RAW photography in Linux

If you don't know what RAW is, please go find out before reading this. But I suggest you go find something else to do as this is going to get difficult for beginners.

Perhaps the most annoying complaint people tell me is that they wouldn't be able to process RAW photos in Linux. I didn't even bother with RAW until I recently bought a DSLR and wanted to get the most out of the photos I shot.

I use Linux Mint personally, but all the tools here work for all debian distros.

The Process

Get the photos.
This is the fun part. I like using the Aperture Priority setting for normal work, and then manual for all the rest of my shots. Call me lazy for using a semi automatic feature, but I can't be bothered setting everything up for pedestrian shots. Especially street photography.

Because I bought a Canon 600D DSLR Camera, I found it outputs compressed ( but lossless BTW) CR2 files containing digital RAW data that has been processed from the analog sensor. I copy these onto my external hard drive (of which there are no backups)

Process RAW

I then use RAW Therapee (A free cross-platform RAW editor/converter) to get my RAW files processed with the exposure and chroma levels of my choice. RAW files usually need to be worked on by hand. I then make a TIFF copy of the file and then import that into GIMP if I need to make more extensive edits. Usually, I don't have to get as far as that, but, sometimes photos need that extra bit of work to be acceptable.

Time for GIMP. (Sometimes)

Yes, I will admit your choice of editors in Linux usually is GIMP, GIMP, or the GIMP. But bear with me, the GIMP is a very powerful, versatile, and useful program. As of the 2.8 release, it has gained a ton of new features, and is far more powerful than the old releases. It even has a single window mode to make photoshop users feel at home.

I use the GIMP to get the photos into their final phase, which can involve cloning, cropping, dodging/burning, etc.

So to that effect, here are some photos that have been shot in RAW. 

I'm into Black and White photography at the moment, so I have deliberately made these B&W.

Australia Day

Hi guys, This is my first post for 2013. I recently bought a new camera. The Canon EOS Kiss X5. That is just a fancy international name for the 600D. Anyway, I have now got a real camera, so the quality of  my work should improve by some very large margins. I have also discovered that there is a TON of software for decoding RAW files in Linux, so I have entered 2013 running Linux Mint. Far more awesome than Ubuntu.

To break my new camera in, I headed for the foreshore of the swan river to photograph the skyworks.
These are what I got:

I hope to bring you more photos later on.