Rawer App: Edit raw photos on your Lumia
Now, you can edit your raw images on your Lumia thanks to the Windows Phone 8.1 Rawer image-editing app.
Rawer works on select Lumia smartphones with the ability to capture images in raw (DNG) format – the Lumia 1020, Lumia 1520, Lumia 930 and Lumia Icon. And soon on the Lumia 830 too with the upcoming Lumia Camera update.
Before we get started, let’s take a moment to understand what raw images are.
Raw (DNG) images are unprocessed files, similar to film negatives. Using raw you can capture the pure visual details and characteristics of a photo without any image compression or processing.
Popular with professional photographers, raw image files offer full control to process and edit the images exactly the way you want. For example, you can adjust colors, tones, sharpness and noise reduction after capturing the photo.
To view, edit and process raw files on a computer or a smartphone, you need a special software. For your Lumia, Rawer app is the answer. This is how it works.
Shooting and editing raw
To shoot in raw format, select the “DNG Capture mode” under Nokia Camera settings. For example, in Lumia 1020, you will find three options; JPEG (5 MP), JPEG (5 MP + 34 MP) and the JPEG (5MP) + DNG (34 MP). Select the latter and you are set to capture photos in RAW mode. Please be forewarned that RAW images take up more space as compared to a regular JPEG image.
The first time you launch the Rawer app to edit your raw photos, the app searches for DNG files on your Lumia. Under the Info section, you can see the EXIF info such as camera details, image settings as well as date and time information.
The settings option lets you do the following to your images:
- Use the White Balance settings from the image
- Turn on or off the Auto Brightness
- Half-size the image for quicker processing
- Turn on/off noise reduction
- JPEG export quality
To be able to edit and use the other features (contrast, brightness, exposure, saturation, sharpness, hue etc) you need to upgrade to the app’s paid version ($1.99).
Once you start editing your photo, we recommend switching on the before/after feature that splits your image in half. The first half shows the unedited image and the other half shows the edited result.
Once you’re satisfied with the results, you can save the image to your Pictures Hub as a JPEG image or share it in your favorite social networks, upload to OneDrive or send it via email to your friends and family.
Are you shooting in raw and using Rawer? Let us know in the comments below.