Editing Software

Derek Smith • 9 September 2025
A big thank you for the positive comments on my recent “Should I shoot in RAW or .jpg” blog.

Following on from that blog I wanted to share with you the image editing software that I use in editing my images.

FastStone (Windows only)
 
I believe that this is an essential tool for every photographer to download, and use. The software is completely free to download, FastStone does ask for a donation, which helps to develop the software. The editing tools are easy to use, with easy to learn keyboard short cuts.

Predominantly, the software is for viewing, and editing .jpg files only, RAW images can be viewed, but in a restricted resolution. 

The clone, and healing tools on FastStone are exceptionally good, I often use the cloning tool, then follow up with the healing brush to smooth over any harsh lines from the cloning. Cropping, and resizing images again is very easy with FastStone, open a file of images, select the image you want to crop, click “X” on the keyboard, and a range of crop sizes are available. For competitions I always use FastStone to resize my images, “Ctrl + R” to resize to say 1920px by 1200px for our projector size, “Ctrl + S” to save. The FastStone default colour space photometric is “YCbCr”, which results in a 2 or 3 times smaller file size, I prefer to click the “options” tab on the save dialog box, and select “RGB”. 

In preparing images for a recent competition, with a resized 1200px by 1200px photo, FastStone “YCbCr” photometric produced a file size of 871KB, switching to “RGB” produced a file size of 1752KB, and all the steps can be viewed on the attached screenshots.

Serif Affinity Photo (Windows and Apple Mac)

This is a comprehensive editing suite for .jpg and RAW, there are many YouTube videos to teach the tools available. I like the perspective tool, ideal for straightening buildings, and the inpainting tool is very useful to fill in gaps in a background, or blemishes in the skin. Compositing images can be readily accomplished, with different layers. 

Affinity Photo is available as a one-time purchase – currently £67.99

Luminar Neo (Windows and Apple Mac)

This is my preferred editing suite, able to edit both .jpg, and RAW images. The main benefit of the software for me is the ability to batch edit my images. Often, I will be out with my camera, and return with several hundred images, and I can edit the first image of the batch, and copy / paste to succeeding images from the ribbon of images at the foot of the software. The masking brush tools are so easy to use, enabling direct painting in of exposure, sharpness, or any other effect into the image. Take an example of a bird, or insect against a dark background, I can just click the exposure tool, select the mask, and paint the subject directly with the mask, then use the slider to increase the exposure, and any of the tool effects can be painted in the same manner, shadows, highlights, and sharpening.

Luminar Neo is available as a one-time purchase, or subscription. Currently a perpetual licence is on sale for £99.

Other Editing Suites

GIMP, and DarkTable are both cross platform .jpg, and RAW image editors, and completely free to download and use.

Capture One Pro - Superior image quality, precision editing, and best-in-class tethering, so their website states. £111 annual subscription.

DxO Photolab 9 - The world’s most advanced, end-to-end, RAW photo editing software. £219.99 one-time purchase.

Adobe Photoshop - Is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe for Windows and macOS. Subscription model £21.98 monthly.

Adobe Lightroom - Make your photos look better than ever, no matter your skill level. New Quick Actions give you creative assistance tailored to your unique photo. And with Generative Remove, you can clean up unwanted distractions in a touch.
Plans starting at £11.99 monthly incl. VAT for the annual billed monthly plan.

Corel Paintshop Pro - Enjoy powerful and complete editing of RAW files with a great variety of pro-level tools available in the new AfterShot Lab, now inside PaintShop Pro. There is no need for extra applications or for running several editing processes in parallel, with timesaving and streamlined RAW image editing. Full licence £89.99.

Conclusion 

Photo editing can be a rewarding experience with the correct tools but learning how to get the best from your software, and images can be a steep learning curve. YouTube videos can really be your friend here, Anthony Turnham, and Jim Nix have taught me a lot about Luminar Neo – and I’m still learning!!

Also take advantage of any 30 day trial offers, you have to find software that you can work with, and that can speed up your workflow.






Louth Photographic Society

by Derek Smith 9 April 2026
Our speaker last night was our very own member Tony Gaskins, who gave an excellent presentation "Coast 3" with some stunning visual images. Tony specialises in capturing long exposure coastal scenes, he related how beginning several years ago with a long exposure view of Whitby Pier he got the "bug" for long exposure photography. Much of his photography takes place along the Lincolnshire, and Yorkshire east coast, often arising in the early hours to catch a sunrise. Weather conditions dictate a lot of how the final image looks, and the long exposure style often creates a sense of calmness, and serenity, with pastel coloured skies, and milky seas. When the weather turns wild, the long exposure image presents a very dramatic scene with foreboding clouds. He recently travelled to Lewis & Harris island in the Outer Hebrides and took many images there, sometimes at sunny white sand beaches, and at other times moody bleak images as the weather closed in. Tony's technique requires a lot of patience, often spending hours at a location, with the camera mounted on a study tripod, and the ND filters on the camera permitting an exposure time of several minutes. Many thanks Tony for a very informative talk, well presented, and with some beautiful imagery.
by Graham Harrison 5 April 2026
Good Morning All Last week at the club we held a Local Nature and Open PDI competition, members Dave Turner and Steve Chapman kindly offered to judge the competition, thank you to you both, it was a good night and the entries were of a high standard giving you both quite a task. The results are on our website, but the two winners on the night were, Local Nature Tony Gaskins and Open Harry Kerman. This week, Wednesday 8th April, Tony Gaskins, one of our members is showing us Coast 3, a PDI presentation. Tony is an excellent photographer and spends many hours photographing our coastline. Aprils Print competition, Circles and Open is fast approaching, you can send your titles to Dave Turner when your ready and bring your prints in the week before the competition. Regards Graham
by Derek Smith 2 April 2026
It was no April fools, when we held our PDI (Projected Digital Image) competition last night. The images submitted into this competition were off the highest quality. Dave Turner judged the Open category, which I think is always one of the hardest categories to judge, pitting landscapes, against nature, and still life, but Dave did a magnificent job, offering well founded critique of the images submitted. After the break, Steve Chapman judged the Local Nature category, (nature images taken within a 25 mile radius of St. James' church, Louth) Steve "held back" 10 out of the 18 submitted images, and gave those 10 images very careful consideration until he finally arrived at the 3 highest placed images. Steve commented that the submitted images were indeed of high quality, and he took his time to evaluate the submitted images and offered useful critique on each one. The competition made for a very interesting evening, and all members deserve praise for the quality of the submitted images. The website Competition page has been updated with the full results, and the top three images from each category. On this post is 1st placed Sedge Warbler, Cleethorpes by Tony Gaskins, in the Local Nature category, and 1st placed Hudson Bay Wolf, (Lincoln Zoo) by Harry Kerman, in the Open category.
by Graham Harrison 29 March 2026
Good Morning, All, Last week at the club member Chris Birchmore gave a presentation on MPP cameras which included some of Chris's collection of cameras and prints taken. There is a report on the evening on our blog page. Thank you Chris for an interesting evening. This week, Wednesday 1st April, we are holding a local and open PDI competition the local subject being nature, please if you haven't already, send your entries to Harry before midnight tonight. Members Steve Chapman and Dave Turner have volunteered to judge. Also on the Wednesday 1st April our Louth Photographic Society 70th anniversary exhibition will be open to view at the Louth Museum. Regards Graham
by Derek Smith 26 March 2026
Chris Birchmore gave an informative, and interesting talk and demonstration of his medium format film cameras. at the beginning of the evening Chris gave a potted history of the origins of the MPP cameras he was showing us. The cameras take a 5 x 4" film stock, and looking at the cameras it seems incredible that photographers in the recent past could take excellent photographs with these. The MPP cameras were often used by the British Armed Forcies during the Second World War, and throughout the 1950s, and 60s, and some of these medium format were still being manufactured in the 1970s. The prints that Chris showed taken with these cameras were of excellent quality, with an amazing depth of field. Many thanks Chris for a fascinating evening.
by Graham Harrison 22 March 2026
Good Morning All Last week at the club we held a committee meeting, which was very productive, we made the final arrangements for the exhibition, charity night, and studio evening as well as other items on the agenda. We are holding an Exhibition opening night at Louth Museum on Friday 17th April celebrating 70 years of Louth Photographic Society. There will be a small buffet and cold drinks available, if any member would like to donate a bottle of wine to the occasion please hand it to Harry at one of our club nights. This week, Wednesday 25th March, member Chris Birchmore will be giving us a presentation. The following week is a local competition, with the categoriess of "Local Nature" (up to 25 miles radius from St James church) and "Open" (unlimited mileage) please send your entries to Harry before midnight, Sunday 29th March. Members Steve Chapman will judge the Nature category, and Dave Turner the Open category. Regards Graham
by Graham Harrison 15 March 2026
Good Morning All Last week at the club we held our monthly PDI competition judged by Martyn Wrigg, the standard of entries was very high and well done to Tony Gaskins for a first in the Architectural Detail and Derek Smith for his first place in the Open. All the results are on our website under competitions. This week, Wednesday 18th March we will be holding a Committee meeting, just committee members for this one. The following week Chris Birchmore is the speaker for the night. Harry is now accepting entries for the PDI local competition, with the categories of "Local Nature" and "Open". We judge this competition in house so if you would like to judge one of the subjects please let me know. Regards Graham
by Derek Smith 12 March 2026
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by Derek Smith 12 March 2026
A PDI (Projected Digital Image) competition was held last night with the categories of "Architectural Detail", and "Open". Martyn Wrigg was our judge for the evening, and he competently judged the submitted images, although he diid surprise with some of his choices of placing, but that's a judges perogative. Martyn complemented members on the quality of the images presented, which had made some of his decisions difficult. First placed was "It's a Fixer Upper" in the Architectural Detail section, and "Dervish Musician" in the Open section. Congratulations to Robin Begley, who as one of our newest members submitted some impressive images, achieving a 3rd place in "Architectural Details", and 2nd in the "Open" category. All the results are now posted to our website Competition page.
by Graham Harrison 8 March 2026
Good Morning All Last week at the club member Steve Chapman gave us an insight into his life and especially his time at Ilam Park in Derbyshire photographing for the National Trust. Steve showed us many photographs he had taken of the people involved with the trust and the Peak District. The second half was dedicated to Steve's own work, some superb aircraft photography as well as many other subjects. There is a report on the evening on our blog page. This week, Wednesday 11th March we are holding a PDI competition, with the categories of "Architectural Detail " and "Open" to be judged by Martyn Wrigg of Barton. The following week is a committee meeting for the committee members only on that evening. For newer members we have two committee meetings a year. Regards Graham