5 best photo editing tools (free) for photographers from beginners to professional (2020)
1.Adobe Lightroom
When talking about the best photo editing software for photographers it’s impossible to ignore Adobe Lightroom. In fact, when it comes to image editing software, Adobe products are considered gold-standard.
But why, then? What makes Lightroom so fantastic? Let’s look at this one.
Adobe Lightroom Interface:
If Photoshop comes off as too complicated and tedious, you’ll love the simple, beginner-friendly interface of Lightroom for sure.
The clean and easy workspace of Lightroom helps you to concentrate on what matters – your image. The left panel allows quick access to your image library, so you can switch between pictures as you edit them. You’ll find drop-down menus within the right-hand panel to make quick adjustments, add keywords to your images, and more.
To get into your photo editing, you’ll need to navigate the horizontal tabs in Lightroom along the top of the workspace. In the Build module, all of your simple and advanced photo editing tools are live. From there, the lens correction split toning, effects, and other simple adjustments will manipulate your frame.
Having a single panel for all your photo editing tools distinguishes Lightroom and makes the use super intuitive!
And, in the left-hand panel of the Develop module, Lightroom keeps your photo edits in stock in a drop-down label called history. Therefore, you can quickly scroll back through your edits of images, make adjustments, and check your edits before saving them in a preset.
You should also note that after installing the app, Lightroom will send you a guided walkthrough of each module the first time you open the application. Unlike some other in-app tours, the tutorial from Lightroom hits all the highlights so you don’t miss a thing. You’ll be able to get started on your edits with this quick introduction.
Multi-Use Program:
It is more than just a photo editor, this program. It’s also a photo organizer. Lightroom lets you easily store and rank your pictures inside the program, eliminating the need for an external photo organization program. Simply allocate a star rating to your images based on editing priority — or some other metric in that regard — and get to work!
Adobe has designed Lightroom to operate at any skill level for photographers. So be assured, the browsable interface of Lightroom doesn’t mean it’s not efficient. That’s what makes Lightroom all the more impressive — not sacrificing functionality for ease of use!
Lightroom Key Features:
Adobe Lightroom provides all the resources you’ll need to create a beautiful portrait, nature, real estate, and other images for most freelance photo editors. The host of fantastic features to Lightroom includes:
- Face detection for photo organization
- Camera and lens-based corrections
- Brush and gradient adjustments
- Fixing and blurring tools
- Presets and professional filters
- Customizable sliders
- Multiple device support and sync
2. Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop Interface:
We must be frank, Photoshop is not known for being easy. In fact, if you have learned anything about the interface of Photoshop, it’s probably how hard it’s to navigate! And it’s true-Photoshop isn’t the easiest learning software. Instead, it requires a bit of patience, as do most things worth doing in life.
The reason many beginners struggle to use Photoshop for photo editing is that it provides such a large amount of resources. We ‘re going to talk more about all the cool things you can do with Photoshop later on, but remember it’s trying to lower the learning curve that provides structured workspaces.
Photoshop provides several preset workspaces designed to eliminate the unnecessary resources you don’t need for your project. Such workspaces can be located in the upper menu bar under Window > > Workspace. You can see preset workspace options for Editing Essentials, 3D, Graphics and Online, and even Photography!
Such presets of the workspace offer Photoshop a perfect introduction, as they show the best resources for the job. For example, the Photography workspace puts the brush, histogram panel, and selection tools from Photoshop right at your fingertips. By comparison, the 3D workspace prioritizes the 3D screen and 3D Material Dropper from Photoshop.
Of course, you can build and save your own personalized workspace, as you become more familiar with Photoshop and determine which editing software you prefer. A customized workspace that only features your favorite tools will increase your editing speed and streamline your workflow a great deal!
So, while it can be challenging to master Photoshop, learning isn’t inherently difficult. It’s pre-made workspaces, definitions of in-app features and simple icons of features help make the software more accessible to understand. Don’t try to dive into everything at once! The more efficient route would likely be a piece-by-piece approach to Photoshop.
Key Features of Photoshop:
Masking, retouching, and layering software from Photoshop remain among the most persuasive on the market. However, it’s safe to say these devices may not be suitable for simple touch-ups, which would be better left for Lightroom. Photoshop is designed for professionals with all the bells and whistles.
- Sophisticated touch-up and retouching
- Extensive filters and brushes
- Multi-layer editing
- 3D design functionality
- Pro editing tools
- Advanced color editing
Adobe Photoshop offers tools that are simply not to be found in other editing applications. If you’re a photo editor working on graphic design projects or other, complex tasks, Photoshop might be your photo editor.
Otherwise, you ‘d probably be happier with a more straightforward system if you’re trying to touch up your pictures before turning them over to clients. Also, if you see your needs for photo editing increasing in the future, you may want to start learning Photoshop. You’ll be able to do all of your edits in one app, that way!
3. Snapseed
What is Snapseed?
Snapseed is one of the most common and flexible photo editing applications in the app stores for iTunes and Google Play and is one of my favorites. Back in 2012, Google acquired Snapseed, which was originally developed by Nik Software. The app has since been revamped and updated.
The Snapseed software can be downloaded for both iOS and Android devices and is available for free. The Snapseed app can be downloaded using the links below.
https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/snapseed/id439438619
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.niksoftware.snapseed&hl=en_GB
Snapseed is not available on desktop computers but is completely compatible with smartphones and tablets.
You can see the picture above, the built-in Snapseed features includes:
- Tune image
- Double Exposure
- Healing, Portrait
- Frames.
There is a lot of Premium feature like “HEALING“, “DOUBLE EXPOSURE” we can easily access without buying it. It’s absolutely free.
I personally use this app, and I recommend you to use this.
4. Focus
Focos is a major step into the future of computational photography and lightfield camera, bringing DSLR-like photography to your iPhone and iPad Pro, with stunning bokeh effects typically only possible with professional large aperture cameras. Using the computational photography technology, you can make limitless changes to your images, focus after the event, repeatedly change the aperture, and add multiple lights in 3D space, beyond the limits of any editing software you’ve learned before. The creative potential which Focos has unleashed is endless.
MAIN FEATURES:
- Take pictures of shallow depth of view, without painting or making choices manually.
- True 3D imagery.
- Simulate large apertures normally only possible with DSLR cameras and expensive lenses to create real bokeh effects.
- Import all images already available and customize the bokeh effect.
- With advanced machine learning technology, it automatically determines the depth of field for every frame.
- Re-focus portrait pictures are already taken, with a quick tap.
- To generate different bokeh spot effects, choose from various simulated aperture diaphragms.
- Professional lens simulation options, such as creamy, bilinear, swirly and reflex effects, and more.
- Visualize the depth of areas in a 3D view of your portrait pictures and intuitively add depth filters.
- Add several 3D space lights and change the hue, brightness, etc. for each light.
- Test the representation of the person in the real world, using the technique of augmented reality.
- With Apple Pencil, the depth chart can be patched precisely on the iPad.
- Simple and easy to use, with video tutorials built-in.
- A crucial resource for both your iPhones and iPad.
The focos software can be downloaded for iOS devices only and is available for free. The Snapseed app can be downloaded using the links below.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/focos/id1274938524
5. Picsart
If you would like to use image-editing tools like PicMonkey, Canva, and Pixlr to create images for your blog, I recommend that you check out PicsArt. PicsArt is a great tool for creating collages, adding images to special effects and text, and more. You can share these images with the PicsArt community, share them on social networks like Instagram and Facebook, and add them to your blog or books, of course.
Generally, Picsart is a very useful tool you can make a logo, cover photo for your youtube account, etc.
Here is the screenshot below you can see that there is a lot of option that you can use it for your photo editing.
Picsart is easily available on Window , ios and android.
So, here is the Top 5 Editing tool that i used in Photography .
so i hope you like my post. If you have any query please feel free to ask on the comment section.
Thankyou,