The three photo editing software programs we have chosen all offer a slightly different feature set to suit your particular needs.
Photo Editing Software Programs
As we have mentioned on many of the pages of this site, photo editing software can be used to correct or enhance many of your "questionable" shots.
In recommending any specific photo editing software we looked for the following characteristics:
In recommending any specific photo editing software we looked for the following characteristics:
We narrowed it down to three photo editing software packages that we feel confident in recommending.
They are most suited to the person starting out in photography because of their ease of use but are fully featured so that as you grow as a photographer they will continue to serve your needs.
Just remember, the camera is a tool, it does not take photos...you do. Similarly, photo editing software is also only a tool.
They are most suited to the person starting out in photography because of their ease of use but are fully featured so that as you grow as a photographer they will continue to serve your needs.
Just remember, the camera is a tool, it does not take photos...you do. Similarly, photo editing software is also only a tool.
At number one we have Adobe Photoshop Elements 8. Excellent image editing, organization and control offering an upgrade path to Adobe Photoshop should you decide to do that.
At number two Corel Paint Shop Pro X2. Similarly good image editing and organisation with the added advantage of powerful graphics features.
Finally at number three Corel Digital Studio for good basic image editing and organization at a bargain price fully integrated with a simple video editing module and more..
| • | Supported Image File Formats. The photo editing software had to support the most common camera file formats as a minimum but the ability to handle some of the more unusual ones was a bonus. |
| • | Ease of Use. Not only easy to install but easy to learn. As with any technical field there is no getting around learning new terminology and image editing software is no exception. We were looking for software that was as intuitive as possible for the new user but also not so simple that it excluded a powerful feature set. |
| • | Stability. Many people think of "stable" as a feature of the software showing an ability to run on a wide range of computers. That is one way of looking at it and it is one aspect of the photo editing software we took into consideration. However we extended the definition of stable to also include whether or not the software has been around for a long time and whether it WILL be around for a lot longer. |
| • | Editing. Any photo editing software we chose must have a good feature set to allow you to improve on any shots you have taken (within reason!) and allow you to manipulate your images in a wide variety of ways. |
| • | Organization. This one is VITAL. If you are going to start following our advice a take LOTS of shots then pretty soon you are going to have a sea of photos on your computer. Unless you get organized from the beginning very soon you will have no idea what you have and where it is! Any good photo editing software must have a good module within it to allow you to conveniently and logically organize your photos. |
| • | Sharing your Photos. We looked for image editing software that easily (preferably wizard driven) allowed you to adjust the file size, resolution or image size of your photos for the particular sharing method you use. Whether you are going to send them to friends by email, transfer over mobile devices or post to online galleries etc. |
| • | Output. In addition to the controls offered under the label of sharing we were also looking for software that allowed you good control over how you saved your images as well as intuitive controls for home printing. This is quite an important point especially given the wide variation that can occur between what you see on a computer screen and what you get when you use a printer. |
| • | Help, Tutorials and Support. We were looking here for good documentation of the program, online support from the developer including available tutorials as well as active user forums for tips and advice from other users. |
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