After filling up too many memory cards during the holidays or your vacation, you take the time to look at the last photos you took, but they honestly deserve some editing. Find the best software to beautify PCs without spoiling them.
Whether cropping, sharpness, contrast, backlighting or even changing colors, many photo editing software allow you to sometimes work miracles on photos that would normally be thrown in the trash. Please note, this is not about adding a little smiley or applying a filter to give you a cat face, but about decoration. A quick overview of our top 5 best software to enhance your photos on PC, with a few bonuses as a gift.
Darktable, develop, sort, organize and edit your photos
Darktable is a powerful, free and open source photo editing software, which features to be involved in all stages of the 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 values, adjusting levels, contrast, colors in mode Spot mapping, exposure, noise reduction and tonal equalizer, Darktable can change all that. 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 ads), 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 paying a cent to the user. This is 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. Additionally, it includes a library to manage all your photos and make searching easier with filters, tags, labels, and some cropping or flipping options (without activating the editor).
Rawtherapee’s greatest strength, of course, lies in the numerous editing tools available to you. Beginners, enthusiasts and professionals will find basic tools for white balance, sharpness correction, noise reduction, as well as correcting chromatic aberrations, managing color channels, removing haze and many other advanced settings. Settings are very easy to adjust and it is possible to save profiles so that the same corrections can be applied to many photos in a few clicks.
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, Ref
Lightroom is one of Adobe’s flagship products after Photoshop, valued for its versatility and ease of use. It provides powerful image development and organization tools along 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 easy to find images quickly. Automatic optical correction and lens profiles ensure optimal sharpness and precision.
In addition, the Guided Correction feature makes it easy to straighten horizontal and vertical lines, and the exceptional noise reduction tool offers unique benefits, solidifying Lightroom’s position as the preferred choice for photography enthusiasts. You’ll still need to go through a paid subscription to take advantage of the software, but you’ll get the benefit of being able to take advantage of it on your Android and iOS mobile devices as well. However, photographers using Linux will have to turn to other software.
DxO PhotoLab, flexibility and intuitiveness
Available only for Windows and Mac, DxO PhotoLab is not without its advantages. The interface is very intuitive, translated into French and can be applied in the form of settings Presets (profiles) already saved and configured, either individually automatically or manually. This flexibility and intuitiveness is a real asset as all photographers, beginners and experts alike, can easily find their way around and take advantage of the many advanced settings available.
DxO PhotoLab offers essential adjustments like exposure, saturation, contrast, brightness, white balance and color management. Advanced features include noise reduction, unwanted element correction, and applying geometry and localization tools, such as horizon correction and the u point effect mask. With this technology, you can apply effect masks to selected areas of your photo, such as blurring the background, increasing brightness or contrast on faces, etc.
You have 30 days to test all features of DxO PhotoLab to form an opinion before purchasing a license.
Luminar Neo, AI at the service of photographers
Luminar Neo is an innovative software that harnesses the power of AI to revolutionize the way photographers edit their photos. One of the key features of the 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 blemishes to enhancing colors, Luminar Neo can effortlessly transform your images into stunning works of art. What sets this software apart is its ability to preserve the natural look of photos 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 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 for a license or subscription to continue taking advantage of all Luminar Neo’s features.
Bonus: Topaz Photo AI
Topaz Photo AI also deserves to be part of our top 5, but it lacks a photo manager compared to others, which provides an intuitive system to easily organize, categorize and search your photos.
On the other hand, in terms of image processing functions, this software fulfills all the needs of photographers, and even more, by offering additional functions. In addition to benefiting from the Autopilot function, which automatically adjusts certain parameters, you’ll also have the Recover Faces tool that allows you to automatically detect and correct one or more faces on a photo, the “Denoise” tool. which removes noise. , or the enlargement tool (Upscalewithout losing quality.
And for all this, Topaz Photo AI uses artificial intelligence, which analyzes, duplicates and reworks pixels to refine details, increase resolution and improve many aspects of your photos. It can, among other things, 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 you to save changes without a license.
Of course, there are many other photo editing software programs that are worth checking out, but will they meet your needs? Will they be compatible with your operating system? Would you like the mobile version too? While waiting to determine your selection criteria, it is possible to test all of these selection software to form an opinion.
