Productivity Tools

Right-click a photo, or a selection of photos, in the library to find two menus with tools that work on many photos at once:

• Productivity: automatic fixes and creative tools.
• Merge: combine several photos into one.

The editor's right-click menu has the same Productivity tools for the open photo.

Tools that change settings are non-destructive and can be undone or changed later like any other edit. Long tasks run in the background and show up in the Jobs list in the library header.

Auto Adjust

Productivity → Auto Adjust → Subtle / Normal / Strong

Analyzes each photo and sets Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Whites, Blacks, Vibrance, Clarity, Dehaze, Centré and Vignette. Subtle is half as strong as Normal, Strong one and a half times. White balance and curves are not changed.

Good for giving a whole shoot a sensible starting point, then refining the best photos by hand. For the open photo, use the magic wand in the Adjustments panel header (right-click it for the strength).

Auto Lens Correction

Productivity → Auto Lens Correction

Looks up each photo's lens in the Lensfun database and turns on distortion, chromatic aberration and vignetting correction. Photos with lenses that are not in the database are left alone. See Lens Correction.

Auto Straighten

Productivity → Auto Straighten

Finds straight lines in each photo (horizons, buildings, door frames) and levels it. Only corrections up to 10° are applied, so photos with intentional tilt stay as they are. In the editor, Shift+S does the same. See Crop & Transform.

Denoise

Productivity → Denoise → Enable / Remove

Turns AI Denoise on or off for all selected photos. The photos are then processed in the background, one after another. You can keep working meanwhile.

Denoise is a normal setting, not a new file. You can fine-tune Amount and Detail in Details → Noise Reduction afterwards, or remove it again.

Example: select all photos of an indoor event shot at ISO 3200 and above (search iso:>=3200, then Ctrl+A), right-click → Denoise → Enable.

Convert Negative

Productivity → Convert Negative → Enable / Remove

Turns on Negative Conversion for all selected film scans. Fine-tune the color balance, Print Exposure and Print Grade on one photo, then copy the Negative Conversion settings to the rest of the roll.

Frame Editor and Collage

Productivity → Frame Editor (1 photo) or Create Collage (2 to 9 photos)

Puts photos on a canvas with spacing and a background, for example a white frame for Instagram or a grid of a series.

Drag inside a cell to move a photo, scroll to zoom it. Drag thumbnails onto cells to swap photos. The result is saved as a PNG named <first photo>_Collage.png next to the first photo.

Example: a white Instagram frame. Select one photo, Frame Editor, aspect ratio 4:5 (5:4 turned to portrait), Spacing 8, Background white.

Auto Cull

Productivity → Auto Cull

Finds groups of similar photos and blurry shots, and suggests which to keep. See Cull and Rate a Shoot for the full walkthrough.

Stitch Panorama

Merge → Stitch Panorama (2 to 30 photos)

Combines overlapping photos into one wide image. RapidRAW finds matching details between the frames, aligns them, and blends them along seams that avoid visible edges. Click Start, then Save or Open in Editor.

The result is saved as <first photo>_Pano.tiff (32-bit) in the folder of the first photo, so you still have full latitude to edit it like a RAW.

For good results:

• Overlap each frame by 30 to 50%.
• Use manual exposure and white balance so all frames match.
• Rotate around the lens rather than walking along. Close foreground objects cause stitching errors (parallax).
• Normal or longer focal lengths stitch more easily than ultra-wide lenses.

Merge to HDR

Merge → Merge to HDR (2 to 9 photos)

Combines a bracketed series (for example −2, 0, +2 EV) into one image with the full range of all exposures. RapidRAW reads the exposure time and ISO of each frame, aligns the frames to the middle one, and merges them into true linear HDR data. It does not tone-map the result: you get a natural-looking image with huge headroom, and do the tone mapping yourself with Highlights, Shadows and the AgX tone mapper.

The result is saved as <first photo>_Hdr.tiff (32-bit) next to the first photo. Merging can take a few minutes.

For good results:

• All frames must have exposure time and ISO in their metadata and the same size.
• Use a tripod if possible. Small movements are aligned automatically, but moving subjects (people, trees in wind) can show ghosts.
• Change the shutter speed between frames, not the aperture.
• Cover the scene: the darkest frame should hold the brightest highlights, the brightest frame should show detail in the shadows.

Focus Stacking

Merge → Focus Stacking (2 or more photos)

Combines photos focused at different distances into one image that is sharp from front to back. For macro, product and landscape photos where one frame can't get everything sharp. RapidRAW aligns the frames (also correcting the slight zoom that refocusing causes), picks the sharpest areas from each frame and blends them. The dialog also shows a Depth Map of which frame was used where.

The result is saved as <first photo>_Stacked.tiff (16-bit) next to the first photo.

For good results:

• Use a tripod, and keep exposure, aperture and white balance the same.
• Move the focus in small steps so the sharp zones overlap.
• 5 to 15 frames are enough for most subjects. Deep macro stacks can need many more.

Apply a preset or edit to many photos

Not a menu item, but the most common batch task: edit one photo, copy with Ctrl+C, select the others, paste with Ctrl+V. See Copy & Paste Settings, including auto-sync to edit many photos live.

See also

• Export to export many photos at once.
• Command Line for exports from scripts.
• Library View for selecting photos.