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Best photo editing apps for Mac
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Want to improve your photos? Photo editing apps can take your shots to the next level. They let you easily adjust brightness, contrast, and colors. You can remove unwanted objects, apply filters for a stylish look, and make fun collages.
I'll share my favorite Mac photo editing apps for Mac. They're powerful yet simple, and inexpensive. Whether you're an amateur snapshooter or a pro, there's an app that'll help you get the most out of your pictures.
Criteria for Selection of best photo editing apps for Mac
Features: It needs to have lots of editing tools like layers, masks, adjusting filters, support editing RAW photos, and let me combine photos into composites and retouch photos.
Ease of use: The app needs to be user-friendly. The interface should be intuitive and the tools easy to find and understand.
Cost: The price needs to be reasonable, either a one-time purchase or a subscription.
Reliability: The app has to work properly and be stable. It shouldn't crash or mess up my photos.
Support: The developers need to provide good support. There should be an online community or website where I can get help troubleshooting and fixing any issues that come up.
Best Photo Editing Mac Apps
1. Adobe Photoshop
Photoshop is an excellent photo editing software that creative professionals swear by. It is feature packed yet easy to learn the basics. Retouching photos, adjusting colors and correcting imperfections is a breeze in Photoshop. You can do anything from simple cropping and light adjustments to complex composites and photo manipulations.
Key Features
- The layers feature allows you to manipulate different image elements individually.
- Masks let you hide or reveal parts of an image with precision.
- Photoshop has a huge library of expressive brushes, filters and graphic effects.
- It supports RAW files from DSLR cameras, preserving all image editing flexibility.
- The selection tools, especially the magic wand, are very useful for extracting objects from photos.
Pricing:
Photoshop is part of Adobe's Creative Cloud subscription. For $9.99/month you get the full Photoshop app for personal use. For $19.99/month, Photoshop is available for teams.
2. Affinity Photo
Affinity Photo is a great alternative to Adobe Photoshop. Instead of a monthly subscription, you purchase it once and use it forever. While similar in features to Photoshop, Affinity Photo is surprisingly easy to use.
Key Features
- Composite photos - Combine multiple images into one.
- Retouch - Remove blemishes and imperfections.
- Edit RAW photos - Adjust lighting, exposure and other settings from RAW camera files.
- Make precise selections - The selection tools work really well.
- Use a rich library of brushes and effects.
Pricing
Affinity Photo costs just $49.99 as a one-time purchase. There are no monthly fees like with Photoshop.
3. Pixelmator Pro
Pixelmator Pro is a Mac photo editor known for being both powerful yet easy to use. It's perfect for both beginners and pros. Instead of a monthly subscription, you purchase Pixelmator Pro once and use it forever.
Key Features
- Layers, masks and filters - Let you create complex composites and effects.
- Composite photos - You can combine multiple images into a single photo.
- Retouch photos - Pixelmator Pro makes it easy to remove blemishes and smooth out skin.
- Edit RAW photos - Adjust lighting, exposure and other settings directly from RAW camera files.
- Precise selections - The selection tools help you isolate exact parts of your photos.
- Rich library of brushes and effects.
Pricing
At just $39.99 as a one-time purchase, Pixelmator Pro offers an affordable alternative to paid photo editors. There are no monthly fees like with some other popular editors.
4. Adobe Lightroom
Adobe Lightroom is a photo editor and organizer designed specifically for photographers. It makes organizing and editing large photo libraries quick and simple. Lightroom offers everything you need to edit and enhance your photography.
Key Features
- Powerful organization - Lightroom lets you easily tag, search and organize all your photos.
- Non-destructive editing - All edits are saved as adjustments, so your original photos remain untouched.
- Enhance color and tone - Adjust color temperature, exposure, highlights, shadows and more.
- Basic adjustments - Crop, straighten, remove red eye and apply lens corrections.
- Presets and exports - Create your own presets and export photos in various formats.
- Edit RAW photos - Adjust settings like ISO, white balance and exposure directly from RAW files.
- Full set of editing tools.
Pricing
Adobe Lightroom is available as part of an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, starting at $9.99 per month for individuals & $19.99 per month for teams.
5. Darktable
Darktable is a free, open-source photo editor for photographers. It offers a lot of the same powerful editing tools as paid editors but at no cost. There are no subscriptions - just download Darktable and start editing your photos.
Key Features
- Adjust colors - Change exposure, highlights, shadows, white balance and more.
- Basic adjustments - Straighten, crop, remove lens distortion and apply grad ND filters.
- Edit RAW files - Adjust settings like ISO, aperture, exposure directly from RAW photos.
- Retouch photos - Remove dust spots, reduce noise and smooth skin textures.
- Create compositions - Combine multiple photos into a single composite image.
- Full set of layers, masks and filters.
- Rich set of brushes and effects.
- Powerful selection tools.
Pricing
Darktable is completely free to download and use. There are no subscription fees or in-app purchases - ever.
Comparison of Photo Editing Apps
Out of all the photo editors, Adobe Photoshop is probably the most powerful but you've got to pay a monthly subscription. It's perfect for design pros who need the most advanced tools and don't mind spending the money.
Affinity Photo has features similar to Photoshop but you just buy it once instead of a monthly fee. Perfect for folks who want top-notch editing but hate paying each month.
Pixelmator Pro is also crazy powerful yet easy to use and you buy it once, not a monthly thing. Perfect for people who want an editor that's user-friendly but still has all the advanced features.
Adobe Lightroom is made just for photographers and has insane tools for organizing your photos and editing without destroying the originals. You've got to subscribe but it's probably worth it for photographers who need those specific capabilities.
Darktable is a totally free, open-source option that offers many of the same advanced editing tools as paid editors. Perfect for folks who want pro-level editing power without spending a dime.
Conclusion
Photo editing apps can really make your pics shine. With all the options they give you, it's easy to fix up and improve your photos. Whether you need a full-featured editor like Photoshop, something more beginner friendly like Pixelmator Pro, or a free app like Darktable, there's editing software out there for you. By focusing on what matters - the bells and whistles, ease of use, price, dependability, and customer support - you'll find the editing app that works for you and level up your photography in a big way.
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