Photo-editing software: Best Buys Best buy

Create professional photo images at a budget price

Photo Editing Software packages

Do you want to improve your photos? Whether you've snapped a masterpiece, a decidedly average photo - or worse - using good photo-editing software can improve it.

Which? tests all the main photo-editing software brands - from free software to expensive packages - to see which ones come out top for ease of use and flexibility. 

  • For each software package we test, two beginners to photo-editing and two experts run through 10 common editing procedures so you can be sure that your package allows you to swiftly and comfortably crop your photos, tackle red-eye, fix colours and brightness and more, no matter what your skill level.
  • To see how each software package meets the growing demands of a more skilled user, the beginners and experts also examine the versatility and power of more advanced features and tools
  • To ensure each software package runs smoothly, we try it on one high powered computer and one low powered computer and note any stuttering, delays or other differences in performance.

Find the best photo-editing software for you by taking out a £1 trial to Which?. It could save you money.

What makes a Best Buy software program?

 

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Video transcript

It's never easy to know which software package you should buy. Not only are there the paid for ones in the shops, but you can also get free software downloaded from the internet. But not all software whether it's photo editing software, video editing software or security Speaker 1: Security software performs well and that's where Which? testing comes in.

Speaker 2: We see how easy it is to download and install via the manufacturer's website. if the manufacturer offers it on a website. So we'll see how easy that is to do we'll see whether we have to go through a long process of inputting key codes weather you have to uninstall other things for it to work and so on. So the installation processes is key.

Then, overall, we make sure that it isn't too hard to use. So what i mean to say is we run it on both high powered machines, also a low spec machine. So, if you don't have a particularly powerful computer at home we make sure it will run successfully and some software doesn't and some software will stall or crash quite frequently so we make sure it runs well on all machine.

Pretty much all machines. And we make sure its easier to use, the icons on the screens are large and that they are intuitive. We run software on both a very modern high powered computer, and also an older machine that doesn't have as much memory and power to make sure that it runs successfully on both types computer.

We also use both our experts and non-experts is part of our panel of testers to make sure that it's easy enough to use for non-experts or if it has all the advanced features that an advanced user might want to take advantage of.

At which we have over 50 years of testing experience. We test more than 2,500 products every year, from child car seats to electric ovens. So to find the right software for you and to take advantage of all our advice, log on at witch.co.uk.

Expert photo-editing software reviews you can trust

We test software from Microsoft, Apple, Google, Serif, Corel - and of course Adobe Photoshop. Regardless of whether the software is free or over £50, we test it in the same way so you can directly compare and contrast.

Which? is independent - we work for you, the consumer, so you can be sure that our product recommendations are influenced only by our test results. We don't take advertising and we buy all the products that we test ourselves, so our advice helps you to make the right choice first time and avoid costly mistakes.

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