PTLens is an excellent application to correct or add distortion to your pictures.

You'll be able to apply a fish eye effect, modify perspective, chromatic aberation and vignetting. PTLens also lets you correct barrel-pincushion distortion on a wide range of camera models. It doesn't seem to allow you to add new models though. Adding effects is really easy thanks to sliders and you can immediately see the changes in the preview. You can also simply disable an effect you don't want by unselecting it.

The program's interface does feel a little clunky, and you wonder why the directory is on the right, instead of next to the preview. We appreciate that a Photoshop plugin for PTLens comes in the installer though, as many photographers prefer working straight in Photoshop. The plugin will work exactly as the standalone application.

Despite the slightly unintuitive interface, PTLens is an excellent tool for correcting image distortion. Recommended for any serious photographer!

Download PTLens 8.7 in Softonic

If you're a novice to photography or need to do your editing in a simple package on the move, then MobaPhoto may well be for you.

MobaPhoto encompasses everything from simple size reductions and contrast adjustments to uploading them to a website. In addition, it's got a very useful batch photo editing mode which allows you to change and edit several photos at once in various ways. This includes resize, crop, correct red-eyes and upload them with no FTP knowledge required. While this makes it very limited, it's excellent for beginners because it's so easy to use and lacks all the intimidating functions of your average imaging application. What's even more useful, especially for those on the move, is that it fits on a USB stick and requires no prior installation - just click and go. One problem you might find however is that although it supports most of the major image formats, all your changes are saved in JPG format which can be a bit annoying unless you use an image converter in conjunction with MobaPhoto - hopefully that's something they will add to future versions.

Extremely lightweight, easy to use and feature rich, MobaPhoto is an excellent addition for photographers on the move.

Download MobaPhoto 1.42 in Softonic

I'm only an amateur photographer who takes photos in JPG format with a simple compact camera, but I know professional photographers sometimes prefer to work with the RAW format, which allows further processing.

Being a more professional-oriented format, RAW images require special software applications like Capture One Pro. This complete photo viewer and editor lets you manage your RAW images with ease. It features an interface divided into three different sections (system directory tree, folder contents preview and image preview) and also includes a complete analysis of each selected photo.

With Capture One Pro you'll be able to tweak exposure, white balance, focus and other values in your RAW images and then save them in other formats (the program also works as a RAW converter). Each time you apply a change to the image you'll be able to preview the result in real time.

Capture One Pro is by no means a standard photo editor for standard users. It's a special software tool that's been specifically designed for advanced photographers, which means you may find it a bit difficult to use. Also, bear in mind that Capture One Pro is not compatible with all RAW formats, so you better check if your camera is supported before using the program.

With Camera One Pro you can view, tweak, edit and convert your RAW files in a professional working environment.

Download Capture One Pro 3.7.8 in Softonic

Batch It! is a Windows based GUI Batch Image Processor which handles the popular image formats, JPEG 2000, JPEG, GIF, TIFF, PNG aboves others. Batch It! can batch resize, rename, add captions, add watermark, add drop shadows and more in minutes instead of hours or days if you do it manually.

Batch It! is made to be a simple to use program. All you need to do is to load the images, set the necessary conversion processes and click 'Process All' and let it do all the work. In minutes, you will have accomplished what you would have taken hours or days to achieve.

Download Batch It! 4.85 in Softonic

Adding water effects or ripple effects to videos is one of the coolest ways to give your videos an extra touch of class.

Sqirlz Water Reflections allows you to add rippling pools of water, rain or snow effects, to images or AVI videos. The pools can be any shape and you can define several factors such as the wave size, perspective and water transperency. You can also change the ripple shapes and wave details plus even add snowflake effects and add depth to other ripple effects. Unfortunately, there are not a large amount of output format options to choose from. Animations can be saved as Adobe Flash files, animated GIFS, AVI video clips and for images, bitmap, JPEG, PNG and TIFF files. The latest release has added some extra effects which are quite interesting which include general rainfall and glossy reflecting areas of water in cincentric circles. Some of the effects you can create are truly stunning - check out the developer homepage for a few examples - although it can take some time to render photos correctly, it's certainly wrth the effort.

If you want to impress friends with your photos or just have a very unique photos collection, Squirlz Water Reflections produces stunning results.

Download Sqirlz Water Reflections 2.4 in Softonic

This very basic image editing tool can be used to remove any scratches on your old photographs but that is just about all you can do. In this sense, it is a very specialized program and as a result won’t appeal to many users.

Retouch Pilot’s major advantage is its simplicity. While a lot of people will be frustrated by the lack of functionality, those who are wary of complicated procedures and difficult to use tools will appreciate the minimal approach. Simply open the file you want to clean up, select the scratch tool, (there is only one other tool, the “Undo Brush”) and carefully trace over or click the parts of the image that need to be fixed.

In terms of effectiveness, the program can do an excellent job on obvious flaws when they contrast highly with the surrounding colors, especially when working on monotone photographs. However, for highly detailed images or not so obvious discrepancies, the program stumbles and the desired result is not so straightforward to achieve.

The interface is uncomplicated and there is an extensive undo history although this may be somewhat unnecessary with the availability of the Undo Brush. For someone who has a collection of old, slightly damaged photographs that they would like to scan and clean up a little bit, this is a convenient solution. However, for anyone who is serious about getting great results and having complete control, they should check out Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro.

Download Retouch Pilot 3.0.2 in Softonic

Imagine spending the whole weekend taking lovely pictures of landscapes... only to arrive home and see that the skyline in some of them is completely tilted.

Don't worry, there's an easy way to fix it. Simply use Rotation Pilot and restore the horizon to its original position while keeping the same image quality as the original photo.

This is how it works: load the picture and draw a line with your mouse along the horizon (the tilted one, not the one you'd like to have). The program will automatically rotate the picture to the desired position. If there's any cropping or smoothing needed, you can also enable those options and let Rotation Pilot do the job, though the cropping will obviously affect the borders of the original photo. The program also includes rotating, resizing and mirroring options for further photo edition.

With Rotation Pilot you can easily fix visual slopes and tilted horizons in your digital photos.

Download Rotation Pilot 1.0.4 in Softonic

Perspective is one of those areas of photography that is impossible to avoid and which can sometimes cause problems. If you take a lot of pictures of buildings, streets or urban skylines then you'll only be too aware of the way that perspective can distort an object in the foreground, making it appear that it's leaning at an angle rather than standing straight. Perspective Pilot is designed to rid you of these worries by allowing you to quickly correct images that have been skewed in this way.

Using the program is very easy. You simply load an image into the program and draw a vertical line across the area you want to correct. Then, the program automatically adjusts the picture to make buildings straight. You can also use it to correct horizontal distortion. Perspective Pilot works very well in most cases, although if you've used a filter, such as a fish eye lens, to take your shots then the program struggles to achieve anything.

Download Perspective Pilot 2.0.5 in Softonic

Like every magician, a computer artist needs a few tricks up his sleeve. Image processing offers some excelent opportunities for conjuring up such magic. The techniques* used by Dydelf will allow you to perform some digital prestidigitation on an oridinary image and transform it into an outlined posterized graphic with artistic flair.

Download Dydelf 1.02 in Softonic

Dynamic Photo HDR is based on a still relatively new technology but it's an important one and one that's getting more and more focus from developers.

According to the developer, this is an ideal tool for those who have taken a photos but the image that they get is not the one that they imagined. The software can adjust photos so that any imperfections, distortions and focus problems are smoothed out as easily possible. It features very powerful Auto-Aligning, Manual and Auto-Assist Aligning of images with something called "Pin Warping" that can correct all various types of misalignment, including camera roll, pitch or yaw. Ever had a ghost type object appear on your photos? Dynamic Photo HDR can completely eliminate ghosting of moving objects. In addition, it features a series of tone mapping procedures that can create a whole range of images - from smooth photographic tone mapping to very dramatic images.

This is still very much a developing technology but it has the potential to improve your photos in a dramatic new way. Take it for a test drive and see for yourself.

Download Dynamic-Photo HDR 3.1 in Softonic

DxO Optics is widely recognized as being one of the best tools around to enhance your photos. It works with a wide range of both DSLR and Prosumera cameras and lenses. The application is not meant to be a photo organizer but you'll find it others a simple way of searching through your library of pictures and selecting the ones to edit.

DxO Optics is built on a straightforward process where you select, organize, process and then view your picture. You can perform a number of advanced retouching effects including removing camera noise, optimizing color or correcting perspective. DxO Optics lets you really zoom into pictures and correct details.

We did find the installation process a bit lengthy, yet the program itself takes no time to launch. It's also good to know that it comes with the DxO Optics Pro plugin for Photoshop.

A powerful solution to enhance images, DxO Optics Pro is the perfect complement to any photographers digital arsenal.

Download DxO Optics Pro 5.0.4 in Softonic

FotoSketcher is probably the fastest and easiest way to add a sketch effect to your pictures. Therefore it's perfect for those of you who don't dare use Photoshop yet and simply want to add some spice to your photos without much fuss.

FotoSketcher doesn't even require installation. Simply run the program and select the picture you want to sketch. The process will begin immediately, without having to press any button, and the result will be displayed side to side to the original picture, which is great for comparison. Also, the sketch effect can be done either in color or in black and white.

On the downside. FotoSketcher doesn't include any configuration features. It only allows you to tweak edge threshold and intensity by means of a couple of sliders, but I missed the possibility to adjust light, contrast and above all color, as the sketched pictures tended to be too lightly colored.

Apply a sketch effect to your photos in no time. No artistic skills required!

Download FotoSketcher 1.5 in Softonic

While advanced image editing tools such as Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro are great for fine-tuning your photos and making sure they look gorgeous, not all of us have the time to tinker around with all the various palettes, tools and menus.

If you've got a bunch of digital photos that you quickly want to optimize then PicJet Studio could become your new best friend. The software comes with a range of tools that will automatically make adjustments to your pictures when you drag and drop them onto the corresponding tool's icon.

The editing tools in question are 'Collage', which automatically adds two images together when you drag them in; 'Converter', which transforms a picture from one format to another; a 'Stamp' tool for quickly adding text to an image: and a 'Resizer' to help you make an image fit to specified dimensions without any fuss.

PicJet performs all of these tasks remarkably quickly, and almost the instant you commit the file to be changed, the new version of it will appear in the save location. What I like about this process is that the app doesn't overwrite the original file. Instead it adds a tag onto the filename indicating what's been done (e.g. a file called 'image' would prompt a file called 'image_resize' to be created when resizing.

Ultimately this is a tool for performing very quick adjustments to files. There are only four adjustments you can make and you won't find any advanced editing tools or advanced effects in here.

But if you want a quick way to convert, resize, stamp or create collages from your images, PicJet does the job without any fuss - and for free!

Download PicJet Studio 2.6 in Softonic

The problem with many image editors is that they're large and cumbersome or they can0t edit batches of programs in one swoop.

This is not the case with GIMP which is an excellent batch processor for images and files that allows you to perform a whole host of functions with batch image processing in mind. If you need to manage a large number of photos and rename them all or at least change their location, then you'll certainly find some use for this program. One of the advantages is it allows batch processing of thumbnail resizing which allows you to specify a particular width or height or define fixed image dimensions. You can then superimpose text onto these thumbnails or photos (useful to stop copyright infringements). If you need your photos in a variety of formats, then you can also batch convert pictures to GIF, JPG, PNG, BMP, MIFF, TIFF, PCX or TGA. Best of all, you're not restricted to one format at a time . you can select a whole bunch and then specify what format you want certain ones to change into. The icing on the cake is an FTP client which, while not exactly sophisticated (or particularly reliable in terms of maintaining connections), allows you to upload your photos to the net as quickly as possible directly from the application.

A very useful tool for anyone that has to process batches of photos at the same time or needs a very lightweight photo and thumbnail processor.

Download BIMP (Batch Image Processor) Lite 1.62 in Softonic

Turbo Photo is a solution for all the digital camera owners. It consists of two parts: Turbo Photo Album and Turbo Photo Editor. Most of the touch up work and management tasks can be easily done with simple operations. Moreover, the powerful functions can bring you more enjoyment and help create great artwork.

Turbo Photo Album is the photo management and batch edit software of Turbo Photo. With Turbo Photo Album, you can easily manage, view, print and share your photos. Turbo Photo Editor is an "easy to use" but powerful image editing/processing software designed for digital camera owners.

Turbo Photo will help you make excellent photo artworks. All of its functions and features aim to solve the most frequent problems of digital photography caused by the digital camera itself. With Turbo Photo you can master and control what creates a great photo such as exposure, color, composition, sharpness, and contrast. The simple user interface is easy to use. At the same time, professional functions will attract the confirmed photographer.

Download Turbo Photo 6.1 in Softonic

Bling! It is essentially an image editor but aimed at improving product images. It can be useful when you want to touch up photos and make them more attractive before posting them on a site like eBay.

The program essentially works in a four step process: delete background, compose picture, add effects, and see final image. All the tools are available from the left of the interface, and all you need to do is select one to apply. A little pop up window on the right explains what every tool is. I suggest closing it though as it crowds the interface a bit. There aren't that many effects to work with but they're all easy to apply.

Don't get confused though, Bling! It won't improve the appearance of your product. It's only limited to spicing up the background. The program does a good job at outlining the existing background and removing it, however make sure you have a good new picture to work with as effects in the program are fairly limited.

Although it's fairly easy to use and outlines backgrounds well, Bling! It is a fairly limited image editor. If you're really looking to improve your product images, use a more powerful application.

Download Bling! It 1.0.2 in Softonic

Photo! Editor, previously known as Photo Toolkit, is a basic retouching tool with which you can fix and optimize your digital images in a couple of clicks.

The most outstanding feature of this photo editing tool is its seamless integration with Windows Explorer, which means it adds a whole new command group to the image file context menus. These commands enable you to launch the program's main tools straight away, without having to open the program itself before.

As for the tools included in Photo! Editor, like I said it's a pretty basic program, that is, this is no free Photoshop. That said, the truth is that Photo! Editor works perfectly fine for small retouching tasks such as optimizing colors, removing red eye effect or even cleaning someone's skin from spots, smooth wrinkles and other slight imperfections. Other tools included are a resampling/cropping utility, some really cool light effects and a caricature tool to apply a hilarious morphing effect to your photos.

The only drawback I found in Photo! Editor is that there's no way to browse the folder's contents using thumbnails. This means that if your photo file names are not descriptive enough, you'll have to click on them one by one just to find out which picture they correspond to.

Photo! Editor is the perfect choice for those who are looking for a simple, lightweight and easy-to-use photo editing tool to fix their digital images.

Download Photo! Editor 1.0 Beta in Softonic

Pixel Creation Suite is the kind of program that pleases and annoys me in equal proportions, because it's got positive and negative features.

On the upside, Pixel Creation Suite is a photo editor specifically designed to apply special filters and effects to your pictures. It includes loads of different filters, classified in diverse areas (PixelCreation, PixelPack, PixelPaper and PixelSampler) which actually correspond to other tools from the same developer. With Pixel Creation Suite you can have all of them under the same interface and apply them to your photos to obtain really attractive results.

On the downside, the program fails in incredibly simple points and that makes the user feel somewhat deceived. To begin with, the developer doesn't seem to be sure about the name, as the program is referred to as "Pixel Creation Suite" on their web, but once you run it, you see "Twisting Pixels" everywhere. Then, although effects are very simple to apply they can't be easily removed, which obliges you to open the same picture again every time you want to try a different filter.

Despite these flaws, I think Pixel Creation Suite is basically a good application that makes photo effects easy to apply for everyone.

Download Pixel Creation Suite 1.39 in Softonic

There are some tools that no everyday PC user should be without and VMN Toolbox brings together the most popular under one umbrella.

The program operates conveniently from a toolbar which sits quietly on your desktop in collapsed mode until you need it. Principally, these tools are a screen capture tool, a post-it note utility, colour picker, magnifier and a virtual ruler.

The screen capture tool is fairly simple allowing you to cut and paste images to your clipboard or save them to your hard drive. It is rather limited though when it comes to editing, resizing etc. The quick sticky notes tools removes the need to keep creating paper notes that can be easily lost. Again, it allows for simple writing and editing of notes but there's no reminder function or anything like that. The eye dropper allows you to select on any colour on your screen and replicate it exactly in other imaging applications. The palette allows you to choose from a 16-color, 65,000-color or web-safe palette and the colours can be managed in RGB or Hex format. Meanwhile the magnifier tool allows you to see all the details of any area of your screen in increments of 2x, 4x, 8x, and even 10x. it's a useful tool for those that have trouble reading web pages or graphic designers that need to ensure their images are exactly right. Finally, the virtual ruler allows for measuring of your screen, images or documents for pixel size - again, this is probably only useful for those involved in web design or that have to regularly upload images of a certain size.

This is an excellent set of tools that while not particularly advanced, are ideal for someone who needs some basic image management tools.

Download VMN Toolbox 4.1 in Softonic

Sometimes it's great to take a normal image and give it twist with a bit of texture to add some depth to it.

That's exactly what Xfader is designed for in that it adds texture to images without borders so that you can use them as original and impressive website images, screensavers or desktop backgrounds. The program includes several tools for adding filters, text, shape effects and even 3D sterograms. There are basic features such as color adjustment options (i.e. brightness, contrast, hue etc.) plus an image resize. The problem with this program is that you can add so many effects that you can easily get carried away and ruin your original beyond all recognition. There is however an undo function which can remove the last 10 steps or changes you've made. The program is also rather limited in the image formats it supports - only JPG and BMP are accepted. The latest version however has added some cool extras such as support for a few more more file types supported, more flexible color gradients, a better looking user interface and it can now be taken on the move on a USB stick or portable device.

This is a powerful program able to transform any image into something more original although it needs to support a wider range of image formats to score more highly.

Download Xfader 5.00 in Softonic