RapidRAW, a new OpenSource Lightroom alternative, build from scratch by a 18y old Photographer

[Winterfrost]

Greetings forum,

by accident, i've found this Lightroom alternative today. It's being avialable for MacOS, Windows (also ARM) and Linux flavors. As someone, which uses since many years DarkTable and RAW Therapee - this is really extraordinary, created by a single (!) 18 year old photogs and programmer.

I built a open-source lightweight RAW editor in 2 weeks because Lightroom felt too heavy on my machine

And here is the Github page

RapidRAW A beautiful, non-destructive, and GPU-accelerated RAW image editor built with performance in mind.

Current version (from today) is 1.3.6 - and this <20 MB package does also feature HW-acceleration. Why can't the big boys do that`?

From the Github page

RapidRAW

A beautiful, non-destructive, and GPU-accelerated RAW image editor built with performance in mind.

RapidRAW is a modern, high-performance alternative to Adobe Lightroom®. It delivers a simple, beautiful editing experience in a lightweight package (under 20MB) for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

I developed this project as a personal challenge at the age of 18. My goal was to create a high-performance tool for my own photography workflow while deepening my understanding of both React and Rust, with the support from Google Gemini.

License & Philosophy

This project is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL-3.0). I chose this license to ensure that RapidRAW and any of its derivatives will always remain open-source and free for the community. It protects the project from being used in closed-source commercial software, ensuring that improvements benefit everyone.

This guy deserves more attention! He's really gifted.

Good light.

--
"The Best Camera is the One That's with You" ~ Chase Jarvis

 

[Winterfrost]

DE RapidRAW - An Open Source Lightroom Alternative for Mac, Windows & Linux

 

[ishwanu]

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4809461

 

[Zeee]

Good for young developers. A Lightroom replacement. I have not watched Andy's video but I have a few questions.

Alternative Lightroom Classic or Lightroom? Does it offer the equal sophisticated catalogue system?

Does it offer Denoise AI, Generative AI, Adobe Color AI profile, Point Color, Advanced Masking, etc?

If not why is it just a Lightroom alternative? Wouldn't it be just another OpenSource developer like others that are out there? Alternative for any developer you have to pay for? I sure would not give up all I have with LrC. I could have done that long ago.

That being said I wish him the best of luck.

 

[John McCormack]

I'm using version 1.3.6 . It's good but what am I missing with its noise reduction sliders? I see no improvement in noise reduction even when applying it at the highest levels.

According sources RapidRAW utilizes GPU acceleration for image processing, including noise reduction, potentially leading to faster and more efficient results. RapidRAW utilizes GPU acceleration for image processing, including noise reduction, potentially leading to faster and more efficient results.

Is there a plug-in or GPU enhancement that I'm missing? I'm running RR on a Windows 11 PC with 16MB of memory, which may be limiting?

Thanks.

 

[Barleyman]

It's lightroom it is modelled after, not LrC.

From a UI point of view, it' looks a lot like LR. He used other open source engines for the different sliders, and some of them need some work.

The developer has done the "easy" part of getting the basics up and running. Now he'll need to do the harder work of masking, AI, fine tuning, handling different raw formats, etc.

 

[Zeee]

It's lightroom it is modelled after, not LrC.

I see.

From a UI point of view, it' looks a lot like LR. He used other open source engines for the different sliders, and some of them need some work.

The developer has done the "easy" part of getting the basics up and running. Now he'll need to do the harder work of masking, AI, fine tuning, handling different raw formats, etc.

Thanks for the explanation.

 

[John McCormack]

According to the developer:

"Improvements. Yesterday’s hotfix: After refactoring the frontend from JavaScript to TypeScript, a few unexpected bugs surfaced. They’ve now been fixed."

Issues I'm finding with the UI:

1. There's no way to set a home/library folder as a default folder in SETTINGS that RR will open for subsequent sessions.

2. RR doesn't have the ability to read EXIF data for Olympus .ORF and Lumix .RW2 RAW files (ARW files EXIF is displayed,) only embedded DNG, TIFF and JPEGs. RR returns the message "No EXIF data not found in this file."

3. Noise reduction sliders have almost no effect on high ISO images, i.e., ISO 1600 and above.

4. A side by side comparison of original with processed image would be nice. Am I missing something?

YMMV

 

[Zeee]

According to the developer:

"Improvements. Yesterday’s hotfix: After refactoring the frontend from JavaScript to TypeScript, a few unexpected bugs surfaced. They’ve now been fixed."

Issues I'm finding with the UI:

1. There's no way to set a home/library folder as a default folder in SETTINGS that RR will open for subsequent sessions.

2. RR doesn't have the ability to read EXIF data for Olympus .ORF and Lumix .RW2 RAW files (ARW files EXIF is displayed,) only embedded DNG, TIFF and JPEGs. RR returns the message "No EXIF data not found in this file."

3. Noise reduction sliders have almost no effect on high ISO images, i.e., ISO 1600 and above.

4. A side by side comparison of original with processed image would be nice. Am I missing something?

YMMV

Thanks for the update.

 

[SecondTimeAround]