The best photo-editing software may turn even the monotonous of images into something seriously impressive. The tools in these programs permit you to do everything from creating subtle changes to hue or saturation to applying filters, removing blemishes or even making bulk changes.
There are a vast array of best photo-editing software choices out there these days, so to save you from trying them all, we have rounded up the best of them all in this handy guide. Few of the software below is desktop-only, while other programs work in your browser, on a tablet, or even on your smartphone. Our guide covers every price point and capability level, so you are sure to find out the best photo-editing software for your needs.
If you especially required to edit on the go, check out our guide to the best photo apps, and our buy of the best laptops for photo editing if you want to be able to keep your images looking their best. Below we have mentioned some of the best Photo Editing Software.
Here is the list of Best Photo Editing Software
Adobe Photoshop Elements
While there aren’t many changes from last year’s version, Adobe Photoshop Elements remains our top pick for best photo editing software overall due to its ease of use, fun creativity, and underlying power. While not much has changed since last year’s version, Adobe’s excellent interface and robust toolset, as well as the fact that Photoshop Elements works on both Macs and PCs, make it the best photo editing software available.
As mentioned above, three interfaces (Guided Edits, Quick Edits, and Expert Mode) make this program usable by users of all levels. If you are in a hurry, Adobe Sense’s artificial intelligence can intelligently analyze and edit your images, saving you one or two steps. A new Subject Selection tool makes it easy to create cutouts of people and pets, while the Smooth Skin tool is excellent for removing wrinkles.
Capture One Pro 22
Capture One can be used as a tethered capture and editing tool for studio photographers using a’sessions’ workflow, as well as a Lightroom-style image cataloguing, searching, and non-destructive editing tool. Capture One 2022 includes a new HDR merge feature that only works with raw files but is extremely effective and natural looking, as well as a panorama merge feature. Capture One operates in a single window rather than in Lightroom-style’modules,’ and it includes a highly customizable set of ‘tool tabs.’
One of the most noticeable differences is the local layer-based adjustment system, which makes it much easier to see and edit changes made to work, and now includes ‘parametric’ linear and radial gradient masks that can be edited later.
Capture One’s conversions appear smoother and sharper than Lightroom’s, and Phase One’s new partnership with Fujifilm allows it to produce some of the best Fujifilm processing you’re likely to see, as well as recreating Fujifilm’s film simulation modes. Fujifilm, Nikon, and Sony users can get discounted versions of the software for one brand, but if you work with files from multiple cameras, choose the version for all cameras.
Photoshop Express
If the preceding options appear too derivative to you, or if you want more of the Adobe experience without the associated cost, Photoshop Express is another option to consider. Although it is more limited than the premium Photoshop model, the Express version has several excellent options for photo editing and a much more gradual learning curve. Photoshop Express, with an interface that betrays its mobile roots, provides quick and easy access to slide bar adjustments and one-touch fixes for photos of all types.
Prepackaged effects make quick and dramatic changes to images to improve coloring and contrast; crop and transform tools allow you to change the orientation and focus of a photograph. And Details allows you to control sharpening and noise. It only supports raw camera files, TIFF, JPG, and PNG files, but Photoshop Express is a free app that you can use on your Windows, iOS, or Android device without any problems.
Photo Pos Pro
Photo Pos Pro is a good free photo editing program for Windows. The first thing to know is that the software prioritizes ease of use and customization of the user experience. In fact, when you first start the software, you are asked a series of questions about how you intend to use it. When it asks you to choose between two main interfaces (based on your level of experience in photo editing), the most important question it will ask you is whether you want an interface for experts (PRO) or one for novices (Novice).
The interface you choose will determine how you edit with the software in the future. The PRO interface looks somewhat like Photoshop and, as you would expect, has an abundance of advanced editing features. There are layers, curves, clipping, brushes, effects, rulers and grids, and color and lighting adjustment options. The interface is packed with tools for intensive editing, and because of this it can be a bit overwhelming with its many small icons and various menu types.
DxO PhotoLab 5
DxO PhotoLab is the successor to DxO Optics Pro and includes the local adjustment tools from DxO’s acquisition of Nik Collection software, making it a more powerful and comprehensive photo editing solution. PhotoLab’s real strength is its superb raw processing, highly effective DeepPRIME denoise tool (Elite edition only), excellent local image adjustments, and highly effective (and automatic) lens corrections. PhotoLab produces images of exceptional quality.
To obtain DxO’s DeepPRIME and ClearView Plus functions, the more expensive Elite edition is required, while to apply perspective corrections (formerly integrated in Optics Pro) the DxO ViewPoint add-on is needed. Also added to the DxO software suite is PureRAW, a raw batch processing tool that converts normal raw files to “Linear DNG.”
Other programs continue to treat these files as raw files, with all the tonal and color characteristics you would expect, but DxO’s superior demosaicing, noise reduction, and lens correction features have already been applied to these files. PhotoLab 5 finally includes support for Fujifilm X-Trans files, as well as a new selection/masking tool and other improvements.
Corel PaintShop Pro
Corel PaintShop Pro is a powerful program that is easy to learn and in many ways superior to Photoshop Elements because of its additional tools, such as 360-degree photo editing. It also has touchscreen support and a new, simplified work area.
PaintShop Pro (and its updated version, PaintShop Pro Ultimate) is an excellent value because it is generally less expensive than Photoshop Elements. the most significant drawback of Corel compared to Photoshop is that Photoshop Elements is that it is avail
able for both macOS and Windows PCs, whereas PaintShop Pro is Windows-only.
Adobe Photoshop CC
Adobe Photoshop CC has it all when it comes to photo editing software. This latest version relies more and more on Sensei, Adobe’s highly regarded artificial intelligence engine, to enable a slew of impressive features. Sky Replacement and new Refine Edge selections are among the most visible. Furthermore, Neural Filters aid in the simplification of complex workflows.
Adobe Photoshop CC is available only as a subscription service, and for $53/month, you get 20 CC desktop and mobile apps, including Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Premier Pro, InDesign, After Effects and Photoshop as part of the Creative Cloud package, which includes fonts and 100GB of cloud storage. The Photography plan costs $10 per month and includes Photoshop, Lightroom, and Lightroom CC for desktop, plus 20GB of online storage. The same Photography Plan plus 1TB of online storage is offered for $20 per month.
Google Photos
Google Photos is superior to any other tool for organizing and consolidating all of your photo libraries, regardless of location — which is why it’s also on our list of the best photo storage services. It’s cross-platform, syncs across all your devices, and can be downloaded to Android and iOS devices as well, so you can access it from anywhere. Unfortunately, Google will no longer allow you to store an unlimited number of photos in the cloud after June 2021; instead, they will count against your 15GB Google Drive limit.
However, in terms of editing tools, Google Photos provides only the bare necessities, allowing you to quickly prepare images for easy sharing. It does include facial recognition, allowing you to quickly search for all photos of a specific person. It also automatically tags photos with keywords like Sunset, Forests, Cars, and others, but you can’t tag photos yourself or add custom keywords. It works best when combined with another app that has more editing features, such as Adobe Photoshop Elements.
DxO Nik Collection 4.3
Nik Collection 4 is the most recent version of the popular Nik suite, and it includes eight separate plug-ins that can also be used as standalone programs. Analog Efex Pro excels at analog/darkroom effects, whereas Color Efex Pro is a massively powerful suite of filters that can be used individually or combined into’recipes.’ Silver Efex Pro is still the best digital black and white plug-in available, and this version includes a new, more modern interface, a new ClearView option, and more powerful selective control points.
Viveza receives the same treatment, progressing from a simple local adjustment tool to a much more powerful plug-in. HDR Efex Pro is a useful HDR merging/effects tool, and while Sharpener Pro and Dfine appear to be out of date, they can still be useful for output sharpening and noise reduction, respectively. DxO’s most recent addition, Perspective Efex, provides powerful lens and perspective corrections, tilt-shift effects, and advanced wide-angle distortion correction.
Exposure Software Exposure X7
Exposure X7, like ON1 Photo RAW 2022, is a relatively unknown program that deserves far more attention. It’s an all-in-one photo editing and browsing tool that specializes in analog film effects and includes a large library of simple one-click preset effects. It doesn’t have image layers (only adjustment layers), so you can’t combine photos, but that won’t bother many photographers.
Exposure X7, like ON1 Photo RAW 2022, is a relatively unknown program that deserves far more attention. It’s an all-in-one photo editing and browsing tool that specializes in analog film effects and includes a large library of simple one-click preset effects. It doesn’t have image layers (only adjustment layers), so you can’t combine photos, but that won’t bother many photographers.
Final Words
Similar to how digital cameras have changed, photo editing software has also experienced significant changes. The ability to edit raw files alongside JPEGs without any further processing, undo adjustments if you change your mind, and produce numerous “virtual” versions of the same image are features available in many programmes today.
