Photo Editors Test

I recently upgraded my MacBook Air and wanted to test the various photo editing programs available with my new-to-me machine. I tried three programs:  Photos (the Apple program that comes with macOS); Adobe Lightroom (the industry leader in photo cataloging and editing); and Darkroom (an established program that is the David to Adobe’s Goliath). 

I’m a hobbiest photographer with middling skills, and I use my iPhone exclusively for taking photos. I set out to edit a picture of my dog, and I had three specific goals typical of what I need in my real life photo shooting. 

1. Remove the plug in the background

2. Add text, perhaps Cooper’s name cuz’ he’s such a good boy!

3. Crop and tweak the photo to bring out Cooper’s awesomeness 

Here’s my evaluations. (Note: This is simply my test; I got no help, remuneration, or other benefit from the companies making the apps.)

Photos

Clearly the simplest app to use because it integrates seamlessly with my iPhone via iCloud. I took a picture on my phone and it almost immediately showed up on my laptop. And it's free with your Mac.

Pros

- Seamless use with phone

- Pretty easy and straightforward interface

- I was able to accomplish all three goals quickly

- Free as the air on a cloudless day

Cons

- Adding text is clunky, like it was a late addition to the design

- I didn’t like the way the plug was removed. Anyone who’s ever used a photo editor would spot the edit immediately.

- There is no masking feature. This is strange because on the iPhone masking is built in (just long press a subject in the photo and it creates a rudimentary mask).

Darkroom

I had high hopes for this app, since its website describes powerful features. And actually it can do some powerful things.  

Pros

- Each of the tools is powerful and can produce some great results.

- Affordable: $80 for a lifetime subscription with monthly/yearly options.

- Integrates into Apple Photos, so you see your Photos Library and work seamlessly with the photos. (No importing to get started.)

- Offers integrated mobile app.

Cons

- No ability to add text. The shown text is only a watermark, and set in app settings. It’s not really text like I typically use in the day-to-day.

- There is no healing or masking, so the plug in my picture (or any blemish in your photo) remains in full display

Lightroom

The industry standard and a true powerhouse. It pairs with Adobe’s other creative applications and stands alone quite well. Subscription only use. 

Pros

- It has the most powerful set of editing and tuning features of the three. It is the standard in professional editing with good reason. 

- It’s built-in cataloging helps organize a lot of pictures, such as from a photoshoot.

- It comes with Cloud storage. I got the subscription and 1T of storage for $9.99 a month plus tax. 

Cons

- No ability to add text. (Seriously!). The text in my example is just a watermark, and has a lot of clicks to get it added; not hard, but not streamlined. 

- The AI-assisted tool could not remove the plug. Because of its proximity to the dog, it filled the space with fur. I tried manually brushing the healing tool to the areas, but it resulted in a noticeable line along the fur. The clone feature could not get the angle of the fur right. My best choice was to black out the background.

- The mask tool is fantastic, but you cannot remove the background/foreground/sublject naturally. In my example made the background dark by adjusting the exposure and black point. 

- Could it be any more difficult to access photos? It is designed for a professional photographer plugging in or downloading photos from a camera’s memory media. To access my photos in my Apple library where my phone stores them, I would have to export from Photos, or use Lightroom’s one-time-use importer. However, after the initial import, all subsequent photos would have to be uploaded manually. (The mobile version of Lightroom has much better integration. I actually started on the mobile app so that it automatically uploaded to the Lightroom photo set.)

Overall

Because I’m an amateur and this project had a narrow focus of pretty common needs, the built-in Photos app on my Mac is a winner. The price is right and the results are great for 90% of what I do. However, the lack of a masking feature is problematic, since that is such a major component of photo editing. 

Darkroom has some clear strengths, but seems to have tools beyond what a casual photographer who wants to make image better (that’s me!) would need. And it lacks some of the social media-friendly functionality (such as text) that is pretty important to the non-professional. 

Lightroom was amazing to use, but overkill for what I was trying to do. It is clearly designed for professionals, not the weekend warriors like me. To make it worse, the non-integration with the macOS (there’s a history behind that story, and Apple was the bad guy!) is downright awful.