When it comes to photo editing you’re really only as good as the software that you use. Adobe pretty much has the market cornered with top of the line software for photo editing purposes however, their most advanced software; Adobe Photoshop comes at a lofty price. So, unless you are willing to empty your bank account and spend countless hours learning the ins and outs of this complex editing platform you’re going to need to find a more reasonable program that appeals to the average person. If you want to simply add some flare to your everyday photos we will discuss options for that as well.
Adobe has had the good sense to create Photoshop Elements which provides the essentials, or shall we say the “elements” of Photoshop and comes at a fraction of the price. Photoshop will cost you in the neighborhood of around $700.00 whereas Elements should only set you back about $150.00. What you are really buying with the latest version of Adobe Photoshop (CS6) is the graphic design capabilities. A nice feature of Photoshop is that it can produce 3D graphics, that is if you have the RAM, processor, and video card to render it. If you consider yourself a professional than Adobe Photoshop is the way to go however, if you are just getting started Elements can get you on your feet nicely.
Second only to Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Elements is Adobe Lightroom (Like I said they have the market cornered). Lightroom is a product that is more of a photo enhancing system aimed more directly at photographers rather than graphic design. Lightroom is a powerful photo editing program that is well worth its price because the punch that it packs. Think of Lightroom as a solid foundation for creating the perfect photo. I must say that I dislike Lightrooms layout, it could come in a more agreeable layout but if you can get past that you have a remarkable product. Lightroom is the makeup to a photos face and while you can create the effects of Lightroom with Photoshop it won’t be as easy. In fact many photographers and editors alike will use Lightroom prior to moving over to Photoshop for a good foundation. You won’t be extracting any background or airbrushing and features with Lightroom so if you dabble in a little of everything then Elements is the way to go, but if you pride yourself in creating simple yet dynamic, high resolution photos than its Lightroom that you are looking for.
As we move further down the list of photo editing programs we have Corel Paintshop Pro. Corel has attempted to masquerade as Photoshop by calling their software Paintshop. Do not be deceived by this facade as Corel Paintshop offered nothing close to the capabilities of any Adobe photo editor. It is at this point that we take a drastic downgrade in quality of product. Paintshop is not only more complex than it needs to be but also leaves much to be desired. Many reviews you read will suggest that Corel makes a fine product with Paintshop and that may be, if you are attempting to have fun with it and create cute emails as opposed to dramatic photos, advertisements, or logos. It is of course on the highest end of photo editing software for its price, marked at around $49.90 at most retailers. Corel Paintshop is far more user friendly than Adobe Photoshop but equally as confusing as Elements, leaving you with weaker end product. You will find yourself a far happier and more accomplished editor if you go the extra mile and spend a little extra for Lightroom or Elements. Quite simply Adobe has the market cornered when it comes to most things and photo editing is no exception. You may as well go download Picasa from Google if you intend to be cheap.
Which brings me to my final section… Free editing software! Now, I must admit that I have not searched high and low for free editing software, free internet software is just not my cup of tea (I feel like it’s cutting corners but that’s a personal opinion). I have however used Google’s editor called Picasa. Picasa delivers about what you would expect from an iphone or android application that quickly changes the appearance of a photo to make it look vintage, add sepia effect, or even give it a fun comic book feel with a small hand full of greater capabilities. Picasa is, in my mind the long forgotten and under developed free version of Adobe’s Lightroom. Of course it is free! I would say if baby steps is your preferred process with things than definitely give Picasa a go, than move to Lightroom and eventually to Elements or Photoshop whilst avoiding programs like Paintshop and Photo Suite even though it comes at a bargain price. In this field the phrase, “you get what you pay for” truly does speak volumes.
In conclusion I would like to point out that there are of course a wealth of other editing programs out there, I simply touched on the most popular and well known programs. Programs like iphoto, which is unique to Apple as their version of Picasa is among the several unmentioned editing suites out there. Additionally, there are also your PhotoImpact Pro’s, and Serif PhotoPlus, even Nikon makes one. So I could go on for another 10 pages but who really wants to read that much these days? So I weeded out the programs that offer this but not that, and that you can do that with but not this. Basically I saw through the crap and cut to the chase. Not that the others are downright crap (there are some recommendable programs out there, which I have not discussed) but perhaps you should do yourself a favor and cut to the chase yourself when deciding which to purchase.