#Best mac apps for editing graphics software#
#Best mac apps for editing graphics free#

Make sure the software you choose has profiles for your equipment.

This includes corrections for lens geometry distortion (think warped edges on a wide-angle shot), vignetting (dark edges), and chromatic aberration (color fringes). Most of the higher-end software now includes some automatic corrections based on your camera model and lens. For example, if a photo looks overly warm-towards the red, orange, and yellow side of the spectrum-changing the white balance can make the colors more true-to-life. In particular, a Shadows slider is used to bring out detail in a dark area, while the Highlights adjustment can show the blue and clouds in a bleached out white sky.ДЄdjusting raw files also lets you change the white balance you chose at the time of shooting. This is particularly important when youвЂ™re trying to retrieve detail from a very dark or light part of an image. If you use a DSLR or mirroless camera, youвЂ™re best off shooting in raw camera files rather than JPGs that way you can get a lot more out of the image at the editing stage, in terms of lighting and color adjustment. The apps use AI to identify and group shots of the same face, and they show geotagged photos in thumbnails on a map. Some software lets you organize images by faces and places, too. You should also be able to search for an image based on the equipment (camera and lens), shot settings (aperture, exposure, and ISO), date, and whether youвЂ™ve edited it. This lets you quickly find an image you're looking for. Some helpful features around this include pick, reject, color tags, keyword tags, and star ratings. You need software that lets you organize your photo collection after you import the images. Some programs divide adjusting and editing, with the former being basic lighting, color, and sharpness corrections and the latter the more creative aspects, like filters and overlays. Some applications, such as Lightroom, use modes, which simply means you select a layout for the stage of work youвЂ™re doing-one mode for importing and organizing, one for adjusting or corrections, and another for exporting. When choosing a Mac photo editing app, look for a clean, well-designed interface with lots of help and tutorials. What Should You Look for in Mac Photo Software?

Some tools (not included in this roundup) are just about organizing and importing: Adobe Bridge, Photo Mechanic, MyLio, WidsMob, Phototheca, and the open-source digiKam. Serif Affinity Photo is similar in that regard, though as youвЂ™d expect, it lacks PhotoshopвЂ™s state-of-the-art tools and polished interface. ItвЂ™s not for importing and organizing your photo collection the way you can in Lightroom. The most famous photo application of all, Adobe Photoshop, is all about image adjustment and manipulation-corrections, selections, layers, effects, compositing, adding text, and so on. Topaz Studio is mainly about adding special effects and looks. For example, DxO PureRAW is just about reducing noise and camera and lens distortions. Other products specialize in one or another of them. Some tools perform nearly all these functions, such as Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop Elements, CyberLink PhotoDirector, and ON1 Photo RAW. Finally, you have to output the image to the destination and in the format of your choice. Then, comes the fancy stuff: bokeh, artistic effects, overlays, black-and-white, colorization, and pixel manipulation-things like removing unwanted objects or creating selection masks.

After that, you need tools to crop the pictures and adjust their lighting, color, and detail (adding sharpness or removing noise, for example). Now letвЂ™s take a look at some of the functionality Mac photo apps provide: For starters, you need software that can import and organize your digital photos.

#Best mac apps for editing graphics free#

If you're looking for an open-source, free but powerful option, check out RawTherapee. At the enthusiast level, we have ACDSee Ultimate, Adobe Photoshop Elements, Adobe Lightroom, CyberLink PhotoDirector, Corel PaintShop Pro, Serif Affinity Photo, and Skylum Luminar. The online-only Google Photos is another entry-level option. After all, it comes free with your computer and ties in snugly with photos shot on iPhones. As you might expect, Apple Photos is the prime example of beginner photo software, despite its impressive power. Photo software can be categorized either by its target audience level-beginner, enthusiast, or advanced-or by function. What Types of Mac Photo Software Are There? Software that hasn't been rebuilt for the new platform can still run via Apple's Rosetta 2 translation engine, sometimes with a moderate performance hit. A note for people who have or are considering buying an Apple Silicon-based Mac: Most of the software is not yet updated to run natively on this new hardware, but a few heavy hitters have, including Adobe's Photoshop and Lightroom, and, of course, Apple Photos.