How two photographers transformed RAW photo support on Mac

Summary

As photographers using macOS know all too well, native macOS-level support for RAW image formats can be hit-or-miss, and new support can take months or years to arrive, sometimes never arriving at all. This means that photographers must rely on third-party software to process many RAW photos, and that support in Apple’s own apps, like Photos, is spotty. However, not all is lost, as very talented engineers are working hard to overcome macOS’s own RAW limitations. Update 11/17: An earlier version of this article incorrectly listed Nik Bhatt’s roles at Apple. He served as Senior Director of Engineering in Photo Apps. Before that, he was in charge of the Photos imaging team, RAW camera support, iPhoto, and Aperture. Enter Nik Bhatt, founder of Gentlemen Coders, and Albert Shan, founder of Anogeissus Limited. Separately, Bhatt has developed numerous photo editing applications for macOS, including Raw Power, and more recently, Nitro. Albert, on the other hand, developed ApolloOne and Camera RawX. Together, Nik and Albert have done something very special: they created RawBridge™, a highly specialized, bespoke RAW decoder and processor that works within Nik and Albert’s separate RAW processing and photo management applications. On Bhatt’s side, Raw Power and Nitro are, at their core, RAW processing applications that provide separate photo editing and organization tools while also integrating natively with Photos. The newer app, Nitro, is Bhatt’s most powerful photo editing software to date. Photographers can access all their photos through Finder or iCloud Photos and edit them with sliders, masks, brushes, and more. The software includes AI-powered masking, clone and spot removal. Bhatt says Nitro’s combination of flexible storage, camera support, and editing tools offer “editing tools unmatched by any app.” As for Shan, ApolloOne is macOS’ fastest image viewer. It is designed for professionals and enthusiasts with massive image libraries who need to quickly and efficiently...