Perhaps the best thing that has ever happened to photography is the advent of digital technology. The world has long since left analog and chemical photo editing procedures behind for digital photo editing software. And digital photography has brought the craft to the hands of amateurs. But, how is technology helping reshape photo editing software?
While Photoshop remains the household name and even synonym for photo editing, many other applications, especially top photo editing software for beginners have risen to the challenge as photography gets increasingly advanced.
Following digital technology, the next big thing appears to be Artificial Intelligence. An AI-powered photo editing software uses machine learning to enhance images and manipulate them in various regards. Therefore, the ways described in this article are related to AI in one way or the other. Even innovations from the digital revolution are being improved upon.
One-Touch Editing.
Photoshop seems cumbersome and complex for many, even professional photographers. This might have been the idea behind alternative Adobe photo editing software like Lightroom. Nevertheless, many software has arisen to rival Photoshop in offering one-touch editing where adjustments that would have taken hours are made in seconds and minutes, of course, with AI at play. This is not unexpected, the world is running faster.
- Luminar by Skylum is a good photo editing software that gives its users an edge with its Accidental AI. It enables users to adjust a wide range of features by using a slider. Its preset styles make this possible too. The app is also available as a plugin in Photoshop, Lightroom and Apple Photos.
- Movavi Photo Editor is an easy photo editing software that prides itself on one-touch photo enhancement. It conveniently combines its simplicity with high-end sophistication, ensuring that quality is not compromised.
- Photolemur is an easy image editor that comes with an auto image editing feature. It does this with the aid of algorithms.
Face Beauty Effects.
Since the rise of selfies, photo editing software has been heavily invested in the face beauty trend. Most of the applications, especially mobile ones, are only for amateurs. However, there are professional photo editing software that relies on strong AI-driven facial recognition technology to create more realistic effects.
- Skylum recently released an update to the Luminar photo editing software that featured a new Accent AI 2.0 technology dubbed ‘human-aware’. Using facial and object recognition technology, it is capable of creating better photo effects. It removes the hassle of individually adjusting effects like contrast, shadows, highlights, color correction and so on. Its strong point is that it still affords photographers a lot of flexibility with editing.
- Photolemur has what is called Face Finish Technology. It uses AI (too) to analyze image details and corrects imperfections at once. Typical face editing features like teeth whitening and eye correction are embedded in this photo editing software.
- Prisma, one of the top photo editing software designed Lensa as an app to retouch selfies. It has a lot of face beauty features such as skin tone smoothing, eye/eyebrow effects, texture and so on. It also features innovative features like Bokeh that is similar to the iPhone’s portrait mode.
Style Effects.
Most photo editing software now offers customized styles that apply various effects for you, especially when you do not have much time for editing. These quick effects make it faster and easier to edit a photo and are great for amateurs who don’t want all the complexity of typical photo editing apps.
- Prisma photo editing software (on Android and iOS) gave rise to artistic effects in photos. It uses AI to transform typical photos even artworks that they appear like paintings, mosaics sketches, etc. Since its release in 2016, it has gained widespread adoption among many and has come to be known as a primary art app.
- GoArt by Fotor transforms photos into artistic masterpieces with AI. It can make your photos imitate mainstream art styles such as impressionism, abstract, fauvism, dadaism, etc. and even make photos look like they are straight out of Van Gogh’s studio.
- Painnt is another photo editing software that is art-driven. It features several styles that are further divided into categories for easy use.
Photo Upscaling.
Humans are insatiable. And while our cameras have read unrealistic resolutions and keep going higher, we still need more. This desire has birthed photo upscaling apps that use AI to increase photo resolution while preserving quality and is great in the case of photo printing.
- Topaz Labs claims that its Gigapixel AI which is not exactly a full-fledged photo editing software can enlarge photos and upscale them to 600% while preserving detail, using machine learning to analyze the images pixel-by-pixel.
- Bigjpg uses the latest Deep Convolutional Neural Networks technology to reduce noise and increase the quality of images with the photos themselves retaining their excellent quality.
- Letsenhance.io is a web application that does as its name says: enhances pictures. It promises it can upscale images 16x the original. It rivals many mainstream photo editing software in this regard.
Conclusion
As mentioned earlier, the current wave of photo editing software trends is motivated by AI and is bound to continue so. Keep in mind that all the software mentioned are just for illustration purposes: they may not necessarily be the best but show how technology has impacted photo editing.
As the niche evolves, digital photography is set to take a turn around. What will we would do with pictures in 2020? Will they be radically different than what was obtainable decades ago.