Alternatives to Adobe Lightroom and PS for RAW images

[subha]

<p>I have Windows XP machine and I cannot download Adobe CS6 - Light room nor Photoshop as Adobe says Windows XP is an unsupported OS. <br>

I have Canon CRW raw images. I would like to use a software that is equivalent to Adobe Bridge where I can view the raw images and adjust brightness contrast colors etc and batch process them and export them to JPEG. <br>

Any recommendations that works on XP </p>

<p>Thanks</p>

 

[lex_jenkins]

<p>Try <a href="http://rawtherapee.com/blog/list/13">RawTherapee</a>. It's free/share/donorware, powerful, flexible and versions exist for most OS's. It's also a bit complicated and sluggish in some operations (particularly some sharpening options). But there are plenty of discussions and tips for using it.</p>

[EricM]

Picasa

[subha]

<p>eric you said Picasa? I used it, i found it hard can you explain?<br>

I also found this Online one: http://pixlr.com/editor/</p>

[lex_jenkins]

<p>Picasa is a pretty good freebie, quick and easy to use. But it's weak in accurate color correction and white balance from raw files, and lacks any noise reduction utility. Before getting Lightroom I would occasionally run my high ISO raw files through a multi-step process: Nikon View to convert the raw to TIFF with basic white balance adjustment; run the TIFF through Noise Ninja to fix the high ISO noise and resave to TIFF; then Picasa for the rest. All had batch processing options, so it was okay for quickly going through lots of snapshots.</p>

<p>A Picasa upgrade to handle raw files better - with good white balance and noise reduction - it would be a formidable alternative to Lightroom.</p>

[Andrew Gosden]

<p>What about the free Canon Digital Photo Professional? It's Canon's raw conversion software and it will do what you are looking for. I'm not sure the newest version runs on XP, but I know the one from a couple of years ago did.</p>

[JosvanEekelen]

<p>CRW images are quite old, older RAW converters must be able to convert these. UFraw is another freeware program. Or an oldie, if you can find it: RAWshooter. Older Photoshop versions will do the trick as well, CS2 can/could be downloaded for free.</p>

[Wouter Willemse]

<p>Frankly, I would move away from XP as fast as you can - I realise that is not always equally simple, but soon WinXP will be a completely unsupport OS in every sense. Whatever you do now to find a decent RAW editor will be a stop-gap solution until you can move to a modern OS instead (be it Windows 7, 8, Linux or MacOS X).<br>

If you only have Canon files to manage, I would look Canon DPP; otherwise the <a href="http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/photoshop-elements/tech-specs.html">current version of Photoshop Elements (12)</a> is still supported on Windows XP, and will give you access to the current version of Adobe Camera RAW; it's support for batch operation is sketchy, though. The previous version of CaptureOne (version 6) works on Windows XP too; it has good RAW conversion, fast and certainly can easily do large batch conversions.</p>

[kerry_grim]

I second Wouter's comments in entirety.

[GBarrington]

<p>Consider ACDSee Pro 7. I use it and consider it's raw development to be excellent. I moved from Lightroom a little over a year ago and wouldn't go back if you paid me. Well, if you paid me I'd consider it! But it works exactly the way I want to work.<br>

Here in the US it's on sale right now at a pretty good discount from its regular $200 price.</p>

[sgust]

<p>I've been pretty satisfied with LightZone, a free Raw converter. You might want to give it a try.</p>

<p>I agree with what Wouter said as well. <a href="http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/end-support-help#bodyContentPane">Windows is discontinuing XP support after April 8</a>. Which means no more security updates or tech assistance after that.</p>

[subha]

<p>My light weight laptop which is D4300 Dell - I use it mainly for Music production and creation. I want to use it as an interim. If you photographers are curious. This is my music creation on soundcloud :

and on http://www.seacliffrecord.com/<br>

And I use my laptop as part of my LIVE music performance. I have other computers but they are in transit for next months as I am relocating. Hence i wanted a solution so I can process and post pictures I took here in Austin : SXSW 2014 and more. </p>

[alan_bessler_sr]

<p>Time for Windows 8..........</p>