Article goes over
four of the main photoediting softwares & goes into detail explaining why each is great in its own way.
There are multiple photo
editing software programs to chose from. Some are free of charge and can be
downloaded online while others are bordering on expensive. The ones you can
download online usually offer the basic tools and are extremely easy to use,
whereas the ones you purchase provide you with hundreds of complex options and
require lots of training to utilize them well. So it isn’t always easy to
decide what to choose if you are just a newbie in the photo editing world. This
is a breakdown of the most popular options:
Adobe Photoshop:
This is the most sophisticated and widely used software available on the
market. The number of tools available is massive and if you know how to use
them you will be able to achieve spectacular results. The two downfalls of this
software are the price (which is in the hundreds) and the complexity, which
means that if you want to be able to use this software effectively you do need
to dedicate time to learning the ins and outs.
Adobe Photoshop Elements:
This is simplified version of Photoshop and if you are only starting your photo
editing journey than it is all you need. The great thing about Elements is that
this software is available free of charge. It is often included with your
camera when you purchase it, and if not than you can download it from the
internet. The only downside of this software is that it provides a limited
number of tools, so when you become more familiar with photo editing you might
want to apply some other techniques which are not achievable with Elements.
Corel:
This is the biggest competition for Photoshop. Price wise and functionality
wise it is similar to Photoshop, so it is simply a matter of personal
preference whether you go for Corel or Photoshop. I personally have both and I
find there are some techniques I prefer to do on Corel while others are easier
on Photoshop. Overall Corel seems simpler to operate while offering almost all
the same tools and techniques that Photoshop has. That being said this is still a complex
software that will require some training in order for you to fully appreciate
it.
Piscasa:
If you are just an amateur photographer using point and shoot camera and don't
really want to spend your time editing every single photo with complicated
software than Picasa is the way to go. This free editing software available
from Google. To use it you don't really need to know much about photo editing,
as all the functions in Picasa come with auto mode, which basically means that
you click on one button and the software fixes the photo for you. It is
extremely easy to use and probably the best place to start your photo editing
education.
If you are just starting
out then I would recommend going one of the two free ways mentioned just to get
a feel for photo editing. Photofilter & Photoscape are two more free photo
editing softwares that may offer some more tools than Elements or Piscasa. Once
you have been using one of the free programs for awhile and are comfortable
with it then I would recommend moving on up to Corel or Photoshop. I can’t
really tell you which program is the best as it is based on personal
preference. I hope this little article has helped you make the right decision
on which photo editing software to start with.
