The best photo editing software for organizing, editing, RAW and effects

Choosing the best image editing software used to be easy. You would just say Photoshop, and that would be it. Some people still do.

The fact is, though, that the whole field of image editing has opened up to a far wider audience who want to do a lot more with their images – and more quickly and simply – than Photoshop was ever designed for. This is how Life after Photoshop came about.

Image editing software now has to do more than retouching, compositing and detailed Photoshop style manipulation. Photographers want software that will organize and catalog their images, offer creative and inspiring preset effects, let them try out different image ‘looks’ on single images, add an effect to whole folders full of images at a time… and so on.

The fact is, everyone will be looking for something different in their software, so trying to put this list in order of merit really doesn’t make much sense. This is even more true for people like me who use two or more applications to get the full spread of features they want. So it seems to me the simplest and most ‘neutral’ way to list these programs is in alphabetical order. I do have my favorites, of course.

Best photo editing software for layers, composites and Photoshop style editing

1. Affinity Photo: it’s really the only contender, and short of putting in Photoshop itself, there’s nothing else that matches Affinity Photo’s power, depth and professional capabilities

Best photo editing software for image management

1. Adobe Lightroom Classic: for all-round organizing, searching, keywording and filtering, I’d say Lightroom Classic has it, but Capture One is very close with its own strengths
2. Capture One: Capture One offers not just regular catalogs, but managed catalogs (like Aperture used to) and sessions with ‘live’ folder views – it might just work better for you than Lightroom
3. Adobe Lightroom: The web-based version of Lightroom brings the ultimate convenience of having all your images everywhere, but the organizing tools are weaker and cloud storage costs extra

Best photo editing software for RAW processing

1. DxO PhotoLab Elite: DxO’s lens corrections are excellent and even counter edge softness, its raw processing is first rate, and its DeepPRIME process is in a class of its own for noise reduction and detail
2. Capture One: Capture One is close second, with excellent RAW processing straight out of the box, the widest range of adjustment tools and a great balance of detail and noise
3. Adobe Lightroom/Lightroom Classic: it’s the RAW processing tool that everyone uses but which I think its the worst because of its ‘gritty’ default noise rendering, which is note always easy to alleviate without losing detail

Best photo editing software for effects

1. DxO Nik Collection: the scope of this collection, its tools, its effects and its sheer inspirational quality make it the best all-round effects too by far, in my opinion
2. ON1 Photo RAW: this is a wide-ranging program and effects are only a part of what it does, but I think they are the best part, not least because of its excellent preset library
3. Exposure X: another all-in-one organizer, editor and effects tool where the effects are definitely the star of the show – and especially good for fans of old-school analog looks
4. Camera Bag Pro: never heard of it? I’m not surprised, but it’s well worth a look as a clever and different effects tool that has some great presets and doesn’t cost a lot
5. Skylum Luminar Neo: it’s only on this list because it would look odd if it wasn’t, but I find a lot of Luminar’s AI tech pointless showboating and its subscription/extensions marketing strategy seems to change every week

Best all-in-one photo editing software

1. ON1 Photo RAW: this program is a clear winner for me because it does so much and stays bang up to date. Its organizing is OK, its editing tools are good and its effects are excellent
2. Exposure X: I would put Exposure X a close second. It’s clearer and simpler to use than ON1 Photo RAW, but its RAW processing isn’t the best and it can’t do multi-layer composites
3. ACDSee Photo Lab: so far I’ve only tested the Mac version, but the Windows version is on my list. I find it clunky and expensive with no obvious advantages over its rivals
4. Corel PaintShop Pro: Another Windows-only program I don’t like very much. It could be good for novices, but it seems to live in its own little time-warp and can be basic and annoying to use

I now review both Mac and PC software, but I prefer programs that come in both Mac and Windows versions. The reviews and tutorials on Life after Photoshop are based on these Mac versions and I make the assumption (rightly, I hope) that the Windows versions will be the same. With Windows only software, naturally, I work only on a Windows machine.

This article is designed to offer a simple overview of the photo editing software market and Photoshop alternatives in particular. You can follow the links to the individual reviews for more information, and I always recommend you download trial versions of programs to try them out and get a sense of how well they fit with your own shooting and editing style.

The list below is alphabetical. I try to keep up with the latest versions of everything, so if there’s a previous version in the list, I promise I will get around to it!

What do I use?

This changes fairly often according to the latest software updates and what I’m reviewing or writing tutorials about at the time.

My regular go-to tools, however, are:

• Capture One: for cataloguing, organising, seamless RAW editing, basic enhancements and as a digital hub for other external editors and plug-ins
• Exposure X: for a number of favorite preset effects with a style that none of the others can easily recreate
• DxO Nik Collection: for essentially the same reason, and as an almost unending source of inspiration
• Pixelmator Pro: for routine image resizing, web optimisation and export, annotations and illustrations – and some effects not available elsewhere