this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2025
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RapidRAW – The Lightroom (non-Classic) killer as Darktable is to LrC? (infosec.pub)
submitted 3 days ago by trey_a_12@lemmy.world to c/photography@lemmy.world
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/34104202

Guys, I just learned about this new FOSS editor called "RapidRAW" on GitHub, and this might well be the Lightroom (non-Classic) killer as Darktable is to Lightroom Classic. See, as much as I love Darktable for its power and feature set, most of my non-tech photographer friends have mentioned how its power comes at the cost of complexity even beyond LrC. Yes, I love DT, but I do have to agree – It can be overwhelming to a newer user not as familiar with LrC or wanting to learn a whole new program just for quick edits.

...and then I found RapidRAW! This looks like it could be it: A sleek, lightweight, elegant, comprehensive (enough) editor that seems to finally strike the balance between power and beginner-friendliness! Even better, like Darktable, it too appears to be FOSS, breaking away from the money-hungry Adobe corporate software! Now, I've only just started looking into it, but what do you think? Could this be the next piece in the essential toolkit for Ex-dobe users switching from Lightroom but not quite wanting a full LrC replacement? Check it out!

https://github.com/CyberTimon/RapidRAW

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[–] Mechanite@lemmy.world 1 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (1 children)

I took a shot at this since it has Linux support. Generally I'm having to either use Darktable or dual boot into windows to use LR Classic (especially if I need to denoise the photos)

For the controls themselves it had most of what I use from LR Classic (probably a good time to mention I never used LR so I can't compare that) but I had 3 major issues. Both may be because I'm on openSUSE which is not officially supported, although an RPM is provided

  1. The UI is extremely slow to use. Slower than LR classic even.

  2. I can't figure out how to show my photos at full 60MP resolution. It seems to show only proxies that completely fall apart when you try to zoom. I could only imagine performance being even worse however with full resolution.

  3. Editing highlights down completely falls apart as if I was editing a jpg and not RAW. I was willing to work past the other 2 issues but not that.

I am still interested in the software as it gets updates though, and its very possible my issues are because I'm running it in opensuse.

[–] trey_a_12@lemmy.world 1 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

That’s definitely odd. I mean, it is still definitely WIP (even core-functionality wise), but at least on macOS (via M4 MBA with 16 GB RAM) and Windows 11 (via VMware Fusion with 8 GB RAM and 3D Acceleration on the same ARM Mac, mind you), RapidRAW ran well with my test 48 MP shot and some quick edits.

  1. I think you have to release (or hold the mouse still) on an adjustment to see it rather than instant live previews, but aside from that, things generally worked pretty well in my testing. That might be the “issue” with it being “slow,” but if you mean just general scrolling around, that might be an actual bug or lack of Linux optimization yet.
  2. The proxy resolution cap is definitely understandable, at least while the program’s still heavily WIP and probably not fully optimized for Linux (hence not being available as a Flatpak or AppImage which would be universal).
  3. The highlights “falling apart” sounds like a bug. I know there was one bug where the slider directions for two things (possibly highlights and shadows) were accidentally reversed, so it might be worth looking into that, and if this is another issue, report it to the developer’s GitHub.

I’m with you though – Darktable’s an excellent piece of software, but I’d love a “Lightroom-esque” program and this looks promising!

[–] Mechanite@lemmy.world 1 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

I ended up trying it out on windows. My performance was fine, and I can get past the low resolution editing, but adjusting exposure and especially highlights is still very bad. Instead of recovering highlights it just.. Makes it less bright. Like editing a JPG.

I wonder if its actually an issue of how the program is reading ARW files? Maybe its only reading the embedded jpeg from the ARW (ARW is sony's RAW file format - I'm shooting on an A7R V for reference)

Edit: on second though it definitely isn't using embedded jpeg since those are way lower resolution, but still maybe it isn't handling the file correctly

[–] trey_a_12@lemmy.world 1 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

Could be. Full file format support is hit-or-miss with newer programs – even if it can read and write the data, it may not be able to fully interpret it. Try running through *Adobe DNG Converter or converting it to a TIFF, then see if that works any better, perhaps? Also check if there’s already a “full resolution editing” suggestion on the GitHub, and if not, make one! I’m away from my computer right now, but if you find/make one, please link it here so I can also share it.

*Adobe DNG Converter is the one Adobe tool I do use since it’s 100% free and offline. It JUST converts images to “standard” DNG files or JPEGs, and I do this for iPhone ProRAWs or other unsupported images when trying to edit in Darktable. I had to make some “iPhone DNG presets” and all since ADC removes the Apple DNG-specific data, but it works well beyond that.

[–] chonkyninja@lemmy.world 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

This looks like ripoff off DarkTable.

[–] trey_a_12@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

You’re entitled to your opinion about the interface (I personally think it’s quite sleek, especially for a user coming from Lr or other simpler editors but not wanting to get into Dt-levels of complexity), but it’s not intended to compete against Darktable in the first place. I would argue that it looks more like Adobe Lightroom (its actual competitor, as stated even in the developer’s ReadMe) than anything.

Keep in mind:

  • Adobe Lightroom is the lighter, more streamlined editor with more of the ease-of-use. This is closer to what RapidRAW is trying to achieve. This is shown in the more lightweight interface with fewer options and controls.
  • Adobe Lightroom Classic is the heavier, more powerful editor that tries to have all the features. That’s more of Darktable’s area. This is shown in the more detailed interface with more options and settings.

↑ LrC vs Lr interface

Not everyone needs both programs – most people would probably be fine with just Lightroom and don’t need the power/want to deal with the initial complexity of LrC. For people who want those programs without the Adobe, however, that’s where RapidRAW and Darktable come in.