Scarab Darkroom Lite

Scarab Darkroom Lite is a feature-rich and accessible application designed to offer a professional yet simple method to edit RAW pictures from various digital camera models, like Cannon, Nikon, Panasonic, Samsung, or Sony. It features both editing tools (zoom in, crop, selection), and more complex ones, such as color and exposure levels, sharpness and metadata.

The interface is user-friendly and sophisticated divided into the working area, three separate tabs on the right side of the window, and several options at the bottom. Unfortunately, the icons and text are too small, and hard to see, which might frustrate those who have poor vision. Even maximized, the situation is the same.

In order for the app to detect your files, a camera has to be connected to the computer or have the pictures stored in an easily-accessible location in the default format. Plus, you can use the directory tree, to browse for the items quickly. In supports only one file at a time. At the bottom, you have the rotation, crop, and resize functions, along with the save option, which stores photos as a JPG or other similar types.

From the options, it's possible to change the output folder, apply a prefix or suffix to the item, pick the final size (pixel, percentage), the quality, and if you want to embed the EXIF info and ICC profiles. The app comes with several corrections, such as brightness, contrast, recovery, fill light, and blacks, as well as color enhancements, like tint, temperature, saturation, sharpen, and vibrance. Sadly, there are no effects you can apply to the file, to give it a more modern or vintage look.

Taking everything into account, Scarab Darkroom Lite is a reliable and useful program that comes in handy when you want a professional yet simple tool to quickly edit your camera pictures and save them to more common image formats.