8 Best Editing Tools to Consider in 2024

With simple-to-learn and use features, the best photo editing software gives you complete control over the look of your photos. However, it’s not just only for professionals: using the best photo editing software can enhance your pictures before you share them with others, despite the quality of your camera or your skills.

Aside from lighting, the best photo editing software can also help you eliminate unwanted objects in your photos, rotate and crop images with ease, and even ensure everyone has a smile on their face. No matter what you’ll do with your photos, there is plenty of photo-editing software to choose from.

There are many free online photo editors accessible, but the ideal one varies on your needs. Others are excellent for improving selfies, while others are better at adding text, and some offer features seen in professional software.

This article will look at eight online photo editors and recommend the best solution based on your needs.

What are the Best Photo Editing Tools?

1. Adobe Photoshop 20201

Anyone knowledgeable with photo editing and graphic design has probably used one of the many Adobe Photoshop versions. Photoshop 2020 has developed into more than its modest start. Photoshop is a raster graphics editor designed by Adobe for Windows and macOS.

Photoshop is also used for editing photos, manipulation, and retouching. It also provides tools that are similar to any other software in this domain. Still, to the nth degree – there are often several ways to perform the same function in Photoshop, whether it’s changing the background colour, cloning elements, frequency separation, or any other photo editing activities.

With the latest 2022 updates, Adobe Sensei brings AI to the new Neural Filters and Sky Replacement features — the Smart Portrait mode provides one-click picture alteration as you’ve never seen before, altering subjects’ emotions, gaze direction, and even age!

Fortunately, Photoshop is available with Lightroom in the different Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Packages, making it a helpful supplement for editing tasks that are not feasible in Lr.

2. Movavi Photo Editor

Movavi Photo Editor is a simple graphic photo editing software that can repair and enhance your photos with a single click. From the Movavi photo editor review, it has a lot of features. Cropping a photo, applying a filter, using a colour effect, and changing image parameters such as saturation, white balance, contrast, and brightness are simple processes. Furthermore, it can compete with the best free photo organizing software.

You can also remove red eyes and unwanted objects, change the background, minimize the effects of bad lighting during shooting, and add a watermark.

It supports the image formats BMP, PNG, GIF, TIFF, JPEG, JPEG-LS, and JPEG, as well as the profiles DPX, EXR, PAM, PBM, PCX, PGM, PPM, PTX, SGI, SunRasterfile, TruevisionTarga, network WebP, XBM, XFace, and XWD.

Even though it is a full-fledged desktop application, it does not require a powerful PC setup. Furthermore, it is one of the few editing software that is compatible with Windows XP.

3. Corel Paintshop Pro

Corel PaintShop Pro is better than Photoshop Elements in many ways. It is a robust software that is simple for beginners and includes some extra features, like 360-degree photo editing. It also supports touch screens and offers a more streamlined workplace.

PaintShop Pro (and its update, PaintShop Pro Ultimate) is often less costly than Photoshop Elements, providing excellent quality. The most significant disadvantage of Corel vs. Photoshop is that, unlike Photoshop Elements, which is compatible with both macOS and Windows PCs, PaintShop Pro is only compatible with Windows.

4. Affinity Photo

Affinity Photo offers advanced methods, resolution-independent editing, RAW editing inside the interface, and most of the additional capabilities that professional photographers want and need.

While its learning curve is higher than others, you’ll be rewarded with a comprehensive set of features such as Photoshop-like exposure settings, paintbrushes, layers, and more. It can also open, read, and edit Photoshop PSD files, enabling a more smooth transition between the two applications.

This year’s upgrade also included Smart Objects, new third-party plugins, and Canon CR3 RAW files. Affinity Photo, like Photoshop Elements, is compatible with both Macs and PCs. There’s also an iPad version available.

5. Adobe Lightroom Classic

Despite its confusing naming convention, Adobe Lightroom Classic stays our best pick for best photo editing software in 2024.

Adobe Lightroom Classic is an all-in-one photo cataloging, raw-processing, and editing software that works seamlessly with Photoshop. If your entire task is photo enhancement instead of manipulation, Photoshop may not be necessary at all.

However, Adobe has added to the complexity by splitting the ‘old’ Lightroom, now named Lightroom Classic, for regular desktop storage and launching a new, slimmed-down Lightroom CC (now plain ‘Lightroom’) that saves all your photos online.

Both are included in the primary Adobe Photography Plan, but the Classic version is much superior. It helps to apply one-click presets in a fraction of the time it takes to make manual changes in Photoshop, and it also has a great variety of quality Lightroom presets.

If you’re a photographer with a high-volume workflow, Lightroom’s ability to batch edit and create import/export presets is elevated.

Whatever changes you make on a mobile device will be available when you return to your desktop or laptop, with everything perfectly synced – this is the future of photo editing!

6. Adobe Photoshop Elements 2021

Adobe Photoshop Elements 2024 is a scaled-down version of the well-known Adobe Photoshop CC. The full version of Photoshop may seem overwhelming to a novice photographer since it is filled with potentially unnecessary features such as creating vector-based forms using bezier curves or digitally modifying a person’s posture with the Puppet Warp feature.

Photoshop Elements gets to the point by focusing on resolving common photo issues. Since Photoshop Elements only includes the basic photo-editing capabilities, it is much simpler to learn than the ‘full-fat edition.

It’s available separately or in a package with Adobe Premiere Elements, which performs the same thing with Photoshop Elements’s video. However, even though Elements 2024 is an excellent value, its interface and approach to editing and Guided Edits are starting to look a little outdated.

7. Capture One Pro 2021

With Capture One Pro, you can capture and edit images in the studio with a session-based workflow and organize, search and start editing similar to Lightroom. A single window is used instead of Lightroom-style modules, and ‘tool tabs’ can be easily customized.

Local adjustment layers make it much simpler to see and edit changes to your work, including ‘parametric’ linear and radial gradient masks, which you can edit later in the process.

8. CyberLink PhotoDirector 365

CyberLink PhotoDirector 365 includes many of the usual picture editing tools and features and some artificially intelligent methods, including automated body shape, skin and face tools, and lighting and animation effects. The interface is simple enough for anyone who is used to working throughout the digital world, and it is quick and reliable.

The tool has flaws, like typos and other glitches that may hinder power users. However, the low monthly membership fee and high-level editing capabilities like levels and color correction make this a good choice for creatives who need a dedicated software to edit pictures occasionally but don’t want to break the bank.

Final Thoughts

It should be obvious by now that there are numerous options for editing and arranging your photos in 2024.

If you’re looking for a simple, editor that can handle basic edits, Corel software products may be a good match. While you are unlikely to improve your picture editing skills using this editor, it is ideal for non-photographers who have to make a few changes to one or two images.

With the right photo editing software, you can make any photo into a work of art. Whether you’d like to highlight an important object, add more attention to your photo, or reduce the size of your photo files to enhance the loading speed of a website.

Whatever application, tool, or plugin you choose, keep in mind that it can be frequently used with your current applications without disrupting existing workflows.

Suggested:

12 Apps that Make Your Photographs Look Better.

Tips for Editing Website Photos to Look Great.

Three Ways to Colorize Your Old Photos.