RawTherapee workflow and organization

A typical workflow includes organizing the pictures, editing them, convert them, and store them in a safe location.

Digital photography workflow.

The File Browser is the first screen you see when you start the application. You can click on the left bar to change the section. The application window has three tabs that lead to three different sections: 

• File browser: Navigate the directories, organize the files, batch process, and show detailed information about a picture.
• Queue: Batching!
• Editor: Where the magic happens.

File browser

File browser of RawTherapee.

The file browser is split into three areas: the drive and directory browser on the left, the thumbnails of the current directory in the center, and the subtabs of additional tools on the right.  At the top of the thumbnail section, there is a toolbar that you can apply filters, zoom in/out, crop, and rotate the photo.

When you decide to edit your raw photo, you can double click the picture to change in application n editor mode. After returning to the File Browser, you can copy-paste, using ctrl+c and ctrl+v, the conversion settings from one photo to another. 

Queue

RawTherapee queue processing tab.

When you finish editing the picture, there are two ways for exporting the picture to jpg. You can either press the save button (or press ctrl+s) to export it right now or placed in a queue (ctrl+b) for later processing. The main reason behind the existence of the queue is that you need all the processing power when applying various filters and by delaying the full processing you can use all the available processing power you have. 

By pressing the start button, the processing of the queue starts. The most important options in this section are the type of the output file and the options associated with each format.

Editor

RawTherapee editor tab.

When you press "editor" on the left toolbar or double click a photo in File Browser, the editor starts. The window is divided into three parts. On the left, there is the Histogram, the picture Navigator, the History of actions, and the list snapshots of adjustments. The main window has the preview Panel at the center of the screen. The preview panel shows the picture after the basic adjustments. 

On the right, there is the toolbox, that contains all the tools available to tweak the photo. Note that some of the picture adjustments, such as noise reduction, are applied only when you zoom in due to heavy calculations.

At the top of the toolbox, there are ready to use profiles for processing your picture. The application comes with the basic processing "Bundled profiles", including to pop the picture, improve the quality of pictures taken with high ISOs and support for Pixel Shift sensors.

When you finish editing the picture, there are two ways for exporting the picture to jpeg. You can press the save button, or press CTRL + S, to export it right now. You can also place the export in a queue for later processing by using the CTRL + B shortcut.