Electronics
Photo-editing software
Introduction
We test free image-editing software against their paid-for rivals with surprising results.
Bad lighting and rogue strangers in the background of your picture can easily spoil it. But before you erase the image, it might just be salvageable using one of our tested photo-editing packages.
We tested 7 programs, including several free ones, to see how they compare.
Products we tested
This articles contains test results and recommendations for the following products, listed alphabetically.
- Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition 3.2
- Adobe Photoshop Elements 6
- Apple iPhoto (part of iLife '08)
- Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2
- Gimp (GNU Image Manipulation Program) 2.3
- Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium
- Serif PhotoPlus 6
How we tested
We took a selection of photos that needed adjustment to improve their looks. Each one suffered from a different condition. We tried fixing the images with each of the programs using the most appropriate tools provided. We assessed how successful each package was at sorting out the problem and how easy they were to use.
Below are the photographs we used and a description of the problems we tried to fix.
Lighting problems
This picture (left image) was taken in a mixture of fluorescent and tungsten lighting, adding a yellowy tint to everything. We tried to make the light look more natural (right image).
Unwanted guest
The balance of this photograph (left image) is upset slightly by the person behind. Plus, the toilet sign is an unwelcome addition. We tried to remove both of these using the tested programs (right image).
Brightening up
This photograph was taken in poor light (left image). We tried to adjust the levels of contrast and brightness to cheer it up as much as possible (right image).
Creased and scratched
This scanned black-and-white photo is badly creased and scratched (left image). We assessed how well the packages could repair the damage (right image).
Redeye
Red-eye is a familiar side-effect of flash photography. We tried to return this man's eyes (left image) to their normal colour (right image).
Checklist
If you are thinking about buying photo-editing software, here's what you need to consider:
Price
The growth in popularity of open-source software means you don't necessarily have to pay for advanced photo-editing programs. Before spending $100 or more, see if one of the free programs in our test will meet your needs.
Many advanced pay-programs offer a free 30-day trial, so you can see how you like the program before you commit to buying it.
Features
A good image-editing program will offer a wide range of features and tools, to allow you scope in adjusting an image, or to automate/simplify common tasks. Here are the main tools you'll encounter.
Basic tools
- Resize: This lets you change the measurements and proportions of your image, usually in mm, inches, cm, pixels or percent. It's helpful if you can preview the resized image before making the final change.
- Change resolution: This option is sometimes called "Resample". It's useful for quickly changing the image resolution. An email image will probably be best at a lower resolution of 72 dots per inch (dpi) to save time sending and receiving, but the original could be scanned at 600 dpi so it can be resized for printing.
- Flip: This will reverse your image if you need to correct a slide scanned back-to-front or simply for decorative purposes. Most programs have this tool.
- Rotate: It's helpful if the program supplies automated icon buttons for image rotation.
- Add text: Useful for making cards and invitations. Most software performs this task well, providing good control over the position, colour, shape and pattern of the text. You can also edit text after it has been placed.
- Paint bucket: Once you've selected an area you can use the fill tool or paint bucket to fill your selection with a solid colour or pattern. For more detailed work, a paint brush in several different sizes and shapes is useful.
- Eraser: This can often be applied using a range of methods, from airbrush to straight square block, to achieve different effects.
- Rulers/guides: There should be options for changing measurement values (cm to mm to inches to pixels) and a grid for exact placement when working with photos.
Cropping and selecting
- Crop: Lets you cut out a section of your image. All programs can do this to some degree. Rulers and guides will help you get the measurements right.
- Cut and paste and crop: Uses a combination of tools to make a selection from one image and paste it into another.
- Selection: Lets you use the multi-shape selection tool to cut or fill a heart, diamond or oval shaped section of your photo. Most programs have more than four shapes; some have 10 or more.
- Colour selection: Some programs allow you to select a colour from your picture to use with the paint bucket or brush.
- Lasso tool: If you want to select or crop part of the picture that doesn't fit a standard shape, the lasso tool can be useful. It's a freehand selection tool that allows you to draw around the area you want to select.
Correction tools
- Sharpen: If your picture is a bit blurry, a sharpening tool (sometimes called an "unsharp mask") automatically identifies the edges of shapes in the picture and changes the pixels around them to make the image look sharper.
- Remove/reduce dust: This tool has several names including "Noise reduction", "Retouch", "Fix Flaw", "Damaged Photos" and "Despeckle". It's usually quite effective at removing dust and noise from a picture.
- Brightness/contrast: Most products have separate sliding bars for brightness and contrast. Some may also preview the image, allowing you to see changes as they happen.
- Stamp/clone tool: This selects pixels from one area and copies them to another which is handy if you want to reproduce a colour exactly, smudge a sharp line or cover a dust mark or speckle.
- Red-eye reduction: Helps remove or reduce the unpleasant effects of a flash reflecting off the back of your subjects' eyes. The most effective of these allow you to create a natural looking pupil that's correctly sized, feathered into the iris and comes complete with a glint.
- Colour balance: The colour balance tool adjusts the different levels of colour within the image. Reducing the amount of yellow in the picture, say, will lower the yellow tint. Tint, warmth and saturation tools perform a similar role.
- Scratch removal: Some programs have scratch removal tools to smudge over an area. These work well for small scratches but are less effective for deeper scores as the image can end up looking blurred. Serious scratches should be treated with a clone tool.
What we found
We rated each package for its effectiveness at fixing problems, for ease of use, and the number of tools and features. See How we tested for more details of the images we used and the problems they had.
Overall
- Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 was the best program overall, scoring a perfect 10 out of 10 in almost every category. Packed with highly effective manual correction tools and filters, it also had the best automatic correction tools on test. Despite its huge range of advanced features and large handbook we found it easy to use with a comprehensive help function.
- Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 was as easy to use as Photoshop Elements 6 and scored equally well at most tasks - but didn't perform quite as well at automatic corrections.
- Of all the programs on test, Gimp was probably the biggest surprise. We were bowled over by the array of tools this free program includes. We were particularly impressed by the program's colour adjustment features. Gimp rated only slightly lower than our two top programs, and the fact that it's free makes it an attractive proposition.
Automatic correction
Most of the programs we tested have automatic correction tools that aim to correct your photos with minimal input from you. The two exceptions are Serif PhotoPlus 6 and Gimp 2.3 - PhotoPlus 6 doesn't have any automatic correction tools at all, while Gimp 2.3 only has an automatic red-eye correction tool. (Note: since we conducted our test, Gimp 2.6 has been released and features more automatic image correcting tools than its predecessors.)
The performance of the automatic correction tools varied. Adobe Photoshop Elements' automatic correction tools were first rate. The built-in automatic correction tools of Corel Paint Shop Pro and Windows Vista Home Premium both had a reasonable go at improving our problem photos, but were nowhere near as good, while Apple iPhoto and Photoshop Album starter only had basic corrections.
Manual correction tools
It's the fully-fledged manual image-editing tools that really make or break these programs. Sophisticated tools can transform photos beyond recognition. Great results do take a bit of practice though, so be patient.
Brightness and contrast
All the programs with this function did a fantastic job brightening the picture of the couple outdoors (right) using their manual brightness and contrast tools.
Photoshop Album Starter Edition doesn't have any manual tools for adjusting brightness or contrast. The program is really more of a photo viewer and organiser than a full-blown image-editing program. As such it mainly comprises automatic editing tools.
Changing colours
Image-editing programs include settings for adjusting the balance of colour. These can correct discoloured or too-yellow photographs. Most of our programs scored well in this respect. Free program Gimp 2.3 proved it can easily take on the paid-for programs scoring 10 out of 10 for the quality of its colour adjustments. Like the advanced paid programs, Gimp lets you adjust individual pixels if you wish.
Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 and Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 also handled colour adjustments well. We especially liked the variations function within Photoshop that allows you to view thumbnails of your image with different colour treatments applied.
PhotoPlus 6 only achieved an average score because it had fewer tools for making colour adjustments. Photoshop Album Starter Edition didn't have any colour correction filters so it couldn't perform this task.
Removing unwanted objects
The most effective way to remove unwanted items from a photo is to use the clone tool. This works rather like a skin graft: you copy a piece of matching background from elsewhere in the image and paste it over the unwanted object. It's not quite as easy as it sounds as it can be fiddly to make the finished image look natural.
The top four tested programs - including free program Gimp 2.3 - all had clone tools and coped very well with turning our group of four ladies (right) into a trio.
None of the other packages had a clone tool and, with no other suitable tools available, it wasn't possible to remove unwanted objects effectively.
Eradicating red-eye
Returning your subjects' demonic red-eyes to a more natural shade is probably one of the most common tasks you'll perform with image-editing software. Most of the programs were very effective at removing red-eye and producing a good finish to the image. iPhoto unfortunately over-darkened the eye, giving quite an unnatural look.
Black and white
Older black-and-white photos are often torn and tatty. Restoring them to their former glory requires a lot of fiddling with a combination of tools such as blemish removing tools, clone tools and scratch removal tools.
Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 and Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 had an abundance of tools which, when applied with care, did a very good job. Gimp 2.3 was fiddlier than its rivals on this task but the results justified the effort. Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition 3.2 and Vista's built-in program lacked sufficient tools to produce a good image, with the end result looking blurred and unnatural.
We recommend
Consumer Recommends-
$170
Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 Good points
Excellent range of features. Excellent performance for all corrections in our test. Very easy to use. Comprehensive help function and handbook.
But
(No obvious bad points.)
Comment
Best in test. Very advanced and flexible program - the industry standard for photo-editing.
User Reviews 0 -
$171Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Good points
Excellent range of features. Excellent performance for most corrections in our test. Very easy to use. Comprehensive help function and handbook.
But
Not as good at automatic corrections as Photoshop Elements 6.
Comment
Very advanced, flexible program for semi-professional use.
User Reviews 0 -
freeGimp (GNU Image Manipulation Program) 2.3 Good points
Excellent range of features. Excellent or very good performance for most corrections in our test. Very easy to use with easily controllable tools.
But
No automatic corrections other than red-eye correction. No instruction book (though instructions are available online).
Comment
Free program that rivals the top pay-programs. Equally useful for novice and advanced users. Gimp 2.6 is now available and offers more automatic image correcting tools than its predecessors.
User Reviews 1