Photo editors are becoming essential in every smartphone these days. If not for master-level edits, one should always wish for simple shading effects. And for such, using a quick tool could be more than enough.
If one wishes to do more, one can turn to professional editors like LightRoom, which has extensive tools for adding pretty much everything.
But there’s a catch. Light Room isn’t useful for all, if not for its high learning curve, at least for its price. Adobe’s Light Room features cool tools that may satisfy its expensiveness, but is it essential for beginners or quick editors?
We condemn aye-sayers, as a starter doesn’t need to shell out so much for something they have no deep knowledge about. So here, we grouped the best LightRoom alternatives that are simple to use.
Also Read- Best Photoshop Alternatives for Windows & macOS
1. RawTherapee
This platform is best for the nondestructive editing of raw photos. It’s open-source and capable of utilizing a CPU’s multicores, thus producing better output. Further, it can batch process many images with all necessary changes with just simple clicks. It’s free and supports Windows, macOS, and Linux platforms.
Try it here: RawTherapee
2. Canva
Canva is one of the finest platforms for creating graphics for social media sites, posters, and presentations. Its simplistic UI lets users drag and drop effects. It also has several fonts, illustrations, and templates to edit more creatively. Canva is available for both PC and mobile platforms for free, but users can upgrade to a paid plan for more features.
Try it here: Canva
3. DxO PhotoLab
Aside from being a fine photo manager, DxO Photo Lab has features like an automatic masking brush, a degraded filter, and typical correction tools to stand apart from the rest. It reduces noise reduction, enhances sharpness, haze removal, etc., which are notables.
It’s available for Windows and macOS. It’s not free, either, but any of its paid packages has a 30-day trial period.
Try it here: DxO PhotoLab
4. Darktable
Darktable is an open-source application that manages your negative photos and views them later at zoomable light tables. It maintains a database of every photo description and meta tag to let you search by keywords, ratings, etc., later. And for editing, it processes the image using GPU for better output.
This software has an inbuilt guide to help users quickly understand the entire program. It’s available for Windows, Linux, BSD, Solaris, and macOS.
Try it here: darktable
5. digiKam
digiKam organizes photos by various metrics and does basic jobs such as color correction, general effects, filters, etc. The good thing here is that, though it doesn’t come with many features by default, users can install plug-ins to add more editing features and export them to various social sites.
It can process raw photos in 200+ formats and supports Linux, Windows, and macOS for free.
Try it here: digiKam
6. GIMP
It’s a raster graphics editor, dividing the whole picture into numerous pixel boxes to do effective editing. It has the necessary features like color correction, snapping tools, sharpener/blur, smudging, and a wide range of healing brushes. Further, general gradients and curve editings. It’s free and available in Windows, macOS, BSD, Solaris, and Linux.
Try it here: GIMP
7. Photoscape
Photoscape abides by its concept of being easy and fun. This platform has a simple UI and adequate tools to let users do basic editing. Pictures taken from digital cameras or phones can be altered with special effects, transitions, GIF-making, etc.
You can even find similar faces in images with references from the internet. Further, it does page-making batch processing of bulk photos.
Try it here: Photoscape
8. Affinity Photo
Affinity Photo is more like GIMP, which uses a raster graphics editor. It’s a successor to PhotoPlus. It’s useful for color corrections, image stitching, and live previewing too. With all the necessary tools for entry-level editing, it’s available for Windows, iOS, and macOS. It has a free version and a premium version for unlocking more features.
Try it here: Affinity Photo
9. LightZone
This platform provides a fair amount of editing tools, records the entire session, and tracks the process transformation.
It’s possible to rearrange several effects to have customized output. Further, it gives several vector tools to work on a specific part of the image.
This flexibility makes LightZone unique. It’s free to use and available for BSD, Linux, macOS, and Windows.
Try it here: LightZone
10. IrfanView
IrfanView isn’t just an editor but more like a gallery. It does basic editing jobs such as adding music to slideshows, creating screensavers, batch processing images, and more. It can also organize, convert, and edit photos and view videos. Further, it has several plug-ins that support additional editing features. It’s free and available only for Windows.
Try it here: IrfanView
