The world of digital imaging and photo editing is changing.
Photographers don't just need image-manipulation tools any more, they
also need programs that can organise, search and share an ever-growing
library of photos.
And as more and more of us shoot raw files,
the quality of the raw conversion process grows ever more important. All
raw converters are not the same, and Adobe has some serious rivals
here.
That's not all. Even though Photoshop might still be the
best image-editor, an image-editor in itself may not longer be enough
for the things we want to do with our photos today. We don't necessarily
want to sit in front of a single image for hours on end surrounded by
manuals. More often than not, we develop a personal style we want to
apply with a single click, to dozens of photos at a time – and there are
much better programs for this than Photoshop.
So here are our top
six Mac and PC photo editing applications – programs which are
genuinely cross--platform and which run on either machine. They include
regular image editors like Photoshop and Elements, image cataloguing
specialists like Lightroom and all-out raw converters like DxO Optics
Pro.
Our verdict might not be that much of a surprise, maybe, but
it has a twist. We don't think there is a single winner, and we think
that Photoshop itself does not do enough on its own. Instead, we've gone
for an image-editing double-act that's both integrated and affordable,
thanks to Adobe's latest software subscription plans.
Subscription
software is still highly controversial, but the cost calculations are
compelling. You can get both our winning software tools for less than
£9/US$10 per month, based on an annual subscription.
Photoshop CC 2014 is the best image-editor, but it has no cataloguing tools of its own and there are better raw converters.Adobe
created a storm of controversy when it swapped Photoshop over from a
regular 'perpetual' licence (you pay once then use the software forever)
to a subscription scheme where you pay a monthly/annual fee to use it.
If you stop paying the subscription, you lose the software.
In
practice, the sky hasn't fallen in, it's proved a good deal financially,
and although there are still questions over how you open/work with your
Photoshop files when you stop your subscription, the transition has
proved pretty painless.The upside is that you get automatic, free
updates for as long as you subscribe – and the last one was when Adobe
released Photoshop CC 2014.
Photoshop is both more sophisticated
and more limited than some of the other programs in this list. For
layers, masks, selections, retouching and complex, multi-step imaging
processes, it's impossible to beat. It's enormously powerful, yet
manages to present these tools in a remarkably clean, fast and efficient
interface.
On the downside, it doesn't offer proper image
cataloguing tools (Adobe Bridge is really just a glorified folder
browser), so you need another tool for that. And it doesn't offer a
library of single-click creative effects – for this you need extra
plug-ins, such as the Google Nik Collection, OnOne Perfect Photo Suite
or Topaz Effects. Photoshop is like a giant box of spanners – it has all
the tools you could possibly want, but it's not going to show you how
to fix your car.
Lightroom is a new breed of all-in-one cataloguing and editing apps – and it's the ideal Photoshop companion.Lightroom
is a new kind of image-editing tool, combining an image cataloguing and
management database with 'non-destructive' editing tools. It means that
you can make non-permanent adjustments to an image which are visible
within Lightroom but only made permanent when you export a new version
of the picture with the adjustments applied – your original photos are
never modified.
Lightroom's organising tools are very powerful. It
uses a central image database, or 'library', so it's much faster and
more flexible than a simple file browsing tool like Adobe Bridge. The
larger your photo collection becomes, the more useful you'll find a
database tool like this.
The image-editing tools are the same as
those in Adobe Camera Raw, but presented in a different interface. They
can't do everything – for selections, layers, masks and many more
complex effects you'll still need a program like Photoshop – but for
everyday image enhancements and picture 'styles', Lightroom is perfect.
Adobe Photoshop Elements 13
Photoshop
Elements is like the 'amateur' version of Photoshop. It's a lot more
novice-friendly and it's a lot cheaper too (though more on this
shortly), although you do miss out on a lot of Photoshop's more advance
features, not surprisingly.
Photoshop Elements 13 is actually two
programs not one. As well as the editing application itself, you get an
'Organizer' app for managing your photo collection.
Elements' main
strength is its ability to cater for all kinds of user. The editor
works in three modes – Quick, Guided and Expert. Quick mode is for
simple one-click semi-automatic adjustments for photographers still
struggling with the basics, Guided offers a selection of special image
effects but walks you through each process step by step so that you
learn how the tools work, and Expert mode is for those who already know
what they want to and how and just want to get on with it.
Lightroom
has clearly had quite an influence on software developers, because
PhotoDirector 6 mirrors almost everything it does. It has a workflow
split into Library, Adjustment, Edit, Slideshow and Print panels.
The
Adjustment module is equivalent to Lightroom's Develop module, and even
offers more or less the same tools, right down to its graduated and
radial filter effects.
PhotoDirector takes a step further, though,
in its Edit panel, offering a whole host of effects not available in
Lightroom – though these are mainly aimed at amateur users, including a
whole section on 'Beautifier' and 'Reshaping' tools.
These are not
non-destructive, however. At this point, PhotoDirector swaps over to
regular image-editing tools, meaning that it creates new copies of your
files.
We
mentioned at the start that all raw conversion tools are not the same,
and DxO Optics Pro is the perfect example. This is a highly specialised
program whose principal purpose is to extract the best possible quality
from your camera and lens combination.
Optic Pro started out as a
tool for correcting the distortion, chromatic aberration, edge softness
and vignetting that almost all lenses exhibit, using lab-developed
correction profiles. It's been extended to include sophisticated raw
conversion tools for getting the maximum definition, dynamic range and
colour information from your pictures.
It does offer a range of
tone and colour adjustments, and links directly with DxO's ViewPoint
(perspective correction) and FilmPack (film effects) tools, available
separately, but it's essentially an image optimiser rather than an image
editor.
Capture
NX-D is Nikon's 'official' raw converter. It's a free download from the
Nikon website and it can open, enhance and process both JPEGs (from any
camera) and Nikon NEF files – though certain tools are only available
if you're working on raw images.
Other makers offer their own free
raw conversion tools. Canon has Digital Photo Professional, for
example. The advantage of using the maker's own software is that you get
an exact reproduction of the white balance and picture control settings
of the camera. Third-party raw converters like Adobe Camera Raw use
their own colour rendering profiles which will often give you a very
different results.
Capture NX-D is good at what it does –
enhancing raw files and exporting converted JPEG or TIFF images, but it
lacks selections, layers, localised adjustments and image effects. It's a
tool you might use at the start of your workflow rather than a complete
photo editor in its own right.
Capture
One started out as a dedicated software tool for Phase One's
professional medium-format cameras, but it's been developed into a very
powerful raw conversion and image-editing tool for any camera owner.
It's
now a strong rival to Adobe Lightroom. Like Lightroom, it can import
your images into a centralised, searchable database and then apply
non-destructive adjustments and preset effects. Your original images are
never directly modified, and the changes are only made permanent when
you export processed JPEG or TIFF versions.
Capture One Pro 8
produces extremely sharp, rich-toned raw conversions, and it uses
internal 'adjustment layers' for graduated filter effects (just like
Lightroom) or freeform masking and localised enhancements.
Our verdict: Which photo editing software is best?
It's
actually impossible to pick one single winner in today's photo editor
market. There are programs here that are near-unbeatable at what they do
(Photoshop CC 2014 is one example), but there are none which do
everything you could possibly need.
Our first conclusion is that
more and more of us are likely to use two programs not one. If you want
the best image cataloguing tool, the best raw converter and the best
image-editor, you're not going to find them in one package.
Our
second conclusion is that the Photoshop CC and Lightroom 5 combination
comes closest – and because they're part of the same subscription plan,
they could even be counted as a single package. Now that Apple's
Aperture is being discontinued, Lightroom has little professional
competition so it's become the go-to image cataloguing tool for serious
enthusiasts and professionals.
It's not the best raw converter.
DxO Optics Pro 10 and Capture One Pro 8 are better. If outright quality
is top on your list of priorities you might choose one of these instead
of – or as well as – our winning programs (you can now send raw files
from Lightroom to Optics Pro 10 for conversion).
Nikon Capture
NX-D (and the free raw converters from other camera makers) are
definitely worth a look because they exactly replicate the camera's
tonal response, white balance, colours and picture styles, whereas
third-party raw converters apply generic profiles that may or may not
match the camera's native rendition.
And beware of false bargains.
There are cheaper alternatives to the top programs, but what you save
in cash you can end up paying for in missing features and clunkier
execution.
What really settles this once and for all, though, is
Adobe's Creative Cloud Photography plan. For less than £9/US$10 per
month, based on an annual subscription, you get both programs, and
whatever you think of the idea of software subscriptions, that's a heck
of a deal.
