Please help me choose a Photo Editing Program

[mjschabow]

Hello all, just got the M1 MacBook Air base model. Woohoo!

I'm an avid smartphone photographer, so pretty much an ametuer that loves taking pics of my kids and nature. I'm looking for a program that can enhance my photos, but also has some really cool tricks, whether it be cool filters or turning the sky different colors. Before I go and drop money on something, I'd love some opinions on which to choose. I currently have Luminar downloaded and played around a bit and it seems pretty user friendly. $50 per year is a bit pricey but that might actually be a good deal. Not really sure.

Thanks for any help you can provide!

 

[flowrider]

Photoshop Elements. Every so often B&H offers it for a special price.

Lou

 

[Slartibart]

Check out Pixelmator Pro, Affinity Photo or Gimp.

 

[mjschabow]

So all of the ones listed, including Luminar pretty cool. Definitely looking for a user friendly interface too.

 

[Clix Pix]

Luminar AI probably would be the most user-friendly, easy and quick solution for you. It does have the ability to replace skies and it includes various filters to create other effects. Although I use DxO PhotoLab 4 for most of my editing, I also occasionally pop an image into Luminar AI when I just need to do something quickly or want to correct something I noticed after I'd already processed the image.

 

[guzhogi]

You might want to check out the Digital Photography sub-forum here. It's more geared to digital photography apps than the general macOS forum.

 

[mjschabow]

Luminar AI probably would be the most user-friendly, easy and quick solution for you. It does have the ability to replace skies and it includes various filters to create other effects. Although I use DxO PhotoLab 4 for most of my editing, I also occasionally pop an image into Luminar AI when I just need to do something quickly or want to correct something I noticed after I'd already processed the image.

Thanks! Yeah the more I used Luminar, and the more I saw the price tags on other programs, this might be the one!

 

[MBAir2010]

Nikon has great free software

 

[mjschabow]

Photoshop Elements. Every so often B&H offers it for a special price.

Lou

I did check this out and it looks like it has great features and I like that it's a 1 time purchase instead of a subscription. What is the learning curve like?

 

[CYB3RBYTE]

I migrated from PS6 to affinity photo, and it's been a great experience. No more subscription model, and they write incredibly efficient applications for Mac. You can usually get it on sale too.

 

[mjschabow]

I migrated from PS6 to affinity photo, and it's been a great experience. No more subscription model, and they write incredibly efficient applications for Mac. You can usually get it on sale too.

That's a really good price too! Is it pretty easy to pick up and learn? I really am new to all of this other than editing photos in the Stock Apple Photos app.

 

[flowrider]

I did check this out and it looks like it has great features and I like that it's a 1 time purchase instead of a subscription. What is the learning curve like?

Actually I migrated from CS6. so not much for me. However, I have migrated back to the PS subscription model. I really hate the subscription apps, but for me, the printing options are much more versatile. If that doesn't matter to you PS Elements should work fine. There is a learning curve.

Lou

 

[CYB3RBYTE]

That's a really good price too! Is it pretty easy to pick up and learn? I really am new to all of this other than editing photos in the Stock Apple Photos app.

Yes it was pretty easy to learn, they have a bunch of free tutorials available on YouTube and their website of course.