

We particularly appreciate the Skin Smoothing functionality for portrait shooters, as well as Super Zoom, which lets you crop right into a specific part of an image, then resizes the result with automatically filled-in detail. In our full Photoshop 2022 review, we were hugely impressed with the neural filters and how streamlined they are. Now, you can smooth over skin, remove artefacts, even edit facial expressions and much more, all with the touch of a button. But for now, let's dive into the best photo-editing software on sale today. If you've chosen your software, you may want to check out our guide to the best laptops for photo editing. In the cases where we've tested the software ourselves, we've linked to the full reviews so you can learn even more (see how we test software for more on our testing process). These include tools you can use on your phone or tablet (though if that's your jam, you'll want our dedicated list of the best photo apps). We've also included links to our full reviews of the, and to find out more about our reviewing process, read our article on how we test software.īelow, we've outlined our favourite software for a variety of budgets and operating systems. And because each user needs the best photo editors for very different reasons, we cover everything on this page from simple programs, perfect for quick tweaks to images, to sophisticated tools designed for professional image editors. *.xmp sidecars serve to exchange metadata between applications.But what is the best photo editing software in 2022? Creatives will know that Photoshop used to be the go-to tool, with little in the way of competition, but a whole host of different options have entered the market, which includes both paid-for and free options. It is therefore necessary to set PhotoLab to synchronise XMP metadata as shown in the next chapter. PhotoLab 5 can now modify existing *.xmp sidecars and create new ones. PhotoLab 4 and before could only read *.xmp sidecars used by applications like Lightroom, Capture one, PhotoMechanic. Since a VC has no physical raw file, the VC cannot have a dedicated *.dop sidecar. Older versions of PhotoLab do not accept a *.dop sidecar written by a newer version of PhotoLabĪ virtual copy can contain different settings than the master file.

Sidecars *.dop are not backwards compatible. Since PhotoLab 5, *.dop sidecars also store keywords and metadata. PhotoLab’s own *.dop sidecars have been around for a long time and served to store image processing recipes mostly.


A raw file and its sidecars *.dop Sidecars Note that sidecar files are meant to be edited by applications, so it is best to leave them alone. They are *.dop sidecars and *.xmp sidecars. PhotoLab version 5 supports two kinds of sidecar files.
