Digital photography software

Get familiar with the best free photography software

Photography software doesn’t have to be expensive. If you want to improve your photos, there are a few free options that can work just as well as the expensive professional photography software. But wait, there’s more: you don’t even have to be a graphic designer or a professional photographer to know how to use them. Let’s get to know the best free photography software.

Review and download photo software. Choose and download photo software to work with your digital photo collection. Also includes a link to a free application.

The digital photography software IrfanView

Do you even need photography software?

Digital photo editing software changes all the time. Every day new photography software or new features come out. Camera makers also participate in this market by including software on the CD that comes with their camera. There is an obvious advantage to using the software that’s made for the camera model that you have, but what if you get a different camera made by a different company? You’ll have to learn how to use the new software. That’s why we recommend using one of the more popular photography software products that has been around for a while.

Even if you’re not a professional photographer or a graphic designer you can get professional results from a photo editing software.

Using photography software is highly recommended if you love your digital camera, and you love all the things it can do (upload photos to facebook, share them on photo sharing sites, put them on your blog…) You don’t have to make use of all the feature in the software to make using it worthwhile. It’s enough to be able to do the basics - crop, reduce red-eye, and rotate.

What can you do with photo editing and photo management software?

Here are the more basic features of photography software:

Adjusting contrast
Auto-correcting/manual-correcting coloration
Adjusting sharpness
Adding highlights and shadows
Reducing red-eye

You can also add all sorts of effects and filters and change the color palette (black and white, sepia). Some of the photography software products let you auto-correct a photo – improving the quality of your photo by using a sophisticated computer algorithm. You can also add an artistic touch through the use of textures.

The best free photography software

There are professional-grade software products on the market such as Photoshop that cost a lot of money and require skill and knowledge to work with. There are also products such as Paint Shop Pro that are less professional and less expensive. What we want to tell you about here is free photography software products that deliver great results. Here is a selection:

IrfanView

This free photography software can operate from any folder without an additional installation. It can work with a wide array of file formats, so there’s a good likelihood that IrfanView will even be able to open a photo file that your computer can’t open.

IrfanView can also do: photo editing, changing photo formats, scanning, taking screenshots, building presentations, Photoshop support, creating visual effects in photos, viewing icons, creating panoramic photographs, adding text, etc. If you are using IrfanView you can go to their website and find dozens of add-ons that give you even more features for no additional cost.

The software’s main advantage is its ease of use – it doesn’t have too many features and it’s easy to learn. Another important point is that IrfanView can do batch changes, so if you want to change the characteristics of 50 photos, you can do them all at once.

One of its weaknesses, however, is that it doesn’t have photo organizing abilities.

Picasa

Another free photography software is Picasa, and this one comes from Google’s line of products (which says a lot about the reliability and quality of this product). Picasa offers searching capabilities, albums, as well as sharing your photos online. It arrange your photos in folders organized in chronological order.

Picasa also has photo editing capabilities, it is linked with Gmail to make sending photos easy, and it gives you the option to burn your photos on a CD. You can even upload your photos directly to your blog (or to your Picasa online album).

The convenience of uploading photos (you simply check the ones you want and press ‘upload’), as well as its attractive display make Picasa a popular solution for displaying photos.

Combining Picasa and IrfanView should satisfy the needs of any non-professional.

GIMP

GIMP is a free alternative to Photoshop. It is not as robust, but it can do the job – edit and retouch your digital photos. GIMP is perfect for those who wish to take their digital photography abilities beyond the abilities of their camera.

Paint.NET

Paint.NET is another free photo editing software. Just like GIMP it delivers similar capabilities to those of Photoshop, but not quite at that level.

Web-based photography software

If you don’t want to download any software, you can find solutions that are web-based and will work through your browser. One of these options is Picnik.com that works with Flickr (Yahoo’s photo service).

Read more about photography, or learn how to design photo albums with specialty websites. Even simpler – sign up for a free email photography course and get weekly tips and exercises straight to your inbox. Sign up now, at the upper left box!

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