Photo Editing Apps – Which one should I use?

Twenty of the most commonly-used photo editing apps compared across 26 features, all in one spreadsheet.

When writing my eBook, The Art of the Landscape, I began compiling a spreadsheet comparing the features of different photo editing apps. It started as a side project, but quickly grew legs of its own. “It’s”Which photo app is best?” Is one of the questions I often see on forums and FB, with protracted arguments for and against each and every one.

I’ve examined and used a number of apps over the years, working carefully to determine how to get the most out of my raw files, beginning with denoising and sharpening, but also having a deep dive look at functionality, user interface, overall workflow and comparing apples to apples cost.

• Raw File Optimization: comparing Lightroom, Topaz, DxO, ON1, Olympus Workspace;
• The New Topaz Photo: How well does it compare to Lightroom and DxO?
• DxO PhotoLab 9 vs Lightroom – Part 1: Interface and Library (Part 2: Processing & Masks; Part 3: B&W, Output & Cost)

You get what you pay for

Every photography forum and FB photo group is filled with on-going debate, splashed with a bit of vitriol, regarding the relative cost of editing apps and the relative merits of “buy-once” versus subscription models of “ownership”. By the way, even the software you buy, you don’t actually “own” in the sense of property rights and all; you buy a licence to use it for as long as you wish or for as long as it is supported by the hardware you run it on.

Subscriptions, on the other hand, tie the user to monthly or annual payments for as long as you want access to the app. When Adobe went to a subscription model, I revolted and spent three years using the standalone version of Lightroom until it was no longer tenable. With new features and fewer updates, it was time to decide. Unfortunately, there weren’t any other options out there at that time that came anywhere near Lightroom in features except for Capture One and it was double the cost.

I look at it this way. If you’ve spent thousands on photography gear and want the highest quality photos for sharing and printing and you are willing to spend the time to learn the third leg of photography — the first being visualization, the second behind field craft, the third being screen craft — then skip right to one of the industry-standard apps: Adobe Lightroom or Capture One.

Too many photographers spend far too much air time arguing the relative cost of apps when really, the different in price between each of the more-capable apps is the equivalent of a couple of coffees or a roadhouse dinner out per year. In other words, it’s negligible.

If you’re starting out, you can save yourself some money by using free apps such as Apple or Google Photos or Snapseed, but be warned, they will only take you so far. They perform global edits well, but rely heavily on filters/presets to get a specific “look”. To me, filters replace personal creativity with prefabricated “looks”.

Spend a little money on something like Photomator and you have an excellent app for photographer-driven, precise and repeatable global edits. Your are in the driver’s seat of your own creativity and the edits you make, with filters and pre-sets taking a backseat.

This is true of many of the apps, however there are a number of newer apps that put greater emphasis on push-button, “paint-by-numbers” processing. It’s great if you want quick results, but lousy if you actually want to learn what’s going on, or want your own personal vision to drive your photography. I’m thinking of apps such as Radiant Photo, ON1 Photo RAW, and Luminar Neo. Of the three, I’m most impressed with the feature set and capability of ON1 Photo RAW, though it’s Effects are still prevalent in the passenger seat, rather than in the back seat.

What about Topaz Photo and DxO PhotoLab. I’ve worked with both of them. topaz Photo is nothing more than a glorified plug-in for Lightroom, Capture One or ACR/Photoshop. DxO is much more capable, but to achieve the same thing as Lightroom or Capture One, you need to add NIK Effects. It may have a perpetual licence, but it is still clunky and nowhere near as intuitive as Lightroom or Capture One.

I’ll be honest. I use DxO’s denoise and sharpen algorithms as a plug-in because they are so good with certain files. But, I can’t commit to DxO PhotoLab as an option.

A Personal Perspective

For me, the important thing is being able to reproduce on-screen and in print my own personal vision, for a scene or subject. My needs are relatively small as my goal in nature photography is reproduce the subject or scene as closely as is technically possible to what I saw and experienced in the field, the art inherent in nature. As I result I do not use filters or presets that I haven’t made myself. Nor do I rely on Generative AI or any other tech for things like removal/retouching, generative fills, sky swapping or giving a mid-day photo a blue hour or golden hour look.

Industrial Strength

As a result, I prefer an app that puts me in the driver’s seat allowing me the freedom to make the edits myself. About the only apps like that are Lightroom and Capture One. Many other apps on the market will also let you do your own thing—I especially like ON1 Photo RAW for that—but they seductively offer a plethora or push-button short cuts, front and centre. The temptation is there is not learn, but simply push buttons and frankly, I’d rather not have that.

Lightroom and Capture One are industry-standard for a reason. Sure they’ve been around almost from the beginning of digital photography, but they’ve have grown and matured into full-featured apps that address the needs of serious photographers — photographers who wish to keep on doing their own photography without the kind of “help” provided by button-pushing their way to a certain “look”.

The File

So, here’s the file: Processing App Features (06.2026). Open it and have a look. You can save it for future viewing, however, it will be updated as more information is made available. You can always come back to this post to get the latest version.

Twenty different apps; 24 features (I’ve lost count), that cover UI, global edits, local edits, and other helpful features. For now it’s in a large, unwieldy single-page PDF format, spat out from my spreadsheet app. Eventually, I’ll put it into Excel and Google Sheets, once I know they can be “locked down” to prevent changes to my work.

Be sure to read the Notes at the bottom of the table. They provide the background for a number of the features across the top.

I want to take a moment to thank some of the folks over at the MU-43 forum for their help in compiling and checking this. As you will see, there are some empty cells—the ones that I’ve had no feed back about. So, if you are able to help me fill those last few, then send me an email with how the cell should be filled, given the parameters of the spreadsheet as they currently exist.

A note on price / cost . . .

I’m a Lightroom user. many people shun Adobe and every other subscription service, but hear me out for a moment.

My Lightroom plan is CAD $155/year. This is the one without Photoshop. If I need to add text or do Focus Stacking, I use Affinity Photo, which is free.

You may be choking at spending $155 every year just to process my photos, but bear with me.

Back in the film days, $155 would buy you 5 rolls of 36 exposure slide film complete with processing. That was 25 years ago. Five rolls was nothing as I would easily shoot 20 or 40 rolls a year or more if I had an extended trip.

Spending $155/year to get an industry-standard processing app that gives me everything I need for intuitive and well-thought-out raw denoising, sharpening, global and local edits in both colour and black-and-white, cataloguing, geotagging, and fine-art printing without having to buy any other app or plugin. I spent more to get a DxO plug-in for slightly better denoising, but the difference in quality in real end-use scenarios is minimal, so I’m not really getting my money’s worth and I’m a stickler for quality.

Legacy

I’ve not yet broken 100,000 digital files yet, but it’s getting close. I can still find any set of photos I need for a project within moments., which is the mark of an efficient Library system, which is an essential selling point of Lightroom. When starting out, few people consider this and for many, it simply may not be important. For me, with a digital career of 25 years of files, photos that are just as relevant today as the day they were made, it’s significant.

Anyway, there it is. If you haven’t had a look at the PDF file yet, be prepared. It’s a bit overwhelming at first, so take your time.

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