What do you use to edit Sony RAW photos on a Mac?

Matthew Blunter
Member
Joined: 2026-07-20 11:26:32
2026-10-23 16:35:50

I recently switched from shooting JPEG to RAW on my Sony A7 III, and I'm still figuring out the best way to edit the photos afterward. Most of what I shoot is street photography and landscapes, so I usually just need to adjust exposure, recover some detail in the shadows, and get the colors looking right. I've tried Lightroom, but I don't really use most of its features, and paying for a subscription when I only edit photos a couple of times a month seems excessive. Sony's own software hasn't been particularly comfortable to work with either. I'd prefer something that runs directly on my Mac, opens ARW files without any conversion, and lets me edit a whole set of photos without spending hours on each one. What are other Sony users working with these days? Are there any simpler editors you'd recommend?

Peter Sunderland
Member
Joined: 2026-07-20 12:18:21
2026-10-23 17:16:24

The last thing you want is to open an editor after a few weeks and spend ten minutes remembering where all the controls are. I'd keep things simple and take a closer look at Photomator. You can get through the basic corrections pretty quickly, save adjustments you use often, and move from one photo to the next without digging around in menus. It should be easy enough to come back to even after you haven't touched it for a while.

Michael Errango
Member
Joined: 2026-07-20 12:34:48
2026-10-23 17:24:37

With a whole set from the same walk, most of the frames were shot under similar light anyway, so there's no reason to rebuild the edit from scratch twenty times. Get one representative photo where you want it, then carry those adjustments across the other shots and tweak the odd ones separately. Try this Sony RAW photo editor: https://revelraw.com/ . After that, spend the extra time only on frames shot in different light or ones where the shadows and highlights need more careful work. That keeps the set consistent without treating every photo like a completely separate edit.