Was going to post the other day, but was having internet problems.
First: I don't do "raw" yet, so I let the camera convert raw data into jpegs. On my camera, this also takes out distortion and some other image aberrations. Ken Rockwell (kenrockwell.com) recommends so. He's also of the "just get a great photo, don't spend your entire night post-processing" school.
Ken's take: https://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/raw.htm
You may disagree, take it up with him, not me!
That said, I use preview (yes, it's mac-only) ---- I don't know a "really quick fix alternative" for this. (see below for more options)
The other program I use a lot is GIMP. https://www.gimp.org/ GIMP is free and open source image editing software, runs on every operating system (just download and unpack) and does a whole lot (more than I can comprehend, anyway) and its user interface is confusing until you get used to it, but the basic stuff - cropping, color temp, shadow/highlights, hue/saturation, levels (I use that a lot), color balance, and curves (very useful), and more, are pretty intuitive. There are manuals online, and books.
Latest (2.10) online manual
https://docs.gimp.org/2.10/en/
NOW, if I want to process raw photos, they need to be converted to jpeg or tiff.
https://howtogimp.com/raw-photos-in-gimp/
In order to work with images you shot in a RAW format in GIMP, you’ll need a RAW converter to first change them to something that GIMP can read, like TIFF or JPG.
That’s not a GIMP quirk, it’s a RAW quirk. Even if you were using Photoshop, you would have to first work with the file in something like Adobe Camera RAW, and then convert the file to something like a JPEG or a TIFF that Photoshop can recognize to continue working on it.
So, I looked up free image editors that are made for raw camera files. The lists I found are for Linux, but open source software tends to be re-compiled (ready to run) for W/M/L systems.
https://digital-photography-school.com/photo-editing-software-options-linux-users/
These are the programs that can be installed directly on your system. All of these are open-source and free, and they work in Linux, Windows, and Mac OS, unless otherwise stated.
Darktable
Darktable allows you to manage and process photos, including RAW images, in Linux and Mac OS. The two main tasks are separated into two spaces; the light-table for managing and cataloguing, and the darkroom for editing and processing photos.
As you may have noticed, the name of the software is a combination of those two words, just like Lightroom. It’s a powerful and non-destructive editor which requires a bit of time to get used to, but for anyone who has ever used post-processing software before, it’s not a problem.
Raw Therapee
Raw Therapee is a post-processing program for RAW images which works in most operating systems. It can be used to manage photos, but if you have a big collection, it’s good to combine it with software specifically aimed at image management, such as DigiKam. It’s easy and intuitive to use.
Rawstudio
With Rawstudio you can process RAW images, as the name suggests. It works in Linux and Mac OS, but not in Windows. It’s especially good for bulk processing and it can read essentially any RAW image format. It doesn’t support the latest versions of Debian, so if you’re using Ubuntu and have a newer version than 13.10, it won’t work for you.
Photivo
Photivo is another RAW image processing program. I’ve never used it, but it supposed to be good once you learn how to handle it, which might take a bit of time due to the number of different options. You can’t manage or catalog your photos with it, but if it sounds tempting anyway, you can combine it with one of the many great stand-alone photo management programs out there.
GTKRawGallery
GTKRawGallery is a lightweight program for managing and processing RAW images. It doesn’t work very well if you’re processing a lot of photos, but it’s faster for single image edits. It works in Linux and Windows, but not in Mac OS
GIMP
It’s difficult to talk about photo editing software in Linux without mentioning GIMP. This program won’t read RAW files without some tweaking, so many use it for post-post-processing, such as saving in a variety of different formats, retouching, and even drawing.
It’s free, open-source, works in many different operating systems, and with the right add-on, it can also open RAW files.
I downloaded the following to evaluate/use.
Darktable
LightZone
ufraw
Digikam
Photivo
RawTherapee
So, in my quick scan, they must have been highly rated.
Here are some more reviews. Just for reference.
https://www.linux.com/training-tutorials/top-17-photo-editing-tools-linux-os-1/
https://www.tecmint.com/best-image-photo-editors-for-linux/
Apologies for the long post. Hopefully, it saves you a lot of wasted time searching.
Why haven't I unpacked and tried all of these?
Because it takes me enough time to take photos, sort them and make quick adjustments/rate them, that I don't have time now for anything fancier, to handle "tough cases"
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