Image editing is a skill that everyone who wants to do any successful marketing must have. If you aren’t hiring a professional to do the campaign graphics and add visuals to your content regularly, you must learn how to do it yourself. The good news is that there are many great solutions that will help you create fantastic designs.
Photoshop is, undoubtedly, the most famous of them. According to Adobe’s latest statistics, about 90% of professionals in creative jobs use it. However, you don’t need such a sophisticated (and expensive) solution to edit and create great marketing images for your own website. There are far more affordable, yet no less efficient solutions you can use.
Why Image Editing Is an Important Skill to Have
The main reason why everyone who wants to do any kind of business online must have some skill in editing pictures is that visuals are invaluable for marketing. Every post on your blog or social media must feature at least one beautiful image. Any ads and banners you make must include eye-catching and memorable graphics. Basically, anything you post online must have some kind of image included.
Even with marketing channels where pictures aren’t the primary type of content, you can use them to give your content a boost. For example, well-edited thumbnails will help grow your YouTube channel.
How to Edit Images If You Aren’t a Pro
When thinking about image editing, the majority of people think that the best solution for it is Adobe Photoshop. It’s true in a way because this is one of the most sophisticated solutions that offers an extremely wide range of editing possibilities. But it also costs around $25 a month, which means $300 a year.
Another issue with Photoshop is that all those versatile editing features are complicated. This is a solution developed for professionals who understand and can make the best use of graphic nuances.
Simply put, the average person, especially a beginner, won’t be able to use even half of the software’s capabilities effectively. So, you’ll be wasting your money. Therefore, it’s far more cost-efficient to start by using some of the best photo editing software for beginners. These solutions are versatile and also easy to master. They offer various filters, effects, etc. that you can use immediately. They also make it easy to “fix” any mistakes you make.
Top 3 Best Image Editing Software Solutions for Beginners
1. Skylum Luminar 4
Skylum Luminar 4 is a highly versatile and rather affordable (under $100 for lifetime use) image editing solution. Its main advantage is that it offers a great variety of editing features, tools, filters, effects, etc. Some of them you won’t find with the majority of other editing software.
For example, Skylum Luminar features a details enhancer tool that will make any image look highly professional. It also has Sunrays and Dramatic tools that will enhance images in a very special way. The AI Sly Replacement tool is invaluable for the flexibility of adjustments it offers you.
However, this abundance of features comes at the cost of speed. Users report that the program can be a bit slow, especially when editing and saving large files. There are also no geometric adjustment and repair tools.
2. Photopea
Photopea is a free image editing tool, which is already an attractive quality for beginners. It’s not very sophisticated, but it can help you learn the basics of image editing. In fact, the software is designed to be similar to Photoshop. Therefore, you can use it as a basic training tool for it.
It’s also important to note that Photopea offers many editing tools and filters as well as tutorials. The latter are most helpful for those learning how to edit. This solution has some interesting features, including Automation. This feature saves your edited settings so you can reuse them on a new image fast. You can also work with vector graphics and an array of smart tools when using this program.
3. Corel PaintShop Pro
Corel is a major competitor to Adobe Photoshop. The company offers a range of image editing software. Corel PaintShop Pro, in particular, is a rather advanced solution. However, while its features and editing capabilities are sophisticated, it’s still straightforward enough for a beginner to master. It’s a good choice for those who want to make professionally-looking images right from the start.
The Support section of the solution will be a great help in learning how to master it. Some of the outstanding features include Flaw Removal, Art Media (for creating the effect of paintings), SmartClone (for adding elements from other images), and the smallest imaginable Refine Brush.
Bottom Line: Choose Image Editors Suited for Your Personal Needs
There are many great image editing solutions to choose from. Therefore, you should always know what exactly you need to achieve the results you want. This way, you’ll know what features to look for beyond different format support and standard editing tools. Also, remember to try out the free trial version if it’s available. Offering it should count as a plus for the software provider as this enables you to see what the editor is truly capable of.
[Image via: Google Images]
