Most often, programs for professional photo processing really differ from similar software for beginners. They support almost all formats of modern digital cameras, allow you to connect external add-ons and have the most advanced tools for layering.
Of course, not all specialized tools have a simple interface, sometimes it is necessary to spend time studying the functionality to work with them.
In this article, we compare the possibilities and determine using professional tools for processing photos.
Adobe Photoshop
This program is known even to those who have never used it. Although it is not clear why to use such a powerful editor and not even use 20% of its functionality when there are many simple free utilities. But for amateurs and professionals who are interested in working with bitmap images, the program for processing photos Photoshop is strictly recommended.
The effectiveness of the program is useless to challenge. Professional designers and artists who have recognized this fact with the help of this popular graphic tool from Adobe have seriously expanded their creative capabilities.
Without a doubt, Photoshop has a wide range of functions and is an industry standard. Unlimited editing capabilities with virtually no loss of quality make this editor special and distinguish it from a dozen other graphical tools. And such a program is also unique in features such as masks, smart auto-correction, color management, creating HDR images, brush sets, applying effects, managing layers, tools for precise selection, and so on.
With it, you can quickly fix any image using functions that allow you to remove distortion from the lens, chromatic aberration or vignetting. Drawing and color management is also a fairly simple process in Photoshop, since there are all the necessary tools for this.
Advantages and disadvantages
Among the many advantages of this application for professional photo processing, users note the following:
- with flexible print settings it’s convenient to create individual layouts of photographs of different sizes on one page;
- Suitable for professional designers;
- It has a huge number of effects, settings and filters;
- has ample opportunities for correcting and editing photographs, you can also finish other people's compositions and drawings or create your own;
- It is possible to connect a variety of plugins.
And the disadvantages include:
- error and crash when opening other programs with Photoshop;
- serious reserves of RAM are required, not to mention the volume occupied by the editor on the hard drive;
- no version for Linux.
New tools in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
Adobe Lightroom is an exciting new application fully developed by professional photographers. This is a powerful and efficient way to process, select, import, and display large quantities of digital images.
The program meets all the needs of photographers in a tool that allows you to quickly process images in raw format. You can manage your pictures with Lightroom, view them as slide shows, print and place them in interactive galleries.
Cross-platform enables photographers to professionally process photos with Lightroom, both on Windows and Macintosh.
The editor contains the following improvements:
- correction of localization made it possible to increase specific areas of the image due to the function of non-destructive control and flexibility;
- thanks to the support of multiple monitors, you will achieve effective management of image processing and presentation by adding an additional monitor;
- improved organizational tools will allow you to find the necessary images easily and quickly;
Lightroom's photo-processing program is primarily aimed at getting direct feedback from photographers on the Adobe Labs website, urging them to directly participate and influence Adobe development.
Features and Features of Lightroom
The program will allow you to spend less time sorting and organizing images, so you will have more time to improve your skills in photography.
- fast print high quality pictures;
- improved photo processing with effects;
- use simple controls to create complex slide shows, with the inclusion of background music from a digital music library or iTunes;
- conversion to DNG format - automatically;
- several options for viewing - using the “Magnifier” tool, you will quickly find and be able to select the best photos or compare the images of two pictures by placing them side by side;
- conversion to black and white color image. Contrast and detail control on the black and white version.
And this is not a complete list of all the advantages. Ultimately, photographers made Lightroom from “A” to “Z” for themselves and for themselves as an assistant in solving the unique problems of professional photo processing.
GIMP graphical editor
This gaining popularity and completely free tool for professional image editing is comfortably placed on the same level with graphic giants from Adobe.
GIMP is short for GNU Image Manipulation Program (GNU Image Processing Software). This utility can perform tasks such as creating and combining images, retouching photos.
The GIMP editor has very wide possibilities. It can be used as a simple tool for drawing, or as an application for professional retouching of digital photographs of the highest class. In addition, there is the possibility of batch processing of images, a publication system and an image converter from one format to another.
The program supports various extensions and plugins, therefore, to satisfy a wide variety of requests and needs, its functionality can be significantly expanded.
Wide opportunities
The user, in addition to all the above about the GIMP editor, is provided with the widest possibilities for automating tasks from the simplest to the extremely complex.
- customizable and flexible interface, as well as lessons on professional photo processing with GIMP will allow you to fully customize the appearance and behavior of the program to fully comply with the tasks;
- wide functionality for digital retouching of images, including the Healing Brush and Cloning tools;
- the ability to correct optical distortions obtained by the camera lens;
- a wide range of supported equipment, which, among other things, includes pressure-sensitive drawing tablets;
- Support for most types of formats - from the most common and ending with specialized professional image formats.
Easy to use
The program Photo Manager for professional photo processing, in addition to the standard function of viewing graphics, includes numerous tools for editing images, as well as print functions of the received images.
As a manager of photo collections, the editor will allow you to find all the images on your computer, assign tags to them and search, in keywords, in the database. In addition, there is a function for finding duplicate images.
Features and functions:
- viewing images and browsing folders - a classic list of images in folders; viewing photos on removable media, network and CD-ROMs, DVDs;
- printing photos both on one image on the page, and several images on the page with the optimal layout
- image editing - adjustment of contrast and brightness, saturation and tone, color balance, gamma correction, the use of additional filters to process photo styles;
- plugin support;
- saving edited photos with support for the most common formats;
- search in databases - by categories, keywords and ratings;
- photo management - you can copy, sort, move, delete image files in various program windows.
Corel PaintShop Pro
A truly functional and universal tool for professional photo processing is Corel PaintShop Pro.
The application is a graphical editor for professionals, which includes many tools for image processing and unique effects. In addition, the program includes modules for quickly creating selections and sorting graphic files. Corel PaintShop Pro will surprise you with a well-organized, stylish interface, divided into three main modules: editing, management and customization.
In the control section, you can add tags to pictures or view technical data. In the settings section you can use quick filters and use the tool to automatically determine the current and optimal levels of brightness, sharpness, contrast and other parameters. The program has a tool for filtering color noise in photos.
In conclusion, it should be noted that the Corel developers, of course, managed to create one of the best alternatives to professional photo processing in Photoshop - they turned out to be a wonderful graphic editor with a lot of interesting features.
Simple but powerful graphics editor
Paint.NET is also free. Neither in the program interface, nor in the installation process there is no advertising. Its level of capabilities is rated as average - higher than that of Paint, and lower than that in products like GIMP.
When you open the utility for the first time, it is very easy to add images - both by simple drag and drop, and through the main menu. By default, a toolbar opens with the main control components. You can find tools that are usually only available in professional multifunctional editors - selecting an arbitrary area, drawing, a wand that selects areas of the same color, etc.
In the "Images" menu there are tools for rotating images, resizing and mirroring. The program allows you to work with layers in the menu item "Layers". There is a red-eye removal function, various distortions, several types of blur.
A Paint.NET user can be an amateur who does not want to learn complex products like GIMP or Photoshop, but on the other hand is ready to try himself in the professional field.
Portrait Professional App
In conclusion, a few words about a rather bulky, but easy-to-use tool that a professional photographer might need. This editor is designed to remove defects on the face, red eyes, excess wrinkles, ugly eyelashes, unevenly large cheeks and so on. In general, this tool is entirely intended to correct and improve the face in frontal images. Despite the many tools and functions, working in the program is very simple.