I just downloaded the latest 64 bit version of Rawtherapee. I also use Adobe Llightroom v5. My quetion is: can RT use XMP sidecar files so I can load a file processed in RT to Lightroom’s raw processor without loosing raw processing changes? Also can RT process Adobe DNG files?
Thanks,
Jim L
Hey
XMP sidecar files store key value pairs. These tell the program reading them how to adjust its knobs and sliders. The engine in RawTherapee is entirely different to the one in Lightroom, so getting the same results is generally not possible as soon as the idiosyncratic tools come into play.
I’m not sure what you mean. Are you asking whether, if RT used XMP, it would be possible to tweak a photo in RT, then load the raw+XMP files in Lightroom and get the same results?
RawTherapee does not store its settings in XMP sidecars, it stores them in PP3 ones. Similar concept. Even if it stored them in the XMP format, that wouldn’t help you, if I understood your question correctly. The results would be entirely different.
Yes RawTherapee supports DNG files, both normal ones and HDR floating point ones.
So if I convert or download my Canon CR2 raw files to DNG they should be useable across both Lightroom and RT programs, right? BTW thanks for the clarifications to my questions.
Jim L
I would generally avoid raw to raw conversion. RT will operate on a CR2 file, as I’m sure Lightroom will. You won’t (ever) be able to open RT, make some adjustments, then open Lightroom, pick up the adjustments from RT and add more adjustments on top of those; unfortunately things don’t work that way (and Adobe works very hard to ensure they don’t indeed work that way).
Very interesting remark (which I actually agree with). I do like Adobe software, except for Photoshop because it is too expensive. I use Elements and plugins that make it think it is Photoshop and of course Lightroom, but since they went to the Creative Cloud they seem to not care about customers like me who do not choose to rent their software on a monthly basis. I heard that they don’t even do periodic updates for Lightroom anymore if you are on standalone. There is also a chance that Lightroom may no longer be available as standalone when they release version 7. If that happens, I will be finished with Adobe. That is why I searched and found RawTherapee and see it a replacement for Lightroom.
Enough venting for now. I will just look at both programs and figure out for now how to get them to work together, they both are superb programs.
Jim L
I still use Photoshop at work all the time, and illustrator. The tools themselves are quite good and offer nice functionality. But with the advent of creative cloud, Adobe (1) doesn’t not have to work to ensure you update every year as they did when they sold boxed software. That is, with the box model, if they didn’t deliver compelling enough features, you just skipped that version. With the cloud, you pay them up front. There isn’t much incentive to improve since they don’t have a lot of competition. (2) They still develop like they’re using the waterfall methodology even though they’re on the SaaS space, which is incredibly annoying. They don’t deliver fixes nearly fast enough.
If you want to see how Adobe works to lock you into their file format, take a look at illustrator’s svg handling.
I avoid using Adobe proprietary formats like PSD in my editing. Some have attempted to tell me that you have to use PSD in order to keep layers in a save. I reject that because I know that Tiff handles layers just fine and I won’t be stuck with a format that may not work in other applications.
That seems prudent! I have a ton of PSD files from before the time when I knew better.
Welcome to the community!
Right, but they will be usable in both Lightroom and RT even if they’re in the CR2 format.
PSD files work best with Adobe’s software. And “TIFF” is a broad term which is used by many other formats, including raw. Yes TIFF supports layers, but if your intention is to use adjustment layers and stuff like that, well it won’t work in non-Adobe software the way its supposed to, so I don’t see any benefit to not using PSD. When it comes to using layers for anything more than just a plain layer image, you can’t expect to get the same result in GIMP as you do in Photoshop just because you used a TIFF instead of a PSD.
Using PSD would probably be the better choice. GIMP has at least rudimentary support for those files, while TIFFs most certainly won’t carry all the information a PSD has.