Hi everyone, Kevin here. Today I want to show you my favorite top five best free photo editing
software. We're going to start with the most basic. We're going to look at software that
comes for free with Windows. Then we're going to get a little bit more advanced, and we'll look
at software that allows you to modify any aspect of a photo. If you want to download any of this
software, I've included links down below in the description. All right let's check these out.
The first free app is one that you might not know of, but it comes for free with Windows. To access
this, go down to your taskbar and within the search field simply type in Photos. Who would have
thought Windows includes a photos app? Click on Photos in the best match. This opens up the Photos
app and here you can review all of the different photos that are on your computer. And yes, it's
official. We now have actual cookies at the Kevin Cookie Company as you can see right here in this
photo. To edit one of your photos, simply click on it. This opens up the file preview window, and to
edit your photo, in the top right-hand corner, click on this drop-down list and then click on
edit. This drops me into the editing experience, and here I have access to all of the most common
editing tools. Here for instance, I drop into the crop and rotate view. Here I could crop my photo
and just tighten it up a tiny bit. Also, I could rotate my picture around. I could even come in and
straighten it. Here I could click into filters, and I could have it auto enhance my photo,
or I could choose one of these preset filters down here. Up above, I could also make different
adjustments. Let's say I want to adjust the lighting. Maybe I want to come in and adjust the
color. Here if I click on this drop-down, I could also fine tune all of the different controls.
I have a few additional controls and I could also remove red eye, and I could apply a spot fix.
Let's say for instance, maybe I have this mark here on my neck. I could simply click there, and
it’ll disappear. Once I'm all done, I could save a copy, or I could simply overwrite the original.
All-in-all, the Photos app is a decent option. It comes for free with Windows, so chances are you
already have it, and it also gives you access to the most common editing tools. However, some
of the other options that we're going to look at offer even more control beyond what this can do.
Next up for the best free photo editing software, we have the IrfanView Graphic
Viewer. It's named after the creator Irfan. You can download it at the following website,
and I've also included a link in the description down below. On the home page, you can choose
which version you want to download. You can also download additional plugins. These allow you to
open additional file types like SVG, HEIC, and it also gives you access to additional image effects.
Once you finish downloading, you'll see an application that looks like this,
and at first glance, it might look a little bit dated and also pretty basic,
but don't let that deceive you. There's actually a lot of power under the hood.
To open up an image file, you can simply drag and drop an image and then drop it on the app.
Once you drop an image into Irfan View, you can go up to the edit menu and you can do things like
insert text on top of the image. You could also insert an overlay or watermark. When I click into
the image menu, you have all the standard controls like being able to rotate an image, you could flip
it, and here you can even add a border or a frame to your image, and when I open this up, you'll see
all of these different options that I have, and you can customize all of these different settings.
Along with adding borders, you can also apply color corrections. You could auto adjust colors.
You could remove red eye and there are a whole bunch of different effects that you can apply to
your photos. There's even an effects browser that let you look at what the effect will do
to your image, so there are a lot of fun ones that you can experiment with. Along with simply
manipulating your photo, you can also set up a photo slideshow. Here you have full control over
what your slideshow looks like, and you could even have music play along with your slideshow.
Lastly, and this is a lifesaver especially when you have a lot of photos that you need to convert.
Within the file menu, there are also batch conversion features.
This allows you to batch rename or batch convert an image file to a different file type. Next up we
have Adobe Photoshop Express, and you can download this for free through the Microsoft Store.
Simply search for Adobe Photoshop Express and then you can install the app. When you launch the app,
you'll see an interface that looks like this, and this is probably most similar to the Photos app.
You get access to some of the most common editing tools. Up above, if you're feeling adventurous,
you can have it auto enhance your photo. Over on the left-hand side, you have access to all
of these different filters. Here I see all of these categories and I can click in and
then apply one of these filters. Here I'll select summer. Back on the left-hand side,
I can also rotate and crop my photo. Here I have some additional controls that allow me
to fine tune what my image looks like. I could also remove blemishes. I could remove red eye
and I could add borders to my photos. All-in-all, Adobe Photoshop Express is a fairly well-made app.
It's pretty easy to use, it's simple, and you can make your photos look a lot better,
but once again, if you want more control, some of the other options that we're going to look at
offer that. Next up we have the Dark Table app, and this is open source and also free,
and this offers a tremendous amount of power where you can basically change any aspect of your photo.
To download this app, head to the website darktable.org. It's also in the description.
When you launch Dark Table, you'll see an interface that looks like this
and by default we land in the light table view, and within light table, this is where we can do
all of our photo management. You can view all your different photos. Here you can apply different
star ratings to your photos. You could also set various tags on your photos, and you could enter
in different descriptions. One of the really neat things with Dark Table is I can click
into one of these photos. I can make a whole bunch of different edits and modifications and then I
can take all of those different settings that I applied, and I could apply it to my other photos.
Back on the right-hand side, once I'm done making changes to my photo, I could decide
how I want to export it, so I could export it as a JPEG or other file formats. To edit an image,
I simply click on it right here, and this will open up the editing interface. This drops us
into the dark room view and this is where we edit the photo, and we make all of the different
modifications. You can come in here and adjust things like the white balance, the exposure,
and when I said some of these other options offer a lot more control, I really wasn't kidding.
Over here on the right-hand side, you'll see all of the various elements that you can modify,
and once again, you have full control over what your photo looks like. All-in-all, Dark Table is
an excellent option if you want full control over what your photos look like. But the one downside,
especially compared to some of the other apps we looked at is the complexity is quite a bit higher,
and there is a somewhat steep learning curve. Next up we have Raw Therapy, and you can download this
at the following website, or you can click on the link in the description down below,
and this is pretty similar to Dark Table where it gives you full control over what your image
looks like. Once I finish installing, I’ll land in the file browser, and this is very similar to Dark
Table where I could preview what all of my images look like. Here too, I could click on one of the
images. I could apply different star ratings. Over here, I could view some of the details of
the image that I took. If I want to edit one of these images, I simply double click on it.
This drops me into the editing interface, and in the top left-hand corner, here I can
see a histogram of my image. I have a filmstrip that shows me all of my different image files.
Down on the left-hand side in the bottom corner, I also have something called snapshots. So,
as I start making edits to this image, I can take a snapshot and as I make additional edits to that
image, I could jump back to a previous snapshot. Also over on the right-hand side, I have access to
all of these different modules that allow me to change what the image looks like. Similar to Dark
Table, Raw Therapy gives you full control over what your images look like, and of course the
one downside is with that much control also comes a very steep learning curve. And we've already
covered five different applications, but I wanted to include one bonus one, and this is one of my
favorite image editing applications. This is pretty much an equivalent to Adobe Photoshop, and
it's called GIMP. You can download it at gimp.org. It's completely free and it's also open source.
Once you finish downloading, you can open up a new image by going to the file menu and then clicking
on new or open. Alternatively, you could also drag and drop a photo in. Once you have an image open,
there are five main areas in GIMP. In the top left-hand corner, you have your toolbox, and this
is where you'll access things like paintbrushes. You'll be able to transform your image, or you'll
be able to select your image. When you have a tool selected, down below in the left-hand corner,
you'll have all of the different tool options. In the center of the screen, you'll see your canvas,
and this is the image that you're working. On over on the right-hand side, you can also view all of
your layers, your color channels and your paths. At the very top, you can view your different
brushes, the patterns, the fonts, and all the different files that you're working on. Up across
the top, you also have a variety of menus with a whole bunch of different tools that you can use.
One quick way to access these different tools is you can press the forward slash on your keyboard
and that will open up a quick tool right here. Let's say that I want to bring up the vignette
tool. I could simply type it in, hit enter, and that will launch it. When you edit photos in GIMP,
you'll likely find that you use two of the menus the most. Up on top, you have the colors menu,
and here you could adjust things like the color temperature, the saturation, the exposure,
the brightness, the levels, and you could adjust the curves. To the right of this menu,
there’s another one called filters, and right down here, you could apply various blurs to your photo.
You could also enhance the photo by say removing red eye, or you could sharpen
the photo. You could also adjust the light and shadows and you have many other options as well.
Just like with the last two apps, GIMP has a fairly steep learning curve, but if you're
willing to invest the time, you can make some truly phenomenal enhancements to your photos.
All right, well, let me know down below in the comments, which photo editing software do you like
the most? To see more videos like this, please consider subscribing, and I'll see you next time.