Best iPad Pro Apps in 2020 October 22, 2020 February 12, 2020 by Dhvanesh Never before had the debate of iPad vs. Laptop been so intense as today—thanks to the arrival of 10.5-inch iPad Pro immaculately powered by iOS 11. Available for all iOS devices, Todoist is a note-taking and organization app that can keep.
January 02, 2020
18 min to read
Most free photo editors available on the App Store are quite basic, offering just a limited number of filters and allowing you to easily and quickly liven up your photos before posting them on social media.
But if you’re an aspiring or professional photographer, you probably need a more powerful app with a broader set of tools to use your creativity to the fullest. Besides, you probably use your Mac for photo editing because working on a large screen makes it possible to adjust the slightest details.
1. Apple’s Photos (Built-in app)
Apple’s Photos app is included for free on all recently released Macs. It does a good job at organizing your photos, but its collection of photo enhancement tools leaves much to be desired. Hopefully, our selection of the best free programs for photo editing on Mac will help you choose the right app to suit all your creative needs.
2. Luminar (7 days trial)
Luminar is another full-featured photo editor that’s popular with both Mac and Windows users. It can work as a standalone app as well as a plugin for such popular programs as Apple Photos.
Luminar uses Artificial Intelligence to enable sophisticated yet quick photo enhancements. Among these AI features are Sky Enhancer, which adds more depth and detail to the sky in your photos while leaving other areas untouched; Accent AI, which analyzes a photo and automatically applies the best combination of different effects to enhance your image; and Sun Rays, which allows you to place an artificial sun and adjust the lighting to your liking or make the sun rays already in your photo look even more incredible.
Luminar has over 60 filters you can apply to your photos to enhance them in a moment. Luminar also provides a set of powerful tools for cropping, transforming, cloning, erasing, and stamping, along with layers, brushes, and many more incredible features. Luminar supports the Touch Bar on the latest MacBook Pro, making photo editing even more effortless and pleasing.
3. Photolemur 3 (Free Version with watermark)
Photolemur is a relative newcomer on the photo editing market but it has all the chances to win the favor of beginner photographers and hobbyists. Running on Artificial Intelligence, Photolemur is a completely automatic photo enhancer, meaning that it does all the editing for you in no time. It has the simplest interface, with only a few buttons and sliders to adjust the enhancement to your liking and view the before and after results.
All you need to do is choose a photo (or a few) that you want to improve, drag and drop or import them using the Import button, and let the program make enhancements. After it’s done, you can compare the edited version with the original image by using the before–after slider and, if you want, adjust the skin tone or even enlarge the eyes using additional sliders. Pretty easy, huh?
Photolemur also offers a number of impressive styles to touch up your photos and give them a sophisticated and professional look. With this app, you don’t need to stuff your head with photo editing nuances and terms. Just run Photolemur and watch the magic happen!
4. Aurora HDR (14 days trial)
As you probably can tell from the name, Aurora HDR is designed to help photographers enhance their HDR photos, making them even more detailed and beautiful. It’s an ideal tool for editing your photos, with an extensive collection of more than 20 tools including details, tone, mapping, color, glow, and vignette. Each tool has its unique selection of controls to adjust its effects.
Aurora HDR enables you to work with brushes, layers, and masks, and provides a number of automatic AI tools for recognizing and removing noise, enhancing colors, lighting, and details, improving clarity, and adding contrast to dull areas while leaving other areas untouched.
Aurora HDR does a great job dealing with difficult lighting situations and creating full-of-life images while being easy to use.
5. Pixelmator (Trial 30 Days)
Pixelmator is a photo enhancer beloved by many Mac users, as it offers a good combination of a modern and simple interface, the ability to work on multiple layers, and powerful features that take photo editing to a whole new level. With so many editing tools, brushes, and effects, you can enhance your photos to your liking. You can choose between two versions of Pixelmator – standard and pro – depending on your needs. The standard version is great for basic photo editing with its selection of essential tools and filters, while the pro version is packed with extra brushes, tools, and effects that let you push your creativity to new boundaries. You can decide which version is suitable for you according to what features you’re looking for in a photo editing app.
6. Adobe Photoshop Elements 2020 (Trial link)
Photoshop Elements isn’t as affordable as other photo enhancers for beginner photographers. But luckily there’s a trial version available, so you can check it out before deciding whether this app is worthy of your money. Photoshop Elements acquired many powerful features from Photoshop, only Elements is simplified for amateur photographers and enthusiasts. It includes a good number of effects and filters, plus automated editing options for improving lighting, color balance, and exposure, and even opening closed eyes and reducing the effects of camera shake.
In addition to all of these awesome features, Photoshop also offers editing modes for beginners, intermediate users, and experts. Beginners will probably prefer Quick mode, as it focuses on essential tools to quickly enhance your photos by improving color, lighting, and other basic settings. Guided mode provides intermediate users with step-by-step guidance with more professional features like artistic effects, skin tone correction, and background replacement. Expert mode gives you full access to the app’s really powerful editing features and is ideal for creating stunning images.
7. Affinity Photo (Free Trial)
Affinity Photo’s interface may seem overwhelming at first, especially for novices, but when you come to grips with it you’ll find that the app is just what you’ve been looking for. Its numerous professional tools, effects, and filters encourage you to get creative with your photos. Among the coolest features Affinity Photo has to offer is a before and after view to compare the original photo with its edited version.
Affinity Photo works with 15 file types, including common ones like PDF, PSD, JPG, and GIF as well as some less popular ones. The app amazes with its abundance of basic and top-notch editing tools, allowing you to tweak your photos using all possible kinds of instruments. Affinity Photo allows you to edit HDR photos, apply artistic filters and effects, play with masks and layers, and create breathtaking compositions by combining several images in one. If you find its interface a bit much and are afraid of getting lost in all those advanced tools, you should probably look for something more suitable for your level. But Affinity Photo is worth mastering.
8. Google Photos
Google Photos is a popular cloud storage service for photos and videos. It can’t boast countless masterly tools like other photo enhancers that we review in this article, but it includes some fundamental features like filters, color adjustment sliders, and transformation tools.
Although Google Photos may not be that helpful when it comes to editing photos, it does a pretty good job at storing high-resolution images and videos with 15GB of free online storage, compared to iCloud’s mere 5GB (which you can upgrade to 50GB for a monthly fee). If you’re planning to go on a trip and take plenty of photos, then it might be smart to sign up for Google Photos to use that extra storage space when you come back.
A relatively new photo editing app, PhotoScape X has been gaining popularity with many Mac and PC users since its release in 2008. Its interface is simple but unconventional, with a number of tabs running along the top of the window. Each is responsible for a specific stage of editing. The Viewer tab allows you to browse and organize your photos. After you pick a photo, you can switch to the Editor tab, which includes a broad set of instruments, filters, and effects and a useful feature that enables you to compare the adjusted photo with the original.
The next tabs, including the Batch tab, mainly concentrate on editing and renaming multiple photos at once. The GIF tab allows you to easily create an animated GIF from a group of selected photos.
The downside of PhotoScape X is a lack of selection tools, so all changes are applied to the whole image rather than to a selected part.
10. Gimp (Free)
Gimp is a free open-source photo editing app that has been on the market for over 22 years and is available for Windows, Mac, and even Linux. Unlike many free apps, Gimp doesn’t have any ads or in-app purchases. Its grey interface might seem a little old-fashioned and it may be a bit sluggish when it comes to complex effects, though.
Gimp offers a vast collection of advanced tools that hardly any free photo editor can boast. It has numerous enhancement options such as clone and heal brushes, layers and channels, accurate selection tools, a number of transformation instruments, and, of course, color adjustment controls. Gimp is one of the most powerful tools for enhancing photos and is beloved by so many users for its price (free) and versatility. But if you can’t come to grips with Gimp’s interface, it may be worth paying some cash for a more user-friendly program.
Best MacBook Pro Deals for October 2020
Apple resellers are hosting a variety of sales and specials on MacBook Pros for the month of October. From deals on new 2020 13-inch MacBook Pro models to $100s off 16-inch MacBook Pros, shoppers can take advantage of bonus savings on nearly every configuration.
Comparing prices across top retailers is easy when you visit the AppleInsiderApple Price Guides. Find exclusive coupon savings and instant cash discounts on nearly every Mac computer. Here's how to access the MacBook Pro-specific Price Guides, with some of 2020's best MacBook Pro deals going on today on both current and closeout models:
Apple resellers are also offering AppleInsider readers exclusive coupons this October, with savings of up to $450 off MacBook Pros. Check out these coupon discounts:
Save up to $600 on MacBook Pros with coupon code APINSIDER. AppleCare is also discounted with the APINSIDER code ($209 for 13-inch models and $299 for 16-inch configs). Must use this special pricing link or the Adorama links in the AppleInsider Price Guide. Check out these step-by-step instructions for activation details to secure the best MacBook Pro deals. Also going on in October: Save an extra 5% on your purchase with the Adorama Edge Credit Card.
AppleInsider has affiliate partnerships and may earn commission on products purchased through affiliate links. These partnerships do not influence our editorial content.
Save up to $438 on 16-inch MacBook Pros with coupon code appleinsider (case sensitive).
There are only two models of MacBook Pro to choose from, but with a few configuration differences that can make very different machines.
The 16-inch MacBook Pro was refreshed in 2019 with 9th-generation Intel processors, a bigger than ever Retina Display, and the Magic Keyboard. Mac os mojave on macbook pro early 2011.
The large screen, four Thunderbolt 3 USB-C ports, discrete graphics card, and studio-grade microphones make this an amazing professional laptop. All of this comes at a cost, however, as the starting price for a base 16-inch MacBook Pro configuration is $2,399 (although deals are regularly available).
The 9th-generation Intel processors double performance in several metrics and allow users to connect up to a 6K external display.
This is the only MacBook with a discrete graphics card, and customers can configure it with the AMD Radeon Pro 5300M up to the AMD Radeon Pro 5500M.
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There are options up to 64GB of RAM and 8TB of storage. A maxed out 16-inch MacBook Pro could cost up to $6,099.
The 13-inch MacBook Pro was refreshed in May 2020, with two distinct models within that design. All of them gained the new Magic Keyboard, but only the higher-end models gained new processing power.
The base 13-inch MacBook Pro has two USB-C ports and 8th-generation Intel processors. This is essentially the same machine as the 2019 model, with only the Magic Keyboard and storage options changed. The base 13-inch MacBook Pro configuration with 256GB costs $1,299.
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The high-end model has four USB-C ports and 10th-generation Intel processors. Customers can configure up to 32GB of RAM and 4TB of storage, maxing out the price at $3,599.
Then there is the option of buying the older 2019 models of 13-inch MacBook Pro, but at the risk of using a Butterfly Keyboard. While you might find a bargain, you're trading for the maligned keyboard and half the internal storage.
16-inch vs 13-inch
Physical size would be the biggest difference here at first glance, but there are major tradeoffs between the two MacBook Pro models. The 16-inch MacBook Pro is the most powerful, portable Mac on the market and offers discrete GPU options and massive storage as well. You'll likely be in the market for this as a video professional or intensive app developer.
The 13-inch wins out when it comes to size and weight alone, giving users a powerful machine that can fit in most situations. Best picture editing software free. download full version. The lack of a discrete GPU can be remedied with an external GPU however, due to the Thunderbolt 3 ports.
You'll be spending nearly double just to get in the door for the 16-inch model, so likely users who need this device are already prepared to pay the price. It has not been updated in 2020, therefore it doesn't have the 10th-generation Intel processors. This hardly matters though as the base configuration comes with a 6-core Intel i7 processor at 2.6GHz, and a dedicated GPU.
At a glance, you'll find differences between the two models immediately. The change from a Butterfly Keyboard to the Magic Keyboard is immediately apparent. The physical escape key and inverted arrow keys are most noticeable, the other differences will be found when you start typing. The butterfly mechanisms offer less travel and feel mushy vs the scissor-switch keys.
After the keyboard, the differences become harder to find. Apple didn't do a full processor revision, but did update the top of the line with the latest 10th-generation chipsets. The 2020 model does have double the storage for the same price across the board, which means new customers are better off getting the newer model for memory alone.
Regardless of which model you select, you can save a significant amount of money when shopping for the best MacBook Pro deals this October with AppleInsider promotions.