5 best apps for post– shoot editing

Apple’s free Photos does a fine job of providing you with classic darkroom tools to tweak color, tone and composition, but is lacking some utilities that other apps offer, such as the ability to edit in layers and extra filters.

Photos Free www.apple.com

Photos enables you to perform edits that you can’t do as easily in third–party apps, such as changing the strength of background blur in a Portrait mode shot, adding studio lighting effects, and even choosing a different focal point.

DxO FilmPack 7 $139 www.dxo.com

FilmPack 7 expands the amount of creative filters you can use to stylize your portraits or give them a vintage look. Each look is fully customizable. It doesn’t work with Apple ProRAW format files though, just JPEGs.

Adobe Lightroom From $9.99/mth adobe.com

Lightroom has a wide range of selective adjustment tools. It automatically masks people or skies for faster edits. You can start editing on the iOS version and continue on the synced macOS app. It is happy to edit Apple .dng files.

Adobe Photoshop From $19.99/mth adobe.com

The original photo editor incurs a monthly subscription, but it boasts powerful tools for creative portrait editing such as the ability to composite images in layers. AI–assisted tools enable you to select a person in just a click.

Affinity Photo 2 $69.99 affinity.serif.com

Affinity Photo 2 offers photo– fixing and creative tools that rival much of Photoshop’s powerful capabilities (such as compositing in layers), but without the expense of a rolling monthly subscription. An iPad version is also available.