Many professional photographers prefer shooting RAW images — instead of the more popular JPEG — for the obvious benefits of this format. When set in RAW mode, the camera’s sensor captures everything, or as close as you can get to what you see with your naked eye. This translates into great image quality, wonderful view of details and high levels of brightness, among others. Plus, during post-processing, photographers have the chance to customize RAW photos according to several criteria, retouching and adjusting colors the way they want.

As RAW images tend to take up a lot of space and sometimes slow down the camera, not to mention they are not viewable or printable using regular viewers or printers, their conversion to more accessible formats is an actual must.

While some users are put off by the seemingly tiresome editing process, which is commonly known to require specialized software and some specific skills, with reaConverter’s latest edition it can all be managed in no more than a few clicks. Controlling photo brightness and white balance — two of the most widely applied corrections of RAW images — just got faster and easier.

Install reaConverter

How does it work?

Load one or more RAW images you intend to process. Find them by browsing the internal hard-drive of your computer or add them from an open window using the drag-and-drop tool.

You can also add entire folders or use the Advanced file select option, which allows you to pick a designated group of files, according to their extension or size.

RAW loading settings

Go to the Menu button and click Loading settings → RAW formats loading settings

Here you can opt for automatic white balance, for the camera’s default white balance options or for no balance at all. You can also adjust brightness manually, according to your needs. Other available options here are customizing the interpolation, which is connected to resizing or remapping the photo, and correcting aspects such as noise and color.

Edit images

Optionally, go to the Edit images tab and apply further actions, including Color adjustments (contrast, filters etc.), Creative retouching (border, change background, lens correction etc.) and many more.

Save the result

Decide on a particular output format — JPG, PNG and TIFF are among the most popular — and select it from the buttons conveniently placed in the lower part of the window. Then go to Saving options and pick a location for the resulting images.

Next, simply press Start and your newly converted RAWs will soon be ready.

Video Tutorial

Advanced users can process RAW photos using command line interface or DLL in manual, automated or scheduled mode. You are welcome to contact our technical support when you have any questions about reaConverter.

If you are a fan of Canon cameras, you probably have a bunch of CR2 images stocked on your computer. CR2 is the proprietary format of Canon cameras, used for creating RAW images. Or in other words, images that you can later edit using advanced graphics editing software. While this format might be OK to use if you are a professional designer and if you have Adobe Photoshop or other similar programs installed on your computer, transfer CR2 images, sending or posting them online might pose some problems.

As in the case of most RAW image files, CR2s tend to have a very large size, so storing them or sending them by e-mail can be difficult. In addition, they are not compatible with many regular image viewing aditing programs and they are not accepted by photo labs or image sharing websites. So, how to deal with them in this case?

The best solution for handling your CR2 images is converting them to a more popular image format, which takes less space and is supported by more image viewers. You can choose from several extensions, including JPG or TIF. But while converting CR2 to JPG usually implies some serious compromise in terms of image quality, when it comes to the TIF format, preserving image quality is no longer an issue.

As opposed to JPG, which is a lossy compression format, TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) can ensure a lossless compression of the image. Or in other words, it helps you maintain image quality when you switch from CR2. However, for this conversion to take place successfully, you need to use a powerful piece of software, with advanced conversion settings. We recommend ReaConverter, which supports conversions to and from over 400 image formats, including CR2.

All you need to do is:

Download and Install reaConverter

Go to the reaConverter’s website reaConverter.com, download and install the software to your PC.

Load Your CR2 Files

Start it and load all the image files you need to convert because, as opposed to most free online converters, reaConverter supports batch conversion. So you can save the time and energy you would lose with doing repetitive operations.

Edit CR2 photos

You can tune CR2 loading settings with RAW Formats Loading Settings option.

Adjust white balance, brightness and interpolation, or apply denoise filter and color correction.

reaConverter also lets you choose between a wide array of image editing options. Here you can opt for rotating or cropping your images, for adding filters, effects or watermarking. You can easily check the effect of the image options you select here by ticking the Preview button.

Save in TIFF

Go to Saving options and pick a location for your TIF images. Pick the TIF extension for your output files by clicking the corresponding button from the lower part of the window.

Consequently, click on the TIF format settings button and go to the TIF menu in the newly opened window. Then select No compression in order to have a lossless conversion from CR2 to TIF.

After completing this step, simply start the conversion and in a few moments you will be able to enjoy your newly converted TIFF image files!

   Download reaConverter   

Video Tutorial

Online CR2 Converter:

reaConverter is a highly efficient tool for managing a large amount of CR2 files on a frequent basis. However, if you are planning to convert only a few CR2 photos and only once in a while, then you can also try online RAW photo converter imverter.com.

Advanced users can convert CR2 photos to TIFF files into images via command line interface in manual, automated or scheduled mode. You are welcome to contact our technical support when you have any questions about reaConverter.

“I have a bunch of CR2 images downloaded from my camera and I can’t open them with any of the image viewers I have installed! Can reaConverter help?”

One of our website visitors sent us this question by e-mail a few days ago. She had just downloaded the photos she made with her brand new Canon Powershot and was excited to view them on her computer. However, she soon realized this was impossible to do with any of the regular software she had for viewing photos.

Why? As you might have guessed, the reason is related to the extension of the image files: CR2. This is the regular format used by Canon cameras to create RAW images. While generally preferred by amateur and professional photographers because they allow them to apply a large variety of computer editing options to the image, RAW files have a few disadvantages. On the one hand, they are not supported by most regular image viewers. To open them, you probably need Adobe Photoshop or a similar graphics editing program, which is not always easy to use. On the other hand, RAW images are usually huge (up to 6 times larger than a JPEG) so they might prove difficult to store and transfer.

The fastest and simplest way to view and handle your CR2 images is to convert them into a more accessible image format, such as JPEG. And yes, reaConverter will be able to help! All you need to do is download and install the software, which can be tested for free at www.reaconverter.com.

Install reaConverter

Then you probably won’t need more than a minute or two to get acquainted to its user-friendly menu, which will allow you to:

• Easily select the file you intend to convert or drag & drop it. In case you have more than one file, reaConverter also allows you to do batch conversion by simply adding all the desired files on the conversion list.
   
  
   
• Select from the wide-ranging list of image editing options. This converter not only allows you to resize, rotate or crop your image, but also to add image effects or adjust brightness and contrast.
   
  
   
• If you are a professional photographer, you will also like the Watermarking option, which allows you to protect your images from unauthorized use. You can apply text watermarking, by placing the desired letters or numbers on all converted images (date stamps and counter figures are also options), with adjustable opacity level and text parameter. Or image watermarking, by adding an image over your photo, and customizing its transparency level, position and size.
   
  
   
• Choose the extension of the output file. JPG or other accessible image format will help you handle you CR2 files a lot easier. Then just start the conversion and enjoy your images in no time!
   
  

Download and try reaConverter

Advanced users can do the same using command line converter in manual, automated or scheduled mode. You are welcome to contact our technical support when you have any questions about reaConverter.

Online CR2 converter:

ReaConverter is a great solution for efficiently managing a large amount of conversions, on a frequent basis. However, if you are planning to convert only a few CR2 photos and only once in a while, then you can also try IMVERTER – free online converter.