PC vs Mac for Photography. Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) When it comes to photo editing, both PC and Mac platforms can be very powerful and highly capable, with each having its own list of pros and cons. Choosing one platform over the other can be a difficult choice. Current page: Best Photo Editing Software 2019 - PC and Mac Software for Beginners Next Page Best Photo Editor App 2019 - Photo Editing Apps for Android, iPhone. Mac Android Computing. GIMP is an open-source photo editing software that is available for all three of the biggest operating systems and offers up a huge workspace and a wide variety of.
Photos comes with every Mac and provides powerful, easy-to-use editing tools along with photo organization and sharing features. Use Photos to perfect your images, and don't be afraid to explore all of the tools — if you don't like a change you made, you can go back to the original photo any time.
Before you begin
Picture Editing Software For Mac
- Update the software on your Mac to make sure that you're using the latest version of macOS.
- To ensure that all of your photos are available for editing, turn on iCloud Photos on your Mac and your other devices.
iCloud Photos keeps your photos organized and up to date everywhere that you use it. So any edits that you make on your Mac appear on your other devices too.
Get started
To open a photo in Edit view, double-click a photo in your library, then click Edit in the toolbar. You can also select a photo and pressCommand-Return to open a photo in Edit view. Click a tab in the middle of the toolbar to select from the three groups of editing tools: Adjust, Filters, and Crop.
The toolbar also has buttons for editing with extensions and quickly rotating or enhancing your photo.
While you edit, you can use the slider on the toolbar's left side to zoom in on your photo for greater detail. When you finish making your adjustments, click Done.
Adjust
Use the powerful tools in Adjust to fine-tune your photo's light, color, sharpness, and more. Use sliders or the Auto button to easily adjust your photo — or dive deeper with detailed controls.
Click the triangle next to each Adjust tool's name to show its controls. Some tools allow even more detailed adjustments; click the triangle next to Options to see everything the tool offers.
You can toggle individual adjustments on and off by clicking the blue circle that appears next to each tool when it's expanded or when hover your pointer over it.
Coding programs for mac. If you want to apply the adjustments you make from one photo to another, just copy and paste them. Open the photo that has the adjustments that you want, click Edit, and choose Image > Copy Adjustments. Then open the photo you want to apply the edits to, click Edit, and choose Image > Paste Adjustments.
Filters
The nine filters in Photos emulate three classic photography styles — vivid, dramatic, and black and white — and are optimized to enhance your image while keeping skin tones natural.
Choose Vivid, Vivid Warm, or Vivid Cool to enhance the vibrancy of your images; Dramatic, Dramatic Warm, or Dramatic Cool to add contrast; or Mono, Silvertone, or Noir for a classic black and white.
Crop
Straighten your photo, improve its composition, or get rid of parts that you don't want.
Drag the selection rectangle by its edges or corners. When you let go of the selection rectangle, your cropped photo appears. Use the numbered dial to the right of your photo to straighten it. As you move the dial, a grid appears on your photo to help you with alignment.
Aspect
Choose from a range of ratios — like square or 5:7 — or leave it as freeform.
Choose from a range of ratios — like square or 5:7 — or leave it as freeform.
Flip
Horizontally flip your photo, or option-click to flip it vertically.
Horizontally flip your photo, or option-click to flip it vertically.
Photos can also automatically straighten and crop your photo — just click the Auto button. Or click Reset to undo all cropping and rotation and restore your photo to its original dimensions.
Edit with third-party apps
You can edit images from your Photos library with third-party apps, such as Photoshop and Pixelmator, right from the Photos app. Select an image, then choose Image > Edit With and choose the editing app that you’d like to use.
When you’re finished editing in the app, save your work or use the Command-S keyboard shortcut. Any edits you make are saved in Photos as a non-destructive change, so you can always revert your image to its original state.
More editing tools
Extensions
Third-party extensions expand your editing options in Photos. You can apply edits from multiple extensions to one photo, or use any combination of extensions plus the editing tools built into Photos. Learn more about editing with third-party extensions.
Third-party extensions expand your editing options in Photos. You can apply edits from multiple extensions to one photo, or use any combination of extensions plus the editing tools built into Photos. Learn more about editing with third-party extensions.
You can also use the Markup tool in the Extensions menu to add drawings, shapes, and text to your photos.
Rotate
Turn your photo 90 degrees counterclockwise. If you want to rotate the other direction, hold down the Option key.
Turn your photo 90 degrees counterclockwise. If you want to rotate the other direction, hold down the Option key.
Enhance
Improve your photo with just one click. Automatically adjust your photo's color, light, and contrast.
Improve your photo with just one click. Automatically adjust your photo's color, light, and contrast.
Learn more
- August 27, 2019
- 23 min to read
![Image Editing Software For Mac Image Editing Software For Mac](/uploads/1/3/3/9/133916231/438204289.png)
If you do digital photography, you need software to edit your pictures. When they hear photo editing, many people imagine Adobe Photoshop. That’s fair. Photoshop gives you all the tools you need to create any effect you can imagine. But at the same time, you need to do a lot of work and have a lot of experience to unlock the potential of Photoshop. So it’s not the best choice for beginners.
There’s a lot of other functional, sometimes simpler, software with friendly interfaces. We’ll tell you about it.
Pro Image Editing Software For Mac
1. Luminar (7 day free trial)
Luminar positions itself as the most innovative way to edit photos. The interface looks like Lightroom, excluding the Library column, which is combined with Edit and Info in one menu. The adjustment tools are the same as in Lightroom, from white balance and temperature to exposure, contrast, shadows, and so on. Lens correction and transform tools are also available.
The secret weapon of Luminar is Artificial Intelligence, or AI. AI technology powers three Luminar features:
Sky Enhancer – unique filters that make the sky in your pictures more expressive and increase contrast
Accent AI – analyzes your photos and applies enhancements automatically so you don’t have to make a dozen manual adjustments
Sun Rays – adds realistic sun rays to your photos and lets you customize them
In Luminar you have over 60 default styles, or presets, created by pro photographers. You can use them to edit images with one click. The program has toolsets for portraits, landscapes, and aerial photography. Luminar’s interface is clear and logical. Like Lightroom, it has a thoughtful placement of tools. Just move the sliders and see what happens.
There’s no subscription for Luminar. Just buy it and use it. Skylum will give your money back within 60 days if you don’t like it.
2. Adobe Photoshop CC (7-day trial)
PC: 2GHz Intel Core 2 or AMD Athlon 64 processor, 2GB RAM (8GB recommended), Windows 7 to 10 | Mac: Multicore Intel 64-bit processor, 2GB RAM (8GB recommended), OS X 10.11 or later | Hard drive: 4GB | Minimum screen resolution: 1024x768 pixels
Photoshop isn’t cheap and it’s not the simplest program, but it’s the best tool in the world. Nowadays, the only way to get Photoshop is to subscribe to one of Adobe’s subscription-based Photography plans.
Photoshop isn’t only for photographers. It’s for illustrators, designers, videographers, and artists. It lets you work with masks and layers, add ready-made filters, and make your own filters. You can change every characteristic of your photo - single colors, shades, etc.. You can change the white balance and create a picture with any form: diptych, triptych, collage, etc. But you need to watch tens of tutorials to master all these features.
There are no image browsing or cataloging tools in Photoshop itself, but since Lightroom is included in the same Photography Plans as Photoshop, that’s not an issue. RAW conversions are taken care of by Adobe Camera Raw, which is so powerful it’s practically an image editor in its own right. On its own, Photoshop is powerful but limited; with Adobe Lightroom, it’s half of an unbeatable image editing double act.
3. Photolemur(Free version with watermark)
Photolemur promises the quickest photo editing. Just drag and drop your pictures to get the result. Artificial Intelligence does all the work. This program is good for portrait photographers because of Face Finish technology, which removes imperfections, enhances eyes, and whitens teeth. The smart browsing option lets you improve multiple photos at once.
Photolemur is a simple program for beginners. If you want to improve your pictures fast without understanding tens of options, use Photolemur.
4. Aurora HDR(7 day free trial)
This software is based on a Quantum HDR Engine powered by Artificial Intelligence. It provides 20+ tools to help you get beautiful HDR photos. At your disposal are a polarizing filter, color toning, vignetting, dodge and burn, and other features. And Aurora HDR has a few exclusive tools:
Image Editing Software For Mac
- HDR Denoise – intelligently cleans noise
- HDR Smart Structure – improves depth and details in your images
- HDR Clarity – boosts clarity and adds localized contrast only where needed, without touching the whole photo
Aurora HDR gives you 80 unique Looks, or presets, which can turn your photos from RAW to creative in a few seconds. Manual mode is available too. Aurora HDR come with no subscription and a 60-day money back guarantee.
5. Alien Skin Exposure X4 (30-day Trial)
PC: Intel Core 2 or equivalent processor, Windows 7 64-bit or later | Mac: Intel Core 2 or higher processor, OS X 10.10 or later | Hard drive: Not listed | Minimum screen resolution: 1280x768 pixels
Alien Skin Exposure X4 has a strange name and a good pack of tools. This all-in-one program focuses on analog effects and has a rich library with presets. Alien Skin Exposure is a mix of Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom. With this software, you can adjust colors, shadows, lighting, and sharpness and crop pictures. The program also supports layers and masks and has a lot of one-click presets. You can create your own presets too.
One important feature of Alien Skin is virtual image copy, which creates a photo clone that doesn’t take any space on the hard drive. Another useful option is the ability to preview a preset before applying it. One flaw, however, is that Exposure X4 can be a little bit slow when scanning big catalogs.
6. Adobe Photoshop Elements (30-day free trial)
PC: 64-bit 1.6GHz or faster processor, 4GB RAM, Win 7 SP1 to 10 | Mac: Multicore Intel 64-bit processor, 4GB RAM, OS X 10.11 or later | Hard drive: 5GB | Minimum screen resolution: 1280x800 pixels
Elements is Photoshop for beginners. Its interface is simpler.
Photoshop Elements is based on two programs:
- Organizer: Helps you sort pictures. You can browse photos by folders, create albums, and mark pictures with hashtags. It makes it easier to create a series.
- Editor: Includes tutorials, fast effects, guided mode with a list of walkthroughs, and expert mode with tens of tools from exposure and color editing to noise removal.
- From flaws: Photoshop Elements has a limited version of Camera Raw with a small set of tools from classic Photoshop. It doesn’t support lens correction profiles or chromatic aberration removal, though. Many options are missing. For example, you don’t have curves even in expert mode.
Advantages of this software are its modern design and friendly and easy interface. It’s best for beginners, and tutorials are available.
7. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic/CC (Free 7-day trial)
PC: 2GHz or faster Intel Core 2 or AMD Athlon 64 processor, 2GB RAM (8GB recommended), Windows 7 SP1 to 10 | Mac: Intel 64-bit, 2GB RAM (8GB recommended), OS X 10.11 or later | Hard drive: 2GB (10GB for CC) | Minimum screen resolution: 1024x768 pixels
Adobe Photoshop + Lightroom = the perfect weapon.
Photoshop is great for hardcore manipulation: pro retouching, working with masks, layers, and levels. Adobe Lightroom was made mostly for corrections to shadows, lighting, exposure, and colors. You can edit photos fully manually quite easily: just slide the sliders and see what happens. Or use presets. You can save all settings and create your own presets to use later. Lightroom is convenient for editing a series of photos – you just need to create a catalog and apply one preset.
Lightroom is an all-in-one image cataloging, RAW processing, and editing program. But Adobe has made things more confusing by splitting off the old Lightroom, now called Lightroom Classic, for regular desktop storage and introducing a new, slimmed-down Lightroom CC which stores all your photos online. With Lightroom CC, you have to pay for Adobe Cloud storage, starting at 1GB for around £10/$10 per month, and there are now three Photography plans to choose from.
Lightroom CC offers the convenience of having your whole image library available everywhere, but the storage costs are high and the software itself lacks some key features you might take for granted in the desktop version – it doesn’t support plug-ins, for example, and supports only Photoshop as an external editor.
8. Affinity Photo (Free trial available)
PC: Processor not specified, 2GB RAM (4GB recommended), Windows 7 SP1 to 10 | Mac: 64-bit Core Duo 2 or better processor, 2GB RAM, OS X 10.9 or later | Hard drive: 670MB | Minimum screen resolution: 1280x768 pixels
Do you want a low-cost and powerful Photoshop alternative? Now you’ve got it. Affinity Photo 1.6 has the same features as the famous Adobe product but it’s price is much better. Previously, Affinity Photo worked only on Mac, but now it’s available for Windows too.
It matches Photoshop in terms of selection, masking, and layer tools, and Serif, the developer of the Affinity products, has focused particularly heavily on retouching, with cloning, healing, and retouching tools, an inpainting tool for automatic object removal, and a dedicated Liquify Persona (workspace) for localized image distortion effects.
These Personas are part of the whole Affinity Photo workflow. The Photo Persona is where the regular image editing is done, but there’s also a Develop Persona for RAW processing, a Tone Mapping Persona for HDR effects, and an Export Persona for exporting finished images.
But Affinity’s creators didn’t come up with any browsing and cataloging tools.
9. DxO Photolab (Free 30-Day Trial)
PC: Intel Core 2 or AMD Athlon 64 X2 processor, 4GB RAM (8GB recommended), Windows 7 SP1 to 10 | Mac: Intel Core i5 or higher, 4GB RAM (6GB recommended), OS X 10.11 or later | Hard drive: 4GB | Minimum screen resolution: Not listed
Owners of Fujifilm cameras, we’re sorry but this tool is not for you. DxO Photolab 1.2 does not support RAWs from Fuji cameras.
This program is a basic tool without any supernatural options. With the new gradient, brush, and U-point adjustment tools, it’s now possible to enhance your photos within Photolab rather than in an external editor, all while using DxO’s excellent RAW processing engine. You can do good editing with Photolab, which boasts strong noise removal and effective optical correction.
The basic version of Photolab has limited features. To open the ClearView feature and perspective corrections, you need to buy the Elite edition. This will also give you access to the FilmPack set of analog effects.
10. ON1 Photo RAW 2019 (30-day trial is fully-functional)
PC: Intel Core 2 Duo, Xeon, or better processor, 4GB RAM (16GB recommended), Windows 7 to 10 | Mac: Intel Core 2 Duo or better processor, 4GB RAM (16GB recommended), OS X 10.9 or later | Hard drive: 1.5GB | Minimum screen resolution: 1280x720 pixels How many mac addresses are available for virtual network adapters created by hyper-v by default.
What can you do with ON1 Photo RAW?
- Organize your photos into series and explore your image folders
- Work with RAW files
- Use one-click presets from a huge library
- Explore manual mode and change any characteristics of your images, from exposure and lighting to contrast and saturation
Photo RAW is compatible with cloud services such as Dropbox, which makes managing images easy. ON1 Photo RAW doesn’t have the most useful and friendly interface, but it has a wealth of effects and tools that make it worth using. But it’s not the best choice for beginners – you need some knowledge of editing to use it fully.
The latest version of ON1 Photo RAW has one unique feature called the LUT filter. This filter lets you use LUT (lookup table) files for image editing (they’ve long been popular in cinematography), and with the addition of perspective transformation tools, there’s little that ON1 Photo RAW can’t do.
11. PhaseOne Capture One Pro (30-day free trial)
PC: Dual-core CPU or better, 8GB RAM, Windows 7 SP1 to 10 | Mac: Dual-core CPU or better, 8GB RAM, OS X 10.11.6 or later | Hard drive: 10GB | Minimum screen resolution: 1200x800 pixels
If you like Lightroom, you’ll like Capture One. It has a smart and logical cataloging system so you can browse, group, and search for photos easily. This program has pretty much the same potential as Lightroom. But unlike Lightroom, Capture One Pro works in a single window. Editing RAW files with Capture One is quite easy, just like in Lightroom. You can make manual adjustments to colors, shadows, lighting, sharpness, and other characteristics. A big library of presets (Styles) is also available, and an option to save presets has been added.