Even the best-looking interiors require the occasional behind-the-camera touch-up. Therefore, having a pulse on the best photo editing software in the marketplace is essential for adjusting the light here or retouching a blemish there. After all, creating impactful images is essential for accurately conveying the essence of your professional aesthetic.
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In the design industry, where a scroll through a firm’s Instagram feed or website can generate a client lead, powerful photography is just plain good for business. Beyond attracting potential clients, stunning photography can help brand your firm, showcase your projects to press, and engage new business and industry collaborations. Need more convincing? Here’s the truth: Sloppy snaps carelessly posted onto a social media feed or rudimentary website is not going to cut it in today’s competitive market.
Is it worth springing for a subscription to Photoshop or an outright purchase of Affinity Photo or Skylum Luminar? Is Lightroom too advanced for your simple image editor use? Or will a free photo editor like Canva, Pixlr, or Fotor provide all the basic features you require? After researching the best photo editing software, we’ve compiled a list of the top seven image editors that will have photos of your work looking top-notch in no time.
The best photo editor money can buy: Adobe Photoshop
The Basics:
Hailed as the most powerful photo editor there is—and one that’s become a household name—Adobe Photoshop ranks as most outstanding on lists of best image editing software for professional photographers, designers, and novice photo editors alike. The 30-year-old program is so synonymous with image editing, in fact, that it has become a verb for everyday use: Simply saying you’d “Photoshop” an image has become widely understood as a way to remove an unwanted object from a picture or to revise the lighting or cast of an interior space.
More than adept at providing all you need for layered image editing, typography, and drawing, Photoshop also provides a wide array of effects, tools, and filters. Available for both macOS and Windows—Linux users are out of luck—the program’s most recent update is lauded for its awesome neutral filters, automatic sky replacement, live shapes, pattern preview, improved gradients, and better Illustrator integration, as well as new features like a commenting function (to get other team members’ feedback) and AI-powered tools like Landscape Mixer and Color Transfer. AI one-click handling saves time and effort when working with commonly used functions, as does the new Refine Hair button. Photoshop’s interface is highly customizable, with options for workspace layouts and toolbars that may be rearranged according to user preference. The highly intuitive workspace adapts to the task at hand, meaning only the tools that would be useful during a particular workspace are shown as active.
While Photoshop might be a more complex user experience—with more detailed and advanced features, tools, and UI—than a beginner or average hobbyist needs, Adobe Photoshop Elements represents a more basic, less-expensive photo editing tool that may be purchased outright for those who don’t need or want to learn the pro-level techniques or to pay the monthly subscription of Photoshop. With simple tools for editing and organizing images, this photo editing app allows users to shoot, edit, export, and upload to social media seamlessly, and its new Moving Photos tool converts 2D shots to animated 3D images that really make a social media feed stand out. While you could achieve this moving photo effect in the full version of Photoshop, it’s more complicated and time-consuming, and the animated GIF results in Elements are fast and effective, ideal for a quick Instagram post. With Adobe Photoshop Elements 2021 users can also proficiently deal with raw files via its Camera Raw workspace that lets you quickly enhance color and fix lighting and shadows without the advanced color correction tools of the full version of Photoshop. While Photoshop most appeals to professional-level photographers and graphic designers for its advanced capabilities, useful in-app and online tutorials and worthwhile classes can introduce this robust software to any user. Plus, Photoshop has popup tips that can be turned on to guide new users to better understand the software.
The Pros:
- Most comprehensive photo editing program with advanced photo editing tools
- Groundbreaking industry-standard for photography editing
- Appropriate for professional photographers and graphic designers
- Two levels available: Photoshop CC for serious photo editing and Photoshop Elements, a lighter version with more basic features
The Cons:
- Can only install Photoshop on a powerful Mac or PC with the latest iOS or Windows versions
- Even experts usually don’t master every aspect of this complex program
- Steep learning curve, as the software is capable of doing so much
- Photoshop CC version is more robust than some would need for editing website images and shots for social media
The Cost:
For $9.99 per month, you get the Adobe Photography plan, which offers Photoshop, Lightroom, and Lightroom CC for the desktop and 20GB of online storage. For $20.99 per month, you get the same Photography Plan with 1TB of online storage. For $52.99 per month, you get Photoshop as part of an entire Creative Cloud package that also includes 20 CC desktop and mobile apps like Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Premiere Pro, InDesign, After Effects, plus fonts and 100GB of cloud storage. For $99.99 outright, you get Adobe Photoshop Elements, or $149.99 bundled with Premiere Elements. A 30-day free trial is available for all.
The best professional-level photography workflow program: Adobe Lightroom
The Basics:
Adobe Lightroom (technically called Photoshop Lightroom, as it’s part of Adobe’s Creative Cloud Photography Plan, along with Photoshop) is the workflow program professional photographers use more so than designers or photography enthusiasts. However, it now offers two separate applications: the consumer-targeted Lightroom and the pro-oriented Lightroom Classic. Lightroom contains a complete package of excellent photography workflow tools for importing, organizing, editing, and outputting photos. Lightroom Classic offers excellent sharing and printing capabilities, allowing users to directly publish photos on storing sites like Flickr and SmugMug, and it also includes its own online photo hosting to present a portfolio of your work—which could be a bonus for interior designers looking to organize shots of their interiors in one online locale. Lightroom is nothing if not organized, with a host of tools to facilitate this, including keyword tagging, color-coding, geo-tagging with maps, and face recognition. In its Library mode, you can group photos into collections and then use Quick Develop tools to bulk-edit the photos for lighting tweaks or preset effects including black and white, cross-process, food, landscape, lifestyle, cinematic II, and other filters typically seen on social media.
Lightroom’s nondestructive importer maintains the original raw images as you import and tweak the photos. Users are able to see thumbnails and full-size images on memory cards before importing them, and you can start working on editing the photos before the whole import process is complete.
While there’s a range of other photo editing software—from free online apps to top-notch paid software—according to pro users, few compare to Lightroom Classic’s truly dynamite integration of smooth workflow interface, advanced organizers, and cutting-edge adjustment tools. Available in Mac and Windows versions—though it requires the most up-to-date OS—and a mobile app for Apple and Android devices, Lightroom delivers HDR tools and panorama-stitching tools; ridiculously state-of-the-art lighting, color, geometry, and lens-profile-based corrections; as well as cloud integrations. Using Lightroom and Photoshop often goes hand-in-hand: For example, one might organize the entire workflow of a set of images in Lightroom to devise a cohesive look with regard to lighting or color before importing the photos into Photoshop for the minutiae of resizing images or retouching blemishes or other eyesores in the shots.
The Pros:
- Gold standard in photo workflow software
- Professional photographers’ go-to program
- Top organizational tools and adjustments, myriad presets
- Comprehensive output and printing options
- Mac and PC versions with a mobile app for Apple and Android devices
- Two versions available: Lightroom consumer version and Lightroom Classic, a more intense pro-level program
- Monthly updates with subscription keep software current
The Cons:
- Geared toward professional photographers
- No longer offered as a one-time outright purchase
- Adobe no longer updates pre-Creative Cloud versions
- Stingy 7-day free trial
The Cost:
Annual subscription of Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan (including Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, Photoshop on desktop and iPad, and 20GB of cloud storage) for $119.88/year or $9.99 with an annual commitment.
Best software for dealing with raw camera files: Capture One
The Basics:
Arguably a viable toe-to-toe competitor to Lightroom, Capture One Pro 20 by Phase One (a company that makes high-end photography equipment) provides comparable professional workflow and file management capabilities to Adobe’s offerings. Not to be confused with Adobe Capture (the free, basic Adobe Creative Cloud software that lets users create color themes, patterns, vector-based shapes, 3D materials, type, and custom brushes from photos), Capture One is a professional- and prosumer-level program that offers a flexible interface, fast digital photo importing, excellent-quality raw camera file conversion, superior tools for image adjustment, local and layer editing, and pretty solid organizational features. Available in macOS and Windows versions—both of which require computers with at least a dual-core processor, 8GB RAM, and 10GB of free disk space—Capture One offers noteworthy editing features like an advanced color editing tool with a slider to control gradients and superior local adjustment and layer tools. It should also be noted that the system doesn’t stall when implementing many of these at once.
The program really sets itself apart with its ability to handle large raw files (over 20 megapixels) without affecting the processing speed. Capture One continues to improve with each software update, and there are a host of additional plugins and presets that further expand its offerings. While this software might be lesser-known than its competitors, it remains a reliable option for one of the best photo editing packages out there. A few drawbacks are its inability to work with Photoshop (it’s incompatible with any Adobe software), lack of built-in exporter to online outlets like Flickr and Instagram, and price, which is more than double the cost of Photoshop and Lightroom.
The Pros:
- Professional-level photography software
- Superior raw file conversion
- Speedy import capabilities
- Excellent local adjustments
- Advanced color and layering tools
- A plethora of plugins and presets available
- Frequent upgrades keep the program fresh
- macOS and Windows versions
The Cons:
- Not compatible with Photoshop and other Adobe software
- No facial recognition like competitors have
- Expensive—double the price of competitors
The Cost:
You can purchase Capture One Pro outright for $299 ($199 upgrade) or subscribe for $24 per month or $179 per year; a free, fully functioning 30-day free trial version is available.
The most cost-effective photo editor that integrates with Apple and Adobe products: Skylum Luminar
The Basics:
Available as a standalone platform available for Windows and macOS, Skylum Luminar is distinct from its competitors in that it also comes in a plugin that works with Adobe or Apple products. It’s significant that for just an $89 one-time purchase, you can own an application that integrates with Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Elements, Adobe Lightroom Classic, and Photos for macOS to enable you to do anything imaginable with regards to editing your photos. Appealing to both beginners and experienced photo editors alike, Luminar facilitates general editing, raw processing, and file organization. And the latest version, Luminar AI offers incomparable AI photo editing technology. More complex photo processes—like sky replacements and skin retouching—that take several steps to complete in other programs can be done with one-click technology in Luminar.
Other software highlights include its plethora of impressive filters, local adjustments with brush and gradients, curves, autocorrect tools, decent integrated image browsing and cataloging tools with nondestructive editing, and top-notch portrait-enhancement tools. While some of these tools might not be as powerful and sophisticated for professional users as, say, Lightroom, its intuitive workspace and pleasing workflow solution dazzle casual users or hobbyists. And with each update, Luminar’s interface improves to make it increasingly more user-friendly.
The Pros:
- Impressive AI technology
- Streamlined, intuitive interface
- Plug-in version that coordinates with Apple and Adobe products
- Frequent upgrades and true software enhancements
- Strong standalone image library
- Great value
The Cons:
- No face recognition technology or keyword tagging
- Lacks focus effects like blur, bokeh, tilt-shift, or depth of field options
- Frequent upgrades change the interface, which can cause some confusion
- Not as strong of organizational tools as competitors
The Cost:
One-time purchase of $89
The best for editing on your phone: Canva
The Basics:
An entry-level photography editing software, Canva appeals to novice photo editors for its easy-to-use templates, drag-and-drop features, stock images, and collaborative tools that allow users to simply share projects and work in teams. Ideal for basic editing, Canva can help you quickly crop or straighten a photo; apply simple textures, fonts, badges, and stickers; or play with features like vignette, photo blur, photo frames, and design grids.
One of the few photo editors on our list that works with Linux (in web browser), Canva comes in Windows and macOS versions for desktops and laptops, and mobile app versions for Android, iOS, and iPadOS. In fact, Canva is the best photo editor for working on the go: Simply download the app to your smartphone and begin editing photos immediately—this is distinct from other photo editors on our list.
While Canva does not offer all the bells and whistles and more advanced tools of a higher-end, paid professional photo editor—for example, its effects are limited to resizing, color adjustments, and overlays—it’s a great option for simply tweaking images for your website or social media feeds. Effective tools include convenient sliders for applying tints, vignette effects, sharpening, adjusting brightness, saturation and contrast; intuitive text editing tools; a number of backgrounds and graphic elements; as well as an accessible search button on the main workspace screen that allows you to browse frames, shapes and lines, illustrations, and grids to enhance your project.
All of the program’s basic features (including 8,000 free templates) come with its ample free version, while more advanced features come with the two other paid versions: the Pro or Enterprise subscription.
The Pros:
- Easy to use for beginners
- Intuitive workspace
- Incredible selection of thousands of templates
- Excellent free version of a basic photo editor plus two paid versions with additional features
- macOS, Windows, and Linux versions
- Convenient mobile platform to allow for photo editing on the go
The Cons:
- Limited capabilities
- Basic photography effects
- Not pro-level features or advanced editing tools
The Cost:
Canva offers three pricing tiers: Free, including 8,000 free templates; Pro for $9.95/user/month, including 60,000-plus free templates and 60 million stock images; Enterprise for $30/user/month, including unlimited storage and support, designed for working in larger teams.
The best filter variety: VSCO
The Basics:
Savvy Instagram users are likely familiar with VSCO, one of the best free photo editing apps for its ease of use in capturing images, editing them, and applying distinct-looking preset filters. Users love this app for its straightforward interface and utter simplicity—anyone can apply VSCO filters to enhance their photos to create truly showstopping posts for Instagram or VSCO’s own social network. However, VSCO’s social media component is lacking: You can share images and follow users, but there’s no commenting or tagging, and audience rates are slim compared to competitors.
While VSCO is known for its filters—which users have called more “artsy” than those available on Instagram—it’s actually a full, if basic, photo editing app for simple image adjustments such as exposure, contrast, color saturation, straightening, and cropping pictures via iPhone and Android devices. The Android version, however, lacks the camera shooting options of the iPhone app, including manual setting of ISO, exposure, white balance, and focus, and the ability to save in raw camera file format, which allows for easy lighting and color correction.
VSCO offers some cool free downloadable effects that you can adjust via slider, as well as a crop tool and rotation tool for which you use a slider to alter the photo’s leveling. Free VSCO tutorials provide tips on how to best enhance your photos. Only 10 free filters come with the app; additional filter sets are available for in-app purchase starting at 99 cents, or you can purchase a VSCO X membership for $19.99 per year, which affords you hundreds of preset filters and new tools as they are released.
The Pros:
- Extremely easy-to-use app
- Basic tools and features
- Capture photos in the app and edit them right then
- Excellent artistic filters to enhance your photos
- Decent free app, inexpensive membership offers even more filters
- Great for editing photos for social media
- Mobile version for Apple and Android devices
The Cons:
- Limited editing capabilities
- Basic features
- No web editing or desktop app
- Weak as a VSCO social network
- Most filters require a paid membership
The Cost:
Free for 10 presets; a VSCO X annual membership for $19.99 offers all the latest preset filters and tools; or filter packs can also be purchased individually in-app without signing up for a membership.
The best free photo editing app: Snapseed
The Basics:
A free photo editing app by Google for Android and iOS devices, Snapseed is a very simple way to edit images for use on websites and social media. Hailed as a powerful tool with a decent amount of features, Snapseed competes with PhotoDirector, Pixlr, and Canva as the best resource for mobile photo editing. With its simple, streamlined interface (including presets and filters for one-tap editing), Snapseed offers an intuitive user experience, yet its professional-level editing tools (including curves, imagine tuning, selective brushes, and detailed lighting and color scales) facilitate a more seasoned user in advanced editing techniques. So while it is an easy-to-use and totally free app (with no premium paid features), beginners with zero photo-editing experience may feel overwhelmed by the steep learning curve and lack of an in-app guide.
In addition to employing standard editing functions like brightness, crop, and contrast, Snapseed highlights include a simple selection tool to adjust color and exposure; a portrait mode to smooth skin, delete blemishes, and brighten eyes; a lens blur tool to create the trendy bokeh look; the ability to layer edits and save looks to apply to photos later; and the option to edit raw files and export as jpgs. As far as 100% free apps go, this is a solid choice for its pro-level—if limited—capabilities for photo editing on the go.
The Pros:
- Robust mobile app for Android and Apple devices
- User-friendly interface
- More than 30 professional-level editing tools
- Convenient one-click editing for presets and filters
- Totally free (with no premium features available)
The Cons:
- Considerable learning curve
- Lack of tutorials
- No opportunity to purchase premium features
The Cost:
Free