This is a guest blog post by Jim Emery of Elakha Consulting. He also helps support the operations of Sound Support. Jim is a Mac and iOS consultant in Port Townsend, Washington. He can be found at www.elakhamac.com.
On the Mac, Apple’s Photos is the default photo storage and editing application. Among professional photographers, Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom are the leading photo editors, both of which require a subscription costing between $12 and $23 per month. These are excellent applications and, for many users, well worth the cost. However, what if you want to edit your images with capabilities beyond those of Apple Photos yet do not want to pay a subscription for Adobe’s applications? Read on for some alternatives to Apple’s Photos and Adobe’s Creative Suite that allow one to use advanced photo editing techniques on the Mac.
Raw Power
If you ever used Apple’s prosumer photo editing application, Aperture, RAW Power will feel very familiar. This is because the developer, Nik Bhatt led the Aperture team at Apple. RAW Power is both a standalone application and a plug-in for Photos, meaning that it can be used from within the Photos app. It required macOS Mojave and is available from the Gentlemen Coders website or Apple’s App Store for $49.99. The iOS version is available on the iOS App Store for $12.99.
Nitro
While RAW Power brings the editing capabilities of Aperture back to the Photos app, it lacks some of the more advanced features of modern photo editors. To address this, Gentlemen Coders created Nitro, which includes all of the features of RAW Power and adds features such as brushes, gradients and AI. Nitro works as a standalone app and a plug-in for Photos. Nitro requires macOS Ventura and is available from the Gentlemen Coders website or Apple App Store for $99. The iOS version is available on the iOS App Store. Both can also be purchased as a subscription for those who prefer this model. If you’re not sure if Raw Power or Nitro is a better fit for your needs you could check out the comparison chart at the bottom of the Nitro page.
Acorn
Acorn is a Mac application that should make Photoshop users very comfortable. It includes layers and filters as well as more current features like AI powered subject selection and super resolution image resizing. Acorn does not function as a plug-in for Photos but can be chosen as an external photo editor in Photos. Of particular note with Acorn is the extensive documentation and tutorials that are included that feel like an electronic version of the detailed manuals of the past. Acorn is available from the Acorn website or from Apple’s App Store for $19.99.
Photomator
Photomator has been one of the most popular photo editing apps on the Mac. Perhaps because of this, Photomator’s creator, Pixelmator, was purchased by Apple on November 1, 2024. Photomator feels like an enhanced version of Apple’s Photos and brings significant editing capabilities that Photos does not have. Photomator is available for the Mac for $149.99 or with various subscription options.
Affinity Photo
Affinity Photo is part of the Affinity Suite that includes Affinity Designer and Affinity Publisher. These apps feel like solid alternatives to Adobe’s Creative Suite. Affinity Photo includes a vast array of editing tools complimented by an extensive help collection to assist users in learning how to use these tools. Affinity Photo 2 is available from the Affinity website or the Apple App Store for $69.99.
All of the above applications are available to demo before purchasing. This gives you the chance to try them out to see which photo editing application best meets your needs.
(Photo by Martin Faure on Unsplash)