If both the monthly subscriptions and one-time costs look out of reach for you, don’t worry – there’s lots of excellent free software out there for editing your photos.

GIMP At a glance

⬤ Photo-editing and graphics

software

⬤ Windows, Mac and Linux

⬤ Free and open-source

⬤ gimp.org

The GNU Image Manipulation Program, commonly known by its acronym GIMP, is a free and open-source image editor that you can download, install and run in barely the time it would take to read this paragraph – no credit card required. GIMP has always been free, and is maintained by a devoted team of enthusiasts. It offers a powerful photo-editing suite to rival Photoshop or Affinity Photo, and there are tons of communitydeveloped plug-ins that allow you to make it your own. It’s infamously tricky to get to grips with – though recent updates have made it a lot more user-friendly than it once was.

Pros and Cons

+

Completely free and powerful + Highly customisable + Regular updates –

Tricky to use at first –

Not many tutorials

RawTherapee At a glance

⬤ Raw conversion software

⬤ Windows, Mac and Linux

⬤ Free

⬤ rawtherapee.com

When you first boot up RawTherapee, you might be a little overwhelmed at the complexity of what you’re looking at. This free raw conversion software is not blessed with the most intuitive of interfaces, with tons of tool panels and a huge array of features. Geeks will be in heaven; normies might feel a bit overwhelmed. However, if you do want to wade into the ins and outs of raw processing and don’t have cash to spend, the amount of power you get for free here is incredible. Bear in mind that updates for the software have slowed in recent years, with the last one coming in November 2022 – so if you have a newer camera, the software won’t have specific profiles for it.

Pros and Cons

+ Completely free

+ Tons of options for processing raws Overwhelming interface

Slow pace of updates