Photoshop, the grand daddy of them all, often takes a lot know-how to do even the simplest of corrections (like white balance). Some programs, like Luminar that have added benefit of functioning as a plugin for Lightroom, Photos, and Photoshop, if you have an established workflow with one of the latter programs. They are intuitive (though very different from each other) and give you the option to stay on the surface or go deep-whichever works best for you. These programs can be used effectively by beginners and yet have a lot of editing power for the deeper adjustments. Lightroom is the photography standard and interfaces seamlessly with Photoshop, but many modern editors have been making quick gains and intends to meet Lightroom head-on for both functionality and ease of use. (It’s also a great choice if you already have your photos stored there.) So if you want a quick turn-around time and don’t want to spend too much time on your photos, it’s a great choice. For example, Photos is meant to be a quick, basic editor, where most adjustments are somewhat automated. Which Photo Editor Should I Choose?Įvery editor has its strengths and weaknesses, so which one you choose will largely depend on a) how deeply you want to get into the editing process and b) what kind of interface works best for you. Split Color Toning: Allows you to make the highlights of an image one color and the shadows a different color.MacOS Photos has a levels adjustment, but no curves. Most folks choose either one or the other. It functions similarly to curves, but is a little easier to learn. Levels: Corrects the tone and color balance in an image.It takes some study and practice to learn to use it, but once you do, the world of color adjustments will open up dramatically before you. Curves: One of the most powerful tools for adjusting color and contrast.Quite powerful in creating special effects.
Standard photo apps for mac full#
HSL: A panel full of sliders allowing you to adjust the hue, saturation, and luminance of each individual color.Some editing programs provide an “auto tone” or “smart tone” option. Tone: Basic tonal adjustments includes whites, blacks, highlights, and shadows, as well as exposure and contrast.(Place the eye-dropper over something that’s supposed to be white or neutral gray in your photo and your program will automatically adjust the color temperature.) Ideally this will be set properly in-camera, but if it isn’t, you’ll need to either adjust by using your program’s color temperature sliders or its white balance eye-dropper tool. White Balance: balances the color temperature in your image so that objects that appear white in person are truly white in your photo.All of these make up your editor’s palette. More advanced controls include curves and levels (both of which are tone adjustments), the Hue/Saturation/Luminance (HSL) panel, and split toning. The photographer’s basic toolkit includes the ability to adjust the white balance, saturation, and overall tone. Yet from elements of color correction, to using color changes for special effects, learning how color works in digital images is one of the more important editing pieces of know-how you’ll ever learn. With some programs, there are a number of ways to do any single adjustment, while others are limited in what they’ll let you do. To the inexperienced, it can be totally baffling. The following is a guest post by Max Therry, an architect and photography enthusiast, who runs PhotoGeeky.Ĭolor adjustment is one of the essential, yet potentially bewildering aspects of photo editing.