If you have read my article, Free Photo Editing Software – What Features Should I Look For, then you will have some ideas of tools that are available. Although there are many editing programs available, I have used quite a few. These below are ones that I would recommend. They are all free.
Paint.net
This software is pretty straight forward and easy to use. It also offers some advanced features, such as layers and curves. It’s resizing screen showing your image only appears after you do a save. This is not bad, as long as you are aware of it.
Irfanview
Know mostly as an image viewer, Irfanview is an editor also. It has a multitude of features, such as batch resize and being able to change thumbnail sizes when viewing your images. It also offers a huge amount of image file types if you want to change the extension of a photo.
That being said, I find this program to be the most confusing to use. I do not use it regularly. I would assume that if I did, I would get used to it. It does, however, have a lot to offer.
FastStone Image Viewer
Again, great as an image viewer with some very useful features. I like that you can view both images, the original and a duplicate for editing, together. Once you have enlarged a photo to take up the full screen, various options are available by moving your mouse to the top, bottom, left or right parts of the screen.
For example, go to the top of the screen and a thumbnail strip of all of your images in that folder will appear. You can click on any image and it will then be the full screen photo. This is a useful tool, allowing you to work with a full screen image and easily see your other pics in the folder.
Web Resizer
This is actually a website. It’s strong feature is how it resizes pictures, but you can also do some simple edits. It is very easy to use. It clearly shows what your image will look like by comparing different file sizes for the same picture. Upload a photo to work with it, and then download it to save it on your computer.
Picasa 3
Picasa 3 is photo editing software, but it also offers some other things. As an editor, it has a wide range of tools, divided into three categories. It’s other features are that it is an image viewer and organizer. You can also send your digital photos to an online printer. If you choose to use Picasa Web Albums as an online photo sharing site (and for storage), you can sync it with Picasa 3 so that edits and changes made in Picas 3 will automatically be made in Picasa Web Albums.
You can download any of these free programs and try them out. Although none does everything, you will most likely find one that meets most of your needs.
There is lots of free photo editing software available. Many are excellent for most editing needs, and some even have advanced tools.
So, what are some of the things to look for when you are choosing a program to edit your photos with?Here some features that I feel are important.
Let’s assume that most photo software today offers the basic editing tools, such as saturation, sharpen, brightness and contrast, hue, crop, and red eye removal. Other than these, more advanced features are a plus….if you are going to use them.
For example, there is something called Curves. This is a more advanced edit which allows you to control lightness, highlights and so on in the same editing tool. If you feel it would be advantageous to you, then that would be something to look for in photo editing software. However, there is no point looking for a tool such as this if you know it is not for you.
One feature that I find extremely useful is being able to look at your original photo and the one you are editing (a duplicate) on the same screen. This saves you the time of re-opening the original to see if you like the changes you made. Looking at both images together allows you to see if you have saturated too much, if the crop is acceptable, if it has become to light or too dark, etc.
Types of Sharpening
There are many different kinds of sharpening methods in photo software. Most free software offers simple sharpening. For example, Picasa 3 provides a slider with which you can increase or decrease the amount of sharpening. If you use Irfanview, you must click to sharpen the image, and then click again to sharpen it more. If you feel you need more sophisticated methods, you might consider paying for more advanced photo software.
So, Where Are Those Tools?
I always find it important for editing software to be user friendly. I don’t know about you, but I hate to have to search for the tool I want to use. As far as I am concerned, I like it when they are easily found, not hidden away. Of course, if you use the software and particular tools regularly, you do get used to it.
Easy But Effecting Image Resizing
You should have options for resizing both the physical size and the file size of your image, and it should be easy to do so. Adjusting the physical size will change how you see the image on the screen (or in print), while changing the file size will make it smaller, making it faster to upload. It will also then take up less space on your computer. I like to have some choices and be able to see what the resized image looks like with various file sizes.
Can You View and Locate Your Images Easily?
Some editing programs are also great image viewers. For example, you might be able to change thumbnail sizes. Are there options for viewing your photo layouts? With some, you can edit in batches (such as re-sizing or changing image file extensions) or even sync with online web albums.
Can You Have It All For Free?
Probably not. However, the goal is to find free photo editing software that will do what is most important to you. Maybe batch editing is not something you would use. Or maybe you don’t mind opening up the original image to compare to the edited one, if it’s easy to do so.
It’s not difficult to download a few and try them out. See which you like working with the best. After all…they are free.
Some that I recommend are Paint.net, FastStone Image Viewer, Irfanview, Web Resizer, and Picasa 3. I have written reviews of these programs on my website.