Enlight is an all-in-one photo editing app that can do a little bit of everything. Whether you want to perform a simple edit or create an artistic masterpiece, you can do it all with Enlight. This app has a great selection of traditional editing tools. We compared the best tablets for photo editing in 2018. Your search for the best tablet for photographers ends here. About a year ago we listed the top 8 tablets for photography that you could buy and take your photo editing to the next level. The Mac is still the best device for serious photo editing, so you need some serious photo editing apps to make an impact. The built-in Photos app on Mac offers several useful photo editing tools. You can crop, adjust lighting and color, set the white balance, add filters, remove unwanted blemishes, and a few more things. The built-in Photos app on Mac offers several useful photo editing tools. You can crop, adjust lighting and color, set the white balance, add filters, remove unwanted blemishes, and a few more things. Mextures is the best photo editing app for adding textures and light leaks. If you want to create truly unique artwork, including fantasy-style images and double-exposures, try Superimpose X. Once you’ve created some stunning edits using a selection of these apps, use Instagram to share your photos with others.
Easiest to Dive In | |
Photography Plan | Photoshop Elements |
How We Found the Best Photo Editing Software Programs
5 programs tested
The Best Photo Editing Software Programs
To find the best photo editing software, we pitted the best programs tech-giant Adobe has to offer (Photoshop, Lightroom, and Photo Elements) against three highly commended competitors to find out which one was user-friendly enough for beginners and powerful enough for professionals.
The 3 Best Photo Editing Software Programs
- Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Plan -
Most Powerful
- Serif Affinity Photo -
Easiest to Dive In
- Adobe Photoshop Elements 2018 -
Best for One-Click Editing
Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Plan
Access to Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC
Customizable image editing tools
Easy to learn
Why we chose it
Access to Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC
The Adobe Photography Plan combines two Adobe applications — Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC — into one bundle. Lightroom CC is Adobe’s dedicated photography software. If you’re working with large quantities of photos, you’ll want to take advantage of Lightroom’s organizational system: With it, you can rank photos out of five stars, tag photos, and edit information to keep track of where you took a photo. Subscribing to Lightroom CC (either on its own or as part of the Photography Plan) also gives iPhone and iPad users access to a mobile version of the software.
Photoshop CC, meanwhile, won’t do much to help you stay organized — but it has more advanced tools than Lightroom, like layers, masks, and customizable toolbars.
Customizable image editing tools
Photoshop has over sixty basic tools and customizations to choose from, in addition to its more advanced color, lighting, filter, and 3D tools (among others). These basic tools themselves are customizable, so you can do more than just correct red eyes; you can also specify how large, dark, or light you want pupils to appear. More advanced tools — everything from saturation and contrast to lens correction, liquefy, and RAW photo processing — are similarly customizable. Actions are also processed rapidly, allowing you to quickly assess whether your experiments are working.
Easy to learn
Despite the number of tools (and how easy it is to fall into the rabbit warren of adjustments and filters), we found Adobe surprisingly easy to use. You should expect a learning curve, since Photoshop is intended to be an extremely hands-on program, but Adobe supports you at every step. It has an abundance of online resources — a hidden benefit to choosing a company that’s been in the field for decades — and Photoshop CC particularly impressed us with its tutorials and guidance, helping us learn both terminology (what exactly the clone tool does) and technique (how to create and add to masks).
Hovering over the individual tools in Photoshop's left-hand bar pops up five-second gifs that demonstrate each tool — though you can easily change your settings and remove this feature once you get the hang of things.
Points to consider
Subscription service
Our only complaint about Adobe’s Photography Plan is that it’s a subscription service; you’ll sign up for a year-long contract and pay fees monthly rather than making a one-time purchase. While this subscription is significantly cheaper than the one-time purchase model that Photoshop used to follow (complete with a painful $1,500 price tag), if you cancel your subscription, you’ll lose access to all of the programs and tools, as well as any photos that remain in Adobe’s proprietary format. Make sure you’ve completely exported your library if you decide to cancel your contract.
Photoshop CC | |||
Photoshop CC | |||
Serif Affinity Photo
No organizational tools
Why we chose it
Easy to use
We were primarily drawn to Serif Affinity Photo because of how easy it was to use. Its customizable control panel initially appears overwhelming, with 22 adjustments options immediately available on your right-hand dashboard. However, each one is neatly packaged so that no matter what you want to do, you can quickly find and open the relevant folder.
Helpful presets
We also appreciated how Serif provides a number of immediate preset options on all of its effects. You can also manually adjust each effect for more control, but the presets offer a nice introduction for beginners.
One-time purchase
One of the keenest edges Serif Affinity has over Adobe’s Photography plan is that it’s a one-time purchase of $50, rather than a $10 or $20 monthly subscription. This means that, depending on your cloud storage needs (in turn based on how many photos you have and their editing needs), Serif Affinity becomes the more affordable plan after five months, possibly as early as three months.
Points to consider
No organizational tools
However, Serif Affinity’s budget plan comes with one significant drawback: It doesn’t offer any organizational tools. If you’re dealing with hundreds or thousands of photos that you need to organize, or would like to sort by place, date, or personalized keyword, you’ll want to consider Adobe’s Photography Plan or take a look at Photoshop Elements 2018.
Adobe Photoshop Elements 2018
One-click editing
Settings for different skill levels
Why we chose it
One-click editing
If you’re just trying to create, say, annual holiday cards, and the idea of learning new photo editing terms, tools, tricks, and techniques feels daunting, Adobe Photoshop Elements transforms the process into a few simple clicks — with a couple of sliders you can adjust if you’re feeling adventurous. That’s it. Photoshop Elements 2018 gives you high-quality photographs without a technical learning curve, so long as you stay within its predetermined adjustments.
Settings for different skill levels
We love that Photoshop Elements offers three tiers of photo editing: Quick, Guided, and Expert. Quick is simply that — with a few auto-adjustments, possibly a camera filter or picture frame, you can take your photograph from raw image to printer-ready. Guided gives you almost 50 options, where it will walk you through step-by-step the process of adjusting brightness, straightening or resizing a photo, or adding filters. Finally, the Expert mode lays out all of the program’s tools with minimal instruction.
Points to consider
Light on advanced editing tools
Even though the Expert mode of Photoshop Elements is more advanced than either the Quick or Guided modes, it doesn’t compete with our top picks. In addition to its clunky ‘90s-era design, it lacks all of the tools found in Photoshop CC or Serif Affinity Photo. That said, it could be a good introduction when you feel like trying out some additional techniques outside of the guided programs.
How to Find the Right Photo Editing Software for You
Decide what tools you need
Different types of image editing require different tools. No matter what you’ll be doing, you’ll want to know which ones you need for your most common projects — these functions might not be immediately necessary, but they’ll let you tackle tasks a little more complex than wiping away corgi footprints.
- Layers let you combine separate images or edit specific areas of a photograph. These are helpful if you’re trying to remove a photo-bomber from your wedding ceremony on the beach or swapping out the snowy background of your cute dog photo to send him floating through space instead.
- Applying a mask layer is another technique to isolate areas of a photo for specific editing. If you’d like to make changes to the background of your photograph without affecting the subject, or if you’d like to create a cut-out of a tiny dog from one photograph to layer him into a desert landscape in another, you’ll probably use a mask.
- Finally, preset filters let you adjust your photos with a single click. These could either take the form of a typical Instagram filter (you click “Black and White” or “Landscape” and it automatically alters your photo) or auto-adjustments on a tool-by-tool case.
Knowing what types of editing you’ll be using the software for will help you narrow down which tools are essential and which are just nice to have.
Test drive several options
All of our top picks offer a free trial, and we recommend taking full advantage of them. You probably know what you’re going to be using the software for, and now’s a good time to see how each of them perform on the type of image editing you need. Pay attention to the number of tools and effects provided, how easy they are to use, and the organization features of each program.
Determine how much you’re willing to spend
Prices for photo editing software vary a lot, and depending on what you’ll be using it for, you may not need to pay a premium. The most powerful tool on the market, Adobe’s Photography Plan, runs on a subscription model for $10 per month. If you don’t need all of that technical prowess, Serif Affinity will meet all your image editing needs for a one-time purchase of $50. There are even a number of free photo editing software options available if you don’t want to make any investment.
Photo Editing Software FAQ
In most situations, you should edit your photos in the raw camera format as opposed to a standard format like JPEG. The raw files will contain a lot more information about the picture, so you can be more precise in your editing. Once you’re ready to show it to the world, you can then convert it to a shareable format like JPEG or PNG.
You can download and install Photoshop on up to two computers, regardless of the operating system. However, you’ll only be able to use one Photoshop on one computer at a time.
Photoshop CC is the more powerful editing tool — you’ll need to manipulate multiple layers here — while Lightroom CC offers sorting and organizing features into its slightly more basic editing capabilities. Both programs offer preset filters as well, so you can adjust your photos to a preset perfection with only a few clicks. Adobe’s Photography plan includes both programs.
The Best Photo Editing Software Programs: Summed Up
Our Other Software Reviews
Over the years, we’ve put just about every type of software imaginable through the ringer to find the best of the best. Check out some of our favorite reviews below:
Best Photo Editing Apps For Mac 2018
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Your search for the best tablet for photographers ends here. About a year ago we listed the top 8 tablets for photography that you could buy and take your photo editing to the next level. Over the last year, we have seen significant improvement in processing power that has filtered through to the tablet segment. The list of best tablet for photographers now looks a bit different to what it was before.
Why You need a Tablet to Editing Photos
A portable platform for editing your images on the go is a great addition to your overall photography gear.
Related Post: Best Smartphone Cameras
Maximize your Time when on the Go!
Many times when flying or in between flights we have several hours to do absolutely nothing but give empty stares. This is probably the best time when you can edit or at least do some minor adjustments to your images. That basically keeps you in tune with your delivery schedule and frees up time to enjoy your travel on the side.
It also takes away the pressure when you are back in your studio and have to edit everything in one go.
If you have a portable platform you can make adjustments to your photos of the day when at the hotel or in the lounge.
A tablet also has one more critical advantage: you can edit your images while they are still fresh in your mind. So things like the color balance or cropping the compositions, if necessary, can be done while they are still fresh in your mind.
But what would be a good mobile editing platform?
We are not talking about laptops here as they are not always the best choice when it comes to pure convenience. Tablets, with their significantly smaller bulk and weight, are far better choices than the traditional laptops. This article is dedicated to these smaller and yet powerful devices.
This is our updated list of the top choices as the best tablet for photographers in 2018:
- Apple 9.7″ iPad 128 GB (Early 2018)
- Apple 10.5″iPad Pro
- Microsoft Surface Pro 12.3″ 1 TB SSD
- Apple 12.9″ iPad Pro (Mid 2017)
- Samsung 32 GB Galaxy Tab S3 9.7″
1. Apple 9.7″ iPad 128 GB (Early 2018)
Price on Amazon: from $369.994 Amazon Reviews
Display
Introduced in 2018, the Apple 9.7″ iPad comes with a multi-touch retina display. The display resolution is 2048 x 1536 (264 ppi). But if the display resolution is what waters your mouth wait until you read what’s under the hood.
Chip
The 9.7″ iPad is powered by Apple’ A10 Fusion SoC (System on Chip) and a M10 Coprocessor. A system on a chip is basically an integrated system that incorporates all major components of a computer built on the chip itself. Traditionally, these systems consume low power.
Apple’s A10 Fusion has a total of four cores. This is a system on a chip design and that means Two of these cores are high-performance cores. That’s 2 x 2.34 GHz of processing clock speed. The other two are less in performance and therefore preserve a low of power. That’s 2 x 1.1 GHz. It uses the Big.Little technology.
Big.Little Technology
This technology will automatically choose the right core for the task at hand. So, if you are browsing or checking emails the lesser powerful two of the four cores will be used. This will also preserve the battery and extend the usage time frame. When you are editing or playing games or doing anything that has a lot of power, the more powerful two of the four cores will be used. Additionally, this chip has a 64bit architecture supporting the iOS 11 architecture.
Storage
Storage on the Apple 9.7″ is 128 GB. You won’t be able to add additional storage. There is no option to add an external flash memory card. While 128 GB does not sound like something to be overexcited about it I good enough for thousands of images and some videos. Yes, it won’t store a lot of videos, but if you shoot images on your travels, the space should be enough.
Related Post: Best Tablet Cameras
Connectivity
Then again, the tablet comes with built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2. So you can always upload your images to the cloud over a Wi-Fi network in your hotel.
Touchscreen
The touchscreen is capacitive and supports the Apple pencil.
Power
The Li-ion polymer battery provides up to 10 hours of usage. That should be enough for that long flight across the Atlantic or across the world. you can comfortably edit a series of images, color correct in batches and even apply the basic retouching using the Apple pencil and stay ahead of your schedule. Needless to say one of the best tablets for photographers you can run your image editing applications.
2. Apple 10.5″iPad Pro
Price on Amazon: $979.001 Amazon Reviews
The major difference between the Apple 10.5″ iPad Pro and the 12.9″ iPad Pro is the size. The other significant difference being the overall resolution. 2732 x 2048 against 2224 x 1668 pixels. The smaller iPad does enjoy the same 264 ppi Retina Display that the larger iPad enjoys. Sans the bulk and the cumbersome size the smaller tablet is a much easier device to handle. Making it in the process one of the best tablets for photographers.
Storage
Best Photo Editing Apps For Computer
The internal storage on the laptop is a hearty 512 GB. A higher storage means you can use the tablet as a portable storage device as you move around on a shoot or when traveling. The SSD storage is a safe custody for your precious photos and videos.
Chip
The tablet is powered by an Apple A10X SoC processor with a M10 Coprocessor. The A10x is a variant of the A10 chip that was launched in the iPhone 7. This is a six-core chip. It has three high-performance cores which handle the resource hogging requirements. It also has three power-efficient cores, which are not as powerful but conserve a lot of power.
Thanks to the six cores the 10.5″ iPad is capable of handling an incredible amount of multitasking as well as resource hogging tasks. So, you should be able to breeze through a tough task like a 4K video rendering without any noticeable lag time.
The tablet comes preloaded with iOS 10 operating system. Together with the 64-bit processor the tablet is a portable powerhouse when it comes to editing or retouching your images on the go.
The iPad 10.5 Pro also comes with multi-touch capabilities and a multi-input option. It accepts both touch and input via Apple Pencil, allowing you to edit your images with a lot more precise control.
Big.Little Technology
The A10X chip is a variation of the A10 original chip and uses the big.Little technology that distributes tasks to the ideal processors that are capable of handling them. Therefore it gives the right balance between performance and power.
Connectivity
Best Photo Editing Apps For Android
The iPad 10.5 comes with a built-in Li-polymer battery that gives approximately 9 hours of charge time. That should be enough for you to edit several images and even render a 4K video while on a flight or let you watch at least three full-length movies.
Apple iPad Pro 10.5' 512GB WiFi + Cellular Space Gray MPME2LL/A (Mid 2017)- Apple iPad Pro 10.5' with Retina display (MPME2LL/A)
- Wi-Fi + Cellular
- 512GB
- Space Gray
- Mid 2017 version
3. Apple 12.9″ iPad Pro (Mid 2017)
Price on Amazon: $559.5521 Amazon Reviews
Display
The Apple 12.9″ is comparatively a larger device than the 9.7″ iPad or even the 10.5″ iPad which we discussed above. Compared to them this is unwieldy too. But mind you that even if the display is larger, it still retains the Retina display (264 ppi) which makes iPad and most other Apple devise a treat to use. When you are editing your photos you need this for the smooth detailing and the exceptionally good display quality.
Chip
The device is powered by the Apple A10X 64-bit SoC (System on Chip) and is paired with a M10 Coprocessor. The chip consists of 6 cores which allow the system to choose the right core for the right task. Additionally, the GPU has a total of 12 cores.
Big.Little Technology
This iPad uses the big.Little technology as usual.
Storage
This particular iPad comes with an internal storage of 64 GB.
Connectivity
The device comes with both built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2. You would be able to not only connect this to an available Wi-Fi network (airport, hotel) and transfer your images to the cloud, you can also send out your favorite images to your phone, just in case you want to use any of the images as your wallpaper. You can always share your best images with the world directly from the iPad.
Touchscreen
The 12.9″ iPad supports multi-touch. There is a touch ID fingerprint sensor. an anti-reflective coating ensures that the iPad screen has decent usability even when working under bright lights. Plus, the iPad 12.9″ supports Apple pencil. The fast 120 Hz refresh rate ensures when you use the Apple pencil (or even your fingers) to draw, there is very little lag time between when you slide your Apple Pencil across the surface of the iPad and when the drawings appear on the screen.
Power
The built-in Li-Polymer battery provides ample juice to last for up to 10 hours per full charge. All in all one of the best tablet for photographers you can buy.
Sale Apple iPad Pro 12.9-Inch 64GB Space Gray (WiFi Only, Mid 2017) MQDA2LL/A- 12.9-Inch Retina Display, 2732 x 2048 Resolution, True Tone Display
- 64GB Flash Storage, 4GB RAM, 2.39GHz A10X Processor + M10 Coprocessor
- 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Rear 12MP iSight Camera; Front 7MP FaceTime HD Camera
- Touch ID Fingerprint Sensor, Fingerprint-Resistant Oleophobic Coating
- Up to 10 Hours of Battery Life, Apple iOS 10
4. Microsoft Surface Pro 12.3″ 1 TB SSD
Price on Amazon: from $599.00550 Amazon Reviews
Microsoft’s Surface Pro is no doubt one of the best tablet for photographers. The Surface Pro 4 was a success and therefore the new Surface Pro had high hopes. The entry-level Surface Pro is not that powerful and is no match for the Apple iPads that we have discussed here. The premium range Surface Pro is the one that you should be looking at if you need a mobile platform to run photo editing applications. That is also the one we have discussed here.
Display
The Surface Pro is a hugely popular device. If for nothing else then the mixture of power and convenience that it brings to the table. The display on the Surface Pro is 2736 x 1824 which gives it a 267 ppi display.
Chip
The Microsoft Surface Pro 12.3″ is powered by a 2.5 GHz Intel Core i7-7660U chip. This is a Dual-core system on chip design. Paired with it is an integrated IrisPlus Graphics 640 unit. There is a version of the Microsoft Surface Pro that comes powered with the Intel Core m3-7Y30 chip. The first one is way more powerful than the second. The cores in this one are clocked at between 2.5 – 3.8 GHz. There are four threads which take care of multitasking.
Storage
The Microsoft Surface Pro has a 1 TB SSD storage unit. That should be more than enough to replace your desktop. Add to that the capable computing power of the tablet and you really have a mean machine in your hand.
Connectivity
The tablet comes with built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity.
Touchscreen
The Microsoft Surface Pro comes with a 12.3″ PixelSense 10-point Touch Display.
Power
The tablet is powered by a 4-Cell built-in Li-Ion battery that lasts for a maximum of 13.5 hours on a full charge.
Sale Microsoft Surface Pro (5th Gen) (Intel Core i7, 16GB RAM, 1TB)- The latest Microsoft Surface Pro Features a 7th generation Intel Core i7 Processor, 1 TB of storage, 16 GB RAM, and up...
- Our fastest Surface Pro ever* thanks to a powerful Intel Core laptop-grade processor.Bluetooth 4.0
- Go all day with up to 13.5 hours of battery life. * 50% more battery life than the previous generation
- Our lightest Surface Pro yet*, starting at 1.69 lbs (m3 model).
- Surface Pro Signature Type cover and Microsoft Surface Pen sold separately.Aspect Ratio: 3:2
5. Samsung 32 GB Galaxy Tab S3 9.7″
Price on Amazon: from $449.00835 Amazon Reviews
Display
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 is a 9.7″ tablet with a Super AMOLED display and a resolution of 2048 x 1536 (QXGA). Pixel density is 264 ppi which is comparable with the Apple devices we have listed above. Additionally, this at the time of its launch was the only HDR-ready Android display in the market. Thus the Galaxy Tab S3 is a serious challenger for the crown of the best tablet for photographers.
Photo Editing Apps For Computer
Chip
Under the hood, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chipset consisting of two 2.15 GHz and 16 GHz dual-core processors. Paired with it is an Adreno 530 GPU.
Storage
Storage on the Galaxy Tab S3 is 32 GB (the version we are reviewing).
Connectivity
Built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2 are the connectivity options on the Galaxy Tab S3. There is no NFC option on it. So, you will have to manually pair the device with any other compatible device.
Touchscreen
The touchscreen supports Samsung’s S Pen (included with the Galaxy Tab S3). The S Pen allows you to take care of finer creative urges. This is the bargaining chip for a tab that is pegged against the 9.7″ iPad. The S Pen does not need charging.
The iPad 9.7″ incidentally, does not come with a stylus in the package. You have to shell out extra cash to obtain one. Also, when compared to the Apple Pencil the Samsung S Pen is four times more pressure sensitive.
And to be fair to the apple, the Samsung does not have a keyboard packaged in the box. You have to pay extra to own one.
Power
Built-in Li-Ion battery provides enough juice to last for about 12 hours per full charge.
Sale Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 9.7-Inch, 32GB Tablet (Black, SM-T820NZKAXAR)- Featuring High Dynamic Range on a Super AMOLED display, the Galaxy Tab S3 delivers cinematic vividness, detail, and deep...
- Our revolutionary S Pen is more precise and pressure-responsive than ever, and never needs to be charged, liberating you...
- Powerful Quad speakers, tuned by AKG, calibrate with your movements as you rotate the Galaxy Tab S3, and intuitively...
- Easily switch from touch to type with a feather light keyboard that auto-pairs, attaches on contact, and never needs...
- Keyboard sold separately. Processor Speed Type : Quad Core(2.15 GHz + 1.6 GHz Quad), Qualcomm APQ8096. External memory...
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I understand that the iPad Pro is an excellent tablet, (I love my iPad) but the biggest flaw for me is a full version of photoshop cannot be put on the system; that is definitely a deal breaker for me.