Which RAW Processing Software is Best For Me?

The vexed question of which RAW processing software is best for me is one for which I have no definitive answer. This article assesses in as scientific a manner as I can muster, the suitability of Photo Processing Software that I have significant experience of.

These are, in no particular order:

• Adobe Lightroom – 10 years +
• Adobe Photoshop – 10 years +
• DxO PhotoLab – 7 years
• Capture One – 5 years
• Affinity Photo – 1 year
• Photomator – less than one year

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Marking & Assessing

There will be no weighting, instead there is a straightforward rating out of three in each category. Final results are separated into three categories – Beginner, Improving and Advanced. I’ve taken these categories from my tennis playing days, as I find them more appropriate than any kind of Pro – Amateur separation. In photography as in life, there are professionals whose skill levels are lower than some amateurs.

Criteria

Aesthetics and Usability

I’m going to compile a table assessing the look and feel of each app and the level of intuitive usability that has been brought to bear on each one.

Basic Edits

This table covers basic global edits – Exposure, Contrast, Color Temperature, Cropping, Lens Correction.

Selective Edits (Sliders)

These sliders allow some level of selective editing – Highlights, Shadows, Blacks, Whites, Curves, Levels, HSL, Color Grading, Color Calibration

Selective Edits (Masks)

These cover the ease and usability of Masking Tools and where applicable, Layers.

In the order in which they appear at the top of the article…

Aesthetics, Usability and Basic Editing

Selective Editing, Masks and Layers

Notes:

Aesthetics and Usability – Adobe’s use of AI is very different to Affinity, DxO and Capture One where AI is restricted to a technical role e.g. Noise Reduction, or Edge Detection. Adobe are heading for a full blown graphically capable AI application which may or may not be popular with photographers. Reaction on Social Media has been to reject the more fanciful executions of AI as “not photography”.

Basic Controls – I have found DxO’s Lens Corrections slightly ahead of Adobe and Capture One. Photomator do not currently correct for lens distortion at all.

Selective Edits – What is not evident in these table is that DxO offer more sliders addressing midrange tones as well as Clearview which is similar to Dehaze in Lightroom. The overarching point though is whether a tool like Curves or Levels is “better” or more “usable” – my own preference is to use Curves and or Levels where possible as it gives me more control over smaller ranges of tones than the sliders. This is an objective observation and a subjective preference, tools like curves are more than capable of ruining an image in the hands of a novice.

Final Scores Per Table

Unsurprisingly, these applications are extremely difficult to separate. All of the functionality is executed to a very high standard in every application so the separation tends to be on the basis of “less good” rather than “poor”.

Table 1 – Beginners and Improvers

In the Aesthetics, Usability and Basic Editing Table, the scores were as follows.

DxO PhotoLab

27 points. DxO PhotoLab has more aggressive sliders than any of the competitors which take a little bit of getting used to. It is not unreasonably priced, but upgrades appearing every year, although welcome, put it in the same affordability bracket as Adobe.

Adobe Lightroom

27 points. I penalised Lightroom on affordability (a subscription model) and on the quality of lens corrections which although decent, are not as good as DxO’s in my opinion.

Capture One

27 points. My experience of Capture One is not current, but based on extensive studio work in the past at which it excels. They have introduced HDR and Panorama stitching since those days and the only thing to criticise them for is the price which in my view is excessive!

Photomator

27 points. Penalised for a total lack of lens corrections, otherwise perfect scores. I would recommend Photomator for anybody new to RAW processing because it is very intuitive indeed.

Adobe Photoshop

26 points. Important to point out that Photoshop contains Adobe Camera RAW which is Lightroom without the catalog.

Affinity Photo

24 points. I penalised Affinity on Lens Corrections (Not as good as DxO) and in the sliders category – this is a subjective judgement on general look and feel, I’m much more impressed by the functionality of Affinity than I am by the look of it. It is though, as complicated as Photoshop and therefore not ideal for beginners.

Table 2 – Improvers and Advanced Users

Affinity Photo

30 points. A very capable competitor for Photoshop at a fraction of the price.

Adobe Photoshop

30 points. Perfect score as you might expect from the market leader.

Capture One

29 points. Certainly my favourite RAW processor back in the day. Only price keeps this application off my computer.

Adobe Lightroom

26 points. No levels tool and no support for layers that is compatible with Photoshop.

DxO PhotoLab

26 points. Penalised for lack of support for layers and one substandard tool – the repair/clone tool. Otherwise superb and, it should be acknowledged that the local adjustment paradigm does not need layers necessarily.

Photomator

26 points. A surprisingly capable editor let down by the lack of lens corrections and sketchy implementation of masks. I suspect Apple will improve this.

Conclusion

If I wasn’t convinced before, I certainly am now. All of these types of comparison are flawed because there is no objective comparison of the tools quality. None of these applications are poor, some of them could do better in ways which really are subjective. To try and apply some more useful criteria, taking the scores here into account I offer these recommendations.

Complete Beginner

I’ll accept no debate about this, it’s Photomator by a mile. In second place is DxO PhotoLab. The reason I choose Photomator over PhotoLab is simply that although PhotoLab is reasonably intuitive, it is more complex and it has one tool, the repair/clone tool that a beginner might use, that could be substantially improved.

Improver

A dead heat between Adobe Lightroom and DxO PhotoLab. They have different strengths but I’ve been using both for about seven years. The quality of DxO’s RAW conversion, noise reduction and lens corrections is unparalleled. Lightroom has a better catalogue and Color Calibration which does in one slider what takes a combination of sliders to achieve in PhotoLab.

Advanced

Lightroom/Photoshop or Capture One for professional use, Affinity Photo and DxO PhotoLab for advanced enthusiasts.

Capture One has the best tethering interface for studio work, Affinity Photo gives Photoshop a run for its money at a fraction of the price and DxO’s strengths far outweigh its few weaknesses.

I hope this is useful, remember the Valentines’ day offer of 20% off DxO products – For one day only, you can get a 20% Discount on new purchases of DxO software – 14 February. Use this code PAR_182019116_DJCEAFYP5DNQ at this link – DxO Online Store

You can also check out my review of PhotoLab 8 and my recent review of PhotoLab 9

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