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.

Nikon is one of the most popular brands of digital cameras, widely favored both by professional and amateur photographers. But if you are the fresh owner of a Nikon camera and you have just downloaded the first series of photographs taken with it, you might be puzzled by the extension of the image files stocked on your computer.

NEF is the trademarked extension of RAW photos taken with Nikon cameras. Many photographers prefer to take RAW photos (also called “digital negatives”), instead of the usual JPEG, because they contain minimally processed data and they can easily be customized using digital editing software. However, their size tends to be very large and they are not supported by regular image viewers. Plus, handling them requires the use of advanced digital editing programs, which are not particularly easy to use. Moreover, sending or uploading RAW images to photo sharing sites is impossible if you don’t convert them to a more accessible format.

Instead of converting RAW images to JPEG, which usually implies some severe compromise in terms of image quality, a more viable option is converting to TIFF (Tagged Image File Format), because the latter can ensure a lossless compression of the image file.

So, if you are fan of shooting in RAW mode with your Nikon camera, but at the same time want to avoid the costs and the hassle of buying and operating an advanced image editing software, we recommend an easier and faster way to handle your NEF images. Here is what you need to do:

Pick a powerful converter, which will not only allow you to change the extension of the image file, but will also offer you a large variety of image editing options. reaConverter might be one of the best options, since it supports batch conversion for over 500 image formats, including NEF. Moreover, it has a free trial period and once you install it you will discover it does not take too much space on your computer and has a user-friendly interface.

Install reaConverter

Start reaConverter and load your NEF files

Load all the NEF images you need to convert:

Take your time to discover all the image editing options supported by reaConverter:

Adjusting the image, adding effects or watermarking will only take a few moments and the software’s ability to support batch image processing will help you save many hours of doing repetitive operations.

Choose the destination folder and TIFF as output format

In the last step of the conversion process, choose the destination folder and the format of your output file:

Pick TIF from the bottom and if you want to opt for lossless conversion, go to the Menu → Saving settings → Format Saving Settings and choose No compression

Start the conversion process

Then start the conversion and enjoy your newly converted .tif images!

Video Tutorial

Advanced users can process RAW photos into lossless TIFF images automatically using Command Line Interface, Watch Folders, or DLL. You are welcome to contact our technical support when you have any questions about reaConverter.

The .NEF extension is used for the RAW images created using Nikon digital cameras. Most photographers opt for taking RAW images because they imply minimally processed data, so they allow computer editing and let you customize your image the way you want. But on the other hand, they are difficult to send by e-mail, print or store, due to their enormous size. Moreover, in order to view them, you need an advanced graphics editing program, such as Adobe Photoshop.

So how can you make you .NEF files easier to handle?

Some people think it’s enough to rename them and change the extension to .JPG, for example. But if you have tried this, you surely noticed it doesn’t work. In order to change the extension of your image from .NEF to a more accessible format, such as .JPEG, .PNG or .TIFF, you need to convert your image files.

Here are 3 essential tips for doing this fast and easy:

1. Choose a simple, yet powerful converter, such as ReaConverter Pro. It has a small size, it is quick to download, install and launch, and you don’t need to be an IT specialist in order to understand in a few minutes how it operates. You can try it for free from: http://www.reaconverter.com/download.html
    
2. Load one or more .NEF files and then choose from the large variety of editing tools available. ReaConverter provides you with basically all the image processing options you might need. For example, you can create a reflection of your image, either horizontally or vertically, by choosing the Mirror option; you can crop the undesired part of your photo; or you can edit the width and height of your output image by choosing to resize it. ReaConverter also allows you to enhance the quality of the output image by removing “noise” or adjusting the color resolution.

    

   

3. Choose an accessible format for your output image.

   

   .JPEG, .TIFF and .PNG are the most popular options, but others are also available. Then simply press the “Start conversion” button and your .NEF images will automatically be transformed into a format you can visualize, store, send and print more easily.

Download and try reaConverter  (~30 MiB)

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 NEF 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 NEF photos and only once in a while, then you can also try free online conversion service at http://www.imverter.com/