In terms of the best photography software, this is the one to beat. A free mobile version of Lightroom is also available for iOS and Android devices. Lightroom is available for Mac OS and Windows and can be obtained as part of Adobe’s Creative Cloud Photography plan for US$9.99 per month. While not as complex as Photoshop, Lightroom is an expansive application that will take some time to fully appreciate and integrate into your workflow. Also featured is a superb printing module, the ability to create slideshows, the option to export images to the Web, and integrated book creation via Blurb. Additionally, Lightroom allows you to tag, flag, and rate photos. And Lightroom does a few things that Photoshop doesn’t do so well - or at all - especially when it comes to serving as a photo organizer, something at which Lightroom excels. If, however, you do need or prefer to use a feature in Photoshop, Lightroom makes for a seamless round-trip journey into Photoshop and back. It is, indeed, possible to do all your fixing and finalizing (dodging and burning, noise reduction, sharpening, tonal adjustments, lens correction, effects, etc.) in Lightroom and perhaps never give Photoshop much thought. It uses the same raw processor as Photoshop and allows for non-destructive image editing in fact, a great deal of Photoshop’s editing tools are found in Lightroom, with the most glaring omission being layers. Lightroom has emerged as the cure-all in the eyes of many photographers. Overall: A broad overview - an average of the six judging criteria.Community: How easy is it to get help and learn from the wider community of users? (blogs, forums, YouTube videos, freelancers, etc.).Photo Management Quality: A subjective measure of the efficiency of the keywording, search, geotagging, and other organizational features of the software.Photo Editing Quality: A subjective measure of how effectively the available tools in a given application perform various image editing tasks.Fulfillment of Promise: An appraisal of the features and functionality of the software and whether they sufficiently live up to the manufacturer's claims.Interface / Ease of Use: An assessment of the overall organizational logic of menus, toolboxes, palettes, etc within the photography software and how easy and intuitive they are to use in practice.Coming up with that criteria is a little difficult, but this is what we came up with: Our Criteria For Judging Photography Editing ToolsĬoming to a fair conclusion on the best photography software requires scoring various elements of the software with universal criteria. But for now, let's jump into what we consider to be the best all-around performers for a photographer. We will also be splitting it out into “best photo management software” and “best photo editing” software, as sometimes photographers need specialist tools for specialist jobs. Note: This is our leaderboard for the best overall photography software. Updated: Januto add Macphun Luminar and Macphun Aurora HDR photography software. Updated: December 4, 2018 to add Capture One's current version. Updated: Februto add Luminar, Capture One Pro, Optics Pro to PhotoLab, Photo Director, Paintshop, On1's current versions. Updated: Januto add recent versions of Luminar, Capture One Pro, PaintShop Pro, Photo Director, On1. Updated: Februto add recent versions of all software. Updated: to add recent versions of all software. Updated: January 18th, 2023 to add the latest versions of all software. So, feel free to browse through these editing tools! We listed professional photo editing software as well as free photo editing software. Hopefully, this will help you make a more informed decision on which application is right for you. Whether you’re a first-time user or in need of an upgrade, or looking to make a change, here is an overview of some of the best photography software currently available.

When it comes to digital photography software, options abound, perhaps to the point of being confusing.

Dxo photolab vs lightroom