Hocus Pocus Locus

Processing a RAW photo on an iPad has been a dream of many serious photographers since the iPad came out. What we wouldn’t do to have a version of Lightroom running on an iPad. Although there are several apps on the App Store for importing and editing RAW photos, many of them barely work and have subpar user experiences. Unfortunately, PhotoRaw does not buck this trend.

For example, here is PhotoRaw’s image catalog:

I’m apt to forgive a bad user interface provided the app works well for its intended purpose: photo processing. However, in my tests, PhotoRaw’s output left something to be desired. In fact, I got better results processing a JPEG version of my photo.

Here's the photograph in question, converted from RAW with no processing applied:

Here’s the image after raising shadows and recovering highlights in PhotoRaw:

Notice the unsightly artifacts on the floor. Contrast this with a JPEG version of the same photograph process in Adobe PS Touch for iPad: