- The best photo organizing programs can run anywhere from $25 to $50, though some might use subscriptions and will need to be renewed monthly or yearly. Typically, programs that cost more will provide more advanced editing tools in addition to the organizing options, so you'll be able to get your favorite images looking exactly the way you envision and manage them in the way you want.
- Best of all, most of this software is extremely affordable (or even free), so dive in and find an app that's a good fit for your personal workflow. Prev Page 1 of 21 Next Prev Page 1 of 21 Next 1.
- Affinity Photo has long been a top seller on the Mac App Store (although you can also buy direct from Serif), as it provides a really powerful selection of photo-editing tools for just under £50/$50.
- To help you select the best software, we tested six popular photo-editing programs, all either free or under $100: Apple Photos, Corel PaintShop Pro, GIMP, Google Photos, Adobe Photoshop Elements.
Today we are looking at some of the best photo editing tools for PC, MAC, and Smartphones (Android and iOS). We all love taking good photos on your mobile phone or on your professional cameras. When it comes to good photography, editing is an important part. Photoshop was the main editing tools used.
Editing your photos on your iPhone is one thing, but editing your photos on your Mac can take your photography skills to a whole 'nother level.
Many of us still keep our main libraries on our Macs because of its faster processors, larger storage, and all-around bigger computing power. The Mac is still the best device for serious photo editing, so you need some serious photo editing apps to make an impact.
The built-in Photos app on Mac offers several useful photo editing tools. You can crop, adjust lighting and color, set the white balance, add filters, remove unwanted blemishes, and a few more things. However, in all honesty? It's not really meant to be a robust editing app, so If you are looking for something to really finish your photos right, we've got a list of the best photo editors for Mac right here. Let's go!
Affinity Photo
If you're looking for a photo editing app that goes above and beyond for the pricetag, while still allowing you complete creative control over your images, then it might be worth it to take a peek at Affinity Photo.
Affinity Photo supports unlimited layers, groups, layer adjustments, filters, masking, and more: you also have access to tools like dodge, red-eye fix, burn, blemish, clone, and patch (so pretty much Photoshop without all the convoluted bells and whistles). Nondestructive auto-saving makes undoing everything you've done easy, so if you need to start from the beginning, the option is there.
Play, manipulate, edit, and get hella creative with Affinity Photo whether you're a serious graphic designer or someone who's just looking to do some basic editing. Your photography will seriously thank you.
- $49.99 - Download now
Fotor Photo Editor
Searching for a super simple, straight-forward photo editing app that's there to help you edit and not confuse you to the point of ripping out your hair? Then check out Fotor Photo Editor!
With this photo editor, you can easily adjust contrast and color of more washed-out photos, add borders, tilt and shift your images, add different text, slap on a few filters, and so much more, all from the easy-to-find toolbox on the right side of the app. You can even create collages of your photography masterpieces!
The BBC once called Fotor Photo Editor 'light Photoshop', and they're kind of right! You can go above and beyond editing your images with Fotor Photo Editor without getting bogged down by more complicated editing buttons and tools.
- Free - Download now
Lightroom
When you look into photo editing software, one of the first things that'll pop up is Adobe's Lightroom, and for good reason! It's essentially a staple in the photo editing community.
Lightroom is great for photographers who need to manage a large image library, and who are prepared to commit to (and pay for) Adobe's cloud storage space. But it is purely a photography tool that's a little outside the regular Adobe design ecosystem. (Creative Bloq)
Pretty much anything you want to do with your photo, you can accomplish with Lightroom. You can blend and merge shadows and highlights, sharpen dull, blurry images so they look crisp and clear, add details and tint colors to make a photo stand out, and so, so much more.
While it is a bit more on the complicated side, people who use the program and know how to navigate it are hooked. Keep in mind, there are two versions of the app — there's the Classic version, which is more preferred, and the 2018 CC version.
If you're hesitant about the program and paying for it, you can download Lightroom free for 30 days as part of a trial period. After that, you can add it to your Photoshop CC subscription for $9.99 per month.
- Free trial - Download now
Pixelmator
Amp up your photo editing skills with a little bit of help from Pixelmator!
This particular photo editing app allows you to combine two different photos into one (while still allowing you to edit over each layer), add shapes, gradients, filters, tints, and more, and completely change and edit your photography to make it fit perfectly to your aesthetic. You can even mask and cut off certain areas of the photo, giving you more creative control over your final image.
Similar to other photo editing apps, you can also adjust contrast, color, saturation level, definition, and so much more.
It's another great alternative to Photoshop, at least according to our managing editor Lory Gil.
- $29.99 - Download now
GIMP
Love Photoshop (or the idea of Photoshop..) but don't want all the complicated components and nonsense that comes along with it? Then it might be worth it to take a peek at GIMP.
Similar to Photoshop, GIMP allows you full control over editing your photos: it's an advanced image manipulation program with detailed customization for color reproduction.
You can add layers to your photos, edit and tweak colors, adjust contrast, crop, adjust saturation, and so much more. If you're someone who admires Photoshop but is terrified of the price (or just thinks it's not worth it) then GIMP might be the perfect pal for you.
- Free - Download now
Snapheal
Say 'bye-bye' to nasty photobombs, zits, perky distractions, and so much more in your photos thanks to Snapheal!
Snapheal is a little bit unique in the sense that it's more of a 'delete now, ask questions later' app. It's more about cleaning up a photo than it is editing it and adding a whole bunch of layers. The tools can either remove large objects or smaller imperfections depending on the mode. You can even adjust the masking tool, use a magic rope, or clone stamp your way to a new photo.
If you're someone who's a perfectionist when it comes to your photography and you just can't stand that one stupid, distracting blur in the background, then Snapheal is the guy for you.
- $7.99 - Download now
Preview
I know what you're thinking: 'Preview? Really, Cella?'
To which I respond: 'Uh, yeah. Duh, my dude. You use it every day!'
Sure, you can't do a bunch of fancy things with Preview like add filters, adjust contrast, and fix saturation, but you can quickly crop a photo, adjust the color, rotate it, add shapes, texts, and a signature, export as a different format, and more. Best settings for paladins mac.
Yes, Preview isn't perfect, but it is easy to use and fantastic for making small, fast changes to your photography.
- It's already on your Mac.
How do you edit your photography?
What is your favorite photo editing app for the Mac? Why does it work the best for you? Let us know what your top picks are in the comments down below!
Updated August 2018: All the choices on this list are still the best of the best!
iPhone photography
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Digital photo software is designed for people who want to organize and share personal and family photos, but don't want to spend a lot of time editing them. In addition to helping you browse and sort through your image collection, they also allow you to catalog your media with keywords, descriptions, and categories. These tools usually do not offer pixel-level editing capabilities, but they do provide easy, one-click corrections plus printing and photo sharing features.
Google Photos (Windows, Mac and Linux)
What We Like
- Free, unlimited backups.
- Deeply tied into Google's app ecosystem. Malware for mac.
- Works with HD videos, too.
What We Don't Like
- Ties into your Google account, so it might become your default in Android.
- Uses 'face grouping' to scan your images to search for people.
Google Photos is a flashy and functional digital photo organizer and editor which has improved considerably since its first release. Google Photos is excellent for beginners and casual digital shooters who want to find all their pictures, sort them into albums, do quick edits, and share with friends and family. With Google Photos, everything is online and easily accessible from anywhere. If you're a fan of Google Drive and the other Google online applications, you'll feel right at home with Google Photos. Best of all, Google Photos is free!
Download Google Photo for Android.
Adobe Photoshop Elements (Windows and Mac)
What We Like
- Integrates with Adobe's entire Creative Suite portfolio.
- Outstanding, robust toolkit for image editing.
What We Don't Like
- Expensive — $99 license for the 2019 version.
- Album features take a back seat to image processing and editing.
Photoshop Elements includes an outstanding photo organizer along with a full-featured photo editor for the best of both worlds. The user interface is friendly to beginners, but not 'dumbed-down' to the point that it frustrates experienced users. Elements utilizes a powerful, keyword-based system of tagging photos that allows you to find specific photos very quickly. In addition, you can create albums, perform quick fixes, and share your photos in a variety of photo layouts.
Purchase Adobe Photoshop Elements for Windows or Mac.
Apple iPhoto (Mac and iOS)
What We Like
- Works on both Mac and iOS.
- Free, native app for light editing.
- Great slideshow features.
What We Don't Like
- Movies focus on QuickTime, which is less established in the Windows world.
- It's a stock app — good enough for light use, but not as full-featured as a tightly crafted album app.
Apple's photo cataloging solution was developed exclusively for Mac OS X. It comes pre-installed on Macintosh systems or as part of the Apple iLife suite. With iPhoto, you can organize, edit, and share your photos, create slide shows, order prints, make photo books, upload online albums, and create QuickTime movies.
iPhone users are likely already using iPhoto. That's where it's really blown up in popularity, and where it really connects to the rest of the Apple ecosystem. The integration with iCloud lets you easily upload your photos and access them from anywhere, including your Mac running iPhoto.
ACDSee Photo Manager (Windows and Mac)
What We Like
- Free trial, and four different paid models to select from.
- Robust ecosystem of apps focused on video and photo editing.
- Desktop and mobile versions available.
What We Don't Like
- The programs are expensive, compared to competitors.
- ACDSee's portfolio tends to favor power users, so you may find it too complex for casual use.
ACDSee Photo Manager packs a lot of punch for the price. It's rare to find a photo manager with this many features and options for browsing and organizing files. In addition, it has integrated image editing tools for some of the most common tasks such as cropping, adjusting overall image tone, removing red-eye, adding text, and so on. And after organizing and editing your images you can share them in a number of ways including slideshows (EXE, screensaver, Flash, HTML, or PDF formats), Web galleries, printed layouts, or by burning copies onto CD or DVD.
Zoner Photo Studio Free (Windows)
What We Like
- Actively developed program with a publicly available feature roadmap.
- Rich toolset reminiscent of Adobe Photoshop.
- Free 30-day trial, with modest monthly or annual pricing thereafter.
What We Don't Like
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- Stand-alone app, without video support.
- You can make contact sheets and do basic photo organization, but otherwise it's not designed to be a robust organizing tool.
Zoner Photo Studio Free is a multi-faceted free photo editing and management tool. It offers users three working environments, namely the Manager, Viewer and Editor windows. The purpose of each aspect of Zoner Photo Studio Free is quite self explanatory and breaking down the interface into this tabbed environment is quite effective in use.
digiKam (Windows, Mac, and Linux)
What We Like
- Open Source
- Cross Platform
- Wide range of file support
- Easy metadata editing
What We Don't Like
- Free online games for girls. Can be really dense for new users
- Interface is pretty plain by default
digiKam is an open source photo management program that's packed with features. It's build to be a truly all-in-one solution to handle everything you'll want to do with your photos.
With digiKam you can keep your photos perfectly organized with its library management tools, and tag them efficiently by easily editing their metadata. digiKam also lets you import, export, and share your images without any hassle.
If you need to make any adjustments to your photos, digiKam comes with a full set of image editing tools that can handle the RAW file type, enabling the utmost quality in photo editing.
Linux users can also find digiKam in their distribution repositories.
Piwigo (Cloud - Linux)
What We Like
- Open source
- Accessible from anywhere
- Clean interface
What We Don't Like
- Requires technical skill to set up
- Monthly web hosting costs
If you like the idea of Google Photos, but you'd prefer to host your own photo server, Piwigo is the perfect solution for you. Piwigo can be best described as WordPress, but for photos. It's a cloud-hosted photo management app that you can access from anywhere and any device.
With Piwigo, you can host your own photo library and control exactly who has access. You can allow family and friends to view or even contribute their own photos, making sharing fun and really simple.
Photo Editing Software For Mac
Unless you find a web host that sets up Piwigo for you, and some do, it does take some technical knowledge to get running, and that might be a big downside for some people.
Suggest a Photo Organizer
Best Photo Editing And Catalog Software For Mac Reddit
If you have a favorite digital photo organizer that I neglected to include here, add a comment to let me know. Please only suggest digital photo software and not pixel-level image editors.