No cataloguing Serif built its reputation off the back of low-cost Windows versions of professional graphics tools, but with its new Affinity line it’s shaken off its budget past for good. It also has a better system for applying local adjustments, using adjustment layers and masks. It doesn’t have Adobe’s mobile apps and online synchronisation options either, but it does offer professional-grade ‘tethering’ tools for studio photographers capturing images via a computer. Its raw conversions are sharper and less noisy than Adobe’s, but it doesn’t support such a wide range of camera raw formats or as large a number of lens correction profiles. No mobile apps Capture One covers almost exactly the same territory as Adobe Lightroom Classic, offering cataloguing tools, seamless raw processing, manual image enhancement tools alongside preset effects and a non-destructive workflow that means you can revisit your adjustments at any time. For many, though, the idea of paying a subscription to use software is just too much to swallow, which is why we’re going to move swiftly on to the rest of our list. You get both Photoshop and Lightroom CC/Classic as part of Adobe’s subscription-based Photography Plan and, to be honest, this combination is good value and takes some beating. It feels a bit more ponderous and complicated than the cloud-based Lightroom CC, but it is more powerful and does support plug-ins. Lightroom Classic is the old ‘full fat’ version of Lightroom. One takes care of organising and enhancing your photos while the other handles any more complex layers-based image manipulation. Subscription required Lightroom and Photoshop are the perfect double-act. If you want Lightroom and Photoshop AND 1GB storage the plan costs twice as much ouch. Lightroom CC is super-slick to use, but it’s missing a couple of tools in Lightroom Classic and it doesn’t support plug-ins and external image-editors except for Photoshop. You can get Lightroom CC and 1GB storage for the same price as the regular Photography Plan, but you don’t get Photoshop, which is a significant drawback. The ‘old’ one has been rebranded Lightroom Classic (see below) while the ‘new’ Lightroom CC offers a streamlined interface and integrated cloud storage. Doesn't support plug-ins Where Photoshop is for detailed manipulation, Lightroom concentrates on image organisation and regular photo enhancements. The regular Photography Plan is best value and also gets you Lightroom CC and Lightroom Classic as well. The only way to get Photoshop now is via an Adobe subscription. Photoshop’s layering, masking and retouching tools are still the standard by which all others are judged, but it’s designed for painstaking work on single images, or multi-layer composites, rather than quick day-to-day editing. Subscription required Photoshop is still the go-to image-editing tool for artists, illustrators and designers, but photographers have a different bunch of needs that might be better met these days by a cataloguing/enhancement tool like Lightroom or an effects tool like Alien Skin Exposure X3. These are not in any particular order since each program has its own particular strengths, so make sure you keep going to the end of the list, because there’s something here for everyone. So we’ll kick off with the complex little ecosystem that is Adobe’s subscription-based Photography Plan, then look at alternatives that deliver better quality, better organisation, better inspiration or just better value. Basically it’s just a big box of spanners. It doesn’t catalog your growing photo library and it doesn’t give you ideas and inspiration to feed your creative vision. It’s become clear, though, that photographers and enthusiasts want more than Photoshop can offer. The answer to the best photo editor question used to be easy – get Photoshop. There are also free, mobile or online photo editors out there but we’ll keep those for another guide. How do you choose the best photo editing software? We’ve picked the best paid-for mainstream photo editing programs that will work on both Mac and PC, and we’re looking for ease of use, quality of results, versatility or pixel-crunching power.
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