You shoot images in RAW, but have no idea how to edit your RAW photos afterwards? No worries – it is no big deal. There are myriads of programs on the Internet that can help you with it. But you don’t need to waste your time searching for a suitable photo editor. In this article, we’ll show you the best software for editing RAW images – PhotoWorks. It’s a powerful yet beginner-friendly photo editor that anyone can master. Unlike other tools, it supports 450+ RAW formats and it will let you process such pictures with no hassle. So let’s see how you can do it.
1. Install the Photo Editor
For starters, download the installation file on your computer from the official website for free. It is a lightweight photo editor so the downloading process is not going to take long. Once PhotoWorks is installed, start the program to begin editing.
2. Insert Your RAW Files
Now you can add the photo you want to apply changes to or even a batch of images. The program lets you edit your RAW images just in a few clicks. Hard to believe? Then check this out – click Open photo, choose a RAW file, and here you can pick one of the automatic adjustment profiles that may be applied to the rest of the photos of a similar format in your folder. There are such profiles available as Auto Enhancement, Auto Correction, Landscape, Portrait, and so on.
3. Edit the Selected Pictures
You can still skip applying the profiles and tweak your pictures manually. PhotoWorks allows you to easily adjust White Balance and fix colors using sliders, turn a colorful image black-and-white, or even make it negative. In case you don’t have time for editing, apply one of the funky filters from the pre-installed collection of effects. They are grouped into Vintage effects, Photographic films, Quick enhancements, and even Movie effects – you can stylize your photos to make them look like your favorite movie: Harry Potter, Home Alone, Alice in Wonderland, Forrest Gump, and more.
In PhotoWorks, you can also do AI retouching, e.g. remove wrinkles, change facial features and reshape body parts in case of an unlucky angle. Do it manually or use the Portrait Magic tool. You can have even more fun using other pro-level tools. For example, change the background, swap the sky with another, remove digital noise, fine-tune tones and colors using curves, try 3D LUT Color Correction, and so on.
To change the composition of your RAW pictures, go to the Tools tab and select the Crop feature. Either pick a free aspect ratio, or choose one of the popular options like 1:1 Square, 16:9 HD, Facebook Cover Photo, etc. For more precise editing, apply grids: Rule of Thirds, Golden spiral, Golden ratio, or others.
4. Save the New Images
Now you know how to process RAW images, so it’s time to export the edited picture. All you have to do is click Save, pick a file format, and select the destination folder. There are such formats supported as PNG, JPEG, BMP, etc. Alternatively, print the photo right away using the ready-made printing layouts. The software lets you choose a popular format like A3 or A5, set the resolution, choose the number of copies, divide photos with crop marks, adjust the margins and the space between images.
As you can see, there is nothing complicated about upgrading your RAW pictures in a photo editor like PhotoWorks. It offers a handful of automatic tools that will save you so much time. Nevertheless, you can tweak pictures manually. So, the photo editor will suit both beginners and seasoned users. To learn more about how to edit RAW images, follow the link and read the step-by-step tutorial.