Photo/Image Editors

Almost essential, and most digital cameras come with some software for editing, such as Nikon's PicturePerfect or Canon's ZoomBrowser. However these may not suit everyone's needs, so I've listed a number of alternative products, ranging from free through to the very expensive. Note that "free" software often has strings attached, such as extensive "registration" procedures or upgrade nag screens). Practically every photograph can be improved with the use of one of these editing packages, all of which can also resize and reformat images into a form suitable for the web. Most of these products can also create and edit GIF images such as web page banners and navigation bars, though this particular feature is often not found in free versions of products.

Adobe Lightroom - Aimed at the professional, Lightroom is designed to manage the type of workflow generated by large numbers of images. It supports a myriad of RAW file formats, and presents an uncluttered easy to use interface driving sophisticated editing tools.

Adobe Photoshop - Very good, but very expensive. Has a number of features over and above those provided by Elements, such as support for CMYK (offset) images, a dedicated web image editor (ImageReady), and advanced colour management. Combined with Dreamweaver you have pretty much the ultimate professional package for web site creation.

Adobe Photoshop Elements - Recommended. A good mid-range photo editor that can also generate galleries. Quite a steep learning curve if you are new to sophisticated photo editing software due to the huge range of facilities and options available. Version 3.0 incorporated functionality from Adobe Album photo organiser, and version 4.0 amongst other things introduced more automatic features, such as face recognition and red-eye elimination as photos are downloaded from the camera. Version 5.0, which was released in October 2006, has yet more features, such as lens distortion correction and curves. Version 6.0 released in late 2007 can probably be considered to be a minor improvement on 5.0.

Babya Digital Imaging Products - A collection of packages that includes the free Babya Photo Workshop image editor.

Bibble - "Professional workflow software" that is regularly updated and offers sophisticated features such as RAW conversion, noise reduction and lens aberration correction.

The GIMP - GNU image manipulation program. Pretty much a standard on Linux machines, there is also a port to Windows. Check out the website, especially if you are unfamiliar with open source software. Open source, so free for the download. The GIMP has its own look and feel which can put off those used to the Photoshop way of working, so GIMPShop was developed in an attempt to overcome this problem. It is still the GIMP, but customised to behave more like Photoshop.

iPhoto - Photo editor/organiser for Macs. Engenders fierce loyalty from users.

Lphoto - An Open Source iPhoto look-alike for Linux.

Microsoft Digital Image 2006 - Aimed at the same market as Photoshop Elements, Microsoft's image editing software comes in two versions: Standard, which is comprised of the image editior and photo library organiser and Suite, which also has a number of advanced features such as the ability to create panoramas and slideshows. It also has support for RAW image files and Photoshop plug-ins.

Paint.net - This is spectacularly good. An editor of similar capabilities to Photoshop Elements. Easy to use, but contains a raft of features such as layers, curves, and unlimited undo. Oh, its free as well, though they do welcome donations. Recommended.

Paint Shop Pro - Corel's product has been around for a while, but has kept up with the times without becoming "over-featured" and difficult to use. Switchable between automatic and manual adjustments, which makes it suitable for newcomers as well as more experienced users.

Picnik - Internet photo editor, and a pretty good one at that. Edit your photos on the Internet for nothing. A useful resource, particularly if your personal PC or Mac is not available.

Photomagic - Benvista's inexpensive photo software suite.

PhotoZoom Pro - Specifically a product for re-sizing images using a choice of algorithms.

Picture Window Pro - Powerful editing tool with extensive workflow features.

Rawshooter - Pixmantec's excellent editor/organiser specifically for RAW images. Extremely fast, and the basic version is free.

Serif Photoplus - Serif give away older downloads of their software, in an attempt no doubt to tempt users to pay for the upgrade to the latest shiny version. However, previous versions of Photoplus are still quite polished products and certainly worth a look.

StudioLine PhotoBasic - A simple, free, editor/organiser/publisher/emailer/archiver for your images. Some neat features, including dual-monitor support.

Ulead PhotoImpact - A very capable image editor. It also has a number of web design features enabling you to create entire sites, just basic HTML pages, or produce web slide shows. Ulead also produce a number of other digital imaging products, and are behind the iMira photo sharing web site.

VCW Vicman's Photo Editor - A capable product with all the usual features. Standard version is free, whilst the Pro version (around $50) offers some enhanced functions.

XnView - This is not a traditional editor, though it does have some editing features. It is a graphic file viewer - It can display around 400 different file formats. It is also a graphic file convertor - It can export to about 50 file formats. If that is not enough it also runs on Windows, Mac, and various Unix/Linux incarnations. Oh, on top of all that, it is free for non-commercial purposes.

Image manipulation

Not strictly editing packages.

Morpheus Photo Morpher - Transforms an image of a person or object into another. Also available from the same source are Photo Warper and Photo Mixer.

Photomatix - Creates HDR (High Dynamic Range) images from a series of photos taken at different exposure values. All the rage at the moment, and it can produce spectacular results.

Those of an experimental turn of mind might like to try Ortonising. To quote the Orton group “Orton photos are generated by the overlay of two images of the identical scene. One image is sharply focused and over exposed by about two stops. The other is very out of focus and over exposed by around one stop. This is easy to do digitally in Photoshop, GIMP, or other programs.”