highest Quality , the Aforementioned workflow is advisable.

[TCav]

Novicus,

While I recommended an alternative to a proprietary RAW file format, you recommended a workflow. To be sure, neither NEF or DNG will work on webpages, they both require a workflow process in order to produce the JPG or PNG files that do. And while TIFF, DNG and NEF all preserve the highest possible image quality, DNG files are smaller than TIFF and are more widely supported than NEF, which makes DNG the best choice.