If buying a good quality camera isn’t expensive enough, you then have to look for an editing tool that will take your images that much further. While Adobe Photoshop is the dream, the overall cost is probably similar to buying another camera…well a compact camera really. If your budget simply can’t afford more ‘extravagant’ expenses, free probably seems like a far better option. Before getting frustrated using MS Paint, (do people even use MS Paint), or possibly downloading photo editing software illegally, try out a the following out for size, and you can thank me later;
Gimp; As I was googling on preferable free image editing software, I came across a few articles that had Gimp as a first option. When you do download it, it’s not hard to see why it is favored. It almost appears complicated, which is exciting, something that would seem rather impressive if you mastered. Not the average crop and filter editor. There are several buttons, all with their unique functions, trying to make your image come to life. It’s not difficult to learn however, and a short tutorial would probably turn you into a professional in less than a week.
Layers, Brushes, Tools, Paths, and plenty of other instruments are available. Individual tabs can also be torn off. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert-quality photo-retouching program, an online batch-processing system, a mass production image renderer, or an image-format converter.
PhotoScape; this software was introduced to me by a friend. PhotoScape, compared to Gimp is far more easy to use, and probably preferable if you’re looking to immediately grasp the software you’re working with. Included in the software is an editor, batch processor, a page layout, combiner, splitter, and AniGif that creates GIFs, among several others.
The editor is where most of the features are, from cropping to filters. The filters are one of my most favorite parts of the software, simply by how they uniquely transform an image. There are many color and tone modifications and several filter effects from the fun to practical. There are effect brushes that enable you to blur, and apply a black and white or sepia filter to parts of your image. You can also spice up your photos with a variety of frames, as well as add text and shapes, on top of the photo you are working with.