RawTherapee
Free raw photo developer with fine control over exposure, colour and detail. A stand-in for Capture One or DxO.
Our verdict
RawTherapee is the free raw developer to reach for if you were paying for Capture One or DxO PhotoLab and do not want another subscription. It reads raw files straight off the camera and gives you exposure, white balance, curves, noise reduction and lens correction, all without changing the original file.
The honest downside is the interface. Capture One and DxO put a small number of well-chosen sliders in front of you. RawTherapee puts nearly everything in front of you, grouped into tabs, and expects you to know which part you want. Give it a weekend before deciding.
It also does not organise anything. There is no catalogue, no star ratings across a library, no keyword search. If that was half of why you used Capture One, pair RawTherapee with digiKam and let digiKam handle the filing.
What's good
- Free, with no subscription and no activation
- Handles raw files from a long list of cameras, plus JPEG, TIFF and PNG
- Edits are non-destructive, so the original file is never changed
- Very fine control over noise, sharpening and colour
What to know first
- The interface is dense and assumes you know photography terms
- No cataloguing or keywording, so you still need something to organise photos
- Cannot open Capture One sessions or DxO projects
- Tethered shooting is not supported the way Capture One does it
The details
- Cost
- Free
- Open source
- Yes (GPL-3.0)
- How you install it
- App store (Flatpak), AppImage download, Built-in app store
Windows apps it can replace
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