2024-01-14 19:06:07
After filling out several memory cards during the holidays or your vacation, you finally take the time to look at the photos you have taken, but they honestly deserve some improvement. Discover the best software for PC to beautify them without distorting them.
Cropping, sharpness, contrast, backlighting or even changing colors, many photo editing software sometimes allow you to work miracles on photos that would normally be thrown into the trash. Please note, this is not regarding adding little smileys or applying a filter to give you a cat’s face, but rather regarding embellishment. A quick overview of our top 5 of the best software to improve your photos on PC, with a little bonus as a gift.
Darktable, develop, sort, organize and edit your photos
Darktable is a powerful, free and open source photo editing software, which has the particularity of being involved in all stages of management and processing of your photos. From the Light Table you can organize, sort and catalog images from several hundred digital camera models, while in the Darkroom you have all the advanced tools to improve your shots.
From simple cropping to changing RGB value, adjusting levels, contrast, colors in mode spot mapping, exposure, noise reduction and tonal equalizer, Darktable can change it all. You benefit from numerous settings in automatic or manual mode, as well as numerous correction profiles depending on the lens used.
And if you need one last argument to decide to test this completely free software (and without ), it can be downloaded and installed on Windows or Linux PCs, but also on Macs.
RawTherapee, open source software with a professional feel
Less popular than Darktable, RawTherapee also offers advanced photo editing features without the user having to pay a cent. It’s free, open source and compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux. It supports a large number of raw image formats (RAW) and offers a relatively easy to use interface. In addition, it includes a library to manage all of your photos and simplify searching with filters, tags, labels and some cropping or flipping options (without having to activate the editor).
The great strength of Rawtherapee lies, of course, in the numerous editing tools available to you. Beginners, enthusiasts and professionals will find basic tools for white balance, sharpness improvement, noise reduction, as well as more advanced settings for correcting chromatic aberrations, managing color channels, removing mist and many others. The settings are very easy to adjust and it is possible to save profiles so that the same corrections can be applied to several photos in just a few clicks.
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, the reference
Lightroom is one of Adobe’s flagship products following Photoshop, prized for its versatility and ease of use. It provides powerful image development and organization tools, with efficient RAW file management.
The smart sync feature helps blend adjustments across multiple photos, simplifying workflow. Creating collections and folders makes organization easy, while advanced search features make it simple to quickly locate images. Automatic optical correction and lens profiles ensure optimal sharpness and precision.
Additionally, the Guided Correction feature, making it easy to straighten horizontal and vertical lines, and the exceptional noise reduction tool, provide distinct benefits, cementing Lightroom’s position as a preferred choice for photography enthusiasts. You will still need to go through a paid subscription to take advantage of the software, but you will have the advantage of being able to also take advantage of it on your Android and iOS mobile devices. Photographers using Linux, however, will have to turn to other software.
DxO PhotoLab, flexibility and intuitiveness
Available for Windows and Mac only, DxO PhotoLab is not without its advantages either. The interface is very intuitive, translated into French and the settings can be applied in the form of presets (profiles) already saved and configured, or individually automatically or manually. This flexibility and intuitiveness are real assets since all photographers, beginners and experts alike, can easily find their way around and benefit from the many advanced settings available.
DxO PhotoLab offers essential adjustments such as exposure, saturation, contrast, brightness, white balance and color management. Advanced features include noise reduction, unwanted element correction, and geometry and local tools, such as horizon correction and applying U Point effect masks. With this technology, you will be able to apply an effect mask on a selective area of your photo, such as blurring the background, increasing the brightness or contrast on a face, etc.
You have 30 days to test all of the features of DxO PhotoLab in order to form an opinion before purchasing a license.
Luminar Neo, the AI at the service of photographers
Luminar Neo is innovative software that harnesses the power of AI to revolutionize the way photographers edit their photos. One of the main features of Luminar Neo is its computer-assisted editing capability. The software uses advanced algorithms to analyze each photo and make intelligent adjustments to improve its overall quality.
From removing spots to enhancing colors, Luminar Neo can effortlessly transform your images into stunning works of art. What sets this software apart is its ability to maintain the natural look of the photo while making subtle enhancements to bring out the best in every detail.
Luminar Neo also offers an intuitive and clean interface, making it easy to navigate and use for photographers of all levels. The software offers a range of tools and presets that allow you to fine-tune the editing process according to your preferences. Whether you want to sharpen a landscape photo or bring out the intricate details of a portrait, Luminar Neo is here to help.
Also available for Windows and Mac, you can test the trial version before paying a license or subscription to continue to benefit from all the features of Luminar Neo.
Bonus: Topaz Photo AI
Topaz Photo AI would also have deserved to be part of our top 5, but it lacks the photo manager compared to the others, which offer an intuitive system to easily organize, classify and find your photos.
On the other hand, in terms of image processing functionalities, this software meets all the needs of photographers, and even more, by offering additional functionalities. In addition to benefiting from an Autopilot function, which automatically adjusts certain parameters, you will also have the Recover Faces tool which allows you to automatically detect and improve one or more faces on a single photo, the “Denoise” tool. which removes the noise, or the enlargement tool (upscale) without loss of quality.
And for all this, Topaz Photo AI uses artificial intelligence, which analyzes, duplicates pixels and reworks them in order to refine details, increase resolution and improve many aspects of your photo. It can correct objective lens aberrations, remove unwanted elements, smooth imperfections, reduce noise and improve sharpness with incredible precision.
You can download Topaz Photo AI on Windows and Mac systems, and test the demo version, which allows you to experience the full functionality, but does not allow saving changes without a license.
Of course, there are many other photo editing software programs worth checking out, but will they meet your needs? Will they be compatible with your operating system? Would you also like a mobile version? While waiting to determine your selection criteria, for all the software in this selection, it is possible to test them in order to form an opinion.
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