GTKRawGallery, a Python Based RAW Developper and Organizer

Howdy! Just after packing my photo computer for overseas travel, I received an email from Daniele Isca the man behind GTKRawGallery. The thing is: I had been waiting for that email for months since Daniele previously told me he was completely revamping GTKRawGallery. And this is part of his latest email:

Because this version revolutionized GTKRawGallery: a simple viewer turn into a workflow oriented photo manager with basic photo retouching tools at 16 bit/channel and Batch Processor.

Well, now that the computer is back to work (in 110 V), it is my pleasure to introduce to you Daniele’s work and GTKRawGallery (version 9.3 at the time of writing).

RawTherapee, another alternative

After the Open Source RawStudio, after seeing that LightZone is no longer available for Linux, there is another workflow oriented RAW processing software available for Linux: RawTherapee (web). Although it is not Open Source, it is available for free – but donation for its development is encouraged. RawTherapee is available for Linux, Windows and Mac, but there is no 64bits version.

Although RawTherapee is a one-man work, it offers high quality 16bits / channel processing and is color managed, so well suited for high quality RAW processing. Pretty amazing. Let’s see what it has to offer.

RAW processing (1): RawStudio

OK, we left the subject of RAW workflow with a quite complicated process and the idea that there should be an easier way to convert from RAW (JPEG) files into high-quality TIFF files than using half a dozen steps.

What is required?

Basically we need a program that combines an image viewer and a RAW developer. Ideally the program would:

• have a thumnail view of the images for sorting (that loads quickly)
• be quick and reactive – I don’t want to wait 20 seconds each time I modify the curves.
• be color managed.
• allow for in-depth RAW processing of an image (white balance, curves, rotate, crop and so on).
• allow to copy and paste processing settings from one image to the other (or allow to define standard profiles – I don’t want to redefine all the settings on each image of a serie).
• deliver high quality 16 bits / channel TIFF output from RAW conversion.
• allow batch processing – when all my corrections are done, I send my pictures for processing and have a cup of coffee. I retrieve my TIFF files afterwards.
• … while keeping a simple user interface.

Ufraw – Producing a high quality image

OK, now that we have gone through the refining process from 100 images to one, let’s have a go at producing an as-high-quality-as-possible file for this image (the trees). This will also allow us to use Ufraw and Cinepaint, as well as talking in more details about all the images operations involved in the process.

Opening Ufraw

Ufraw has just been released its 0.12 version – which is available for OpenSuse 10.3, but not for Ubuntu Gutsy (due to a couple of problems). So I fired my OpenSuse to take you through the process of developing a high-quality RAW file. Ufraw (web) has a very good manual webpage, well worth reading through.