Photo Editing Software
Derek Smith • 11 February 2020
Snowdrop before editing
Photo By: Derek Smith
Snowdrop photo after editing
Photo By: Derek Smith
Photo Editing Software
This article is not an endorsement of any particular software, nor is it a recommendation of any editing software, instead the article is merely a personal view on which software that I use, and why I use it.
Firstly, let me say that I personally am not in favour of a subscription model for photo editing software, I much prefer to pay up front for a copy of software, and have it as my personal copy, loaded onto my personal computer.
Affinity Photo – This is a very powerful piece of software; it uses layers for the various adjustments. Affinity readily imports RAW images and allows the user to make initial adjustments to the image, before “Developing” the image into a 16-bit Affinity file, where again non-destructive editing can be carried out, before exporting the image usually into an 8 bit .jpg. As with any powerful editing software, there is quite a steep learning curve, but there are an excellent range of tutorials on YouTube, as well as Vimeo, and there is also a printed manual for further instruction. Affinity Photo software works on Apple Macs, Windows, and iPad.
Likes: Tone Mapping, Perspective Filter, and Masking.
Dislikes: Learning curve, and time taken to process an image.
FastStone Image Viewer – A free to use image viewer, and editor, available for Windows computers only. This is a very useful, and versatile image viewer and editor, in full screen mode the control panels are hidden, move the cursor to the left to show the editing panel, move the cursor right to show the EXIF information, and moving the cursor up to the top of the screen shows the image folder view.
Likes: Simplicity, it’s free, the ability to view a folder of images is very useful, and fast editing using keyboard shortcuts.
Dislikes: No layering, or masks.
Apple Photos – A very useful image viewer and editor for those on the Apple eco system it works seamlessly across all Apple devices. Simple sliders for any adjustments, and an “auto enhance” magic wand makes for good ease of use. The iCloud storage backup of images is baked into Photos and synchronises images across all devises owned.
Likes: Ease of use, backup, and works over all your Apple devices.
Dislikes: For Apple devices only, locked into Apple eco system, no advanced features.
Skylum Luminar 4 – This image editor can be used on Windows, and Apple Macs. The simple enhancement filter presets are a pleasure to use. The AI features work very well, although it can take a few seconds for the effects to be seen in the image, editing is non-destructive, simply roll back any changes made. Sky replacement, and portrait enhancement tools are very effective. RAW processing is so easy (for Sony ARW files), no developing stage, the image loads, you choose the adjustments / filters, and export as a .jpg. Folders of images can be added to the Luminar Library, no new folder is created, Luminar just adds the path to the selected folder.
Likes: Ease of use, simple sliders, enhancement filter presets, customisable vignette, glow tools, and graduated filters.
Dislikes: Crop, resize, and straighten tools are not as easy to use as FastStone.
Workflow – I will normally view my images in Apple Photos, or FastStone, select the images that I would like to edit, and place these in a separate folder, these are usually imported from the camera.
After editing in Luminar 4, or Affinity Photo, I will export, and save as .jpg. Where I’ve used Luminar 4 as an editor on the Windows laptop, I’ll crop, resize, or straighten in FastStone. The edited images can be imported to Apple Photos, or saved to the Pictures folder in Windows, and I will also save the photos to my SmugMug cloud storage.
This article is not an endorsement of any particular software, nor is it a recommendation of any editing software, instead the article is merely a personal view on which software that I use, and why I use it.
Firstly, let me say that I personally am not in favour of a subscription model for photo editing software, I much prefer to pay up front for a copy of software, and have it as my personal copy, loaded onto my personal computer.
Affinity Photo – This is a very powerful piece of software; it uses layers for the various adjustments. Affinity readily imports RAW images and allows the user to make initial adjustments to the image, before “Developing” the image into a 16-bit Affinity file, where again non-destructive editing can be carried out, before exporting the image usually into an 8 bit .jpg. As with any powerful editing software, there is quite a steep learning curve, but there are an excellent range of tutorials on YouTube, as well as Vimeo, and there is also a printed manual for further instruction. Affinity Photo software works on Apple Macs, Windows, and iPad.
Likes: Tone Mapping, Perspective Filter, and Masking.
Dislikes: Learning curve, and time taken to process an image.
FastStone Image Viewer – A free to use image viewer, and editor, available for Windows computers only. This is a very useful, and versatile image viewer and editor, in full screen mode the control panels are hidden, move the cursor to the left to show the editing panel, move the cursor right to show the EXIF information, and moving the cursor up to the top of the screen shows the image folder view.
Likes: Simplicity, it’s free, the ability to view a folder of images is very useful, and fast editing using keyboard shortcuts.
Dislikes: No layering, or masks.
Apple Photos – A very useful image viewer and editor for those on the Apple eco system it works seamlessly across all Apple devices. Simple sliders for any adjustments, and an “auto enhance” magic wand makes for good ease of use. The iCloud storage backup of images is baked into Photos and synchronises images across all devises owned.
Likes: Ease of use, backup, and works over all your Apple devices.
Dislikes: For Apple devices only, locked into Apple eco system, no advanced features.
Skylum Luminar 4 – This image editor can be used on Windows, and Apple Macs. The simple enhancement filter presets are a pleasure to use. The AI features work very well, although it can take a few seconds for the effects to be seen in the image, editing is non-destructive, simply roll back any changes made. Sky replacement, and portrait enhancement tools are very effective. RAW processing is so easy (for Sony ARW files), no developing stage, the image loads, you choose the adjustments / filters, and export as a .jpg. Folders of images can be added to the Luminar Library, no new folder is created, Luminar just adds the path to the selected folder.
Likes: Ease of use, simple sliders, enhancement filter presets, customisable vignette, glow tools, and graduated filters.
Dislikes: Crop, resize, and straighten tools are not as easy to use as FastStone.
Workflow – I will normally view my images in Apple Photos, or FastStone, select the images that I would like to edit, and place these in a separate folder, these are usually imported from the camera.
After editing in Luminar 4, or Affinity Photo, I will export, and save as .jpg. Where I’ve used Luminar 4 as an editor on the Windows laptop, I’ll crop, resize, or straighten in FastStone. The edited images can be imported to Apple Photos, or saved to the Pictures folder in Windows, and I will also save the photos to my SmugMug cloud storage.
Louth Photographic Society
At our meeting last night we held a PDI (printed digital image) competition, with the categories of "Local Unedited", and "Open". As this was a members competition one of our members judged the competition, Tony Gaskins was our first judge for the "Local Unedited" category, these were .jpg images taken straight from the camera, without any editing, apart from the resizing for projection. Presenting an image such as this in a competition is quite a difficult task, the photographer has to ensure that the correct exposure is chosen, the composition, and subject matter has to be precise, everything done in camera. Normally for competition entries, a degree of post processing would be involved, simple edits like toning down highlights, or even removing extraneous objects from a scene, emphasising a moody sky, all not allowed. Tony Gaskins did an excellent job with his judging, providing clear and concise critique of the images presented, he "held back" 8 images for further consideration, awarding higher points, and finally choosing the top three placements. After the break it was Robin Begley's turn to judge the "Open" category, as these were post process edited images the standard was higher than the unedited images, but surprisingly not markedly so. Robin is potentially hoping to become a N&EMPF approved judge, and he had a different style, able to suggest edits that could have improved an image, again his critique was clear and concise communicating well with members. Robin chose 8 images for further consideration, awarding higher points, and finally selecting the top three placements. It was a fabulous, and interesting competition with excellent images, many thanks to both our judges, it's not an easy job, probably nearly as bad as being a referee in a football match!! Many thanks to both our judges, well done.
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Roger Hance Memorial Lecture 16th October
Last night Lee Dixon from Cleethorpes Camera Club gave his first ever presentation to a camera club, which we were privileged to view. His presentation consisted of portraiture, creative, and his genre of choice; wildlife. Lee is an extremely talented photographer, with a highly creative portfolio, his portraits are quite atmospheric, unusual, and capture the essence of the model, and scene. For Lee’s creative work, he buys props from charity shops, often very cheaply, reusing those props in various scenes. For his composite work he will often take one of his photos of a room, and blend it with a subject in Photoshop using “blend” modes. For wildlife he visited Lake Kerkini in Greece to photograph the Pelicans, if the sky is a little on the bland side, Lee will often over expose the image resulting in a striking white background to the subject. On safari in Africa Lee showed us some amazing images of the wildlife, the close-up images of elephants, the wildebeest migration, and this stunning image of a cheetah. Lee was ably assisted by Mike Bennett. More of Lee’s work can be found on his website: https://leedixonphoto.co.uk/ Lee his kindly given permission for his images to be used in this post. Many thanks to Lee, and Mike for an amazing evening.
Good Morning All Last week at the club we held our monthly PDI competition, with the categories of "Objects in the Air" and "Open", there was a very high-quality entry in both competitions and judge Mike Bennett had quite a job on his hands scoring the entries. Well, done to Dave Turner for first place in the Objects in the Air and Tony Gaskins for first place in the Open. All the results are on our website. This week, Wednesday 30th September, our speaker will be Lee Dixon from Cleethorpes Camera Club showing us his natural history, Creative and many other photographs he has taken. It will be the first time Lee has shown his photographs at our club. If anyone else wants to enter PDI's in the 2027 N&EMPF Exhibition, the deadline is this Wednesday at midnight. Harry is still taking entries for the PDI competition, with the categories of "Local Straight from Camera" (unedited .jpg), and "Open", to be held on Wednesday 7th October. Regards Graham
At the meeting last night Mike Bennett judged our competition with the categories of “Objects in the Air”, and “Open”. The standard of entries was excellent, and it gave Mike a tough task of judging the images, Mike gave some very good critique of the images displayed, the feedback helps members to develop compositional skills. Dave Turner was awarded first place for his image of the “Tiger Club Display Team” in the “Objects in the Air” category. Tony Gaskins was awarded first place for his image of the “Spectacular Rustgill” in the “Open” category.
Good Morning All, Last week at the club we watched the N&EMPF PDI Exhibition for 2026, it was a very good evening viewing very high standard images from all over the East Midlands. Dave Turner and I did manage to get images accepted; there is a full report on our website. This week, Wednesday 23rd September, we will hold our monthly PDI competition, with the categories of "Objects in the Air" and "Open", please send entries to Harry by midnight tonight. Harry is also accepting images for the PDI competition, with the categories of "Local Straight out of the Camera (only resizing permitted)" and "Open". Regards Graham
Members were shown the 2026 N&EMPF PDI Exhibition video last night with all of the accepted PDI images in the first part, and after the break the awarded PDI images. There were some stunning images on view, and Louth was successful in having 3 PDI images accepted, Graham Harrison with his image of a Stonechat, and Dave Turner with his portrait of Paul Rudd, and his monochrome image of Kings Cross railway station "Going Down". Overall it was a good inspirational evening.
Good Morning All Last week at the club members had 15 minutes to show what they had done over the summer. It was a very interesting evening with eight members taking part. There were many locations on show and as usual some excellent photography. There is a full report on our blog. This week, Wednesday 16th September, we will be showing the N&EMPF exhibition, this is part one showing all the PDI's that were accepted. This is the highest standard of photography we as individuals take part in as a club. Members sent around 50 entries but only 3 were accepted. If you are inspired to enter the 2027 Exhibition after seeing the show, I send the clubs entries and I can give you more information. Closing date is the end of September. The Maximum size for N&EMPF is 1600 x 1200 3MB sRGB Harry is still taking entries for the monthly PDI competition, with the categories of "Objects in the Air" and "Open". Harry did ask about what can be accepted, and we couldn't really say as long as it's an object in the Air. The best way is to look up the definition of an object first. Harry is also accepting entries for the Local and Open competition in October. Robin is going to judge the Open competition, does anyone fancy judging the "Straight from the camera" category? Regards Graham
The Louth Photographic Society has returned after the summer break. It was an incredible return, with members providing us with some stunning images from over the summer break. A full, and varied smorgasbord of well executed photos, many of us visited Whitby, the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, and further north images from Staithes, and Sandbanks. Tony showed us his long exposure minimalist calming coastal scenes, from the Lincolnshire coast, and Whitby.. Chris brought us some beautiful photos taken of local churches, many of which many of us have never seen. Now I’ve never really seen the attraction of an expensive Leica camera, but when Mark showed his photos from his visit to the German Leica factory in Wetzlar, I now understand, camera bodies, and lenses milled from solid blocks of aluminium, hand polished, hand finished lens glass, and textured leather applied to the camera body, not a robot in sight, just craftsmen, and women making a superb photographic instrument. Sue brought us “pink” ladies driving tractors to raise money for cancer research. Last but definitely not least Richard showed his monochrome, and infrared images of trees, his compositions, and photographic eye bring these tree studies to life, we appreciate them even if some judges don’t understand. Many thanks to all of those members who contributed.
