David Pogue's Digital Photography: The Missing Manual

Beyond the Software Freebies

iPhoto and Picasa are amazing, as far as they go. But as you get more serious and more proficient with your digital photography, you might find yourself wanting a digital shoebox/editing program with more under the hood. Here are the most likely suspects.

You'll note that they fall into two broad categories: photo organizers, like Picasa and iPhoto but far more powerful; and photo editors, which actually let you paint or draw on your photos, pixel by pixel.

Photo Organizers

These programs focus on the cycle of digital photography: taking photos off your camera, organizing them, performing light edits, printing them, and showing them to other people—but with far more power and flexibility than the freebie programs offer.

• Adobe Lightroom. Lightroom (about $250 online; for Mac or Windows) is organized as five modules—Library, Develop, Slideshow, Print, and Web—that cover the life cycle of your photos. Floating panels provide a huge amount of editing power. And it's all nondestructive editing, too; you can always undo any change you've made to any photos. And a tool called the Adjustment Brush lets you paint color and exposure adjustments directly onto the parts of the photos that need help, without affecting the rest.

  Of course, when you need high-end image manipulation, Lightroom effortlessly hands off photos to Photoshop.

• Apple Aperture. Aperture ($200), for Macintosh only, is Lightroom's blood rival. Once again, it's a high-end, professional's version ...