Best Photo Editors

A photo editor is used to adjust and improve pictures. It is a tool you can use to enhance your images on your digital advertisements, print media, posters, and social media posts. Anyone who uses these photo editing software tools is called an editor. These editors can either be professional photographers or amateurs who just want to improve and modify their photos.

Improve photos

The primary reason why you learn how to use photo editing software is to improve photos. A photo editor lets you make the most out of your pictures and enhance them according to the results you want.

Acquire new skill

Learning how to use text and photo editing software lets you acquire a new skill. Getting new skills is great for your brain as it helps you absorb information faster over time.

Fun and creative

Photo editing is an art, so it is a fun way to express your creative side by adding texts to your photos or playing around the colors of your pictures. Learning to use a photo editing software also lets you know more about the tools, and what you can use them for.

Convenient editing

You could access photo editors through your mobile phones. This means that photo editing is a convenient way to practice a new skill. Aside from the mobile app versions of photo editing apps, there are also online photo editors you can explore and try that are free of charge.

Fix old or damaged pictures

Have photographs that are old or damaged? Well, with photo editing software, you can now restore them and even keep them digitally, which can help preserve these memories more.

Attracts people

Most social influencers depend on the quality and aesthetics of their pictures posted online. That’s why, if you are a content creator, it is best to learn how to edit your photos in a way that matches what you want to be seen on your feed.

Job opportunity

If you already mastered the basic techniques and complex tools of photo editing software, then you can turn this skill into a job opportunity. A lot of people look for a photo editor who knows how to use photo editing software.

Most text and photo editing software has user-friendly controls that help their users maneuver around the program easily. Through this, you can conveniently find the tools you need with the help of their labels.

Artificial intelligence editor

Want to edit your photo in just a few clicks? The artificial intelligence (AI) editor can do the editing for you as it automatically edits your photo from the photo’s curves, layers, orientation, white balance, and other manual customs.

Photo masking feature

Layer masking or photo masking lets you hide or make use of as much of any layer as you like. This tool helps you hide and reveal specific parts of a photo you want to hide or show.

Keyboard shortcuts

To become more productive while working with your chosen text and photo editing software, keyboard shortcuts are very useful. You can view, edit, and even summarize your keyboard shortcuts in the dialog box of the software, aside from that, you can also customize your keyboard shortcuts to match a specific tool.

Easy interface

Having an easy interface allows beginners to edit their photos efficiently even without any text and photo editing background.

Filters

Are you someone who wants to play with the vibe of your photos but still new in the photo editing world? Filters will be your best friend, as there are a lot of photo editing apps that offer filters to their users. In addition to that, developers also provide you with a wide variety of filters to choose from. And with these filters, you can easily alter the look of your pictures by changing the colors and shades of your image by simply choosing a filter for the image.

Social media link and share option

Photo editing apps also gives you an option to link your social media accounts so that you can immediately share your final photo to your social media with just one click.

Multiple device support

This feature lets you log-in to your creative account with a specific photo editing software and uses it on multiple devices such as your smartphones, tablets, and personal computers.

Editing tools

To be able to have a great photo you must have trusty tools you can rely on. Some important features to look for in an editing tool are crop, exposure and color adjustment, clarity, blemish remover, lens correction, white balance, pen, and photo stitching tool.

Having the right photo editing software will assist you in improving your raw photos into something incredible. And to help you decide what to use, here are the types of photo editor:

Freeware

If you are someone who uses your personal computer to edit your photos, there are a lot of free photo editing software you can download online. For mobile phone users, the application stores also offer a variety of photo editors you can use if you prefer editing your photos through your phone. With these, you can still enhance your photos, correct its imperfections, and adjust the colors without having to pay any cent.

Paid-for Applications

Paid-for photo editing applications require you to pay a monthly or annual subscription to be able to use the software. Most professional photographers invest in paid-for photo editing applications because of the variety of tools they can access within the software. Many paid-for applications also offer discounts for students who want to avail of their product. Free trials are also there if you are still deciding whether to purchase the app.

Online photo editing software

There are numerous photo editing softwares available online and readily accessible as long as you have mobile data or internet connection with you. This type of photo editor lets you fix and enhance your photos via your phone or computer’s browser. They also provide their users with an easy to use interface that is great for beginners in photo editing.

Offline photo editing app

Want a photo editing app that you access wherever you are and even without an internet connection? Offline Editing Apps will save your day. This type of photo editing software can be downloaded on your mobile phone or personal computer and allows you to access it whenever you need to edit a picture.

Businesses

Owning a business would need you to use the internet to market your products and services. That’s why to attract more people into buying your products, you could use photo editing applications to enhance the appeal of your products.

Freelancers

You might be a freelancer. Aside from professional photographers, freelancers are hired to edit and manipulate images of clients using photo editing software. You have to adhere to what the client would want to be done in their pictures, and they pay you for your services.

Content creators

Everybody makes use of social media, and there are even people who earn with social media. If you are a social media influencer or content creator. Then, you can make use of photo editing applications to edit and improve the pictures that you will be posting on your social media accounts on websites like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr.

Professional photographers

Are you a professional photographer who uses photography as a form of means of living? Using photo editing software can help better the quality of your photos in order to maintain the trust of your clients.

Students

You could be an art student who uses photo editing software to pass your classes. You could also be a student who majors in photography and make use of these applications to create your portfolio. This portfolio that you have created with photo editing software also has its future uses like job opportunities, marketing yourself, and future projects that your potential clients would ask for.

Step 1: Identify your photo editing skills

Before downloading or using any photo editing software, it is best to ask yourself what photo editing skills do you have. If you are a beginner, you can start with the free photo editors available that can help you edit your photos without having to pay any cent for it. If you are advanced and want to try out other apps, there are a lot of photo editing software you can choose from.

Step 2: Check out their tools

After identifying what kind of photo editor you need, the next step is to check out the tools and features offered by the photo editing software. If you are a beginner, then all you need are the basic tools in photo editing. That’s why freeware or online photo editing software could be the best for you. If you are a professional, paid-for apps let you access all the editing tools and features you need in photo editing.

Step 3: Look for apps

Now, you can start browsing through photo editing apps that could be the best for you. You can also check out their ratings and reviews to help you decide which app is the one for you.

Step 4: Do the editing

If you have decided to use an online photo editing software, all you have to do is access it through your internet browser and start editing there. If you choose an offline software or mobile app, you will have to download the app first and use it with or without the internet.

Photo editing involves improving and enhancing an image by changing how the image looks, it can be done by altering everything on an image or just by simply adding texts on the photos. Editing your photos can be done all by yourself, or by running through automated software. Some people edit their photos offline using text and photo editing apps, while some professionals prefer using text and photo editing software on their personal computers. Here are a few other terms for text and photo editing; post-processing, manipulation of a photo, photoshopping, and image enhancement.

Digital Marketing

Because we already are in a digital age, virtual forms of marketing have been used by most businesses to promote their products or services, and one of these includes digital marketing. With text and photo editing software, you can create posters for your business or edit pictures of your products that you can post on your website to market your business and products.

Print Media/Digital Media

Quality images are very important in both print and digital media, that’s why using text and photo editing software to make content for these platforms is very useful as it attracts more viewers and readers. And, photo editing software has made it easier for these platforms to edit, and create their text-based content with ease and convenience.

Posters

Yes, you can make posters with text and photo editing software. Using a photo editor gives you so much flexibility in making a poster with the tools offered by every app. Some photo editors also offer free poster templates that you can modify and create your own original design from the template.

Content

You can edit and manipulate your photos to match what you want to be seen in your social media account, and posts. Some people also use social media to market their services and products so making your posts more appealing with your curated content.

Pixel Editing

Pixel Editing is done whenever you edit a picture by its pixel level. Editors label pixel editing as a destructive way of photo manipulation as it changes the image file permanently as soon as the editing starts. Also, this method of digital photo editing lets you create great edits and use several functions that you can not do on parametric image editing.

Parametric Image Editing

Parametric Image Editing is where no pixels are altered when doing a parametric image editing, making this a non-destructive way of editing a photo. The software also does not change the original image files but record the steps done to make the final aesthetics of the image.

Editing a photo can either be simple or complex, and this based on what techniques and features are used as you edit your image.

Simple Photo-editing Techniques:

1. Cropping

The ability to remove unnecessary edges or parts of a picture.

2. Exposure

Describes the volume of light that reaches the camera of which affects the brightness or darkness of the resulting image.

3. Contrast

A key component of photography as it shows the number of tones the pictures get that leads to either a flatter colored image or a vibrant colored one.

4. Sharpening

A way of increasing the sharpness of a picture by emphasizing its textures.

5. Noise Reduction

Is simply getting rid of the grainy texture of an image.

Complex photo-editing techniques:

1. Clipping Paths:

A technique that extracts a certain element or the subject from a picture.

2. Portrait Corrections:

A method of retouching the complexion of an image’s subject.

3. Drop and Reflection Shadows:

Drop shadows are a type of shadows that is made by a light source and seen often next to an object. A reflection shadow, on the other hand, reflects everything seen on a surface.

4. Photo Stitching:

A way of combining two or more photos together as if they are just one photo.

5. Photo Masking and Layering:

A great compositing method of combining multiple images into one single photo, this also describes hiding or removing an object from an image.

You can start your text and photo editing journey by choosing a photo editing app that suits you. Afterward, you can practice the basics of photo editing which includes: cropping, touching up your pictures by playing around the amount of exposure your photo has to adjust the contrast of your images, and even learn how to add filters on your images.

Since you are still starting out in photo editing, and probably photography, you can use free photo editing apps that offer great editing features despite not paying any amount. There are a lot of freeware on the internet, and there are free online editing websites you can use if you don’t want to download any offline software. If you want to use your mobile phone, there are best photo editors for iPhone, best photo editors for Android, and best photo editors for Instagram readily-available.

The best photo editor app relies on what suits the user best. For mobile photo editing applications, it could be one of the best photo editor android compatible apps, best photo editor iPhone compatible software, or the best photo editor for iPad users. While for the best photo editor software, it depends on which type of personal computer you use. There are best photo editors for mac, best photo editor for Chromebook users, and best photo editor for windows 10 devices.

Finding out which photo editing software is compatible with your PC is simple because all you need to know is the type of processor your personal computer uses. If you are an Apple user, then you will need the best photo editor Mac-compatible software. If you have a Windows PC, then you can choose from all the best photo editors for PC (Windows 10 or which processor you are using), or best photo editor monitor-compatible (if you are using a desktop computer).

A typical photo editing usually takes from 15 minutes to an hour depending on what you are editing. If you are still starting and getting used to editing a photo, it will take you some time to edit a photo. Also, the more rendering you do on a photo, the more time it will take.

Photo editing is not as complicated as it seems. With a good amount of research on the basic techniques of photo editing, you can already learn and edit photos without any complications.

Overwhelming for Beginners

Sadly, there is a photo editing software that has an overwhelming interface for beginners. New users frequently get lost while maneuvering the program. But, on the brighter side, there are a lot of tutorials you can watch or read to help you with your problem.

Time Consuming

According to professional photographers, photo editing takes a lot of time. And this is due to the amount of workload it takes to ‘perfect’ an image and produces high-quality photos to be used by a certain business establishment, or print media.

Expensive software

A drawback of some photo editing software is their monthly subscription fee that can be expensive, especially for students, as you have to continue paying the said software every month until forever. If you don’t, you will lose all the access you have with the intellectual property you have made with the software.

Unrealistic Expectations

A lot of critique people who use photo editing apps to enhance and manipulate their images, and that is because of the unrealistic expectations set upon the image to the public. Examples include: retouching a woman’s photo to adhere to the beauty standards of the society that created an unrealistic expectation that all women should look like that.

Yes, you definitely can repair damaged photos and even restore old ones with the help of photo editing software. However, knowledge of custom imaging techniques is needed to be able to give accurate restoration of your image.

RAW

RAW means raw image formats. This type is the least processed among all image file extensions. This is often the first format an image has when it is made. For example, when you take a picture with your camera, the saved file is automatically in raw format.

JPEG

Also known as JPG which stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group, it is the most common file type found on the internet.

PNG

PNG means portable network graphics that is used often in web pages as an interactive file. This type can be edited and will never lose its quality.

PSD

Any work you have made using Adobe Photoshop will be instantly saved as a PSD file. This file has “layers” in it that helps to alter the image easily on the said software.

TIFF

Also known as the tagged image file format, it is the industry standard design for images, and this is also another lossless type of image like a raw image format that lets you keep the original quality of an image while editing it.

Sadly, no matter what you do, once you change the size of a picture it will automatically reduce its quality. But, you can make use of third-party app solutions to help lessen the quality lost in your picture.

You can edit an image without losing its quality by remembering to always shoot in RAW (when using a DSLR), as it gives you more flexibility in editing without getting rid of the original qualities of your image. However, if you are using your phone or a digital camera to take photos, using third-party application solutions can help you with that.

You definitely can transform a black and white photo into a colored one by using a paintbrush tool and select the part that you want to color. It will magically put colors into your black and white image.

You can add someone to a photo using a cloning tool that blends the edges of the person you inserted in the picture.

Yes, you can turn your photo editing skills into a business. There are numerous businesses that cater to photo editing services, so it is possible to make photo editing into a business.

A photo collage is a piece of art that is made by putting different pictures of people or objects into one canvas.

You should save your pictures in a lossless format like ‘TIFF’ for example in order to prevent ruining the quality of the original picture before and after editing it.

Countless photo editing programs have built-in effects or filters in their apps. And all you have to do is choose what suits your photo the most, and simply add it to your photo by clicking on the chosen filter. There are also programs that let you adjust the amount of filter that your picture gets to make it look like it was photographed that way.