Photo editing software recommendations

[Tintype_18]

On another thread, it was mentioned about editing photos. My T7 and File Explorer allow some editing but would like to expand the capabilities. Did the usual search and came up with a list from the XX Best Free Editing Software. GIMP was mentioned a few times as the recommended software. Anyone use this? Seemed simple to use and free. Thanks.

[backe]

Still a relevant question even in 2025! GIMP is solid for a free option, but I’ve been using Darktable lately, great for RAW editing and feels a bit more polished. Also worth checking out is Photopea if you want something browser-based and quick.

[Tintype_18]

Thanks. Away from photography for a long time but anticipate getting back in to it now.

[johnrmoyer]

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@Tintype_18 wrote:

Thanks. Away from photography for a long time but anticipate getting back in to it now.

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I use Canon DPP on macOS and rawtherapee on Debian Linux. I have used Darktable in the past, but now prefer rawtherapee even though Darktable works well and I would recommend either. To me, the biggest advantage of DPP is "digital lens optimizer" which can remove much small aperture diffraction blur, but works only with Canon lenses and will not work with your Sigma lens. Rawtherapee "capture sharpening" also uses Richardson/Lucy deconvolution to remove small aperture diffraction blur and will work with your Sigma lens. 

I use Gimp. Gimp 3 includes the new JPEG compression algorithm that makes much smaller files at the same quality. I use exiftool, GraphicsMagick, Hugin, GMIC, and ffmpeg free software.

Apple Photos.app works well, but does not match my preferences.

Hugin does stitching of panoramas or focus stacks.

[Peter]

Capture sharpening has been ported to darktable. am looking forward to using it with the next release.

[johnrmoyer]

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@Peter wrote:

Capture sharpening has been ported to darktable. am looking forward to using it with the next release.

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I read https://discuss.pixls.us/t/capture-sharpening-simply-thank-you/51574 after seeing your reply and noticed that it was not apparent that it is understood how Richardson/Lucy works since one person reported using a specific radius for a preset without tying it to FNumber.

The radius for Richardson/Lucy should be chosen based upon FNumber and spacing of photosites on the sensor chip. The purpose of the radius parameter is to match the size of the Airy disk on the sensor chip. Assuming a circular aperture and a nearly Gaussian shape for the central peak of the Airy disk, it should be possible for the software to choose the radius automatically if the software can get sensor size and resolution and FNumber from metadata. 

Number of iterations should be chosen based upon amount of correction desired versus amount of noise or size of departures from assumptions of circular aperture and Gaussian shape. In an ideal world, more iterations would always bring the result closer to zero diffraction blur, but in the real world too many iterations will emphasize noise and lens imperfections and departure from circular aperture shape.

In Rawtherapee it works surprisingly well and I expect your are correct that it will improve Darktable.

[elnalia]

In DPP4 you can zoom in very closely for editing. Can you zoom into a picture and crop the zoomed image so the final picture stays zoomed in? In other words, if I have a picture of a horse in a meadow, can I zoom in and crop the zoomed in picture? When I choose the crop function, the picture reverts back to the original photo (not zoomed in).

[jrhoffman75]

You need to Convert and Save the image. Then the saved image will be the cropped image. DPP4 is non- destructive so original image is not changed. All edits are just instructions that are executed on export. 

[johnrmoyer]

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@jrhoffman75 wrote:

You need to Convert and Save the image. Then the saved image will be the cropped image. DPP4 is non- destructive so original image is not changed. All edits are just instructions that are executed on export. 

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When DPP saves a CR3 file, it puts the "recipe" into the CR3 file but otherwise leaves the raw data unchanged. One difference I have noticed between the recipe in the CR3 file and the one in the dr4 file is that the white balance in the CR3 file recipe is specified as RGGB numbers while in the dr4 file it is either degrees Kelvin or a name such as "daylight" or "shade".

[johnrmoyer]

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@elnalia wrote:

In DPP4 you can zoom in very closely for editing. Can you zoom into a picture and crop the zoomed image so the final picture stays zoomed in? In other words, if I have a picture of a horse in a meadow, can I zoom in and crop the zoomed in picture? When I choose the crop function, the picture reverts back to the original photo (not zoomed in).

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When you save a JPG file or TIF file, click the resize box and resize to 200%. The upscale algorithm does reasonably well at 200%. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_scaling  

I like the Lancoz algorithm for upscaling. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_scaling#Sinc_and_Lanczos_resampling 

After upscaling, one should do unsharp mask even if one did unsharp mask before upscaling. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsharp_masking 

[Tintype_18]

Thanks to all but further replies are not necessary, considering the vast array of solutions.