PhotoFlare Lens Documentation

Getting started

Lens needs no import step and no account. Point it at a photo or a folder and you're developing within seconds.

Opening photos

1. Choose File > Open… (Ctrl/Cmd + O) and pick a photo, or drag a RAW file straight onto the window.
2. Lens automatically scans the containing folder, so ← / → step through every supported image next to the one you opened - RAW and standard formats alike.

Supported files

RAW decoding is handled by LibRaw, covering 700+ camera models (Canon CR2/CR3, Nikon NEF, Sony ARW, Fujifilm RAF, Panasonic RW2, Adobe DNG, and more). Lens also opens JPEG, PNG, TIFF, WebP, and BMP directly, so it works as a general-purpose viewer for a whole photo folder, not just the RAW files in it.

The interface

Two areas make up the main window, and the develop panel can be shown or hidden as you work.

• Canvas - the image itself, with pan and zoom. This is where crop happens.
• Develop panel - basic sliders, tone curve, colour grading, crop, histogram, and EXIF, organised into collapsible sections.

Press Ctrl/Cmd + D to toggle the Develop panel when you want the image full-screen.

Navigating a folder

Lens is built to be run without reaching for the mouse.

• Press ← / → to move to the previous or next image in the same folder as the one currently open.
• Develop settings save automatically as you move away from an image - there's no separate "save" step for your edits.
• Use Ctrl/Cmd + 0 to fit the current image to the window, or Ctrl/Cmd + 1 to jump to 100%.

Basic panel

The core develop controls - exposure through to clarity - all parametric and all non-destructive. Your original RAW file is never touched; every change lives in the develop settings, described in XMP sidecars below.

• White balance - temperature and tint sliders.
• Exposure - overall brightness in stops.
• Highlights / Shadows - recover detail at either end of the tonal range without touching the midtones.
• Whites / Blacks - set the white and black clipping points.
• Clarity - local midtone contrast for a punchier or softer look.

Tone curve editor

An interactive RGB master curve, plus individual R, G, and B channel curves for colour-specific tonal work.

1. Open the Tone Curve section of the develop panel.
2. Click anywhere on the curve to add a control point, then drag it to reshape that part of the tonal range.
3. Switch the channel selector between RGB, Red, Green, and Blue to grade individual channels - useful for colour casts or a deliberate split-tone look.
4. Right-click a point to remove it.

The curve panel shares the same live histogram as the rest of the develop panel, so you can see exactly where your points fall relative to the image's tonal range as you work.

Colour grading

Independent hue, saturation, and luminance control over shadows, midtones, and highlights - the fastest way to set a mood rather than just correct exposure.

1. Open the Colour Grading section and adjust the Hue, Saturation, and Luminance sliders under Shadows, Midtones, or Highlights.
2. Each range is independent, so you can push shadows toward blue while warming highlights, for example.

Crop & straighten

Cropping is parametric like everything else in Lens - it's stored as a set of coordinates in the sidecar, not a destructive pixel operation.

• Press C to enter crop mode, then drag the handles on the canvas.
• Choose an aspect-ratio preset from the develop panel (Freeform, 1:1, 4:3, 3:2, 16:9, 16:10, or a custom ratio).
• Click Auto-Straighten in the develop panel to let Lens detect and correct a tilted horizon from the image content itself.
• Press Enter to commit the crop, or Esc to cancel.

Before / after

Check your edits against the original at any point without leaving the develop panel.

Press \ to toggle the canvas between your developed image and the untouched original. Press it again to switch back. This works from any panel and at any zoom level, so you can spot-check a crop or a colour grade without resetting your view.

Live histogram

An RGB overlay histogram sits above the develop panel and updates in real time as you move any slider.

• Spikes against the left or right edge mean crushed shadows or blown highlights.
• The histogram is part of the Develop panel, so Ctrl/Cmd + D shows or hides it along with the rest of the panel.

EXIF panel

Full shooting information read straight from the file, with no cloud lookups.

• Camera make and model, lens, shutter speed, aperture, ISO, and focal length.
• Capture date and time, and GPS coordinates when the file includes them.

EXIF is a tab within the Develop panel, so Ctrl/Cmd + D shows or hides it along with the rest of the panel.

XMP sidecars

Every develop setting in Lens is stored in a sidecar file next to your RAW, never in the RAW itself.

When you develop DSC_0421.NEF, Lens writes DSC_0421.xmp alongside it. The original file's bytes never change, which means:

• You can always get back to the untouched original, at full quality, indefinitely.
• Backing up or syncing the sidecar is enough to carry your edits - the RAW itself doesn't need to move.
• Deleting the sidecar resets the photo to its default develop state.

Compatibility with other apps

Standard fields - exposure, white balance, crop, and the tone curve - are written using the Camera Raw XMP schema, so they round-trip correctly with Lightroom and other apps that read CRS fields. PhotoFlare-specific settings, like colour grading and the auto-straighten angle, are written to a vendor namespace and are simply ignored by apps that don't recognise it, rather than causing an error.

Exporting

Render your developed image to a standard format whenever you're ready to share or print it.

1. Press Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + E, or use the Export button in the toolbar.
2. Choose a format: JPEG or PNG for sharing and web use, or 16-bit TIFF for maximum fidelity if the file is headed for further editing.
3. Set a quality level (JPEG) and, optionally, a resize target - fit within a maximum width × height, an exact size, or a percentage.
4. Browse to a destination path, then click Export.

Edit in Studio

When a photo needs more than a develop pass - compositing, retouching, layers - hand it off without an export step in between.

• Click Edit in Studio in the toolbar, or press Ctrl/Cmd + E, to open the current develop result directly in Studio if it's installed.
• If Studio isn't installed, the same button falls back to Edit in PhotoFlare, opening the image in the free, open-source edition instead.
• Your Lens develop settings are baked into the image that opens in either app - there's no need to export a TIFF yourself first.

Keyboard shortcuts

Shortcuts shown as Ctrl/Cmd use Ctrl on Windows and Linux, and Cmd on macOS.

Troubleshooting

My RAW file won't open

Lens relies on LibRaw for decoding. If a camera model is very new, LibRaw support may not have shipped yet - check the camera brand list on the Lens page, or open an issue on the Lens repository with the camera model and file extension.

My edits disappeared

Check that the .xmp sidecar is still sitting next to the RAW file with a matching filename. If the RAW was moved or renamed without its sidecar, Lens will load it with default develop settings.

Another app doesn't show my colour grading

Expected - see the compatibility note under XMP sidecars. Colour grading and auto-straighten use a PhotoFlare-specific namespace that only Lens and Studio read.