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Best photo editing software: Quick Menu

Picking the best photo editing software can be a headache. There are lots of options out there, so which one is right for you?

A lot depends on the gear youre using, your technical knowledge of photography, and your existing experience using image editing software. If youre just shooting a few snaps on your camera phone for social media, you probably dont need a powerful and complicated application like Photoshop or Lightroom. Thats where more streamlined programs like Photoshop Elements or PaintShop Pro are so effective.

But if youre an avid photographer using one of the best mirrorless cameras around, youll definitely want something more in depth, that will allow you to edit and fine tune your images to make them the best they can be. All in one programs like ON1 Photo RAW are perfect for this, offering creative inspiration and professional-quality results.

Budding influencers, meanwhile, or content creator, may be more interested in impact, immediacy and shareability. Programs like Skylum Luminar Neo take AI effects and reality enhancement to a new level for your social channels, while Adobe Lightroom uses cloud storage so you can edit photos on any device.

Pros will obviously need in-depth editing control, advanced image organization and search tools, and professional workflows designed for editing at pace and meeting client demands. This is where Lightroom Classic, Photoshop and Capture One come up trumps.

To help you compare them all, weve compiled and tested a list of the best photo editing software applications around. Weve also included a list of the best free photo editing software below, which are perfect for those on a tight budget or who only edit images occasionally.

Read on to find out which software is best for you.

Best overall

1. Adobe Photoshop Elements 2024

Best overall Adobe Photoshop Elements is our best overall pick for most people, thanks to its underlying power, ease of use, strong tool set and cross-platform compatibility. For serious editing work, though, you'll have to look elsewhere.

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Best for AI effects

Best for AI effects Luminar Neo is a constantly evolving editing platform that uses AI technologies throughout to produce spectacular reality enhancements perfect for social media. Its recently introduced its own generative AI tools.

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Best all in one editor

3. Best all in one editor

Best all in one editor ON1 Photo RAW combines image browsing and cataloging, raw processing, extensive preset image effects and filters, and even image composites via layers and masks. It also uses AI extensively for masking and enhancement.

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Best for pros

Best for pros Photoshop is the ultimate image editing software if you're a professional user. It offers everything you'll need in a reasonably affordable package. It's primarily aimed at pros though, and doesnt offer quick fix effects or image cataloging tools.

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Best for photographers

5. Adobe Lightroom Classic

Best for photographers Lightroom Classic combines professional-level organizing tools with editing features powerful enough that you may not need a dedicated photo editor like Photoshop. Lightroom (CC) is a stripped-down version that uses cloud storage.

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Best Photoshop alternative

6. Best Photoshop alternative

Best Photoshop alternative Affinity Photo is one of the cheapest programs here, but is actually a powerful dedicated photo editing tool on the same professional level as Photoshop. It is also subscription free, coming with a one-off perpetual license.

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Best photo editing software all round

Effective Organizer app manages your photo library

New AI tools bring the latest editing tricks

Guided edits help you learn

Lacks tools for more serious photography

Novice-friendly approach can grate

Photoshop Elements is aimed squarely at beginners and intermediate users, so it wont suit experts and professionals, but it does have more advanced tools in its Expert mode, and can suit the widest range of photographic needs and user levels.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 2024 is the latest version. Adobe updates Elements every year, and this time around its added more of Adobes Sensei AI technology, so that you can now select skies and backgrounds with a single click. You can also create movie Photo Reels from still photos, add animated movement effects to still images, apply one-click fixes for dehazing, background removal, colorizing and more.

Theres so much to explore, however, including no fewer than 62 guided edits in the latest version, that it could all get a little overwhelming, and while Elements is terrific for all sorts of projects, including social media graphics, photo gifts and more, its not really geared towards serious photographers. It does have an Expert mode and it can open and edit raw files, but without the more advanced options in other programs.

But Photoshop Elements is subscription free, and if you shoot videos too, you might want to take a look at the Photoshop Elements + Premiere Elements bundle. Premiere Elements does for video editing and sharing what Elements does for photos.

The best photo editing software for reality-bending effects

Platform: Windows, MacOS, mobile

Excellent sky replacement

Time-saving AI effects

Constant evolution of features

Relies on paid extensions for some tools other editors include as standard

Ever-changing bundles, pricing and offers

Skylum Luminar Neo is the latest version of the Luminar photo editor and has evolved into a modular software platform built around Luminar Neo itself and a growing set of Extensions for additional effects. It is still possible to buy a lifetime license, but the pricing is clearly driving subscriptions.

Billed as the photo editor for photographers who want results not technicalities, Luminar uses a set of Essential, Creative, Portrait and Professional filters (and Extensions, where installed) that can be used individually or together to create anything from simple photo enhancements to spectacular reality bending. The results are often excellent, particularly the AI Sky Replacement, which was the first such tool and is still the best.

Luminars GenErase tool is the first of its new Generative AI options, where its now catching up with Photoshop, and while its not especially quick at removing objects from scenes, the results are often quite remarkable.

Luminar Neo is ideal for photographers and content creators who want to make regular photos spectacular with minimal know-how and effort. Its probably less useful to more technically minded photographers, and Skylums constantly changing deals and offers can be confusing.

The best photo editing software for features and scope

Platform: Mac OS, Windows, iOS, Android

Extensive library of presets and effects filters

Support for layers

Can be used as a standalone app or plug-ins

Optional cloud storage and mobile app

HDR effects are somewhat poor

It does so much theres a lot to take in

Its difficult to describe ON1 Photo RAW without resorting to superlatives. Where other programs in this list specialize in particular areas, such as image cataloging, preset effects and in-depth layers-based editing, ON1 Photo RAW does all of this in a single-window workflow. You can use it as a standalone program or use its component tools as plug-ins for Lightroom, for example, and you can get it for a one-off fee or with a cloud-enable subscription theres even a mobile app with editing tools and its own camera.

Because it does so much, its a little thinner in some areas than specialized software. Its layers, for example, dont offer the same depth as Photoshop or Affinity Photo, and its HDR merge results are not as good as those in rival programs. And while its cataloging tools are very effective (you can simply browse photos if you dont want to import them into the catalog), theyre not in the same league as Lightroom Classics, or Capture Ones.

But ON1 Photo RAWs effects presets are varied and inspiring, its effects filters offer endless permutations and its AI masking is both fast and, more often than not, highly effective. ON1 Photo RAW 2024 brings a new Brilliance AI feature that automatically analyzes and enhances images based on their content.

This new feature and ON1 Photo RAWs preset effects do offer an easy entry point for novices, but theres a lot here to take in, and ON1 Photo RAW is probably best suited to more advanced photo editors who already know the basics.

The best photo editing software for beginners using Windows

Simplified, Photography and Complete modes

Value for money

Windows only

Old-fashioned approach

In many ways, Corel PaintShop Pro is superior to Photoshop Elements, as it's a powerful program, yet is easy for novices to grasp, and has some additional tools, such as 360-degree photo editing. It's also touch-screen compatible.

It does do all the jobs that photographers need up to an enthusiast/intermediate level, while catering for outright beginners too. PaintShop Pro does include AfterShot Lab for processing raw images, and more extensive and powerful tools than Photoshop Elements, but its organizing tools are not especially advanced and its workflow feels old-fashioned. And while the Ultimate bundle offers excellent value with a further 7 different add-ons, including PhotoMirage, Corel Painter Essentials and Highlight Reel amongst others, these are separate tools and utilities rather than an extension to PaintShop Pros own features.

PaintShop Pro does have appeal for beginners, long-time PaintShop Pro users or anyone who likes to get as much as possible for the least outlay, but this Windows only software does feel rather like a surviving relic thats doing just enough to stay current. It carries out traditional photo editing tasks perfectly well, but if youre looking for AI inspiration, in-depth layers and masking or professional-level image cataloging and raw processing, you need to check out the other options on our list.

The best photo editing software for photographers

Powerful photo organization

Seamless non-destructive raw editing

Powerful AI masking tools

Subscription only

Still needs external editors or plug ins for some effects

Adobe Lightroom Classic, as its now called, is the original Lightroom, and is for photographers who like to store, organize and edit photos on their own computers rather than using Adobes cloud storage. Its powerful image organizing tools Lightroom Classic the perfect complement to Adobe Photoshop and, indeed, both are included with Adobes good-value Photography Plan.

To work with photos in Lightroom Classic you first have to import them into a catalog, though they can stay in their current location you dont need to copy or move them. Once imported, you can apply practically every kind of photographic enhancement and adjustment though you will still need a regular photo editor like Photoshop to combine images in layers or create more advanced effects.

Lightrooms editing tools are terrific and its new AI subject masking tools make local adjustments and enhancements a breeze. Its non-destructive approach means you can go back at any time to change the settings, and you can even create multiple Virtual Copies of the same photo but with different adjustments.

Adobe Lightroom Classic now has the same status amongst expert and professional photographers as Photoshop itself, and is probably the default photo organizing and editing software for serious users.

The best photo editing software for mobile photography

Platform: Windows, MacOS, iOS, Android

Cloud-based storage access all your photos on any device

Slick and streamlined interface

Lots of help for all user levels

Needs 1Tb of Creative Cloud storage at around $10/month

No support for external editors except Photoshop

You have to be very careful when talking about Adobe Lightroom because there are actually two versions. Lightroom Classic is the regular version for photos stored on your computer, while Lightroom (previously called Lightroom CC) is the web-first version, where all your photos are stored on Adobes servers. The advantage of this is that you can view, organize and edit your photos anywhere, on any device.

Lightroom has the same editing tools as Lightroom Classic, but in a stripped-back interface thats a lot cleaner and more modern. Its image organizing tools are not as powerful, though, so you can create albums but not smart albums.

Perhaps its two biggest drawbacks are that you really need an Adobe subscription plan that includes 1TB cloud storage, and that you can only use Photoshop as an external editor.

That said, the fact that you can use it on desktop computers, mobile devices and even using a web browser makes Lightroom the perfect tool for photographers on the move. The mobile app even includes a camera with powerful manual shooting controls. Lightrooms Discover panel brings expertise and inspiration from a huge Lightroom community, and there are plenty of beginner resources to get you started.

The best photo editing software for professionals

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Best photo editing software in 2024 - Tom's Guide

BYD will upgrade the software for the recalled vehicles free of charge via OTA to ensure that the reversing image is displayed properly.

(BYD Seagull. Image credit: CnEVPost)

BYD (HKG: 1211, OTCMKTS: BYDDY) is recalling some of its electric vehicles (EVs) in China over a software issue, the first time it has done so in the last few years.

BYD will recall 16,666 Seagull EVs manufactured between April 7, 2023 and May 31, 2023, starting May 20, according to an announcement on China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) website today.

Due to a software issue with the camera driver in the multimedia display assembly, some of the vehicles within the recall may experience a problem where the reverse screen cannot be displayed, according to the announcement.

This may affect the driver's field of vision when backing up, increasing the risk of a vehicle collision and posing a safety hazard, the announcement said.

BYD will upgrade the software for free for the vehicles within the recall through OTA (over the air) technology to ensure that the reversing image is displayed properly.

For vehicles that cannot implement the recall through OTA, BYD will contact users and upgrade the software for the vehicles free of charge to eliminate potential safety hazards, the announcement said.

The Seagull is by far the least expensive model under the BYD umbrella and one of the highest selling BYD models. The model is known as the Dolphin Mini in some overseas markets.

The model initially went on sale in China on April 26, 2023, when it had a starting price of RMB 73,800 ($10,200).

On March 6 this year, BYD launched the Seagull's Glory Edition with a starting price of RMB 69,800, which is RMB 4,000, or 5.42 percent, lower than its predecessor.

Currently, the Seagull Glory Edition is offered in three variant, like its predecessor, with starting prices of RMB 69,800, RMB 75,800 and RMB 85,800 respectively.

The battery electric vehicle (BEV) remains unchanged in terms of key specifications, with length, width and height remaining at 3,780 mm, 1,715 mm and 1,540 mm respectively, and a wheelbase of 2,500 mm.

The model continues to be powered by a blade battery based on lithium iron phosphate chemistry, with the two least expensive versions having a pack capacity of 30.08 kWh and the most expensive 38.88 kWh, as before.

These three versions have a CLTC range of 305 kilometers, 305 kilometers, and 405 kilometers, respectively.

The Seagull is one of BYD's best-selling models, selling 280,217 units in 2023, contributing 9 percent of BYD's annual sales of 3,024,417, according to data compiled by CnEVPost.

BYD sold 302,459 new energy vehicles (NEVs) in March, with the Seagull selling 34,830 units, the third-highest selling BYD model.

By the end of March, the Seagull had sold a total of 1,232,450 units, according to data compiled by CnEVPost.

($1 = RMB 7.2397)

Tesla recalls 8,700 cars in China as reverse camera image may fail to display

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BYD recalls 16666 Seagull EVs in China due to software issue that may prevent reverse camera image from displaying - CnEVPost

George Robertson was at Natos Brussels headquarters when the second plane hit. By 9.30pm on 11 September 2001 he would become the first, and only, Nato secretary general to trigger Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which states an attack on one is an attack on all. But his first thought after watching 9/11 unfold was that the Nato headquarters lay beneath the flight path to Brussels Airport. All non-essential staff were sent home.

Then, his mind turned to the perpetrators. He first suspected US domestic terrorists; the Oklahoma bombing had happened six years before. You began to realise that if it was an external source, then this was huge, he said when we spoke in his Westminster office. America had been attacked for the first time since Pearl Harbor. Here, in many ways, the world had changed.

His staff drafted a statement while he phoned the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, and the national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, to discuss triggering Article 5. Robertson said they were initially sceptical about whether it would work. It was high-risk because if you do it and it fails it has the opposite effect.

At 3.30pm he put the plan to the Nato council. If somebody had said, No, we dont like the wording or we dont want to do it today, put it off till tomorrow, then it would have been pretty disastrous. But eventually, I persuaded everybody. We got it [finalised] by half past nine. Everybody in the morning thought it was their idea but that was fine.

Robertson entered parliament as a Labour MP at the 1978 Hamilton by-election. He became a stalwart of the partys right: Pro-American, pro-Europe, pro-mixed economy and willing to fight for it. Robertson remembers Tony Blair later saying he was New Labour before we even thought about it. He was appointed shadow Scottish secretary in 1993. His remark that Scottish devolution would kill the SNP stone dead has been ridiculed since: the party has been in government since 2007.

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Im yet to be proved wrong, Robertson told me. The SNP is in dire trouble at the moment, largely because of their inability to use the instruments of devolution. And in many ways, I thought that is exactly what would happen I may well be proved right. He held the Scottish brief until the 1997 election, when he took charge of the Ministry of Defence. I had a staff of three and a half people; 24 hours later, I had 383,000 people, and a navy and an air force, he chuckled.

Robertson then joined Nato in 1999 as secretary general, leaving in 2003. He is still active in the party he joined the Labour Middle East Council in March and now champions causes such as Ukraine and Kosovo in the Lords, which explains his office decor. A painting on the walls shows long, slender poppies growing out of the soil, beneath which lies a bed of skulls. He was presented with it at a school in Kosovo, where he said Serbian paramilitaries had taken 16 children and burned them alive in a house during the 1998-99 Kosovo War. In 1999 Blair, alongside an initially reluctant Bill Clinton, led the Nato bombardment of Serbian forces to prevent such atrocities. Are Kosovar children named after Robertson, as they are after Blair? No, but I was still treated as a hero, he said.

He gestured to a photo on a nearby shelf. That was my second meeting with Putin, he said. The two men are sitting on ornate, pink and red armchairs. The Russian presidents chin is turned down, his eyes raised in a mischievous glance. Robertson stares straight at the camera with a grave expression. What was Putin like? Serious, but he had a sense of humour then. He doesnt seem to have it any more. Im one of a few people still alive who can tell funny stories about what Putin said. There was one occasion when I gave him an English-language book [as a gift]. It was an antiquarian book, Gossip in the Tsars Court. Putin told him: Thanks for the book. I practise my English by reading out loud so my dog is now a perfect English speaker.

Robertson was hopeful in the early 2000s that Putin might lead Russia away from Boris Yeltsins drunkard anarchy and towards a reliable friendship with the West. [Putin] said at one of the meetings: I want Russia to be a part of western Europe when are you going to invite Russia to join Nato? And why didnt Nato? We dont ask countries to join; they apply.

There was a bit of a window [for Russia to join the West], he admitted. But he wanted not equality around the Nato-Russia council table; he wanted it with the United States He started thinking that Russia needed to be admired and respected. And feared. So the opportunity was gone, but largely due to him.

When pressed about whether Nato and the West could have done more to welcome Russia into the international community, he said: Its difficult to do the counterfactual, and I dont know that [the then US vice-president Dick] Cheney and [US defence secretary Donald] Rumsfeld were terribly interested in getting closer to Russia. [George W] Bush was but I think by that time Putin was beginning to get a grandiose notion about [how] he wanted Russia to be seen.

Robertsons eyes turned towards a picture of him and Bush on his shelf. He remembers Bush as interesting he listened to you. Not every head of state, or head of government, listens his favourite question was: What do you mean by that?

Whereas Putin, he went on, was thin-skinned, so when Obama said that Russia was just another regional power [in 2014], that would cut through. But Robertson views the UK and USs failure to punish the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad for using chemical weapons in 2014 as the moment Putin realised he could act with impunity. [It was] the most extraordinary thing to take place: a prime minister recalls the House of Commons in order to get backing for a military action and gets defeated. And not only that, [he] then stays on, he said. In the Kremlin, that must have been a bright green light.

One theory, propounded by realists such as the academic John Mearsheimer, is that Nato expansion in eastern Europe was the reason that Putin invaded Ukraine. Robertson dismissed the idea. I met Putin nine times during my time at Nato. He never mentioned Nato enlargement once. What Robertson said next was interesting: Hes not bothered about Nato, or Nato enlargement. Hes bothered by the European Union. The whole Ukraine crisis started with the offer of an [EU] accession agreement to Ukraine [in 2014].

Putin fears countries on Russias border being fundamentally and permanently changed by EU accession. Every aspect [of society is affected] they woke up very late to it I dont think they ever fully understood the EU, Robertson said, adding the caveat that the EU was not at fault because accession was what Ukraine, as a sovereign nation, wanted.

Whatever the wars cause, isnt the challenge facing Ukraine insurmountable? 15 February 1989: 100,000 Soviet troops left Afghanistan, Robertson replied. No face-saving. No off-ramp. Still, that withdrawal came ten years after the Soviet Union invaded, in 1979.

Despite Robertsons knowledge of the Ukraine conflict, he does not believe we are on the brink of total war. People who go around saying the world is more dangerous than ever thats absurd. There are a lot of dangers in the future if Putin wins in Ukraine, but at the moment there is no actual danger to us.

In terms of a physical attack, Im probably the only person who ever will [trigger Article 5] because nobodys going to cross that line, he said. Nato is stronger than it ever was before. A billion people and a trillion dollars. Almost a billion people sleep easily in their beds at night because of Nato and Article 5.

[See also: John Healey: Britain has a lot to learn from Ukraines resilience]

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George Robertson: Why Russia fears the European Union - The New Statesman

Meta, the American tech giant, is being investigated by European Union regulators for the spread of disinformation on its platforms Facebook and Instagram, poor oversight of deceptive advertisements and potential failure to protect the integrity of elections.

On Tuesday, European Union officials said Meta did not appear to have sufficient safeguards in place to combat misleading advertisements, deepfakes and other deceptive information that is being maliciously spread online to amplify political divisions and influence elections.

The announcement appears intended to pressure Meta to do more ahead of elections across all 27 E.U. countries this summer to elect new members of the European Parliament. The vote, from June 6-9, is being closely watched for signs of foreign interference, particularly from Russia, which has sought to weaken European support for the war in Ukraine.

The Meta investigation shows how European regulators are taking a more aggressive approach to regulate online content than authorities in the United States, where free speech and other legal protections limit the role the government can play in policing online discourse. An E.U. law that took effect last year, the Digital Services Act, gives regulators broad authority to rein in Meta and other large online platforms over the content shared through their services.

Big digital platforms must live up to their obligations to put enough resources into this, and todays decision shows that we are serious about compliance, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, the European Unions executive branch, said in a statement.

European officials said Meta must address weaknesses in its content moderation system to better identify malicious actors and take down concerning content. They noted a recent report by AI Forensics, a civil society group in Europe, that identified a Russian information network that was purchasing misleading ads through fake accounts and other methods.

European officials said Meta appeared to be diminishing the visibility of political content with potential harmful effects on the electoral process. Authorities said the company must provide more transparency about how such content spread.

Meta defended its policies and said it acted aggressively to identify and block disinformation from spreading.

We have a well-established process for identifying and mitigating risks on our platforms, the company said in a statement. We look forward to continuing our cooperation with the European Commission and providing them with further details of this work.

The Meta inquiry is the latest announced by E.U. regulators under the Digital Services Act. The content moderation practices of TikTok and X, formerly known as Twitter, are also being investigated.

The European Commission can fine companies up to 6 percent of global revenue under the digital law. Regulators can also raid a companys offices, interview company officials and gather other evidence. The commission did not say when the investigation will end.

Social media platforms are under immense pressure this year as billions of people around the world vote in elections. The techniques used to spread false information and conspiracies have grown more sophisticated including new artificial intelligence tools to produce text, videos and audio but many companies have scaled back their election and content moderation teams.

European officials noted that Meta had reduced access to its CrowdTangle service, which governments, civil society groups and journalists use to monitor disinformation on its platforms.

Read the rest here:
Meta Faces EU Investigation Over Election Disinformation - The New York Times

In ancient Greece poetry was regulated so as to prevent excessive passions from corrupting the social order. Rhyming couplets have long since lost their ability to sway politics. And yet. On April 29th a small crowd in Aachen, a German town near the Belgian border, turned out for ein Poetry Slam in which amateur bards were asked to riff on, of all things, the European Union. A few dozen mostly grey-haired types, including Charlemagne (your columnist, not the medieval emperor who once ruled from the city), listened tactfully as a trio of youngsters rhymed one elongated compound word with another. Some light rapping was attempted. A local TikTok political influencernot a profession Plato would have recognisedserved as host and ensured the social order was indeed not corrupted (the risk seemed slim in retrospect). The lyrical battle having been settled amicably, the audience was treated to another Greek civic art. Streamed from down the road in Maastricht, eight politicians from Denmark, Luxembourg and beyond engaged in an old-fashioned contest of rhetoric ahead of the upcoming European elections on June 6th-9th.

To latter-day Aristotles, this half-filled theatre on a Monday night was a sign of another phenomenon with Greek roots: the emergence of a European demos, or common political culture. For centuries in Germany and beyond, civic life has been the stuff of municipalities, provinces or nation-states. Yet in Europe power is increasingly wielded by EU institutions in Brussels. Whether this centralising arrangement can be anything more than a souped-up intergovernmental body, a sort of regional UN on steroids, depends in part on whether citizens of countries across the EU viscerally feel they belong to the same polity. From such a unified demos might emerge a unified European democracy.

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Europeans lack visceral attachment to the EU. Does it matter? - The Economist