ACDSee Photo Studio
www.acdsee.com £84.99/$99.99
A Lightroom lite option that offers both organising and editing tools
ACDSee Photo Studio Professsional 2023 (Windows) / ACDSee Photo Studio for Mac 9 is a file management and editor program that’s pitched at a slightly higher level than Paint Shop Pro 2023.
ACDSee offers image cataloguing tools, raw processing, local adjustment tools and Photoshop-style layers and masking tools in its Edit mode, plus HDR and Focus Stack options. It sounds like Lightroom and Photoshop rolled into one, but it’s not in the same league. The tools cover most image-editing needs, and Develop mode offers non-destructive raw processing like Lightroom; however, none of the tools offer Lightrooom’s levels of fluidity and control.
While the one-time price of $99.99 is attractive, this only gets you one year of updates and support. ACDSee is keener to push you in the direction of its subscription plan, which at $8.90 per month or $89 a year includes additional programs and 100GB of cloud storage.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
PC
INTEL OR AMD PROCESSOR WITH 64-BIT SUPPORT
(INTEL I5 OR BETTER PROCESSOR ECOMMENDED)
MACOS
RAM: 4GB (8GB OR MORE RECOMMENDED).
HARD DISK SPACE: 4GB.
DISPLAY: 1280 X 800 (1920 X 1080 RECOMMENDED)
MINIMUM SCREEN RESOLUTION
1280 X 800 (1920 X 1080 RECOMMENDED)
VERDICT
ACDSee Photo Studio isn’t up there with Lightroom, but it’s a decent choice if you want a good selection of tools for a relatively low one-off outlay.
Adobe Lightroom Lightroom Classic
www.adobe.com £9.98/$9.99 per month
The best and most widely used cataloguing and editing tool
Lightroom comes in two versions: ‘Lightroom Classic’ is the desktop-based version, while ‘Lightroom’ is the newer, cloud-focused version, and offers online image storage and mobile apps.
Lightroom has the same editing tools as Classic, but less sophisticated cataloguing options, and no support for plug-ins or external editors other than Photoshop. Having your images available everywhere is great, but most photographers will feel locked in.
Classic hasn’t changed much in appearance over the years, and some of its modules look past their sell-by date. But Classic’s cataloguing, image organisation and search tools are excellent, and Adobe continues to
