After exploring what photography is and learning bit about its history it is now time to cover some tools of the trade. We are going to focus on the digital workflow and the software available to photography lovers of all stages from beginners and professional users. First of there are two types of programs to consider that were designed to either assist users in managing large quantities of digital images, doing post production work or even do both.
The leading graphic editing program in the market today is Adobe Photoshop developed and published by Adobe Systems. Due to the rather high price tag and advanced features Photoshop is mainly used by professionals in the creative industry that depend on its performance and high quality output. Alongside Photoshop Adobe introduced Adobe Bridge, an organizational file browser that ships as part of the Adobe Creative Suite. The last addition to the Adobe family came with Photoshop Lightroom a photography software program that combines photo management and non-destructive editing in one interface. Targeted at hobbyists and consumers seeking a program with fewer and simpler options Adobe offers Photoshop Elements that allows users to create, edit, organize and share images, all from the same product and at a fraction of the cost of Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom.
Another great option for raster graphic software with a moderate price tag is Corel PaintShop Pro that was first developed for computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system. And for the OS X environment Apple developed Aperture a photo editing and management computer program that is currently available in the Apps Store.
Should you be unsure if the software mentioned above is what you want to buy? Below you will find a selection of links to free versions of photo editing programs (listed in no particular preference or order). Check them out, follow the link to download the program and most importantly have fun exploring the endless possibilities of photo editing.
- Photoshop Express
- Google Photo Apps
- Photo! Editor
- Image Analyzer
- Photobie
- Photoscape
- Seashore
- Photoplus
- PhotoFiltre
- LiveQuartz
- iPhoto
- Acorn
- Picasa
- Gimp
- Paint
- Pixlr