Best Editing Picture Software For Mac

Edit your photos on Mac like a pro with these amazing picture editing tools.

As far as Mac photo editing software goes, you should be able to find a basic editing program for under $100, typically starting for as little as $30. Paying more than $100 will often land you a professional editing program with additional editing tools and presets compared to the basic versions. Photos: Best in-built picture editor. Photos: best photo editing software for Mac developed by Apple Inc., is a great and easy to use photo editor. This Mac photo editing tool offers multiple easy to use editing tools like Smart Slider, filters, Markup tool to add text, shapes and more.

Editing photos on iPhone is one thing but editing them on your Mac can take your photography to the next level. It doesn’t matter whether you clicked photos using your iPhone or your camera. Eventually, if you want to edit your image you’ll need an image editing software to step up. An image editing tool helps in brightening a dark photo, removing noise, distracting background and more. For all this, there’s an app.

Some of these apps are completely free to use while a few of them are paid, that will provide additional image editing features.

For you, we’ve curated a list of best free and paid image editor. So, all you have to do is go through the list and select the best tool for yourself to edit images on your Mac.

Here are the best free and paid image editors for Mac.

Tip: As you learn how to use image editing software you might end up with multiple copies of same photographs: the original the edited one, the one you did not like and more. So, if you want to ready to handle such a situation try using Duplicate Photos Fixer. An ultimate and one of the best duplicate picture finder tools that detect exact and similar image stored in iPhoto Library, Photos and anywhere on your Mac.

Best Free Mac Image Editors

Here are the top free image editors that you can use for Mac. These tools will provide you all the basic features that you are looking for in a photo editor. A basic image editor has almost all the features you want and is easy to use. However, if you are looking for a fully featured editing suite with advanced features check out our list of best-paid Mac image editors.

1. Photoscape X: Powerful Photo Editor for Mac

Photoscape X is an advanced picture editor that helps you fine-tune and edit RAW images. This photo editor makes editing RAW photos really simple and easy. It’s an all-in-one app that lets you make a collage, edit batch photos, view photos, cut out, pick colors and more. Moreover, with Photoscape X: powerful photo editor for Mac you can rotate, resize, crop, add textures, change photos to vignette, sepia, grayscale and do lot more.

Get: Photoscape X: Powerful Photo Editor for Mac Now (Free)

2. GIMP: Free photo editing software for mac


GIMP is a free cross-platform photo editing software that Mac, Linux, Windows users can use. As it is an open source picture editing software it can be distributed by making changes. Moreover, this best free photo editor can be used by the photographer, designer, illustrator, and others. In simple words, anyone who wants a photo editor can use GIMP. This tool comprises of all basic and professional features.

Download: GIMP (Free)

3. Pixlr X: Next-gen photo editor

Pixlr X is an online photo editor designed to provide you the ease of navigation. With this picture editor, you can quickly edit photos online without downloading an image editor. Pixlr-X allows you to crop, cut out, resize, remove background and do lot more. Moreover, if you want to share an image on social media you can draw, doodle or scribe anything on it. Using this free photo editor is easy just visit the webpage, start using it and soon you’ll be a pro. Try it today.

Visit:Pixlr X (Free)

4. Polarr: image editor with basic tweaks

Polarr picture editor offers advanced auto-enhance tools to edit and brighten your photos. This tool can be used by both professionals and novice photographers. If you want to superimpose photos this app gives 10 and more blending modes. Further, it includes filters, brush mask, depth mask, batch exporting, photos extension and more. Beginners will love using its free version whereas if you are Pro then you can upgrade to Polarr Pro to try its exciting advanced features.

GetPolaar: image editor with basic tweaks now

5. Photos: Best in-built picture editor

Photos: best photo editing software for Mac developed by Apple Inc., is a great and easy to use photo editor. This Mac photo editing tool offers multiple easy to use editing tools like Smart Slider, filters, Markup tool to add text, shapes and more. If you’re looking for a tool that will help you with basics edits, then Mac’s built-in toll Photos is for you. In addition to this, Photos organizes images based on moments and it even allows you to create groups by person and more.

So, these were the best free photo editor that you can use on Mac.

Also Read: What Is EXIF Data- How To View And Edit It https://nightlucky.netlify.app/circuit-diagram-drawing-software-mac.html.

The Best Paid Mac Image Editors

If you’ve moved past being a time pass photographer and are serious about photo editing, you’ll definitely need professional tools. Paid photo editing tools are fully featured and will help you enhance the quality of your work. Not only this will help you save a lot of time once you get used to these apps.

1. Tweak Photos: Best batch photo editor for Mac (Recommended)

Tweak Photos make batch editing easy. Using this best photo editor is as easy as 1,2,3. With this tool you can edit any image formats including RAW, can add filters, effects of your choice and more. Furthermore, you can rename, resize an entire batch of photos, auto correct orientation, change the texture, add watermark and more. This professional picture editor allows you to apply filters and edits with a click of a button. Not only this when compared with other picture editing tools Tweak Photos has all the basic and advanced features plus the lesser price.

Get Tweak Photos: Best batch photo editor for Mac

Price: $4.99

2. Affinity Photo – lightweight picture editor

Affinity Photo can be considered as a lighter version of Photoshop. It has similar features like Photoshop – advanced selection tools, brushes, and layer support. Affinity Photos, when compared with Photoshop, is much faster especially on Mac machines without a dedicated graphics card.

Plus, you can edit PSD files in Affinity Photo. If you’ve learned all the basics, then this product is a must try.

Get:Affinity Photo: lightweight picture

Price: $49.99

3. Lightroom: Professional picture editor

Lightroom is a highly appreciated photo editor by professional photographers. Its workflow is what makes Lightroom stand apart and one of the best photo editors. Apart from stellar photo editing features, it has a simple yet intuitive interface. Moreover, you can mark important photos, skim RAW files, edit them, save presets, export to multiple formats and more.

Get:Adobe Lightroom: professional picture editor

Price: $9.99/month

4. Photoshop: Advanced photo editor

When compared with other image editors listed Photoshop stands apart. Photoshop is designed specifically for image enhancement and manipulation. This creative photo editing software for Mac makes impossible possible. It can be used by anyone to make something amazing. Further, whether you want to make a few edits to transform the picture you can use tools like adjust, crop, retouch, repair old photos and more.

Get:Adobe Photoshop
Price: $9.99/month

5. Pixelmator Pro: Elegant image editor for Mac

Pixelmator Pro is a powerful, easy to use image editor designed for Mac. This professional image editor comes with an extensive collection of editing tools that help in retouching images, creating graphic designs, adding stunning effects and more. Pixelmator puts all focus on the images you edit, rather than the background making image editing simple and fun.

Get:Pixelmator Pro

Price: $39.99

In the list above there’s something for everyone. We recommend using TweakPhotos as this tool offers all basic and advanced features. Although this is a paid tool, for the price it comes is nothing it’s just &4.99. This rich photo editing tool is a must to try and is a great choice. We hope you’ll give it a try. Whatever tool you choose you’ll get plenty of options to enhance your images. Do let us know which tool you selected to use from this list.

  • February 10, 2020
  • 33 min to read

Modern digital photography goes hand in hand with post-processing software. Although today the photo editing software market offers an unlimited number of options for photographers of all levels, most of the community sticks to tried-and-true Adobe Photoshop. It indeed is a universal app equipped with tools that a professional photographer would wish for, but it’s time to make way for the new.

For the past decades, a lot of new and worthy photo editors entered the market bringing revolutionary technologies into the mundane editing process making even the most complex editing tasks doable for novices and streamlined for pros. Here we listed some of the best photo editing apps on the market including both old and new for photographers of different needs and skill levels.

1. Luminar 4

Completely revamped Luminar 4 is finally here to shake up the world of photo-editing software. Improved to be even more intuitive, Luminar 4 also brings a ton of brand-new AI editing tools designed to speed up the photo editing workflow.

- AI Sky Replacement automatically changes the sky and relights and recolors the entire photo to match the new sky.

- AI Skin Enhancer & Portrait Enhancer do all the retouching for you with just one click.

- AI Enhance automatically enhances your photo by making numerous adjustments of different complexity.

- AI Structure brings details up or down depending on your needs.

- Sunrays adds realistic sun rays to your photo that you’re free to tweak as you please.

- Smart Contrast was improved to produce a more detailed and textured image.

Luminar 4 can not only be used as a stand-alone app but also as a plug-in for Adobe’s Photoshop and Lightroom to make the best of your tools.

✅ Pros:

  • Non-destructive editing
  • Intuitive interface
  • Improved performance
  • In-depth customization
  • Available as a plug-in as well

✖️ Cons:

  • Mediocre library functions
  • Limited exporting options

2. Adobe Lightroom

Adobe Lightroom has been the app of choice for professional and amateur photographers alike for many years now. It offers a well-thought-out set of features for managing, organizing, processing, and exporting your photos. With the advanced library features, like labels, keywords, collections, and search filters, the app makes it easy for you to keep track of large numbers of photos. Lightroom comes with a good selection of RAW profiles to define colors in your photos for more precise editing. Tweak your photos to perfection with adjustment sliders, perspective and lens correction tools, retouching tools, filters, profiles, and presets to speed up your workflow.

✅ Pros:

  • Built-in file management system
  • Face detection and tagging
  • Color and luminosity masking
  • Plug-in support

✖️ Cons:

  • Not the best choice for beginners
  • A bit too taxing for Windows
  • No auto-tagging
  • Comparatively slow importing

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What photo editing software do you use and why? Let us know in the comments, we’d be very interested to know!

3. ACDSee PHOTO STUDIO ULTIMATE 2020

Photo Studio Ultimate 2020 is a one-stop photo management and post-processing tool for Windows. It comes with everything you need to handle your files, like categories, keywords, face detection, ratings, color labels, metadata, geolocation, and more. It’s quite powerful when it comes to photo editing, too, offering a broad set of tools for a variety of different purposes. It allows you to process your RAW, JPEG and other types of files in a non-destructive way in Develop Mode and perfect them in Edit Mode by adjusting color and lighting, bringing out details, removing flaws, and adding final touches. The user interface is completely customizable to suit your preferences.

✅ Pros:

  • Excellent built-in file management system
  • Powerful post-processing features
  • Fully customizable interface

✖️ Cons:

  • Available only for Windows
  • Too overwhelming for beginners
  • Subscription-based online storage gallery

4. GIMP

GIMP is a free and open-source photo-editing tool that has been around for more than 20 years. It boasts a limitless number of state-of-the-art features that you wouldn’t expect to see in a free photo-editing app. The interface has been recently updated to be easier to use, however it still can be quite confusing for novices. GIMP offers a broad set of tools suitable not only for basic but for advanced editing, too. Here you can enhance colors, adjust hue and saturation, fix composition, adjust sharpness, reduce graininess, remove unwanted objects, work with masks, layers, and more.

✅ Pros:

  • 100% free
  • Open access to the source code
  • Has a broad selection of tools for different purposes
  • Plug-in support
  • Available for the main operating systems

✖️ Cons:

  • Non-intuitive workflow
  • Difficult to get the hang of
  • Lack of HDR support

5. Aurora HDR

Aurora HDR is a powerful HDR tool that brings innovation and simplicity together. The most recent update introduced a new Quantum HDR engine with AI-powered tone mapping technology which allows for more intelligent photo merging to produce vivid yet natural-looking photos. Whether you’re creating an HDR photo from bracketed shots or a single image, the app’s neural network enhances the photo and makes sure that no halos or ghosting spoils the final result. The brand-new Smart HDR Structure feature boosts details and sharpness without creating undesired artifacts that can make a photo look unrealistic. With over 80 distinctive Looks, you can make your photo look stunning in just one click.

✅ Pros:

  • One of the best HDR photo editors
  • Swift performance
  • Corrects badly taken single shots
  • Doesn’t create artifacts, halos, or noise
  • Available as a stand-alone app and plug-in
  • Plug-in support

✖️ Cons:

  • None worth mentioning

6. Adobe Photoshop Elements

Developed for beginner and hobbyist photographers, Photoshop Elements’ functions are naturally more limited than Photoshop’s but it has all the essentials for achieving astonishing results. It offers three editing modes:

The Quick mode includes the simplest tools for straightening and cropping photos, removing unwanted objects, enhancing portraits, and applying filters.

The Guided mode uses step-by-step wizards to take you through more complex edits like removing objects, replacing the background, merging multiple photos, creating double exposures, and more.

The Expert mode gives you access to more complex Photoshop-like features including layers, masks, and filters.

✅ Pros:

  • Excellent for entry-level photographers
  • Simple and straightforward interface
  • One-time purchase
  • A bunch of Photoshop-like features simplified for nonprofessionals
  • Dozens of clear guides

✖️ Cons:

  • Too limited functionality
Are you a Lightroom, Luminar, or Photoshop user? Then you'd probably want to see our collection of the best free and paid presets for them.

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7. ON1 Photo RAW 2020

ON1 took the best of Lightroom and Photoshop to create Photo RAW 2020 that’s brimming with professional-grade tools for editing, correcting, and enhancing photos. Here you can work with layers, masks, and blending modes, which give you more control over the final result as well as tweak numerous adjustment sliders to make your photos look more polished. With the abundance of various tools and panels, however, the interface looks a bit crowded and is somewhat difficult to navigate, which can significantly slow down the workflow.

✅ Pros:

  • One-time payment
  • Uses layer-based editing
  • A large collection of presets
  • Uses fractal technology for resizing
  • Panorama stitching
  • HDR merging;
  • Focus stacking;

✖️ Cons:

  • A bit too crowded interface
  • Not very intuitive to navigate
  • Limited exporting options

8. Exposure X5

Exposure X5 looks like a refined version of Lightroom that inherited only the features that photographers liked and used the most. Some of the most hated features were eliminated or improved. Thus, there’s no time-consuming import process in Exposure X5 - you can get straight to editing by adding a folder with your photos in a few clicks. The interface is very well-organized and can be customized to suit your editing purposes. Besides non-destructive layer-based editing and cutting-edge tools that are crucial for the professional photo-manipulating process, Exposure X5 offers a mind-blowing collection of over 500 presets that you can customize to your liking.

✅ Pros:

  • Beginner-friendly
  • Well-organized and customizable interface
  • No power-draining import process
  • Non-destructive layer-based editing
  • A broad selection of free presets
  • No subscription

✖️ Cons:

  • The interface design looks a bit outdated
  • Lack of panorama and HDR tools

9. Capture One Pro

Capture One Pro is a full-fledged pro photo editor created for experienced photographers and serious hobbyists. Originally designed for tethered shooting, Capture One Pro is the fastest and most flexible tethering tool for photographers of all genres. It also offers top-notch RAW photo-editing functionality, smart photo organization tools, layer support, powerful adjustment tools, and plenty of other features you’re looking for in professional-grade photo software.

Best Editing Picture Software For Mac

✅ Pros:

  • Exceptional rendering of RAW files
  • Numerous adjustment tools for different needs;
  • Layer-based editing
  • Industry-leading tethering features
  • Fast and smooth spot removal
  • Annotations feature

✖️ Cons:

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  • Lack of third-party plug-in support;
  • Lack of panorama and HDR tools
  • Limited organization features;
  • Absence of history panel

10. Affinity Photo

Even though Affinity Photo can’t boast any organization or management tools, it’s well-packed with all kinds of editing features for photographers of all levels. The workflow includes several Personas, or modes, focused on different editing stages. Develop Persona focuses on RAW file processing, Photo Persona is used for boosting your photos using layers, lighting and color adjustments, curves, LUTs, etc. Tone Mapping Persona is for HDR editing, Liquify Persona for bending photos, and Export Persona for exporting finished photos.

✅ Pros:

  • Layer-based editing
  • RAW editing tools
  • Panorama, HDR, and focus stack merging tools
  • No subscription

✖️ Cons:

  • No lens-based corrections
  • Lack of organization tools
  • No ability to save custom workspaces
  • Poor noise reduction

11. Pixlr

One of the most powerful online photo tools, Pixlr has become a popular choice when it comes to making quick photo corrections. Since it’s a web app, it doesn’t take up any room on your computer and is compatible with all operational systems. Pixlr features a clean and intuitive interface with many tools for cropping, selecting, transforming, removing objects, retouching and adjusting your photos using numerous sliders for brightness, contrast, vibrance, saturation, shadows, and more. It also offers a vast collection of filters and effects that will enhance your photos in a snap!

✅ Pros:

  • Beginner-friendly
  • Great for quick editing
  • Online
  • 100% free
  • Has a clean interface
  • Offers a nice collection of filters and effects
  • Mobile version available

Best Editing Photo Software For Mac

✖️ Cons:

  • Limited functionality
  • Advertising can be annoying
  • Can be laggy sometimes

12. Paint.NET

Developed to replace the iconic Microsoft Paint, Paint.NET has grown into a full-featured yet simple photo-editing tool for WIndows. The app offers a user-friendly interface that’s very easy to navigate. Paint.NET is packed with a nice set of tools for making your photos look beautiful in the most effortless way. Here you can play around with various adjustments, such as levels, curves, contrast, brightness, saturation, and more, selecting and removing objects, resize and crop your photos, and so much more!

✅ Pros:

  • 100% free
  • Unlimited history
  • Layer-based editing
  • Tons of creative filters and effects
  • Suitable for beginner and intermediate users
  • User-friendly interface
  • Plug-in support

✖️ Cons:

  • Only for Windows
  • Interface design looks a bit outdated
  • Limited functionality

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Do you agree with our opinion in this article? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

FAQ:

Q: Which one is the best photo editing software?

A: Luminar 4 is the best photo editing software because it offers the most powerful collection of features and tools for different editing needs.

Q: What is the easiest free photo editing software?

A: Paint.NET is the easiest free photo editing software, however, it has a very limited number of features suitable only for basic editing.

Best Editing Picture Software For Mac Free

Q: Which photo editing software is the best for HDR photo editing?

A: Aurora HDR is the best HDR photo editing software with a broad set of tools for creating and correcting HDR images.

Q: How can I edit pictures on my computer for free?

A: GIMP free photo editor is the best way to edit pictures on your computer for free. It’s well-packed with features and is suitable for beginners and pros alike.

Q: Which photo editing software can be used as a plug-in for Photoshop/ Lightroom?

A: Luminar 4 is the best Photoshop/ Lightroom plug-in that allows you to use its unique features in your go-to photo editor.

Whether you take photos for fun or business, it’s not an easy task to find a photo editing software that can best fit your photo editing needs with so many different options on the market. We believe that it’s easier to find something when you know what you’re looking for, so we came up with three criteria that you should take into account when looking for your one and only photo app. So, we recommend you to make your choice based on the features you want your app to have, the platform you’re going to use it on, and the price that you’re ready (or not) to pay for it. This will help you to filter out the irrelevant options and narrow your choices down to a few most suitable ones.

Features

We believe that all photo editing apps can be divided into several categories based on what they have to offer to users of different levels and needs. These categories are:

  1. Photo editing software for beginners. If you’re just starting out in photography or need to apply quick corrections to your photos once in a while, you should opt for a beginner-friendly photo editor like Paint.NET or Pixlr. Such editors usually have a clean and straightforward interface without too many tabs and icons, and a decent set of tools for applying basic corrections.
  2. Professional photo editing apps are designed for professional photographers and advanced hobbyists and give more control over photo processing and editing. Their use requires more specialized knowledge of photography and high photo-editing skill. Pro-grade photo editors like Adobe Lightroom or Capture One Pro often come with an in-build photo management system, provide support for RAW files, tethered shooting, and presets.
  3. Software for creating and editing vector graphics. As you probably know, there are two types of graphics: raster and vector. Raster graphics represent images as a pixel grid, while vector graphics use lines and curves. Vector software can’t change pixels and thus is ineffective for photo correction. However, you can use vector software to add graphics to your photo such as text, shapes, lines. Many raster photo editors include a handful of vector tools, like GIMP or Photoshop.
  4. AI photo software uses AI-based technology that allows reducing manual photo editing to a minimum - even the most complex editing tasks such as retouching or removing objects can be done with just a few clicks. Such apps are a popular choice among beginners and pros alike as they substantially speed up the editing process without affecting the quality. Luminar 4 is one of a few decent AI photo editing tools on the market.
  5. Open source photo editing apps are apps for which the source code can be viewed and changed by any user, like GIMP. It means that any user can interact with the program code to correct bugs, improve the exciting features and add new ones. Open-source software is usually completely free and for this reason much beloved by users of different levels of expertise.

Free Photo Editing Software For Mac

Platform

There is another thing you should take into account when looking for your perfect photo-editing app - the platform you’re going to use it on. If you’re a Mac or Windows user, you’ve got a wider choice of options unlike, for example, Chrome OS users, who have a much more limited choice. Let’s take a closer look at what we have here.

  • Windows is the most compatible with most of the photo software you're going to want to use. If you’re a Windows user, you have a great number of options to choose from including most widely-used apps like GIMP, Luminar 4, Lightroom, Paint.NET, and more.
  • As Mac is the second most popular operating system, you won’t have any troubles finding a photo app compatible with it. Here you still have a vast number of options including Lightroom, Aurora HDR, Luminar 4, etc. The popular GIMP, however, isn’t compatible with Mac.
  • If you’re a Chromebook user, your choice is limited to Google Play apps. Those, however, include a pretty good number of options, such as GIMP, Photoshop, Lightroom, and others. If you have strong programming skills, you could try installing external apps as well.

It doesn’t matter what platform you’re using if you choose to work in an online photo editor. It runs in a browser and doesn’t need installing.

If you’re looking for an app for your Android or iOS device, you should check what your app store has to offer. Some web and desktop apps, like Pixlr or Lightroom, however, have mobile versions.

Best Image Editing Software For Mac

Price

Best Picture Editing Software For Mac

No matter how good the software is, its price can be a real dealbreaker. Luckily, not all photo editing software is paid for. There are such apps as GIMP and Paint.NET that are completely free. Paid options include subscription-based (Photo Studio Ultimate 2020, Lightroom) and one-time-fee (Luminar 4, Photoshop Elements, Affinity Photo) software. Some paid apps though have free trial versions, so you can test an app for free for several days to see if it’s worth the money.