Capture One

Narrative Select

Narrative Select is AI-assisted culling software built for photographers who need to sort through large shoots quickly. It imports thousands of RAW files in seconds, then uses AI to assess focus and eye status on every face without auto-deleting anything, leaving final selection decisions with the photographer. A Scenes View ranks shots within each scene by sharpness, a Close-Ups Panel automatically zooms into faces for review, and a People Filter lets photographers review just one subject's images at a time. Selected photos ship directly into Lightroom Classic, Lightroom CC, Photoshop, or Capture One with one click.

Pixelmator Pro

Pixelmator Pro is a polished, Mac-native image editor that pairs an approachable interface with machine-learning features like super resolution and smart selection. It is a one-time purchase popular with Mac users.

Adobe Lightroom

Adobe Lightroom is a photo organization and editing app built around a non-destructive, catalog-based workflow ideal for managing and processing large photo libraries. It syncs edits and originals across desktop, mobile, and web.

Affinity Photo

Affinity Photo is a professional raster editor that rivals Photoshop’s core features but is sold as a one-time purchase rather than a subscription. It is known for fast performance and a polished, pro-level toolset.

darktable

darktable is a free, open-source application for managing and developing digital RAW photographs, combining a database-backed 'lighttable' for organizing images with a non-destructive 'darkroom' for editing them. It supports professional color management, GPU-accelerated processing, and a zoomable thumbnail lighttable interface, and is released under the GPLv3.0 license with source available on GitHub. Built by a community of photographer-developers, darktable positions itself as a Lightroom alternative that never modifies the original RAW file, instead storing every edit as reversible history. It runs on Linux, Windows, and macOS, and maintains an active community across forums, mailing lists, and social platforms.