Over the last couple of weeks I have been asking people to send me in raw files so that I could test out on RapidRaw (versions 1.5.4 and 1.5.5). I have been hearing people having several issues with files that are underexposed or overexposed or very noisy, so I had people send me in examples.
“Setting the benchmark”
I have been using RapidRaw since its first release, and as you all know, I have been singing is praises ever since that time. For me it had worked wonderfully, and I have been able to create some great edits with with little to no issues.
For context, I am using two modern mirrorless cameras, the Nikon Z6ii and the Nikon ZF, which have always been known for having superior raw files with a ton of information, very little noise and extremely flexible when edited.
All my editing knowledge of RapidRaw has been based on editing these files, which in conjunction with the files capabilities and the way I like to get it right in camera (controlling the shadows and highlights) means I just didn’t see any issues.
“Your files were an eye opener”
I received a lot of raw files, from a couple of sets of wedding images with the white dresses blown out to landscape images which were severely underexposed and street photography images and portraits which had all these issues and more (some of these I’ve started doing video tutorials on how to correct on my YouTube channel, and there is more to come).
Almost all of the images I received were from older cameras, which compounded the problems. Nikon D40, D70, D750, Canon EOS 80D, 5D Mk IV, Olympus OM-D EM1X, EPL-7 and a Sony A6000. With almost every file having various degrees of exposure problems (I asked for images which people had issues with).
I always start editing images the same way when testing, and that is to hit the auto button. I’m used to it setting the image to a nice starting point on RapidRaw. With these images, it almost exclusively failed it’s job.
“What I learned”
RapidRaw is indeed powerful, and with my raw files I have no issues. However, with other cameras raw files it can come into some issues depending on how badly they are exposed or just how the raw file is not as malleable as more modern cameras.
Just sliding the sliders won’t recover the shadows, you’ll need to mask the areas using one of the many in-built masking features in RapidRaw (as highlighted in this video I made here).
Highlights with a combination of a cameras ability and how far you’ve overexposed is a major problem and RapidRaw can really struggle with these areas compared to other software (as a note, I checked files in Darktable to see it’s performance, and out of the box on these issues mentioned, it performed better. Of course, using professional software like Luminar Neo there were no issues at all in rescuing anything thrown at it).
As for noise reduction, the AI noise reduction worked well, while the manual noise reduction in hard to target areas lost a lot of detail. Again I recommend using a mask rather than a global adjustment when doing this and targeting only the areas affected.
“Is this a deal breaker?”
The files I were sent were the extremes, on mostly older cameras, but that is exactly what I wanted. As mentioned, I do not possess any files that RapidRaw cannot edit with ease. For some people this may be a deal breaker if you have files that have hard to target areas.
For general use though, on well exposed raw files, RapidRaw should be perfect to use and not cause you too much issues. Of course, if you are thinking of moving completely to RapidRaw and you are having any of the issues mentioned, I would keep another program as backup.
My name is Mark G Adams and I run Photography By Mark G Adams. I am a professional photographer from South Wales, shooting weddings, events and portraits as well as running meets and workshops. For fun I like to shoot landscapes, wildlife and occasionally do street photography. Enjoy my website as I share my knowledge learned over decades of working and having fun in photography.
You can find all the latest articles and blogs on my homepage here.
My main photography social media page is my Photography By Mark G Adams page.
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