People frequently ask:
“Why another RAW processor? What features justify the existence of yet another RAW editor than cannot be found in exiting free software?”
Those are legitimate questions, that deserve an honest answer. In my opinion, the main differences are the following:
- PhotoFlow can process and combine multiple RAW files simultaneously, opening the path to exposure blending, HDR merging or other visual effects (see this post for an example), directly fro the RAW images and fully integrated with the rest of the image processing
- PhotoFlow is layer-based, meaning that the sequential order of the processing filters is defined by the user according to its editing goals and preferences. Other RAW editors like RawTherapee and Darktable have instead an hard-coded sequence of the available tools (although Darktable allows to insert multiple instances of the same tool for local adjustments)
- PhotoFlow uses a very limited amount of resources, and runs equally well on 32 and 64 bits systems (this might be less important nowadays…)
- Compared to RawTherapee, PhotoFlow provides local adjustments through opacity masks associated to each layer. Darktable on the other hand has local adjustment capabilities.
- Compared to Darktable, PhotoFlow provides additional demosaicing methods (LMMSE and IGV) that are better suited for noisy images. Those demosaicing methods are derived from RawTherapee and are of course available there.
I will keep this post sticky and modify/complete it whenever new ideas and thoughts pop-up.