Free software downloadsFree photography software downloads
Gimp
Advanced photo-editing software
Alternative to Adobe Photoshop
Saving £570
Gimp is a Best Buy photo-editing software that’s on a par with paid-for photo-editing packages, both in terms of the number of tools and filters available and their effectiveness.
The program would be of most use to an advanced user but it’s still quite accessible for a novice and a comprehensive manual is available online.
The program is very advanced and tools and adjustments are extremely flexible, giving image control to pixel depth.
Gimp is good at manipulating colour, brightness and contrast, correcting our test images very well. The red-eye removal too is highly effective, too.
Verdict This free download is as good as paid-for Best Buy photo-editing software, but aimed more at experts than novices.
Download www.gimp.org
PhotoPlus 6
Flexible photo-editing
Alternative to Adobe Photoshop Elements
Saving £75
A flexible photo-editing program that is an earlier version of Serif’s well-known paid-for program, PhotoPlus6 has no automatic correction tools but the manual tools range from average to good.
We found the contrast and brightness tools did a good job of brightening up underexposed photos. While the program’s clone tool managed to remove our unwanted object, the program lacks a blur tool.
We found PhotoPlus 6’s red-eye removal tool was a little fiddly to set.
Verdict It’s a decent application that will appeal to intermediate users.
Download www.freeserifsoftware.com
Photoshop Album Starter Edition 3.2
Photo organising with basic image editing
Alternative to Built-in Windows photo tools
Photoshop Album Starter Edition is essentially a photo viewer and organiser with a few basic image-editing tools.
It would be of most use for people who don’t plan to do very much in the way of image editing on their computer, but who do want to make the occasional basic adjustment such as removing the red-eye effect caused by flash photography.
Image manipulation is largely limited to automatic colour adjustments, brightness and sharpness, but it has a good red-eye tool and a crop tool.
Verdict A good option for storing your photos and performing basic editing.
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