Photo editing software

Photo editing software helps you change photographs you’ve taken and fix old snaps that are damaged or marked. You can easily perform simple edits like brightening or cropping photos. And you carry out advanced alterations too - like changing colors, ‘airbrushing’ out elements – or even combining images creatively.

Auto straightening Auto straightening - If you have an image which is slanted and you want to straighten it, you can draw a horizontal or vertical line against an object (such as a sunset) and the software will automatically straighten the image for you.

Cloning tool Cloning tool - Allows you to copy a portion of a photo and re-apply it directly to another. This tool is very useful if your want to remove a scratch or an unwanted object in your photo.

Convert to grayscale Convert to grayscale - Converts a colored photograph to black and white.

Layers Layers - Layers allows you to apply different effects without disturbing the original image. Layers can always be combined to merge into one single image.

Layer opacity Layer opacity - Adjusting the opacity of a layer, changes the layers transparency. This allows the layer below to be visible.

Layer masks Layer masks - Allows you to hide or reveal a certain part of an image without needing to crop it.

Lens distortion correction Lens distortion correction - If you are using a wide-angle lense, your photo might appear stretched or warped. This problem is particularly common if you have taken a picture of a building. Lens distortion correction will automatically repair the problem.

Photo fix wizard Photo fix wizard - Helps you easily fix common photo problems through a simple step-by-step guide. Photo fix wizards can help with lighting, color balance and red eye removal.

Red eye removal Red eye removal - Removes red eye from your photographs which is often caused by light that reflects directly off the retinas in our eyes.

Rotate, resize, flip & crop

Scratch removal

Shadow adjustment Shadow adjustment - Sometimes also called

Text effects Text effects - Allows you to add eye catching text to your photos.

Batch processing Batch processing - Using macros can help you to speed up frequent tasks.

Panoramas Panoramas - Panoramic photos can be created with the photo editing software by stitching or joining multiple photographs. It automatically blends the edges of the photos together to create a wide angle panorama

Picture frames

Plugins Plugins - Third party companies often create extra photo effects. These effects can be easily

Templates Templates - Provides a set of photo templates that allows you insert your photos. Templates include picture frames, calendars and greeting cards.

Digital camera Digital camera - Allows you to directly import photos from your digital camera.

Removable media Removable media - You can import your photos from DVDs, CDs, Memory sticks, Zip disks, USB flash drives, external hard disks and other forms of removable storage media.

Scanner Scanner - Allows you to import photos from your scanner.

Screen capture Screen capture - Capture your entire desktop or capture specific windows.

Smartphone

Video

JPG, GIFs

Animated GIFs

HTML

PDF

Printing Printing - Print packages/projects such as contact sheets, DVD/CD labels and photobooks are available within the software. Once you have created your project you can print your photos from your home computer or send them to an external digital printing service.

Online Online - Upload your photos to an online gallery. Your friends and family will then be able to see your photographs. Some companies may charge you extra for this service. Also remember that uploading your photos online offers you a great way to back-up your photographs, just in case you lose them on your computer.

Email Email - Automatically attaches your photo to your email client. You can then easily send your photo to a friend or colleague by email.

CD/DVD CD/DVD - Allows you to burn your images to a blank CD.

Screensavers Screensavers - Allows you to turn your collection of photographs into a desktop screensaver.

Smartphones Smartphones - Optimizes your photos so they can be viewed on a Smartphone.

Organizer Organizer - Provides you with a photo management tool that allows you to easily view and organize your photographs. You'll be able to see your photos as low resolution thumbnails to give you a visual index of your photos.

Albums Albums - Allows you to create a photo album.

Search Search - Allows you to search for a particular photo using different criteria, such as date it was taken, the file name or by keyword assignment.

Ratings Ratings - Allows you to assign a rating against a photograph.

Keywords Keywords - Allows you to assign a keyword against a photograph. This makes it easier to organize your photographs. You could assign the name of a person against a photograph. This would then allow you to view all the photographs of a particular person, in one single view.

View EXIF information View EXIF information - Allows you to view Exchangeable Image File Format (EXIF) information about your photograph. EXIF information includes shutter speed, aperture, focal length and ISO speed information.

Telephone support

Email support

*Live chat

Manual

Knowledge base

Forums

Tutorials

FAQs

Windows 7

Windows Vista

Windows XP

Mac OS X

Photo editing software explained

It’s hard to take perfect photos. Bad lighting, blurring and unwanted intrusions can all affect the pictures you snap. That’s why photo editing software is a great companion to your digital camera, enabling you to tweak your photos and fix many problems easily.

Although some advanced features may take time to master, most packages contain preset settings for common tasks. This makes improving your photos and performing simple edits quite straightforward.

Features are not everything

Most photo editing software packages are packed with features. But make sure you look beyond the length of the feature list. It’s more important to ensure that the particular features you need are included.

Additionally, if you have little experience with photo editing software, make sure your chosen package is easy to use. Look for tutorials and presets for tasks like removing red-eye from photos and reducing blur.

Saving and organizing photos

Digital photos can be saved as lots of different file types. The most common is JPEG (pronounced ‘jay-peg’). JPEGs are an efficient way to save photos because they dramatically cut the size of the file by slightly lowering the quality of the image.

This does mean there’s a trade-off between file size and image quality. Look for software that lets you preview the image at different file sizes, so you can check you’re happy before you save.

As well as JPEGs, your photo editing software should be able to handle BMP, GIF, PNG, TIFF and RAW file formats. This will ensure you can open most images – no matter whether they’re from your own camera or elsewhere.

Finally, photo editing software can help you organize your photos, creating a logical filing system so you can easily locate particular pictures. It’s really useful if you have thousands of photos on your computer.

Photo editing features

Look to see if the software can do the basics like crop, resize and rotate a photo. Photo editing software should provide tools that improve your images. Look to see whether they provide automatic correction tools such as red eye removal, teeth whitening and we more importantly we look to see whether they are actually any good.

File compatibility

Digital photos come in many different file formats. Quite often a photo cannot be viewed on a computer because of an incompatible format. Photo editing software allows you to open, import and export a wide range of file formats such as JPG, TIF, BMP and PDF. Image editing software should offer RAW file compatibility.

Photo sharing capabilities

There should be plenty of photo sharing options available for you to show off your photographs. Several companies allow you to upload your photos to an online gallery, where your friends and family can view your photographs. Some photo editors allow you to directly upload your photos to social networking websites (facebook) or photo sharing websites (delicious).

Help & support

It's unlikely that you will need telephone support, but you should really choose a package that provides a good solid user manual. Once you've mastered the basics of your photo editing software, you may want to progress to more advanced techniques and there should be plenty of help and advice to help you master these techniques.

Cropping

To 'crop' an image means that you are removing part of it. This tool is often used to remove edges of a photo that you don't want.

RAW

RAW files are very similar to photo negatives, because they are unbale to be opened, but store all the data needed to create an image.

EXIF information

EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) is data stored by your digital camera that describes the settings and characteristics of an individual image. The EXIF standard is supported by the majority of camera manufacturers.

Batch processing

Batch processes save you the time and effort of having to open, edit and save each file individually. It allows you to make changes to a group of images in a few steps.