Home » Processing & Editing » Basic Editing » Free photo software

Free photo software

FreeFree software for the digital darkroom

Some of the best things in life are free, including these nifty programs and utilities to help you in the digital darkroom. Programs include those to edit and enhance digital images,  to view and organize them, and even to help recover digital files you may have deleted. All programs were free and available at the time of posting. *

  • ArcSoft RAW Thumbnail Viewer - plug-in for Windows that allows previewing of RAW photos when browsing through files.
  • AnyFound Photo Recovery - recover lost images from digital camera memory cards.
  • Cooliris plugin - a stunning way to browse images (& videos) online & on your desktop.
  • DVD Flick - simple but powerful DVD authoring tool.
  • EXIF Image Viewer - view available EXIF information in photos posted online.
  • Exposure Plot - analyzes usage of focal length, ISO, aperture and shutter speed.
  • FastStone image viewer - image browser, viewer, converter and editor.
  • FilterSIM - photo filter simulator.
  • FrameFun - add mats, frames and drop shadows to digital images.
  • FuturePaint (Mac) - full-featured image editing.
  • Gimp - (Windows, Mac, Linux) - open source photo retouching software that has many robust features and supports layers. The learning curve may be higher for some than other editing programs listed here.
  • Hugin - stitching software that lets you merge several images into a wide-angle panorama.
  • Irfanview - image viewer and converter; reads exif data.
  • iTag - utility that embeds title, description and keywords in photos and videos.
  • MP4Cam2AVI - quickly converts .mp4/.MOV files to .AVI files (lossless).
  • Mpeg Streamclip - a powerful video converter, player, editor for Mac and Windows.
  • Neat Image - digital image noise reduction.
  • Opanda IExif - browse available Exif / GPS / IPTC data in digital images posted online.
  • Paint.NET - image editing program that supports layers. [What are layers?]
  • Photo Dater -  add date and other information to photo.
  • PhotoFiltre - image editing and filter program (go to the downloads page).
  • PhotoPlus - image editing software offering layers.
  • Photoscape - photo editing software to fix and enhance photos.
  • Photo Story - add motion, effects, music and more to digital photos. Windows XP only.
  • Picturennaut HDR - combine multiple photos of a scene for High Dynamic Range. [What's HDR?]
  • PIXresizer - image resizer.
  • Picasa - photo organizing and editing. [Our review]
  • uMark Lite -  image watermarking software.
  • VicMan’s Photo Editor - image editing.
  • VirtualDub - video capture and processing utility.
  • virtualPhotographer - apply photographic styles to images.

*Important notice: Read disclaimers and operating system requirements posted at the developer’s site. You are solely responsible for software you download and install.

Article tags

,

Share this

  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google
  • Furl
  • LinkedIn
  • Live
  • Ma.gnolia
  • MySpace
  • Netvibes
  • NewsVine
  • Reddit
  • Spurl
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati
  • TwitThis
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • YahooMyWeb
  • Print this article!

14 Comments (add »)

  • On 22 March 2009 at 12:22 am zandyppandy said:

    Hi, 
    I have lots of photos on my pc, something went wrong and I could not view them, 2 days latter and loading a program disk that took over everything, it did everything i did not want it to do, all i wanted was to view them, I went on the your site and there was arcsoft, I realised that was what I had before but had forgotten, it was easy to download and believe me I am 100% thrilled. now I am going to download virtual photographer, now i wont just look at the pictures I will be able to print them for my 11 grandchildren. thank you,
    Sandy

  • On 21 April 2009 at 2:23 am ali qasim said:

     i want photo retouching.

  • On 21 April 2009 at 9:28 am Gail Bjork said:

    All the photo editing programs mentioned will let you retouch photos. Since they are all free, give a few a try to see the one that best meets your needs. For example, the latest version of Picasa has a Retouch tool.

  • On 29 April 2009 at 10:50 pm Karen said:

    hello, we are in search of a neat program that can say cut out things in a picture and place them in a background. Like for instance we own some neat collectible cars. I want to make picture of our car say in a Mountain background or take one of our cars and place them say in front of a 50’s 0r 60’s diner.
    Plus does this program take a picture and make it into a drawing or say clip art form? Can you please let me know… thanks so much

  • On 30 April 2009 at 10:46 am Gail Bjork said:

    You will need a program that has layering capabilities and lets you make selections and add layer masks. You can get more information about these techniques in our Advanced Editing section. You may have to end up buying something like Photoshop Elements or PaintShop Pro. But first download and try some of the free programs mentioned that have layering capabilities. When there is a clear definition between an object and its background, it’s easier to select and extract. Many programs have dozens of filter effects so you can make a image look like a sketch or cartoon. Here are some examples in a recent review we did of the online photo editing tool, Picnik.

  • On 2 August 2009 at 10:43 am Calvin said:

    Very good knowledge. Thanks for sharing. I think Fly Free Photo Editing is also a very good free tool.

  • On 24 August 2009 at 12:33 am james said:

    Thanks for Listing such a nice list of Photo Editing and Recovery software. bookmark it.
    :)

  • On 28 August 2009 at 9:38 am denise said:

    Now that I’ve been able to add copyright to my photograph, how do I take it off?  I can’t find anything in the help section.  The first one, I did it on a copy but for some reason the second one didn’t.

  • On 28 August 2009 at 2:43 pm Gail Bjork said:

    Do you have a software program with a Clone Tool? If so, you can use it to cover up the copyright information. When adding a copyright, I always put it on a separate layer, then save the copy to a separate file.

  • On 18 November 2009 at 5:57 pm Jana said:

    Thanks a thousand times and over!!!!! This site has helped me so much I can’t thank you enough, keep up the good work.

  • On 1 February 2010 at 10:49 pm Allison said:

    I’m looking for a program that I can use to leave color on just part of the photo (like a flower or eyes) while turning the rest blk & wht.

  • On 2 February 2010 at 1:07 am Gail Bjork said:

    You’ll need a program with Layers and Layer Mask capabilities. If you’re looking for a free program, check the complete specifications for the free programs with layers at the developer’s website. otherwise, programs like Photoshop and Adobe Elements, and PaintShop pro have masks. The latter two are less expensive than Photoshop.

  • On 23 February 2010 at 10:38 am quintessa said:

    yall need more programs with layers an layer mask . cause usually those are tha best programs .

    paint.net is the closet thing to photoshop !! — i use it myself . *

  • On 23 February 2010 at 11:54 am Gail Bjork said:

    I agree that it would be nice if there were more free programs that offered layers. But software developers need to feed their families like the rest of us. They often offer decent programs for free, but if you want advanced goodies like layers and layer masks, you have to pay. At least paint.net is free.

Leave a comment