In a nutshell
- Photo editing software falls into two categories: 1. Photo management with basic editing capabilities. 2. Photo manipulation with unlimited possibilities to transform your images.
- Lightroom is our top pick for photo management software — you can neatly organize your photos in a library and edit them all in one place.
- Programs like Photoshop let you unleash your creativity — add or remove elements, merge images, and so much more.
- We use Lightroom for almost all of our own photos. In this article, we explain why — and which alternatives are worth your time.
How We Structured This Article
Before we dive in, we want to give you a sense of how we see the landscape of photo editing software — because that’s also how we’ve structured this article.
We start by distinguishing between two of the most well-known photo editing programs: Lightroom and Photoshop. Why? Because the two are designed for different purposes and therefore offer very different features. We’ll explain what each program is meant for.
Lightroom and Photoshop can do a lot, but they also cost a bit more. That’s why we’ll then introduce two alternatives to each program — one one-time purchase option and one free option — along with what they can do.
Alright, enough preamble! Now let’s figure out which photo editing program is the best fit for you.
Our Top 4 Reasons to Edit Your Photos
Since you clicked on this article, you’re clearly already interested in photo editing. That said, we often get the impression that many people see photo editing only as a way to artificially spruce up a photo.
In our opinion, though, there are quite a few other reasons to edit your photos — here are our top 4.
- Correcting shooting mistakes: Maybe you’ve accidentally changed a setting on your camera without noticing and only caught it a few shots later. That doesn’t mean you have to delete those photos. In post-processing, you can fix brightness, contrast, white balance, saturation, and much more with just a few clicks.
- Organizing: With many image editing programs, you can do more than just edit your photos — you can also sort, arrange, filter, rename, and generally organize them. Especially if you take or have a lot of photos, a program with these features is incredibly handy.
- Retouching: Of course, you can also edit photos down to the finest detail. Remove dark circles under eyes, darken the sky, erase a street sign. Anything distracting can be removed with a bit of photo editing — or you can even add something new.
- Fun: Photo editing can also be a lot of fun. You can let your creativity run wild and produce completely wild fantasy worlds.
Lightroom vs. Photoshop: What’s the Difference?
When people think of photo editing, the name Photoshop immediately comes to mind. We, on the other hand, primarily use Lightroom. Both are programs made by Adobe, but what’s the actual difference? Put very simply:
Lightroom = Edit and manage many photos at once
Photoshop = Edit individual photos in very intensive detail
Lightroom: Photo Management and Basic Photo Editing
Lightroom falls into the category of photo management programs. It gives you an interface where you can sort, filter, tag, rate, and do much more with all your photos. All of this brings order to your photo library and helps you find specific images.
You might be wondering why you even need this, since technically you could just organize your photos in folders on your computer. So why Lightroom?
For one, Lightroom offers more functionality for organizing, and above all, sorting in Lightroom is far more user-friendly. On top of that, you can also edit your photos right in Lightroom. Typical editing steps include adjusting brightness, contrast, and saturation, or straightening the horizon.
What’s especially handy is that you can edit many photos at the same time.
Note: Lightroom isn’t magic either, and ultimately how organized your photo library stays depends heavily on how much effort you put in yourself.
Photoshop: Photo Editing Down to the Finest Detail
Photoshop is a dedicated photo editing program. When it comes to editing, Photoshop lets you truly push the limits of what’s possible.
For example, you can combine multiple photos into a composite, or swap out individual subjects within an image. Pure photo editing programs like Photoshop give you far more tools for working on your image at a granular level.
That said, these programs can be a bit overwhelming at first, and you’ll definitely need some time to get up to speed. You’d also need a separate program to manage your photos.
Our Top Recommendations
In a moment, we’ll introduce our top 6 photo editing programs in detail. If you’re short on time or just want a quick, clear answer, here’s a breakdown of which program fits your personal needs as a photographer.
You want to…
… not have to choose between photo management and photo editing? Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Plan!
The Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Plan is, in our view, the best value for money — you get Lightroom and Photoshop for just 12 euros per month, including plenty of tutorials to help you get familiar with both programs. It combines all the capabilities of photo management and photo editing in a single subscription.
… avoid being locked into a long-term subscription? Affinity Photo!
If a subscription doesn’t make sense for you, or you simply prefer paying once, then Affinity Photo is ideal. It’s relatively affordable and offers all the features Photoshop does. With Affinity Photo, you can even open Photoshop files, as well as all other common file formats.
… quickly enhance photos without a steep learning curve? Luminar Neo!
Luminar Neo offers a wide range of automatic features, so you can correct and dramatically transform your photos with just a few clicks. It’s especially great if you’re not yet very experienced with photo editing but still want to get the most out of your photos.
… spend no money or just dip your toes in? Darktable and Gimp!
If you’re on a tight budget or just want to try out photo editing for the first time, we recommend Gimp and Darktable. Gimp is the free counterpart to Photoshop, and Darktable works similarly to Lightroom.
Lightroom and Its Alternatives
Let’s get into the details: What photo management programs are out there, and what can they do? Here’s a quick overview of our top 3.
| Lightroom | Luminar Neo | Darktable | |
|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  | |
| Manufacturer | Adobe | Skylum | Darktable |
| Cost | 11.89 EUR per month with a Lightroom subscription | 59 EUR / 12 months 99 EUR / Lifetime | free |
| Advantages | + intuitive to use + regular updates, always up to date + compatible with the latest cameras + includes cloud storage for your photos + large selection of tutorials | + achieve results in just a few clicks + intuitive + many automatic functions + layer functions | + very many features + completely free |
| Disadvantages | - subscription required | - fewer management features than Lightroom | - irregular updates - can be complicated due to the many features - small community |
| Trial version | 7-day trial | 7-day trial | Free anyway |
| Download here | Download here | Download here |
Lightroom CC
Lightroom is extremely popular — and we use it ourselves, because editing and organizing with it is fast and straightforward.
Originally, Lightroom was actually a pure photo management tool. Today, however, it’s a powerful program that still manages to stay clear and approachable for beginners.
One section of this best photo editing software is the library, where you can sort, rate, and tag your photos.
Beyond that, there’s also the Editor. Here you can adjust things like brightness, contrast, and saturation. The Healing Brush lets you work more precisely on specific areas.
Another handy feature of Lightroom is Presets. These are pre-saved settings you can apply to your photos to achieve a particular look — think of them a bit like Instagram filters. You can find free versions online, or purchase them.
What does Lightroom CC cost and what do you get?
Lightroom CC is available by subscription only. In return, you always have access to the latest version. Adobe also includes cloud storage, so you can back up your photos and access them from anywhere.
You can either get Lightroom with 1 TB of cloud storage for around 12 euros per month, or Lightroom + Photoshop CC with 20 GB of cloud storage for also around 12 euros per month.
Where can you find tips and help for Lightroom?
When you subscribe to an Adobe product, you also get access to a wide range of video and written tutorials, as well as a community. You’ll genuinely find something on just about every topic.
Beyond that, there are also plenty of YouTube videos about Lightroom out there.
Luminar Neo
Luminar Neo by Skylum is a photo management and editing program that has become known primarily for its use of artificial intelligence. The layout is similar to Lightroom’s.
There’s a Library section where you can find, sort, and rate all your photos. It’s not quite as comprehensive as Lightroom’s, though.
In Edit mode, you can edit and export your photos in Luminar. It offers the usual features like brightness, contrast, and white balance adjustments. You can also correct perspective and much more.
What really sets Luminar apart is that the software can handle many editing steps for you by analyzing your photos and applying appropriate settings automatically.
On top of that, the interface is playful and genuinely simple to use. To give you an idea, here are two examples: with a single click, you can replace the entire sky in a photo, or in just a few steps you can retouch your subject’s skin.
Want to learn more about Luminar Neo? Check out our full review of the software.
Lies auch:
What does Luminar Neo cost and what do you get?
Luminar is now available by subscription as well. If you sign up for 24 months upfront, you pay 99 euros. For 12 months it’s 59 euros, and you can also pay monthly. There are regular discount promotions, too, so you can save some money.
Use our discount code SKYLUM22PLACES10 to save 10%. Go to Luminar Neo
If you change your mind within the first 30 days, you’ll get your money back thanks to the money-back guarantee.
Where can you find tips and help for Luminar Neo?
Luminar offers an X membership. With this paid membership, you get access to tutorials, photography courses, and a community. You’ll also receive free presets, overlays, and additional discount promotions.
Alternatively, you can find plenty of YouTube videos about Luminar as well. Just make sure you’re searching for your specific version. The current version is Luminar Neo. Before that, there was Luminar AI, Luminar 4, and simply Luminar.
Go to the Luminar X Membership
Darktable
Free — can it actually be any good? Yes, we think so! Darktable is also structured similarly to Lightroom or Luminar Neo.
In the “Lighttable” section, you’ll find your photos along with the usual rating and filtering options. In the “Darkroom,” you can then edit and adjust your photos. The photo browser is very well thought out and runs quickly, as do the editing features.
What does Darktable cost and what do you get?
Darktable is genuinely impressive image editing software — and completely free. That said, Lightroom and Luminar do offer more convenience features and, above all, better support. For getting started with photo management and editing, or as a free alternative, we can highly recommend Darktable.
Download Darktable for free now
Where can you find tips and help for Darktable?
In our opinion, the range of functions in the editor is a bit overwhelming, which makes good support around the software all the more important.
Unfortunately, the Darktable community isn’t that large. If you have questions about the software, you may need to do some searching online.
Photoshop and Its Alternatives
Photoshop is practically a synonym for photo editing — and certainly not without good reason. But what can the program actually do? And what are the best alternatives to Photoshop?
We’ll show you that in detail in just a moment, but first here’s a quick overview of our top 3 photo editors.
| Photoshop | Affinity Photo | Gimp | |
|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  | |
| Manufacturer | Adobe | Serif | Gimp |
| Cost | 11.89 EUR per month with the Photography plan | one-time 74.99 EUR | free |
| Advantages | + enormous range of features + regular updates + large community | + extensive feature set similar to Photoshop + easy switch from Photoshop + comparatively affordable + no subscription required + iPad use possible | + extensive feature set + completely free |
| Disadvantages | - subscription required - requires a learning curve | - requires a learning curve | - irregular updates - fewer tutorials available for learning |
| Trial version | 7 days | 10 days | Free anyway |
| Download here | Download here | Download here |
Photoshop CC
Photoshop has been around for a long time. Accordingly, the tools available are highly refined and incredibly varied. Almost nothing is impossible.
In Photoshop, you can make small corrections to your photos — like removing dark circles in portraits — but you can also go all the way to very complex and creative manipulations, such as merging multiple photos into a composite. Only your imagination sets the limits.
By the way: while Luminar is a pioneer in automated editing, Photoshop has caught up and now also offers a number of features in this area, such as simplified portrait retouching.
Photoshop does have one downside, though: precisely because there are so many tools, you’ll need a fair amount of time to get familiar with the program. But if you enjoy really diving deep into a piece of software — all the better!
What does Photoshop cost and what do you get?
You can get Photoshop for around 23 euros per month. Somewhat surprisingly, the Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Plan (which we mentioned in the Lightroom section) is also available for just 12 euros, and includes Lightroom as well. That would be our clear recommendation, since the two programs complement each other really well.
Where can you find tips and help for Photoshop?
Adobe itself now offers many excellent tutorials. But beyond Adobe, you’ll also find a wealth of knowledge online for whatever questions or challenges you run into with Photoshop.
Affinity Photo
Affinity Photo hasn’t been on the market all that long, but it holds its own against Photoshop in every way and has already won numerous press awards.
The range and layout of tools is comparable to Photoshop: you have layers, masks, compositing, color management — in short, everything a photo editing enthusiast could want. There’s also a built-in RAW converter. What’s missing are the AI features found in Luminar or Photoshop.
If you’ve already worked in Photoshop and want to switch, that’s no problem either. Affinity Photo supports Photoshop’s native file format .psd.
Affinity Photo is available for Windows and Mac. There’s also a dedicated iPad version, which makes digital painting especially interesting.
What does Affinity cost and what do you get?
You can get Affinity Photo for a one-time fee of around 75 euros. There are frequent sales, so you can often save a bit more. Affinity Photo has also been very generous with updates so far — the last major update was free for existing customers as well.
Where can you find tips and help for Affinity?
Just like Adobe, Affinity offers an extensive library of video tutorials on their website covering their various software options. The videos are primarily in English.
Gimp
Gimp stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It’s completely free and offers similar features to Photoshop or Affinity Photo. You can work with layers, masks, filters, color adjustments, and transformations.
One downside here, as with most free programs, is that updates are released very irregularly. You also need some time to get used to GIMP, since a lot of things look different compared to typical photo editing programs.
What does Gimp cost and what do you get?
As mentioned: Gimp is completely free and ideal for getting started with photo editing, since you can try out an enormous number of features.
Where can you find tips and help for Gimp?
Gimp celebrated its 25th anniversary in November 2020. Since it’s been around for so long, there’s a large community built up around it, so you can quickly find help online whenever you run into a problem.
