Rivets,
I've taken on board that I have to acquire an appropriate program to do much with these files
These links are to the 30 day free trials to Adobe's Photoshop Lightroom and Photoshop Elements.
They are among the best available for working with raw files and also do a LOT more.
Like any very comprehensive program it can take a bit of study to appreciate just how much they can do.
Personally, I found that looking at some of the tutorials available was far better than feeling my way about, I would have missed a lot with that approach. I would really suggest this route while exploring the programs.
Google will find tutorials but I would recommend those by JuliAnne Kost for Lightroom. She is an Adobe staffer and I can say from attending one of her presentations that she is excellent.
PSE has two options to edit photos. There is a semi automated option where you adjust each photo by means of a series of sliders which are in the best order for each adjustment, you are sort of lead through the process, EG the Sharpening slider is the last in the order which is generally when it is best applied.
There is also a more basic set of adjustments that assumes you are a more accomplished user of the Photoshop tools. Probably more capable but with a steeper learning curve.
Lightroom also has excellent organizational capabilities for your image library.
Getting the best out of raw files will take a bit of understanding of the process otherwise perhaps the various picture styles that your camera offers for jpegs may yield better results.
https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/i...op%5Flightroom
Download Adobe Photoshop Elements 8.0.0 Free Trial - Powerful yet easy-to-use photo editing software for print, e-mail, and the Web - Softpedia