Imagin Raw: a 4.3MB, free, open-source Bridge alternative for culling RAW files
https://preview.redd.it/4kvlzxahg6fh1.jpg?width=1300&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b2ddd5079b0e88ec6dff2e96f370a16053da385fTL;DR Imagin Raw is a free, open-source Mac app (4.3 MB) for culling and rating RAW photos — no import, no library, folders stay where they are. Writes ratings/labels to standard XMP sidecars. Compares itself directly to Adobe Bridge (9 MB vs. 2 GB, 0% idle CPU vs. nonzero). It's a few weeks old, Mac-only by design, and has a known issue with Fuji RAF previews. Not a Photo Mechanic replacement for pros yet, but a solid free option if you just need to look, rate, and reject.Imagin Raw is a new, free, native SwiftUI browser (macOS 14.6+) from developer Cristian Baluta, who also builds Spoto and cmd c. It decodes RAW files with LibRaw, watches your folders with FSEvents so changes show up in real time, and writes ratings and color labels to XMP sidecars, the same format Lightroom and Bridge use. (GitHub or Mac App Store)If I could do just one thing to my worst enemy today, I'd break into his house and install Adobe software on his Mac. Aside from being a horrible company, in the sense that it's hard to disconnect your bank account from it (a sin for which it had to pay massive fines), Adobe products are massively invasive. If you have a VM or a Mac you don't care about, install an Adobe app. Open it a couple of times. Then immediately uninstall it. Then do a Spotlight search for "Adobe." You'll likely find thousands of files scattered all over your drive that stayed behind to do who knows what.Adobe Bridge is a 2 GB download that exists to do one job: let you look at your RAW files, rate them, and throw out the bad ones before you open a real editor. It runs a nonzero idle CPU load to do that job, and it takes long enough to launch that you have time to question your life choices. It's nothing more than a free-with-Creative-Cloud culling tool that behaves like it's rendering 8K video.In real workflows, culling RAW files is a small problem. You need fast previews, a rating system that other apps understand, and a way to reject junk without touching your master files. That's it. Imagin Raw is a new, free, open-source Mac app that does exactly that, in a 4.3 MB package, and treats your folders as the source of truth instead of asking you to import anything into a library. It's easy to drop into an existing workflow.Useful Features if You Shoot RAWPoint it at any folder, external drive, or SD card and it browses what's there. If the app disappears tomorrow, your ratings and labels are already sitting in XMP sidecars next to your files; you lose nothing by switching to another app down the road.Rejected images only persist for a single session. If you don't remove the images from whatever media they live on, you can have a second pass if you need it. Deletion is easy though; just hit the reject button and right-click to batch delete.I shoot Canon and it writes both RAW and JPEG to my SD cards. Imagin Raw de-dupes what I see, showing me only the RAW images.Copy a card into dated folders on your Mac while writing a second copy to a backup destination in the same step. It's a built-in workflow enhancement, not a demo feature.If you're shooting for someone else's approval, export a pick-list as a PDF. They check boxes beside what they want and you import it back into Imagin Raw, where it gets automatically filtered. There's no need for a web portal, a cloud gallery account, or anything requiring another damn subscription.AlternativesImagin Raw's category is RAW culling and browsing, not RAW editing. That distinction matters because a chunk of the "alternatives" people will suggest are actually editors with a browsing mode bolted on, not dedicated culling tools.Adobe Bridge is the incumbent and it's free, but only in the sense that it doesn't cost extra on top of whatever Adobe subscription or account you already have. It's the direct target of Imagin Raw's README comparison table: ~2 GB versus…