What is the easiest photo editing software for beginners

Whether you merely shoot with your smartphone or you're a professional photographer working in a studio, you need software to organize, optimize, and edit your digital photos. Camera technology is improving at a tremendous rate: Today's smartphones are more powerful than the point-and-shoots of just a few years ago, and pro-level cameras have passed the 150-megapixel mark. Photo editing software is keeping up with ever-more-powerful features. People who shoot with either a five-camera Galaxy S21 Ultra or an advanced digital SLR both care how their photos look. To get the best results, you need to import the shots into your PC, organize them, pick the best ones, adjust them, and print or share them online.

Here we present the best choices in photo editing software to suit every photographer.

More About Our Picks

Adobe Lightroom Classic

Best for Professional Photo Workflow

Bottom Line:

Adobe's Photoshop Lightroom remains the gold standard in pro photo workflow software. It's a complete package, with top-notch organization tools, state-of-the-art adjustments, and all the output and printing options you could want.

Pros

• Excellent photo management and organization
• Camera and lens-based corrections
• Brush and gradient adjustments with color and luminance masking
• Face detection and tagging
• Plug-in support
• Connected mobile apps

Cons

• Initial raw conversion is slightly more detailed in some competing products
• Requires subscription

Why We Picked It

Lightroom Classic is the top workflow software choice of working professional photographers. It shines at letting you import and organize your photo collection, and offers the best tools for correcting and enhancing photos in a raw file process. Lightroom Classic includes features not found in the non-Classic version of Lightroom like printing, soft-proofing, tethered shooting, and plug-in support. It lacks, however, features amateurs and hobbyists can benefit from, like basic video tools and lots of learning content.

Who It's For

Lightroom Classic is primarily for professional photographers. When pros talk about Lightroom, they invariably mean Lightroom Classic. It's also only for those willing to pay a recurring subscription fee. People who refuse to pay a subscription can choose alternatives including Capture One and DxO PhotoLab, but that means doing without Adobe's cutting-edge imaging technology.

Read Our Adobe Lightroom Classic Review

Adobe Photoshop

Best for Detailed Image Manipulation and Design

Bottom Line:

Photoshop is the most advanced image editing software bar none. It's suited to serious photographers and designers alike, for things like layer editing, working with raw camera files, drawing, typography, and collaboration. Though it's now subscription-only, the company frequently updates the software with cutting-edge features like its new AI Neural Filters.

Pros

• Vast set of photo correction and manipulation tools
• Slick interface with a lot of guidance
• Tools for mobile and web design
• Rich set of drawing and typography tools
• Synced Libraries and Cloud Documents

Cons

• No perpetual license option
• Premium assets aren't cheap
• Interface can be overwhelming at times

Why We Picked It

Photoshop is the most powerful image-editing software on the planet. It's often where Adobe puts its latest state-of-the-art features first, including the new AI-powered Neural filters. Photoshop includes the complex layer, masking, text and shape tools, gradients, and filters that professional designers and photographers need. You can also bolster it with a wealth of third-party plug-ins for even more power.

Who It's For

Photoshop is for professionals and serious image editing enthusiasts. It includes a massive number of tools, but its interface is has gotten more manageable in recent versions, with things like a clear Home screen to get you started, hover-over help tips, and a persistent search box at the top. As with other Adobe offerings, however, it requires you to pay a subscription fee, otherwise you can't continue using it.

Read Our Adobe Photoshop Review

Adobe Photoshop Elements

Best for Photo Hobbyists

Bottom Line:

Adobe Photoshop Elements is an excellent option for photo hobbyists who don't want to pay a subscription or learn complex Photoshop techniques.

Pros

• Many powerful image-manipulation tools
• Strong face-tagging and geotagging capabilities
• Excellent image output options
• Powerful search
• Helpful guidance for advanced techniques

Cons

• No chromatic aberration correction tool
• No lens geometry profiles
• Too few social sharing options
• No local help system

Why We Picked It

Photoshop Elements includes many features found in Photoshop proper, but it wraps that functionality in a friendlier interface that emphasizes hand-holding. It also dispenses with the subscription requirement. The program's Guided Edits ease the process of creating stunning effects with their photos. You still get layers, filters, and a smart Organizer utility to keep track of your photo collection.

Who It's For

Adobe describes the audience for Elements as "memory keepers," those members of the family who want to create appealing keepsakes from family occasions or vacations. It nevertheless lets you see the processes behind creating impactful Photoshop effects. Elements is a good choice for those who can't abide paying a subscription, because it's available for a reasonable one-time purchase price.

Read Our Adobe Photoshop Elements Review

Adobe Lightroom

Best for Cloud-Synced Easy But Powerful Photo Workflow

Bottom Line:

Photography enthusiasts will appreciate this updated version of Adobe Lightroom. This professional photo workflow program is slick and nimble, and it now boasts most of Lightroom Classic's photo-editing tools.

Pros

• Simple, clear interface
• Syncs photos to cloud storage for access on other devices
• Light, color, and detail adjustments equal to Lightroom Classic's
• Powerful raw profiles and filters
• Strong community features

Cons

• Expensive
• No local printing or plug-in support
• Limited sharing
• Forces you to upload all photos to its cloud storage

Why We Picked It

Lightroom is a more consumer-targeted version of Adobe's storied Lightroom Classic photo workflow software. Its simpler interface and cloud storage for all photos should appeal to that group. But don't think it's not chock-full of powerful image editing tools—at this point matching those in Classic. With great face-organizing tools, cloud syncing, and AI search, Lightroom is one of the best apps for finding any photo in your collection from any device, and its rich set of learning and community features are a boon to any budding photo editor.

Who It's For

Lightroom appeals to serious amateurs who don't need printing, plug-ins, or tethered shooting capability. It's for those who don't mind paying a recurring subscription fee and like having all their photos backed up to the cloud for anywhere-access.

Read Our Adobe Lightroom Review

DxO PhotoLab

Best for Noise Reduction and Camera Profile Corrections

Bottom Line:

Though it's still not a complete photo workflow solution, DxO PhotoLab can deliver image corrections beyond what's possible in other software.

Pros

• Clear interface
• Best-in-class noise reduction
• Excellent autocorrection based on camera and lens characteristics
• Haze remover
• Geometry corrections
• Powerful local adjustments

Cons

• Few workflow tools
• Noise-reduction is a bit slow

Why We Picked It

DxO can automatically make your photos look better, but nevertheless offers a deep quiver of powerful photo correction and editing tools. The software developer, which branched out from the well-known camera equipment testing company, pioneered several technologies that went on to be used by other software products. Lens-profile-based corrections, geometry fixes, and deep, time-consuming noise reduction have all shown up later in competitors. DxO's DeepPrime noise reduction is unmatched and can make unusable photos usable—PhotoLab is worth it for that alone. It's also excellent at removing chromatic aberration and automatically fixing lighting with its SmartLighting tool. Finally, its U Point technology offers unmatched control over local adjustments.

Who It's For

DxO PhotoLab is mostly for professionals who need to get the best out of their raw camera files, but engaged amateurs may find it appealing, too. If you just need the noise reduction and lens corrections, the company's more limited (and less-expensive) DxO PureRAW product will be of interest. Both can be used as Photoshop and Lightroom plug-ins, as well. PhotoLab is not for those looking for a cheap solution, but its pricing is one-time perpetual, not subscription.

Read Our DxO PhotoLab Review

Corel PaintShop Pro

Best for Budget-Conscious Image Editors

Bottom Line:

Corel continues to add new photo editing possibilities to its PaintShop Pro software, making it a worthy Photoshop alternative on Windows for a budget-conscious, one-time price.

Pros

• Photoshop-like features at a lower price
• Powerful effects and editing tools
• Extensive help and tutorials
• Good assortment of vector drawing tools
• Automatic noise removal

Cons

• Inconsistent interface
• No macOS version
• Some operations slow

Why We Picked It

This longtime Photoshop competitor offers enough tools for many designers and photographers who don't want to make unending subscription payments to Adobe. Corel even updates PaintShop Pro with advanced AI tools like Portrait Mode, Background Replacement, Style Transfer. Designers can work with text, brushes, patterns, and painting tools on both raster and vector images, and hobbyists get a ton of creative effects and filters. Raw camera file support, mask selection, scripts, tone curves, layers, and plug-in support are at your disposal, just like in Photoshop.

Who It's For

PaintShop Pro is for designers and photographers, both amateur and professional, who need deep image editing capabilities including layers, raw camera file support, masking, brushes, text, and textures. You even get some AI fixes and effects. It's great for those who don't want to pay a subscription and don't need Adobe's collaboration and other proprietary tools.

Read Our Corel PaintShop Pro Review

CyberLink PhotoDirector

Best for Combined Workflow, Editiing, and Effects

Bottom Line:

This photo workflow and editing program offers a smooth interface and powerful tools. New denoise, content-aware, and anime tools and effects are among the many additions in the latest version.

Pros

• Friendly yet powerful interface
• Many advanced effects
• Body shaper and other impressive editing tools
• Extensive layer support
• Painterly AI styles
• Tethered shooting

Cons

• No geotag maps
• Weak chromatic aberration and noise corrections
• Not enough lens profiles
• Some menus occasionally slow

Why We Picked It

CyberLink makes some of the most powerful and innovative video editing software around, and the company has applied its deep imaging expertise to photo editing in PhotoDirector. The software combines Lightroom-like organization and workflow tools with Photoshop-like layer image editing in a clear, intuitive interface. The company is constantly producing new effects and templates. The software is available as either single purchase or subscription, which adds online storage and a steady stream of updated tools and content.

Who It's For

PhotoDirector is for enthusiasts who want an all-in-one workflow and image editing application. Its also a good choice for those who don't want a recurring subscription fee, though a subscription is an option, which gets users frequent updates and lots of creative content, along with online photo storage. The subscription option also gets users access to stock images from Getty.

Read Our CyberLink PhotoDirector Review

Phase One Capture One Pro

Best for Raw File Rendering

Bottom Line:

Capture One offers professional and prosumer photographers excellent detail from raw camera files, as well as local adjustment, advanced color, and layer tools, but it still trails in photo-organizing features.

Pros

• Superb raw file conversion quality
• Pleasing, improved interface
• Fast import
• Excellent photo adjustment tools

Cons

• Interface can get complex, especially with layers
• No face recognition
• Weak for online sharing
• Expensive

Why We Picked It

Capture One gives Adobe Lightroom Classic the most competition among pro photographers. It is super-powerful professional photo workflow software. It does the best job of interpreting a camera's raw image data to deliver a sharp, accurate photo among software we've tested. It also includes an abundance of adjustments and local edit tools, as well as layers and advanced color grading. A unique Speed Edit feature lets you get to frequently needed tools with a keypress. Capture One still trails Lightroom in some workflow abilities, however, such as face recognition and geotagging.

Who It's For

Capture One is squarely aimed at pro photographers, and its interface could be intimidating to those not willing to put in the time to learn it. It has strong support for tethered shooting, collaboration features, and a new iPad app lets you edit on the go. The program is priced like a professional application, too, available as both a subscription (costing more than Lightroom's) and a one-time purchase.

Read Our Phase One Capture One Pro Review

Skylum Luminar

Best for Clean Interface, Filters, and Unique Fixes

Bottom Line:

Luminar Neo has unique AI photo tools like power line and dust removal as well as a vast selection of effects and adjustments, all in a clear, pleasing interface. Workflow and organization are weak points, however.

Pros

• Unique AI photo-fixing tools
• Pleasing, clear interface
• Lots of adjustment tools, filters, and effects

Cons

• Some operations slow
• No face recognition or keyword tagging

Why We Picked It

Skylum Luminar is a well-designed photo application (created by a brilliant technology team in Ukraine) with unique, innovative tools, like AI-based power-line removal. Another, AI Relight, lets you change lighting for different parts of a photo, based on distance from the camera. Luminar also excels at fixing drab skies in your shots, as its name suggests. The interface is clear and simple.

Who It's For

Anyone who wants to have a lot of fun enhancing their photos should check out the easy-to-use Luminar, whether pro or amateur. The program is a good value for a reasonable one-time price. Lightroom and Photoshop users can also use Luminar as a plug-in for their main photo application.

Read Our Skylum Luminar Review

Which Photo Software Should You Use?

Novice photographers with a smartphone want different software from those shooting with a $52,000 Phase One IQ4 in a studio. We've included all levels of PC software here, and reading the linked reviews will make it clear which is for you. Nothing says that pros can't occasionally use an entry-level application or that a prosumer won't be running Photoshop, the most powerful image editor around. The issue is that, in general, users at each of these levels will be more comfortable with the products intended for them.

How to Choose Photo Editing Software

Note that, in the spec table below, it's not a case of "more check marks means better." Rather, the table is designed to give you a quick overview of the products and how they square up. A product with everything checked doesn't necessarily have the best implementation of those features, and one with fewer checks still may be very capable. Whether you even need the checked feature depends on your photo workflow. For example, DxO Photolab may not have face recognition, but it has the finest noise reduction in the land and some of the best camera- and lens-profile-based corrections.

What Is the Best Photo Editing Software for Beginners?

If you're just starting to dip your toes into photo editing, your options are getting better all the time. The obvious places to get started are with operating systems' free, included applications, Apple Photos, Google Photos, and Microsoft Photos. These all include the basic light and color editing tools in simple interfaces. For more details on these options, check out the section below.

Worth particular mention if you're a more ambitious beginner is Adobe Lightroom, the non-Classic version. This includes the Discover community in which photographers and editors can share their entire process from raw image to final product. It even lets you submit your photos for the community to try their hands at. For in-program editing tutorials, Photoshop Elements, with its many Guided Edits that show you how to create arresting effects, is an excellent option. And even the latest versions of Photoshop itself include plentiful help and learning content, though I recommend going through a basic online course for learning Photoshop. If you just want the basics and don't have ambitions to do advanced editing, check out the free options in the next section.

What Is the Best Free Photo Editing Software?

If you've outgrown the stock photo editing apps on your phone, like those preinstalled with the camera or the effects included in Instagram, does that mean you have to pay a ton for high-end software? Absolutely not.

Desktop operating systems typically include decent photo software at no extra cost. For example, the Microsoft Photos app included with Windows 10 (and updated for Windows 11) may surprise some users with its capabilities. In a touch-friendly interface, it offers a good level of image correction, auto-tagging, blemish removal, face recognition, and even raw camera file support. It can automatically create editable albums based on photos' dates and locations.

Apple Photos does those things too, though its automatic albums aren't as editable. Both programs also sync with online storage services: iCloud for Apple and OneDrive for Microsoft. With both, you can search based on detected object types, like "tree" or "cat" in the application. Apple Photos also can integrate with plug-ins like the excellent Perfectly Clear(Opens in a new window).

Ubuntu Linux users are also covered when it comes to free included photo software. They get the capable-enough Shotwell app. And no discussion of free photo editing software would be complete without mentioning the venerable GNU Image Manipulation Program, better known as GIMP(Opens in a new window). It's available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, offers a ton of Photoshop-style plugins and editing capabilities but very little in the way of creature comforts or usability. Other lightweight, low-cost options include Polarr and Pixlr(Opens in a new window).

Can You Edit Photos Online?

In this list of the best photo-editing software, we've only included installable computer software. That said, entry-level photographers may be adequately served by online photo-editing options. These web apps are mostly free, and they're often tied to online photo storage and sharing services. Flickr(Opens in a new window) (with its integrated photo editor) and Google Photos are the biggest names here, and both can spiff up your uploaded pictures and do a lot to help you organize them.

These free options are good but lack many tools found in paid photo-editing software. But some paid apps are now releasing web versions. The latest version of Lightroom, for example, has a web app with a good deal of photo-editing capabilities included. And Adobe announced a basic web version of its flagship Photoshop app, currently in beta. Other notable names in web-based photo editing include BeFunky, Fotor, and Photofx(Opens in a new window), and PicMonkey.

What Is the Best Image Editing for Hobbyists

Most of the products in this list are suited for enthusiast photographers and prosumers, which includes people who genuinely love working with digital photographs. The apps are not free, and they require a few hundred megabytes of your disk space. Several, such as Lightroom and CyberLink PhotoDirector, are strong when it comes to workflow—importing, organizing, editing, and outputting the photos from a DSLR. Such apps offer nondestructive editing, meaning the original photo files aren't touched. Instead, they maintain a database of edits that you apply and that appear in photos you export from the application. These programs also offer strong organization tools, including keyword tagging, color-coding, geo-tagging with maps, and in some cases face recognition to organize photos by people that appear in them.

At the back end of workflow is output. Capable software like Lightroom Classic offers powerful printing options such as soft-proofing, which shows you whether the printer you use can produce the colors in your photo. (Strangely, the new version of Lightroom does not offer built-in local printing, though the latest update lets you send images to a photo printing service.) Lightroom Classic can directly publish photos on sites like Flickr and SmugMug. In fact, all good software at this level offers strong printing and sharing, and some, like ACDSee and Lightroom, include their own online photo hosting to present a portfolio of your work.

The programs at the enthusiast level and the professional level can import and edit raw files from your digital camera. These are files that include every bit of data from the camera's image sensor. Each camera manufacturer uses its own format and file extension for these. For example, Canon DSLRs use .CR2 files and Nikon uses NEF. Raw here means what it sounds like: a file with the raw sensor data. It's not an acronym or file extension.

Working with raw files provides some big advantages when it comes to correcting (often termed adjusting) photos. Since the photo you see on screen is just one interpretation of what's in the raw file, the software can dig into that data to recover more detail in a bright sky, or it can fully fix an improperly rendered white balance. If you set your camera to shoot with JPGs, you're losing those capabilities.

Enthusiasts want to do more than just import, organize, and render their photos. They want to do fun stuff, too! Editors' Choice winner Adobe Photoshop Elements includes Guided Edits, which make special effects like motion blur or color splash (where only one color shows on an otherwise black-and-white photo) a simple step-by-step process. Topaz Studio offers a slew of fun photo effects, but it's completely lacking in workflow features.

Content-aware tools let you move objects around while maintaining a consistent background. You can also remove objects entirely. Say you want to remove a couple of strangers from a serene beach scene and have the app fill in the background. These edits don't involve simple filters like you get in Instagram. Rather, they produce highly customized, one-off images. Another good example is CyberLink PhotoDirector's Multiple Exposure effect, which lets you create an image with ten versions of Johnny jumping that curb on his skateboard, for example.

Most of these products can produce HDR effects and panoramas after you feed them multiple shots, and local edit brushes let you paint adjustments onto only specific areas of an image. Affinity Photo has those features, but its interface isn't the most intuitive. Zoner Photo Studio X combines Lightroom and Photoshop features in a lower-priced subscription, but it's just not up to the level of the Adobe software.

Some of the products in this group have started adding what's sometimes termed AI style transfer—where the style of Picasso, Japanese watercolor, or another art mode is applied to the photo. The effect became a craze with the Prisma app several years ago, and it can still impress. PaintShop Pro and CyberLink PhotoDirector both offer this. PaintShop recently added other nifty AI features as well, including the impressive AI Upsampling, AI Denoise, and AI Artifact Removal tools.

What Is the Best Professional Photo Editing Software?

At the very top end of the image editing pyramid is Photoshop, which has no real rival. Its layered editing, drawing, text tools, filters, selection capabilities, plug-in support, and color tools make it the industry standard. (Adobe recently removed its 3D editing tools because of the changing graphics hardware landscape; you can find 3D functionality in the company's new 3D Substance line of applications.) The company continues to add unique, state-of-the art features.

Of course, pros need more than this one application, and many use workflow programs like Lightroom, AfterShot Pro, or Photo Mechanic for workflow functions like importing and organization. In addition to its workflow prowess, Lightroom offers mobile photo apps so that photographers on the run can get some work done before they even get back to their PC. Photoshop recently got an iPad app, as well, but that's not yet capable of raw file editing.

Recommended by Our Editors

Those who need tethered shooting—controlling the camera in the software from the computer while it's attached—may want Capture One, which offers a lot of tools for that along with its top-notch raw-file conversion.

Photoshop offers the most image editing capabilities, though it doesn't always make producing those effects as simple, and it doesn't offer a nondestructive workflow, as Lightroom and some of the other products do. Of course, users with less-intensive needs can get all the Photoshop-type features they need from other programs in this roundup, such as Corel PaintShop Pro.

DxO PureRAW is another tool pros may want in their kit, because of its excellent lens-profile based corrections and unmatched DeepPrime noise reduction. Skylum Luminar, too, offers unique AI-powered features like automatic powerline removal, which can instantly improve many a landscape or cityscape. It also has unique depth-based lighting options You can use either standalone or as a Photoshop plugin.

Capture One, DxO PhotoLab, PaintShop Pro, and Lightroom offer precise tools for local selections. For example, they let you select everything in a photo within a precise color range and refine the selection of difficult content such as a model's hair or trees on the horizon. Of course, you find all this in Adobe Photoshop, too.

Photoshop (and its included companion, Adobe Camera Raw utility) is where you find Adobe's latest and greatest imaging technology, such as AI-informed Neural Filters, Content-Aware Crop, Camera Shake Reduction, Perspective Warp, Subject Select, and Detail Enhancement. The program has the most tools for professionals in the imaging industry, including Artboards, Design Spaces, and realistic, customizable brushes.

Plug-Ins and Subscriptions

Another advantage of pro-level photo editing software is that it supports third-party plug-ins such as the excellent Nik Collection by DxO and Editors' Choice winner RNI All Films 5 Professional (among many others). These can add more effects and adjustments than you find in the base software. They often include tools for film looks, black-and-white options, sharpening, and noise reduction.

Some users have taken umbrage at Adobe's move to a subscription-only option for Photoshop, but at $9.99 per month, it hardly seems exorbitant for any serious image professional, and it includes a copy of Lightroom, online services like Adobe Stock, an online Portfolio site, and multiple mobile apps. It makes the app more affordable for prosumers, too, when you consider that a full copy of Photoshop's top-end version used to cost a cool $999. That said, we list several apps here that don't require subscriptions.

Other vendors have started following in Adobe's footsteps when it comes to subscriptions. Usually these deals include all updates, new templates and effects, and in some cases, such as with CyberLink PhotoDirector, access to stock images from big names like Getty.

Great Photos Also Require Capable Cameras—and Skills

If you're an absolute beginner in digital photography, your first step is to make sure you've got good hardware to shoot with, otherwise you're sunk before you start. Consider our roundups of the Best Digital Cameras and the Best Camera Phones for equipment that can fit any budget. Once you've got your hardware sorted out, make sure to educate yourself with our Quick Photography Tips for Beginners and our Beyond-Basic Photography Tips. That done, you'll be ready to shoot great pictures that you can make better with the software featured here.

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