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Best Alternatives to Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom

For many years now, Adobe Photoshop or recently, Adobe Lightroom have been playing the monopoly of image editors and processors. But time has come when the tradition has to be broken and a change has to be brought. It's time...

I am not giving some revolutionary speech gentlemen. Here is the bunch of the image processors other than those two that have got immense power but have been superbly underrated and overshadowed by the popularity of Adobe's packages.

1.DxO PhotoLab

Manufacturer: DxO Labs

Price: 129 €

DxO is the most respected and arguably the best photo lab in the world. The software has a feeling of a recording studio console. One gets a very intuitive pick into the controls of the image, with some AI-based features and PhotoLab has got fantastic control over raw editing. A nice pick for all, with an easy to guess interface.

2.Luminar

Manufacturer: Skylum Softwares

Price: Rs. 5100 onwards (Extension Packs available)

This software made some good impact after its introduction. Luminar is basically based on AI enhancement and fluid manipulation techniques, with some attractive features, like Sunrays, Foliage Enhancer, Golden Hour, Accent AI Filter, and many more. Luminar has also got a very easy interface, for quick processing.

3.Skylum Aurora HDR

Manufacturer: Skylum Softwares

Price: Rs. 7000

This is yet another nice software from Skylum, focused at editing HDR images specifically, but can work well on any picture format. Multiple Exposure and Pixel combining is efficiently handled. Many options have from Luminar are set here in a compressed form. Images can be stacked. This again has got some attractive filters and features. For people avoiding Photoshop or Lightroom for a bit complex procedure, Aurora HDR can be a good resort to stay.

4.GIMP

Manufacturer: The GIMP Development Team

Price - Free

The GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) is always called the Free Photoshop (saste ka photoshop). It has everything you find on Adobe's landmark product, except very minute differences. It's fun to work with, and most importantly, it's free!!! So grab it ASAP.

5.Darktable

Manufacturer-Open Source Development

Price- Free

Darktable is a good choice for easy to do, quick edits. The essential options are present and easy to find and control. Image processing is a bit on the dull side, but that's pretty avoidable. Darktable is best for on-the-go edits.

6.Photoshop Express

Manufacturer: Adobe Inc.

Price - Free

Yes, Adobe has finally launched a free software. Adobe Photoshop Express is a very condensed and concise form of editor that binds few features of Lightroom and Photoshop under a zero price tag. This again is good for quick image processing and retouching. Presets do a good job, and one can get control of the most essential aspects in the image. However, this is not for serious image processing. You need to spend on the other apps for that.

7.On1 Raw

Manufacturer: On1

Price- $63.99 onwards

On1 Raw is the best editor of all the list. It caters to each and every need of an editor. May it be quick edits or some deeper stuff, it meets all the requirements. The preset filters will blow the mind, and they would take us hours to make them right on Lightroom. On1 Raw has our requirements already fulfilled. Anybody can fall in love with this software. One doesn't have to go all through the youtube videos and tutorial classes to get things done with this software. Though it costs a handsome amount, the results are even hotter!

8.Capture1

Manufacturer: Phase One

Price-Rs.1720 onwards

Capture One is a lesser known software from the famed product photography camera manufacturer PhaseOne. This software is mostly used for live image processing. It can "capture" images directly from camera when connected and can help taking pre-edited shots. For post processing too, it has great options and controls.

Bonus:

The best thing about all these softwares is that, most of them are lightweight and can run smoothly on lower configuration systems too without any lag and stutter. All these are pretty responsive.