Free Photo-editing Software

If you don’t have any money to bet, or blew it all on the competition, there is always the concept of FREE. What’s the catch? According to Roy Furchgott, reporting for Gadgetwise on the New York Times Online: “Adobe’s catch, when it began to offer the newest version of its Lightroom 5 photo-editing software for free, was that while it has the power and capabilities of its big brother Photoshop, users have a smaller variety of tools to choose from and cannot make very detailed manipulations to images.” Other programs may charge a fee to download or cost users time with extensive registration processes. But for a complete no-strings-attached relationship with free editing software, there are many options available online.

One example, Pixlr, (www.pixlr.com) is a photo-editing service that claims to be “the most popular online photo editor in the world!” If that’s not incentive enough to check it out, it offers three different modes of photo-editing capabilities (Advanced, Efficient, and Playful) ensuring hours of image manipulation and experimentation. It works almost flawlessly to retrieve, edit, and produce images, and it offers a great range of tools. The best part? 100% free.

From “Best Free Photo Editing Software” by Jeffrey L. Wilson of PC Magazine, other downloadable free web-based programs worth checking out include:

GIMP
Fotoflexer
Picasa

All websites have unique capabilities and interfaces; find one that suits your personality! Even better, find one that suits your inner-photgrapher’s personality. Some offer more advanced tools and effects, while others maintain a simple interface and functionality for novices. Though they may not offer nearly as many capabilities and effects as professional brands, these websites are worth the time, and obviously, the money, to check out.

Serif PhotoPlus

Snagging Top Ten’s bronze medal, Serif PhotoPlus proves to be a worthy competitor. At first glance, the software seems to be trying to keep up with the advancements of bigger photo-editing program brands like Corel and Adobe. However, this software proves that it can develop quickly and efficiently with each fresh upgrade; this secures a spot in the review’s top three and its place in the industry as a silent-but-deadly competitor. It offers a simple, functional interface with many easy-to-use, advanced editing tools that even its competitors in its own price range offer. Because it can compete some of the best home photo-editing software out there at a more reasonable price, why not give it a shot?

Michael Muchmore, leading software analyst of PC Magazine, in an overall review writes:

“A perennial also-ran up against powerhouse apps from the likes of Adobe, Corel, and CyberLink, Serif keeps plugging away, adding the powerful tools we expect from those bigger names. This time with PhotoPlus X6, the software gets a boost with a new 64-bit image processing engine, Smart Selection and Edge Refinement tools, noise reduction, and a tilt-shift effect. And despite its relatively low price of $89.99, PhotoPlus includes many features found in Photoshop and Lightroom and some not found in its closer-priced competitor, Photoshop Elements, such as nondestructive cropping, recordable actions, 16-bit-per-channel, and RGB curve editing. Despite all this as we’ll see, PhotoPlus still can’t match Adobe’s apps in either ease or power.”

Consumers aren’t looking for a match. They are looking for a quality software that is able to offer innovative capabilities and produce good results; I can only assume the majority would prefer that this quality software was available at a reasonable price. With this program’s track-record, I can see it continues to improve with each version while maintaining its place under top-competitors’ skin. Sometimes you have to bet on the dark horse.

Adobe PhotoShop Elements 11

Top Ten’s close second, Photoshop Elements 11, is Adobe’s answer to consumers who want to harness the software’s sophisticated editing capabilities as well as save a hefty chunk of change. This program has matured drastically over recent years, but while most improvements seem to be merely cosmetic, like its sleeker, redesigned interface, consumers and reviewers agree that its upgraded image-manipulation tools are much more powerful and cool editing effects are readily available and easier to use.

PC Magazine’s leading software analyst Michael Muchmore weighs in on the issue, writing:

“The latest version of Adobe’s top-selling consumer photo-editing program, Photoshop Elements 11, builds on and polishes rather than overhauls this venerable application. The interfaces of both the photo editor itself and the Organizer helper app get a sleek, simplified redesign, and Maps have been integrated to locate your geo-tagged photos. Photoshop Elements 11’s new filters can turn your photos into illustrations, and its new Guided Edits can easily produce effects that would take some major Photoshopping in the company’s industry-standard pro photo tool, Photoshop CS6. Many small improvements combine to reaffirm Photoshop Elements’ position as your top choice in consumer photo editing software.”

Though Muchmore maintains his stance on the superiority
on the Photoshop Elements 11 software, beauty is in the eye of the beholder; each professional or amateur holds image editing software to a different standard. However, for those who wish to embrace this software’s massive collection of tried-and-true editing tools and effects at a more reasonable price than its professional version and competitors, it looks like we’ve got a winner here.

Corel PaintShop Pro

Corel’s updated Paintshop Pro includes enhanced editing and digital design tools as well as fixed resources that teach users on every level, from amateur to professional, how to easily operate within the program. Improvements have been made to some of its most popular features like layer styles, brushes, and High Dynamic Range (HDR) tools. A new Instant Effects palette and organizational tools like face recognition ensures efficient image enhancement. The program also now offers social media integration with the option to share finished images and designs online via sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Top Ten Reviews lists Corel Paintshop Pro’s latest X5 version as overall the best choice for image editing and enhancing needs. However, Michael Muchmore, PC Magazine’s lead analyst for software, disputes this claim in his review of the program, stating:

“Corel’s image editor, PaintShop Pro, has since 1990 been a low-cost alternative to Adobe Photoshop (1988) and the later Photoshop Elements (2001). Though it offers a lot of image manipulation, during its whole existence PaintShop Pro has lagged behind Adobe’s products in both capabilities and slickness of interface. This latest PaintShop Pro X5 version adds some major features we’ve already seen elsewhere—face tagging, mapping, and Instagram-like one-click photo effects. That’s not to say Corel hasn’t innovated, with its own twists on these features. At $59.99, is still a bargain compared with its Adobe competitors, but it also still trails in deep features and usability.”

Perhaps its Top Ten rating and popularity stems from the assumption that this program can give users more bang for their buck. We’ll examine this in the next post. Stay tuned.

2013’s Best Photo Editing Software

In this day and age, we can be all be photographers…or so we think.  However, professional photography is not as easy as it may seem. It takes time and dedication, not to mention money, and it can be very challenging and stressful. The illusion that anyone with a camera in his hands can *point-click-PERFECT* is still alive and well, and for those who love and live photography, it blurs the line between professionals and hobbyists. For amateurs who aspire to create photographs that exceed professional standard (yes, we’ll even count you Instagrammers out there) there is a vast variety of photo-editing software available.

Top Ten REVIEWS, a website that claims to “do the research so you don’t have to”, has compiled and compared a list of 2013’s best photo-editing software.  It covers every available feature of each program, ranging from importing to output capabilities. Top Ten also details and rates programs’ editing, sharing, and organizing features. Through its comprehensive reviews of these software programs and their features, it is easy for photographers and consumers alike to choose a program based upon personal preferences.

For those looking for quality software, the site displays its “top-rated options”:

Corel Paintshop Pro

Adobe Photoshop Elements

Serif PhotoPlus

Check out the standings at: http://photo-editing-software-review.toptenreviews.com/