- Powerpoint For Mac Slide Show
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- Photo Programs For Mac Computers
- Best Photo Programs For Mac
Did you know the Finder in Mac OS X has a built-in instant image slide-show feature? It’s part of Quick Look, and though it’s been around a while, it’s a little known feature that is really great when you want to quickly show off a group of pictures, or even if you just want to take a single picture into full-screen mode without having to launch an app like Preview. How to use the Photos app for Mac. Slideshow projects can be created by clicking the plus button at the top right of Photos' program window. Adding text to a slideshow in Photos for Mac.
Easiest to Dive In | |
Photography Plan | Photoshop Elements |
How We Found the Best Photo Editing Software Programs
5 programs tested
The Best Photo Editing Software Programs
To find the best photo editing software, we pitted the best programs tech-giant Adobe has to offer (Photoshop, Lightroom, and Photo Elements) against three highly commended competitors to find out which one was user-friendly enough for beginners and powerful enough for professionals.
The 3 Best Photo Editing Software Programs
- Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Plan -
Most Powerful
- Serif Affinity Photo -
Easiest to Dive In
- Adobe Photoshop Elements 2018 -
Best for One-Click Editing
Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Plan
Access to Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC
Customizable image editing tools
Easy to learn
Why we chose it
Access to Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC
The Adobe Photography Plan combines two Adobe applications — Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC — into one bundle. Lightroom CC is Adobe’s dedicated photography software. If you’re working with large quantities of photos, you’ll want to take advantage of Lightroom’s organizational system: With it, you can rank photos out of five stars, tag photos, and edit information to keep track of where you took a photo. Subscribing to Lightroom CC (either on its own or as part of the Photography Plan) also gives iPhone and iPad users access to a mobile version of the software.
Photoshop CC, meanwhile, won’t do much to help you stay organized — but it has more advanced tools than Lightroom, like layers, masks, and customizable toolbars.
Customizable image editing tools
Photoshop has over sixty basic tools and customizations to choose from, in addition to its more advanced color, lighting, filter, and 3D tools (among others). These basic tools themselves are customizable, so you can do more than just correct red eyes; you can also specify how large, dark, or light you want pupils to appear. More advanced tools — everything from saturation and contrast to lens correction, liquefy, and RAW photo processing — are similarly customizable. Actions are also processed rapidly, allowing you to quickly assess whether your experiments are working.
Easy to learn
Despite the number of tools (and how easy it is to fall into the rabbit warren of adjustments and filters), we found Adobe surprisingly easy to use. You should expect a learning curve, since Photoshop is intended to be an extremely hands-on program, but Adobe supports you at every step. It has an abundance of online resources — a hidden benefit to choosing a company that’s been in the field for decades — and Photoshop CC particularly impressed us with its tutorials and guidance, helping us learn both terminology (what exactly the clone tool does) and technique (how to create and add to masks).
Hovering over the individual tools in Photoshop's left-hand bar pops up five-second gifs that demonstrate each tool — though you can easily change your settings and remove this feature once you get the hang of things.
Points to consider
Subscription service
Our only complaint about Adobe’s Photography Plan is that it’s a subscription service; you’ll sign up for a year-long contract and pay fees monthly rather than making a one-time purchase. While this subscription is significantly cheaper than the one-time purchase model that Photoshop used to follow (complete with a painful $1,500 price tag), if you cancel your subscription, you’ll lose access to all of the programs and tools, as well as any photos that remain in Adobe’s proprietary format. Make sure you’ve completely exported your library if you decide to cancel your contract.
Photoshop CC | |||
Photoshop CC | |||
Serif Affinity Photo
No organizational tools
Why we chose it
Easy to use
We were primarily drawn to Serif Affinity Photo because of how easy it was to use. Its customizable control panel initially appears overwhelming, with 22 adjustments options immediately available on your right-hand dashboard. However, each one is neatly packaged so that no matter what you want to do, you can quickly find and open the relevant folder.
Helpful presets
We also appreciated how Serif provides a number of immediate preset options on all of its effects. You can also manually adjust each effect for more control, but the presets offer a nice introduction for beginners.
One-time purchase
One of the keenest edges Serif Affinity has over Adobe’s Photography plan is that it’s a one-time purchase of $50, rather than a $10 or $20 monthly subscription. This means that, depending on your cloud storage needs (in turn based on how many photos you have and their editing needs), Serif Affinity becomes the more affordable plan after five months, possibly as early as three months.
Points to consider
No organizational tools
However, Serif Affinity’s budget plan comes with one significant drawback: It doesn’t offer any organizational tools. If you’re dealing with hundreds or thousands of photos that you need to organize, or would like to sort by place, date, or personalized keyword, you’ll want to consider Adobe’s Photography Plan or take a look at Photoshop Elements 2018.
Adobe Photoshop Elements 2018
One-click editing
Settings for different skill levels
Why we chose it
One-click editing
If you’re just trying to create, say, annual holiday cards, and the idea of learning new photo editing terms, tools, tricks, and techniques feels daunting, Adobe Photoshop Elements transforms the process into a few simple clicks — with a couple of sliders you can adjust if you’re feeling adventurous. That’s it. Photoshop Elements 2018 gives you high-quality photographs without a technical learning curve, so long as you stay within its predetermined adjustments.
Settings for different skill levels
We love that Photoshop Elements offers three tiers of photo editing: Quick, Guided, and Expert. Quick is simply that — with a few auto-adjustments, possibly a camera filter or picture frame, you can take your photograph from raw image to printer-ready. Guided gives you almost 50 options, where it will walk you through step-by-step the process of adjusting brightness, straightening or resizing a photo, or adding filters. Finally, the Expert mode lays out all of the program’s tools with minimal instruction.
Points to consider
Light on advanced editing tools
Even though the Expert mode of Photoshop Elements is more advanced than either the Quick or Guided modes, it doesn’t compete with our top picks. In addition to its clunky ‘90s-era design, it lacks all of the tools found in Photoshop CC or Serif Affinity Photo. That said, it could be a good introduction when you feel like trying out some additional techniques outside of the guided programs.
How to Find the Right Photo Editing Software for You
Decide what tools you need
Different types of image editing require different tools. No matter what you’ll be doing, you’ll want to know which ones you need for your most common projects — these functions might not be immediately necessary, but they’ll let you tackle tasks a little more complex than wiping away corgi footprints.
- Layers let you combine separate images or edit specific areas of a photograph. These are helpful if you’re trying to remove a photo-bomber from your wedding ceremony on the beach or swapping out the snowy background of your cute dog photo to send him floating through space instead.
- Applying a mask layer is another technique to isolate areas of a photo for specific editing. If you’d like to make changes to the background of your photograph without affecting the subject, or if you’d like to create a cut-out of a tiny dog from one photograph to layer him into a desert landscape in another, you’ll probably use a mask.
- Finally, preset filters let you adjust your photos with a single click. These could either take the form of a typical Instagram filter (you click “Black and White” or “Landscape” and it automatically alters your photo) or auto-adjustments on a tool-by-tool case.
Knowing what types of editing you’ll be using the software for will help you narrow down which tools are essential and which are just nice to have.
Test drive several options
All of our top picks offer a free trial, and we recommend taking full advantage of them. You probably know what you’re going to be using the software for, and now’s a good time to see how each of them perform on the type of image editing you need. Pay attention to the number of tools and effects provided, how easy they are to use, and the organization features of each program.
Determine how much you’re willing to spend
Prices for photo editing software vary a lot, and depending on what you’ll be using it for, you may not need to pay a premium. The most powerful tool on the market, Adobe’s Photography Plan, runs on a subscription model for $10 per month. If you don’t need all of that technical prowess, Serif Affinity will meet all your image editing needs for a one-time purchase of $50. There are even a number of free photo editing software options available if you don’t want to make any investment.
Photo Editing Software FAQ
In most situations, you should edit your photos in the raw camera format as opposed to a standard format like JPEG. The raw files will contain a lot more information about the picture, so you can be more precise in your editing. Once you’re ready to show it to the world, you can then convert it to a shareable format like JPEG or PNG.
You can download and install Photoshop on up to two computers, regardless of the operating system. However, you’ll only be able to use one Photoshop on one computer at a time.
Photoshop CC is the more powerful editing tool — you’ll need to manipulate multiple layers here — while Lightroom CC offers sorting and organizing features into its slightly more basic editing capabilities. Both programs offer preset filters as well, so you can adjust your photos to a preset perfection with only a few clicks. Adobe’s Photography plan includes both programs.
The Best Photo Editing Software Programs: Summed Up
Our Other Software Reviews
Over the years, we’ve put just about every type of software imaginable through the ringer to find the best of the best. Check out some of our favorite reviews below:
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Want to make your pictures pop but don't have the time or money to invest in a photo-editing tool? If you have a Mac, you're in luck. With the latest version of OS X Yosemite, Apple is including the new Photos app, which packs effective, comprehensive image-editing tools to help you enhance your shots. The free app is installed when you upgrade to OS X 10.3.3 (by going to the App Store program and clicking OS X Yosemite on the right). Photos is easy enough for beginners to learn but also offers more-advanced editors the ability to fine-tune details.
The program supports a wide range of image file types, including JPG, RAW, TIFF, PNG and GIF. You can make changes and undo them in Photos (by pressing Command-Z) until you settle on something you like. Also, the edits are 'nondestructive,' which means you can always revert to the original version of the photo.
MORE: How to Take Great Photos with a DSLR or Mirrorless Camera
We'll help you learn some key maneuvers, such as how to crop, straighten, adjust exposure and use filters tastefully so you can make your pictures better with Photos for OS X.
Crop and straighten for better composition
Photographers often talk about the rule of thirds: Place your picture's subject along the vertical and horizontal thirds of the frame for a more interesting and pleasing composition. If you weren't able to frame your shot perfectly, you can still adjust it by using the crop tool in Photos.
Open your image; then click Edit on the top right of the program window.
Select the Crop button (third from the top) on the toolbar at the right.
Drag the brackets at the corners of your image, and use the grid lines on the screen to help compose your picture.
Turn the wheel on the right of the picture to tilt or rotate your shot. Again, use the grid lines on the screen to help make sure your picture is straight. When you're satisfied, hit the yellow Done button on the top right to save your changes.
Here's a before (left) and after (right) comparison:
Adjust lighting and exposure to recover detail
Sometimes, a photo that you snapped in a hurry turns out darker or lighter than you expected. You can recover details by tweaking values in the Light section of Photos. Be warned, though, that this tool can't fix pics that have been burned out. If part of an image looks completely white and is close to a light source, it's probably overexposed beyond rescue. But you still may be able to save enough of the picture to make it worthwhile.
To brighten an image, tap the Adjust button (fourth from the top) on the toolbar.
You can either drag the slider on the Light spectrum next to the picture, or click the down arrow next to the word 'Light' for more-precise controls, such as exposure, brightness and contrast.
Pull the sliders to adjust what you think is lacking. Moving a slider to the right increases the strength of that setting. For example, sliding right on Brightness makes the picture lighter, and doing the same on Highlights lightens up the brightest parts. If you want more precise control, you can double-click the number at the end of each row to type in a specific value (0 to 1 in two-decimal-place increments).
As you are setting the brightness or exposure values, keep an eye on the live preview, especially the lightest and darkest parts, to ensure that you're not blowing out the brighter parts of your picture or making the dark parts turn grayish and grainy-looking.
Increase color saturation, fix white balance
A dull-looking image can get some oomph with a boost in saturation, making colors more vibrant and eye-catching. In the Colors area, you can edit saturation (richness of color), contrast and cast (white balance, or overall color cast).
I found the picture I took from a helicopter of the Manhattan skyline at dusk was too blue, especially in the foreground, so I opened it in Photos. When I clicked the magic-wand icon (first on the toolbar) for auto enhancement, Photos actually made the image even bluer.
So I went to adjust the Color settings myself. Dragging the Cast slider to the right, I managed to get a warmer (less-blue) white balance, bringing out the yellow, orange and red neon lights.
Before-and-after comparison:
Smooth away imperfections with the healing brush
One of my favorite new features in the Photos app is the healing brush (represented by a bandage on the toolbar). This baby makes imperfections — such as zits, scars or food stuck in your teeth — go away.
After clicking the bandage icon (last on the toolbar), select a brush size by dragging up and down on the vertical slider next to your image. You should set a size that's slightly larger than the offending mark and simply click on that spot. For smaller blemishes, I recommend zooming into the picture (pinch gesture on the touchpad) for a more natural-looking result.
Before-and-after comparison:
In one click, I got rid of a scar on my upper arm. Whenever possible, avoid dragging the healing brush on the picture, as that can create a smudged, artificial look.
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If you're trying to get the blemish to blend in with a specific part of the picture, hold down the Option button, and click the point you want it to look like.
Add filters for an artsy feel
Give your memories a vintage look, or make them stand out, with one of Photos' eight filters. Filters work best when you want to evoke a specific mood, such as nostalgia for a Throwback Thursday portrait, or reverence with black-and-white for a memorial picture.
Select the Filters button from the toolbar, and apply one of the effects to your picture. Unfortunately, there isn't a way to adjust the intensity of the filter, as you can on Instagram.
Program For Mac Slide Through Photoshop
Before-and-after comparison:
Photo Programs For Mac Computers
Be careful when applying a filter, though. A bad time to use filters is when your picture is supposed to depict exactly what a scene looked like. Apple's range of filters are Fade, Chrome, Process, Transfer, Instant and three monochrome (black and white) ones, Mono, Tonal and Noir.
Best Photo Programs For Mac
Staff writer Cherlynn Low edits pictures on Photoshop, but also loves the simplicity of Photos. Follow her @cherlynnlow. Follow Tom's Guide at @tomsguide on Facebook.
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