Photo Software
Commercial
Photoshop
The Big Gun, the Heavyweight Champion, the Grand Daddy of photo software is Adobe’s Photoshop. No other software package can compare to Photoshop’s colossal list of image editing and creating features. So many features in fact, that even most pro users of Photoshop probably aren’t aware of them all.
Photoshop’s power and flexibility make it the de facto choice for pro photographers and graphic artists. With this power, however, comes a very steep learning curve. It also comes loaded with tons of features that most ‘normal’ people never use, even if they happen know what these effects do!
While the complexity of Photoshop may be a drawback for most people, it’s biggest liability may be it’s cost. Aimed squarely at the professional market, it carries a price tag of $649 (more than a great digital camera!!) although upgrade versions can be had for a mere $200. (for Windows and Mac)
Photoshop Elements
Fortunately, Adobe has realized that the full-blown Photoshop is not for everyone and has created a version aimed at the amateur photographer, whether they be a casual snap shooter or a serious shutter-bug. Photoshop Elements (PE), available for both Windows and Mac, takes the most used functions of Photoshop, adds some amazing new features and wraps it all up in an easier to use interface. It also comes with an easier to enjoy price of $99.
Despite its low price and target audience, don’t make the mistake of selling PE short. It is still a very powerful and useful piece of software. For instance, it has the ability to take the best elements of a two group shots and meld them together into a single photo. As in Jimmy blinked on the first shot and Johnny wasn’t looking at the camera in the second. PE allows you to take the better shots of Jimmy and Johnny to make the perfect group picture. (Adobe has an example here)
In addition to it’s editing prowess, PE also includes a photo organizer, photo album generator, scrapbook page builder and so forth. Most recent reviews place Adobe PE at the top of the $100 photo software assortment. (for Windows and Mac)
Corel
Corel, the maker of CorelDraw and WordPerfect, has recently purchased two image software programs aimed at the casual and serious photo market: Paint Shop Pro and PhotoImpact. Both are quite capable alternatives to Adobe’s Photoshop Elements but sell at a lower $70 to $80 price range.
Paint Shop Pro contains all of the standard photo editing tools that users have come to know and expect, then expands upon this tool set with easy to use wizards and a set of artistic tools, such as easy color changing and quick background erasure. Ease of use and flexibility make this a top choice of digital photographers everywhere. (for Windows)
PhotoImpact, once known as Photoshop without the price tag, also employs a sturdy base of standard editing tools, and adds in an easy to use ExpressFix TM mode, a help system they call “Smart Guide” and an intriguing new set of cropping tools to assist in composing photos. Many professional photographers cut their digital teeth on PhotoImpact, and it is still widely used and praised today. At $70, PhotoImpact may be the best deal in the realm of commercial photo software. (for Windows)
Others
The booming digital camera market has left ample room for a few other software makers to offer their wares, ACDSee and and ArcSoft PhotoStudio to name just two.
ArcSoft offers one click fixes, batch processing to fix several photos at once and many artsy type tools. ArcSoft PhotoStudio sells for $80.
At $50, ACDSee Photo Editor is another bargain. It contains an extensive help system that walks the user through any number of processes and projects, such as removing red eye, making gift tags or making a vignette. ACDSee also sells a Pro edition of its Photo Editor for $130 that offers extensive picture cataloging, sophisticated lighting adjustments and watermarking for copyright purposes.
Free
Everybody likes free, right? Of course! The great thing about free software is that there are some truly great and useful offerings out there, and photo software is no exception. From picture viewing and organizing to advanced image editing, there is freeware to be had, and a lot of it is of outstanding quality.
GIMP
As with the commercial offerings, we are going to start off with the Big Gun of photo freeware, the Gnu Image Manipulation Program, or GIMP for short. Gimp is an open source, constantly updated and evolving image editor.
Even though it is free, GIMP can do almost anything Photoshop can do, with a few minor exceptions that professional users might use (CMYK separations, for example, used to prepare photos for printing a magazine or newspaper.) As with Photoshop, this power brings a certain amount of complexity and a steep learning curve. To help overcome some of the complexity, there is a wealth of tutorials and examples to be fournd in the web.
Also, because of its wide reaching abilities, GIMP may seem to run a bit slow on some older systems, although the development team seems to be improving its speed all the time. GIMP is available for Linux, Mac and Windows.
Paint.Net
Another free and ever improving image editor is Paint.Net. Originally planned as a replacement for the sadly lacking Microsoft Paint applet, it is being maintained and updated by a team at the University of Washington. Very powerful, but with an easy to use interface, Paint.net is also a very fast and responsive program.
Although lacking some of the add on features of the commercial offerings, such as photo organizing and album creation, Paint.Net balances ease of use, power and performance to a tee. Probably the best free advanced image editor for us normal people. (for Windows)
PhotoFiltre
Not as powerful as Gimp, but incorporating a wonderful and easy to use interface, PhotoFiltre offers a basic yet solid base of editing and retouching tools. It also boasts a terrific system of single-click image fixes and as its name implies, a large set of image filters. Definitely worth a try for quick and easy photo enhancements. (for Windows)
IrfanView
Although containing some rudimentary editing abilities, IrfanView’s claim to fame is its image viewing prowess. Indeed, it would be better described as a multimedia viewer, including video and sound. IrfanView’s image options include lossless rotation, easy resizing/cropping and slide show creation. It also includes some basic color adjustments and creativity filters. One of its handiest features is batch processing, allowing you to resize, rotate, etc... multiple files in one operation. (for Windows)
Windows Live Photo Gallery
Microsoft’s offering in the free photo editor is Windows Live Photo Gallery, which is a great image viewer and cataloger. It doesn’t have a full roster of editing functions, but the ones it does have work pretty well. Cropping, red-eye removal and color/exposure correction are quick and easy to use and can give great results. Photo Gallery also includes a super quick “Auto Adjust” feature to enhance color and exposure in a single click.
Photo Gallery’s primary use is as an image organizer and viewer, a function it does alarmingly well. It will search out any photos, images and videos in any folders you select, or your entire hard drive if you wish. You can then sort and search all your photos by date, or by custom tags and captions. Photo Gallery also lets you create slide shows and screen savers from your photos.
Although already a very useful program already, Microsoft has added one unique feature to Photo Gallery that might make it a must have for many photographers: a panoramic view creator. Simply select a series of photos and Photo Gallery will “stitch” them together in a seamless panorama. The results can be stunning! This could be a “must have” for real estate agents. (as you may have guessed, for Windows only)
Picasa
Picasa, from Google, offers many of the same features as Windows Live Photo Gallery, with the exception of the panorama stitcher. Picasa does, however, include a wall poster creator which lets you enlarge and print out at home a photo on several pieces of paper. The seperate sheets of paper are simply lined up to make a single huge photo.
Picasa also has a collage creator which takes several chosen photos and makes one image out of them. It includes a few different styles and settings to personalize your collages. Backing up photos is also a breeze as Picasa. You can either back up your entire collection, or do incremental backups, saving only those photos that are new or have changed since the last backup. Picasa lets you save them directly to CD or DVD, and will span a backup set across as many discs as needed.
But where Picasa shines, and why I prefer it and use it daily before any other program, is its one click image fix dubbed “I’m Feeling Lucky.” A single click of a button and Picasa adjusts exposure, contrast and color automatically, giving near perfect results more often than not. Much better results, in fact, than Photo Gallery – at least in my experience. (for Windows, Linux, and hopefully soon, Mac)
Online Photo Software
Looking for a way to do some basic photo fixes, effects or resizing? Don’t want to load any new software on your computer? Visiting Aunt Susan and she has no photo software on her computer? Online picture editors may be the way to go. No need to load a huge application to do some simple cropping or resizing, fix Auntie S’s redeye, or even add some wild and crazy special effects. Just point your browser to one these sites and polish those photos you just took quick and easy.
Picnik
PikFix
Splashup
FotoFlexr
Resizr
Phixr
These sites are not listed in any particular order, nor am I going to do any reviews on them, at least not for now. They’re quick and easy to load and use, and of course they are FREE! Give them a try and choose your own favorite.