Reading RAW Files

[Ralph]

A while back I took a heap of RAW shots and my Photoshop CS6 stand alone program would not red them.
I actually had to go to a computer place to get me a program to read these files.
Since then I have got a new computer and the program is on that one.

I think my photo's have now improved in the overall lot of it and I am thinking of moving over to shooting in RAW only.
But I think I need to get a program that will read my files.
So if you can understand this all that I have put down and know how I can get to d this could you please let me know.'
Thank you in advance.

 

[FowlersFreeTime]

Hey Ralph, try this out:

Buy Capture One Pro

Get Capture One's flagship photo editing software, trusted by pros and studios worldwide. Capture One Pro supports files from all major camera brands.

www.captureone.com

Capture One Express is a bit basic, but its free and it will read Sony Raw files.
There is also a professional version of that for subscription or one time purchase if you like their program.

 

[Reciprocum]

I also suggest CaptureOne (C1), you can also try the full-spec version of C1 for 30 days for free.
If you do (start a trial run) make sure you can set aside at least 1h every other day to spend on your initial C1 learning curve. It will be the best investment of your time you can make.
Welcome to the "I shoot RAW" world and the new possibilities it will open to you.

EDIT: and you don't need to move to RAW only at once. Set recording media on your M3 to "sorted" and RAWs will be recorded on slot 1 (put your fastest card there) and JPEGs on slot-2. After you begin editing your RAWs then you get to compare to the SOOC (Straight Out Of Camera) JPEGs and get the reward/motivation to keep improving your RAW editing skills.

 

[Ralph]

Hey Ralph, try this out:

Buy Capture One Pro

Get Capture One's flagship photo editing software, trusted by pros and studios worldwide. Capture One Pro supports files from all major camera brands.

www.captureone.com

Capture One Express is a bit basic, but its free and it will read Sony Raw files.
There is also a professional version of that for subscription or one time purchase if you like their program.

As it has worked out I have already done this one and pasted my 30 day trial. So it looks like I have to bite the bullet and buy the program. Thank you for your suggestion.

I also suggest CaptureOne (C1), you can also try the full-spec version of C1 for 30 days for free.
If you do (start a trial run) make sure you can set aside at least 1h every other day to spend on your initial C1 learning curve. It will be the best investment of your time you can make.
Welcome to the "I shoot RAW" world and the new possibilities it will open to you.

EDIT: and you don't need to move to RAW only at once. Set recording media on your M3 to "sorted" and RAWs will be recorded on slot 1 (put your fastest card there) and JPEGs on slot-2. After you begin editing your RAWs then you get to compare to the SOOC (Straight Out Of Camera) JPEGs and get the reward/motivation to keep improving your RAW editing skills.

Thank you also for this suggestion and I will now look into getting the full program maybe now after Christmas and if I spend more money I will shorten my life. As the wife will be on the rampage. (not really but she wouldn't like me spending money like this at this time of the year.)
I know on my old laptop I have got a program so I might try to get that from there to this one. Can be worth a try anyway.
But thank you both I fully appreciate what you have done.

 

[Uncle Kevriano]

If you use Photoshop, Camera Raw id=s the one. I do a lot of post editing in Camera Raw

 

[Clix Pix]

I've been shooting RAW for years, first with various Nikon DSLRs and then eventually when I moved to Sony, of course with those cameras as well. Until Apple discontinued support for its excellent Aperture editing program, I used that and was perfectly happy. Once that was gone I started looking for something to replace it. I tried Capture One Pro a couple of years ago and found that it was overwhelming and actually just overkill for me so I gave up on it. I'm not shooting product photography and models in a studio where I need to tether my camera to the computer. Many of the features and functions available in C1 Pro were just lost on me.

Even after all this time, my editing skills are still fairly rudimentary, enough to get the basic job done and that's about it. Post-processing with extensive retouching and editing is not appealing to me and never has been my favorite part of the overall photographic process. I don't like shooting with cheap gimmicky third-party lenses that produce faked effects and then manipulating my images with even more tricks in post-processing the way I've seen some people do. That really becomes more "digital art" than actual photography as far as I'm concerned. I prefer using my good, high-quality Sony lenses to produce the kinds of results that make sense to me. I like to shoot pretty much what will be seen as the final result and gently edit accordingly.

I currently use DXO PhotoLab 4 (actually, PhotoLab 5 has just been announced but I haven't upgraded/updated to it yet). I also use Luminar AI from time to time for odds-and-ends of finishing touches. In addition I have Affinity Photo but really haven't done much with that program. A lot of photographers are firmly entrenched in the Photoshop/Lightroom subscription plan and are happy with it, so that's another possibility.

By shooting in RAW the photographer opens up the opportunity to edit and adjust the images he or she has shot in just the way they'd like the final image to appear. This really does make a difference, especially when one realizes that, oops. they forgot to adjust a particular setting. Years ago a friend went out to shoot and had a lovely afternoon -- until he returned home, put his RAW images into the computer and realized that, ack, he'd forgotten to change his White Balance setting and everything was coming out as though he'd shot under fluorescent lighting! Thankfully, he HAD shot in RAW and so it was a simple matter to appropriately adjust the white balance on each image as he was processing it.

 

[geodeo]

A while back I took a heap of RAW shots and my Photoshop CS6 stand alone program would not red them.
I actually had to go to a computer place to get me a program to read these files.
Since then I have got a new computer and the program is on that one.

I think my photo's have now improved in the overall lot of it and I am thinking of moving over to shooting in RAW only.
But I think I need to get a program that will read my files.
So if you can understand this all that I have put down and know how I can get to d this could you please let me know.'
Thank you in advance.

Try captureone - best editor for processing raw

 

[DavidN]

I’m just a beginner and started with Luminar AI and that seems ok (and much cheaper than the Lightroom/photoshop option) although I still have a lot to learn - looking forward to those dark and dreary English winter days to give me an excuse to fiddle on my computer.
I wasn’t happy with the noise reduction in Luminar, so, I bought DeNoise AI and was impressed with that although there seems to be a problem with the new RAW window on my Mac as I get a black square in the top left hand corner & the image with this option is never the best. I’ve contacted Topaz tech. support and they managed to replicate my problem but don’t seem to know why it’s happening. They are working on it!
I then persuaded myself that I should buy Sharpen AI and Gigapixel AI. - it’s all available individually or a bundle and lots of YouTube reviewers give a code to get 15% off. Therefore, a lot of software to get to grips with - hope I have time to take some photos!!
Just to cap it off, I also pre-ordered Luminar Neo which is due out shortly - they were offering it to Luminar AI owners for £25 so it didn‘t break the bank.

 

[Brownie]

I’m just a beginner and started with Luminar AI and that seems ok (and much cheaper than the Lightroom/photoshop option) although I still have a lot to learn - looking forward to those dark and dreary English winter days to give me an excuse to fiddle on my computer.
I wasn’t happy with the noise reduction in Luminar, so, I bought DeNoise AI and was impressed with that although there seems to be a problem with the new RAW window on my Mac as I get a black square in the top left hand corner & the image with this option is never the best. I’ve contacted Topaz tech. support and they managed to replicate my problem but don’t seem to know why it’s happening. They are working on it!
I then persuaded myself that I should buy Sharpen AI and Gigapixel AI. - it’s all available individually or a bundle and lots of YouTube reviewers give a code to get 15% off. Therefore, a lot of software to get to grips with - hope I have time to take some photos!!
Just to cap it off, I also pre-ordered Luminar Neo which is due out shortly - they were offering it to Luminar AI owners for £25 so it didn‘t break the bank.

It's really not. Luminar will tell you they are a one-time buy with free updates, but they aren't. They won't update the program, they will introduce a new version which you'll need to buy, and they do it almost annually. I see you've already experienced this with the 'new' Neo. The next thing that will happen is you'll find out Luminar will cease all support for AI in about a year. Most people shy away from Luminar for these business practices. I had purchased two seats for AI before it was released. I did some research afterwards and ended up getting a refund. A lot of people also complain about it being glitchy. I had Luminar 3 for a while, and while I can't attest to anything newer than that, 3 had issues. There is another thread somewhere around here that may go a little deeper.

Two suggestions for the OP and anyone else:

Darktable is free, open source, incredibly powerful, and well-supported. It has become my go-to for RAW processing. They used to update it with a new stable release on Christmas Day, but for the last two years they have had two stable releases per year. Darktable doesn't offer much in the way of editing though, it's primarily for processing.

Affinity is a very reasonably priced software ($54 U.S.) that both processes RAW and adds editing features, including layers and whatnot. I know several people who have owned it for a long time and they tell me Affinity provides all new releases to existing owners free of charge. None of them have ever paid another cent for updates.

I rarely edit a photo. If I do, I will process in DT then save as a TIFF and edited in Affinity.

 

[KCH]

There are also very good free/open source applications, two that I have used and are exceptional are:

RawTherapee
Darktable

There are others, but I think RawTherapee is exceptional!

 

[Ralph]

KCH you would never have known this as just yesterday I downloaded the RawTherapee.
And tomorrow I will head over the road to the wetland and try out this RAW game and see how I go.
Thank you for this information I will keep an eye on this incase I can't work thing's out.