Avoid the Most Common Mistake Many Website Owners Make
Your website will naturally require graphics and photos that will complement your text content. One of the most common mistakes that startups and even established businesses tend to make is using stock photos without editing them first. Royalty-free photos are good to have when you don’t have a significant amount of budget set aside for professional photography. Using them in their raw format - not making any kind of changes to the image or adding your personal touch to it - does not make your website stand out. If anything, it makes it look like any other website and being generic-looking is a red flag for a lot of users. If you want to create a professional-looking website, take the time to edit your photos.
Great Website Photos for Less
Let’s face it, some of the best photo editing software comes at a price. Adobe Photoshop, for instance, is a known frontrunner in this field and requires you to sign up for a monthly subscription to be able to use its platform. But if you’re looking for a more cost-effective option, there are a number of free PC photo editors that you can try. Many of them work just as well as the higher priced apps especially if you’re looking to do quick edits on your images.
Best Free Photo Editing Software
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1. Adobe Photoshop Express
For years users have searched for photo editing software free of charge that is at par with Adobe Photoshop. Finally, the company answered their prayers and rolled out Photoshop Express - a mobile version of their powerful photo editor. This is a great option for those who are looking to do minor editing such as contrast, perspective and exposure adjustments. It is marketed towards beginners as well as users who tend to use their phones to take photos. Photoshop Express allows you to edit your photos through your phone, and upload directly to social media platforms and popular cloud-based storage such as Dropbox and Google Photos.
2. GIMP
GIMP is well-known for being one of the best free photo editors in the market today. It features a wide range of editing tools that even advanced users might appreciate including content-aware resizing, animated gifs, curves, custom brushes and layer masks. There’s no mobile version for this software and it may come with a steep learning curve for beginners but once you get the hang of it, GIMP can be a nifty tool to have when you create logo or edit photos for your site.
3. PAINT.net
PAINT.net is reminiscent of Microsoft Paint although it is a more intuitive version of the latter. It is a good choice for best photo editing software free of charge for inexperienced users and those who do not want to spend time trying to figure out how to create a logo or how to edit an image. The software’s interface is very user-friendly, offering a wide range of features including unlimited undos, curves, levels, contrast, gradients and brightness. You can also improve on this software by downloading plugins which will enable you to use more advanced editing capabilities such as 3D rotate/zoom.
4. Pixlr Editor
Pixlr is a pretty powerful photo editing tool that allows you to open image files from a URL or from a particular device. This is especially useful if you want to edit existing images on your website. It features an interface that is quite similar to Adobe’s photo editor and features that are also just as good as the best photo editing software. The only downside is that Pixlr Editor runs on Flash so compatibility may be an issue for some devices and platforms.
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