Need a Simple, Basic Fast RAW editor for Mac

Does anyone know of a simple, no-frills editor (for Mac) that will open and develop RAW files without a lot of bells and whistles getting in the way?


I'm looking for software that'll handle quick-and-dirty edits of individual image files for posting to the web. I don't want a catalog/asset management app that also develops (like Lightroom), just a one-image-at-a-time RAW developer I can use to crop, adjust white balance, levels, colors, curves and sharpen, then export to web-sized jpg.


Don't need a "viewer" since I already have a great one (Xee) that lets me sort through my latest transfers, then copy the files I want to quick-edit. And it's very fast.


Lightroom would be almost perfect if it weren't for the asset management features that, for this particular use, just get in the way. GIMP is too cumbersome because u-fraw is waaaaaayyyyy too slow.


Any thoughts?

I have Lightroom installed but haven't started using it yet. I'm assuming the asset mgmt part of iPhoto/Aperture is a turn off?

I prefer Lightroom's asset management to either of those apps, and I do use Lightroom to catalog and develop everything I shoot. But my workflow is such that I frequently want to make some quick edits to one or two newly-shot RAW images without going through all the importing stuff. With everything stored on multiple external drives (that make up the Lightroom catalog) it's too cumbersome to work with only one or two images at a time in Lightroom.

Hence, my hunt for a quick-to-use, one-shot RAW proessor.

How about Elements? Seems a good compromise between Lightroom and Aperture.
Nikon ViewNX can also be used but it's coming to an end. You could use it to do transfers to jpegs and then crop and reduce in Elements or Mac Viewer.

Not really sure what you're looking for... Maybe RAW Therapee would work for you?

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Sounds like re-inventing the wheel to me. You already have Lightroom, so just use Lightroom.

If you're in a rush to crank out a few quickies, then create some presets and just apply those on import to the photos you want.

Sadly, Elements also includes asset management. I've used it in the past and still have it installed, but it's too slow and cumbersome, Lightroom's processing is far superior and much faster, IMO. If I could just extract the processing engine from LR as a stand-alone app, it'd be perfect!

Have you tried setting up Auto Import in Lightroom? Set up a folder for Auto Import, drag your singles into it, open Lightroom and they are there. You can specify the destination folder too. In my case, the destination is a sub folder under my import folder on my desktop. The pictures imported this way are off on their own on my left Lightroom pane and not mixed with my normal pictures. Easy to clear out that way. I use this for pictures my wife sends me for adjustment that I don't want to keep or get mixed up with my pictures.

I have to agree with the general direction of the thread. If you have LR, why not set it up to automatically apply lens correction and maybe your favorite development settings? You really can't get much faster than that.

Give Picasa a try. It's free, fast and simple.

So Importing is a pain, but you're willing to copy from the card to the hard drive manually? Why not import directly from the card/camera to the hard drive and LR?! My import dialog pops up the moment I plug the card into my Mac, and if I wanted it to it would start importing automatically. You can minimize the work LR does on import (no conversion to DNG, basic preview only). Not sure how much simpler anything else would be.

Thanks for the suggestions, all! I think I've got a workflow sorted, the result of all your thoughts combined which have caused me to look at the challenge in a different way. Now takes about 10 seconds per photo to do what I need. Since it's only three photos at most when I need this workflow, that's just about perfect. Now, back to shooting stuff...