Photo Editing Software Buying Guide
Photo editing software is a useful tool whether you’re a mom looking to upload and share photos of your kids or a professional graphic designer looking creating logos and packaging. As you might guess, the mom and the graphic designer need two vastly different pieces of photo editing software. The mom may benefit from photo editing software that will organize her photographs, crop and touch up color and upload them to an online album. The graphic designer needs an entirely different set of tools to draw, adjust hue and saturation, import images and apply filters. Pronto’s Photo Editing Software Buying Guide will help you find the photo editing software that is best for your needs.
The five
What are the five key points I need to look at?
Why get photo editing software?
The photo editing software packaged with digital cameras is extremely basic, typically designed only to transfer photos from the camera. If you have needs beyond the most basic editing or want to plan photo projects, additional photo editing software is necessary.
Fine-tuning every picture
When shopping for photo editing software, look for features like cropping, color correction, special effects filters and image format conversion. If you want to create and edit graphics for Web use, look for photo software that specifically includes button tools, Web optimization and automatic HTML generation.
I live to paint
To do more artistic work, look for photo editing software with draw and paint tools, which allow you to create unique images. You’ll find many uses for text styling tools, but if you need freehand illustrations that don’t include photos and text, you should choose software designed for drawing.
Organizing photos
If you need to manage projects such as slideshows, collages and online photo albums, look for photo organization software. Some photo organization software includes very basic editing functions, but they’re not robust enough to fix a bad picture. Look for built-in templates that will have you scrapbooking like a pro in no time.
Technology versus creativity
Be realistic about your needs and level of graphics comprehension. Novice users should look for photo software with cropping, red eye removal, color and lighting balance. More advanced photo editing software lets you control hue, saturation, layers, burning and dodging and darkroom filters. Make sure you understand the features in your photo editing software to ensure that you’ll truly utilize its capabilities.
Shop talk
What are the terms and definitions I need to know about?
Cropping
Removing an area of an image either to eliminate unwanted elements or to create a stronger focus on the subject. Cropping is an extremely common editing function found in even the most basic editing software.
Filters
Special effects that you can apply to an image. Filters may convert an image to black and white, make the image appear blurred or raised or include a number of artistic effects.
GIF
Graphics Interchange Format, a low-resolution image format that uses 216 “Web-safe” colors that display identically on any computer. GIF format is still used for basic text elements and buttons, but it has been replaced by JPEG format for photos and detailed images.
Image conversion
A feature that allows you to save an image in a variety of compressed and uncompressed data formats.
Image repair
Photo editing software tools that remove blemishes, whiten teeth, eliminate red-eye and change backgrounds and colors in photos.
JPEG
Joint Photographic Experts Group, sometimes shortened to JPG, an image format that supports thousands of colors and allows for variable data compression of an image. High-quality JPEGs are large files with little compression and the highest level of detail. Low-resolution JPEGs sacrifice image quality in favor of smaller file sizes.
RAW file support
This feature allows photo editing software to open and alter RAW-format images that have not been internally processed or digitized by a digital camera.
Red eye
A common problem in photography where light reflected off the retinas in the eyes makes the pupils appear red instead of black. Most photo editing software includes a feature that can automatically correct this.
Web optimization
A process that converts an image to a JPEG or GIF format at a lower resolution that will load faster on the Internet.
Why get photo editing software?
Most photo editing software included with digital cameras is good only for moving photos onto your computer. A step up in bundled photo software may provide extremely basic editing and organizing tools. Either way, if you want to do anything more than basic color correction and file transfers, you should look for photo editing software to address your specific needs.
Photo editing software does three basic things: creates images, edits images and organizes images. Most photo editing software is designed to address a combination of these functions, from organizing software with basic editing tools to editing software with paint tools. Knowing whether you want to organize photos or heavily modify them will point you toward photo editing software that meets your combination of needs.
Fine-tuning every picture
If you need extensive cropping, image repair and contrast and color adjustments, choose photo editing software that includes editing functions. Professional versions of photo editing software can be extremely involved and difficult for a novice user to master, but what you lose in ease of use, you gain in precise control.
Serious image editors should choose photo editing software with cropping, color correction, special effects filters and image format conversion. Adobe Photoshop continues to be the photo editing software of choice for professional photographers and designers. It provides precise control over every aspect of an image, but that precision comes with a professional-level price tag, and novice users may find themselves intimidated by its wide range of tools.
If you don’t need that much control, look for simpler photo editing software that includes cropping, color adjustment and the ability to create JPEG images, which is the best format for publishing on the Web. Some photo editing software comes with specialized tools to optimize graphics for the Web and features that create buttons and automatically generate HTML.
I live to paint
Vincent van Gogh once said, “I dream of painting, and then I paint my dream.” If you dream of creating images, you’ll need photo editing software with a suite of tools specialized for the task. Graphic artists, web designers, and even conventional artists all use photo editing software to create images and to stylize text.
If you want to create images as well as manipulate them, it’s important to know the key words to look for when you’re shopping for photo editing software. At the very basic level, look for draw or paint tools. Many basic photo editing software packages contain poor versions of these tools that may not satisfy the advanced user. Corel Paint Shop Pro offers professional-level tools for image creation and an interface that intermediate users can master.
The ability to bend, shade and emboss text is a great bonus feature if you’re making greeting cards, CD labels or flyers, and advanced photo editing software eliminates the need for a separate program to style text. However, it’s important to note that photo editing software isn’t the best choice for those who need freehand drawing or illustration tools. If you’re starting with text or photographs, photo editing software will take your project to completion. If you need to draw, choose software designed for that purpose.
Organizing photos
If you take a lot of photos but can never seem to find anything, photo organization software is the best choice for you. Some photo organizing software also includes basic editing capabilities that are useful if you only intend to crop photos, reduce red eye and adjust color. With most photo organization software these functions are automatic, so you won’t have any control over the results. You’ll be able to improve upon a good picture, but you’ll need photo editing software with more options and control to fix a bad one.
Photo organization software includes easy, intuitive editing features that make it extremely friendly for the novice. If you are looking for photo software to manage projects such as slideshows, collages or setting up a photo album on the Web, photo organization software is the right place to start. These programs come packaged with pre-designed templates that any user can customize to create great-looking scrapbooks or photo albums.
Technology versus creativity
Getting the right photo editing software is largely a matter of finding something with features that you can use. If you’re not highly computer graphics literate, the advanced tools featured in Adobe Photoshop will be meaningless. The learning curve is so high that you’ll never be able to use the software. If you are a creative genius looking for photo software to do advanced art applications, tools packaged with a basic photo organizer will leave you feeling unsatisfied.
Be realistic about your needs and your level of technical savvy. In the world of photo editing software, more expensive is only better if you need the advanced features and can reasonably use them. Novice users should look for photo software with cropping, red eye removal, color and lighting balance. More advanced image editing photo software may reference things like hue, saturation, layers, burning and dodging, darkroom filters, and RAW file support. If you see a lot of terms in the description that you don’t understand, keep shopping until you find something that does exactly what you need.
Need to know more?
- Top Photo-Editing Tips
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,104628/article.html - How to Add a Person to a Photo
http://help.cnet.com/digital_photo_editing/9602-12576_39-0.html?messageID=2509375&tag=tip-2509375&kw=digital+photo+ed... - Digital Photography Tutorials
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials.htm
Experts say
- CNET—“Microsoft Picture It Digital Pro… offers dedicated amateur photographers the advanced features they'll find in Photoshop but in a much more friendly interface. Novices who just want an easy way to remove red-eye from their photos or create a simple photo album should grab the less expensive Picture It Photo or Photo Premium. But if you're an enthusiast who wants to do some high-quality image retouching, Pro is the way to go.” Source: CNET.com
- About—“[Adobe] Photoshop Elements incorporates many of Photoshop's powerful features without being too overwhelming to the novice user or ‘dumbed-down’ to the point that it frustrates experienced users. With a photo organizer plus fun and flexible photo-sharing projects, it's a perfect all-in-one solution for the majority of digital camera users.” Source: About.com
- Kim Komando—“You can't judge a book by its cover. And you can't judge software from its box. So, download trial versions before settling on a photo-editing program. This will let you see what you're getting before you spend your hard-earned cash.” Source: Komando.com
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