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When we talk about AI in marketing, we tend to focus on textual content creation in the form of generative AI. We all know about the time saved and efficiency gained by using these tools to create blog posts, ad copy, social media posts, and more. This same technology can also be applied in a similar way to images, specifically photo editing. Similar to how AI has been a boon to content marketers, the same is true for photo editors with the introduction of AI photo editing software.
I’ve compiled a list of the most popular AI photo editing software tools on the market, focusing on their AI features. By simply reading this post, you should have a better understanding of which tool would work best for you and your team when it comes to leveraging AI for photo editing.
What Can AI Photo Editors Actually Do?
Similar to traditional photo editors, AI image software can take your selfies and photos and turn them into beautiful images. However, unlike previous programs, AI software can do so all of this in one click! That kind of efficiency can’t be replicated, which is why a lot of my photography friends have started using this software as part of their daily workflow.
Most of these photo editing tools can assess what’s wrong with a picture and automagically make the necessary adjustments. As they don’t require human input to make complex edits, anyone can use these AI features to help simplify their workflow.
Besides editing, many of these programs also offer other functionality such as AI image generation. All you need to do is type in your text, and voila – you can create an incredible image in the blink of an eye!
The Top 15 AI Photo Editors
Here are the 15 best AI photo editing tools I recommend you check out, together with their features and pricing plans:
1. Luminar Neo
Luminar Neo is a straightforward image editor that doesn’t take much getting used to. With its simple user interface and numerous advanced features, the AI-powered tool will quickly become your favorite. The most intriguing thing about the software is that it makes automatic adjustments, giving you a clean photo with minimal effort.
Speaking of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and neural networks, you can rely on this technology to upscale photos, improve lighting, sharpen visuals, and remove background. Based on my experience, Luminar AI is definitely worth your money!
Luminar Neo’s subscription plans vary based on contract length, not necessarily features. You can pay as you go starting with a monthly plan at $14.95 or even make a one-time purchase for $249.
2. Adobe Firefly
Firefly is a separate tool from Adobe, the makers of Adobe Photoshop, that specializes in image generation. While working in this platform, marketers can use simple prompts to create incredible visual content. I simply love the Generative Fill functionality that allows you to completely remove and replace certain elements of the photo, while Generative Recolor changes the entire color palette.
The thing that stands out is the 3D converter, which turns complex models into 2D images. Lastly, I also have to mention the text effects; they are much more intricate than similar features in other tools, providing immense value to marketing teams.
The product is still in its beta version, meaning you can try it out for free.
3. Topaz Labs
The thing I liked about Topaz Labs is its video enhance AI feature, something you won’t find in most image editors. Marketers who work on different projects will definitely appreciate this addition as it would allow them to alter pictures and videos from the same dashboard.
As for Topaz Photo AI technology, it can easily compete with Adobe and Luminar Neo. The app provides a wide range of features, like color corrections, noise removal, and sky replacement, and allows you to improve image resolution. Professional photographers and marketers alike will also appreciate all of the special features within Topaz Studio 2 for improving portrait photos.
4. Lensa
Prisma Labs started its entrepreneurial journey in 2016 with Prisma App, which was crowned the best app for that year. Lensa is a newer, advanced tool from 2018 that allows you to make amazing photo edits from your Android phone or other mobile device. This makes it a rarety in this field that is mostly dominated by large desktop suites.
The software features blur and background remover and can fine-tune details and add borders to your pictures. You can also tinker with various photo effects, changing contrast, exposure, saturation, and sharpening pics. As one of the best photo editing apps that works exclusively for phones, Lensa is perfect for digital artists and marketers who work on the go.
5. Canva
In the last few years, Canva slowly started introducing AI-powered features and adding them to their already comprehensive graphic design suite. The image generator is a big one, but I also have to mention creative filters that allow you to alter low-quality images to get professional-looking results.
You can work with your own raw files, access the Canva template library, or use the image generation feature. When editing content, you can also play around with videos and combine the two mediums. Add sounds, graphs, and text to the original photo, and save the results into your personal photo books.
Given that Canva is one of the best art generators, it isn’t surprising that the tool is somewhat expensive. Canva Pros costs $119.99 annually, while Canva Team is $300 annually for five people. All in all, whether you’re into AI features or not, Canva is definitely worth every buck spent.
Further Reading: AI in Content Marketing: Benefits, Ways to Use, and 5 Case Studies
6. Imagen
A newcomer on the market, Imagen was recently founded in 2020. The company’s main goal was to simplify the process of image editing by providing an intuitive interface and easy-to-use AI functionality. With this software, you can do all sorts of creative edits, changing color palettes, fixing blurry images, and doing other types of image enhancement.
The thing I found intriguing was the Talent AI Profile feature. The company made blueprints based on professional photographers’ editing style. After introducing your image, the tool will automatically alter it to fit a particular visual appearance. While the image will be adjusted to a specific photography style, you still have complete control over any subsequent edits.
The users are charged based on the number of photo edits, with a minimal subscription of $7 per month. Although a standalone program, you need to pay extra for additional features like cropping and straightening. I found this to be quite a nuisance especially when calculating tool budget, but its features are compelling enough to take a look at.
7. Corel PaintShop Pro
The thing I love about Corel Paintshop Pro is its ability to turn several full-sized images into HD-quality videos. As a marketer, this is a feature that can bring my content to life without having to rely on a design team. With this software, even someone with a limited skillset (like myself) can feel like an artist.
If you’re just interested in photo features and boosting image quality, you should definitely check the tool’s ParticleShop. Keep in mind that this feature only works with digital brushes, so they might not be an ideal solution for marketers looking to simplify image generation.
A good thing about Corel PaintShop Pro is that it comes with a 30-day free trial. After that, you can buy the tool for $79.99 (one-time purchase).
Further Reading: 19 AI Video Editors to Scale Your Video Marketing
8. Remove.bg
Although one of the simplest photo editors on the list, Remove.bg is something that everyone reading this can benefit from. The best part is that the software is completely free and comes in the form of a plugin. You can also use it within the browser by dragging your content directly into the app.
Basically, all that Remove.bg does is remove backgrounds from images. You can remove the entire background or only certain elements. The background removal tool is perfect for small tasks and edits where you don’t want to pay for a large image suite.
Sometimes simple is best, as is the case with Remove.bg!
9. Movavi Photo Editor
Aside from basic editing tools, Movavi Photo Editor gives you access to light and color correction, noise reduction, and text insertion. This tool can do wonders with your raw photos, and you can even save and export your personalized settings for future use. That way, you can rest assured that every next image follows the same editing style as the previous one.
The AI feature allows you to automatically improve old photos, fine-tuning small details such as hair color, hair thickness, facial expression, and clothing details. Movavi Photo Editor is perfect for vintage photos, breathing new life into them. The basic image editor costs $49.95 (one year) or $69.95 (lifetime).
10. Vance AI
Vance AI uses Deep Convolutional Neural Networks (DCNN) technology to improve the quality of your photos. The program can assess the quality of uploaded visuals and make automatic adjustments without any human interference. This makes it perfect for marketing teams that don’t have graphic designers on their payroll.
The software allows you to upscale images to 4K resolution and introduces other enhancements. My personal favorite is the Image Upscaler, which can enlarge photos by 8 times in just 5 seconds without any loss in quality. Pretty incredible! The company uses a credit-based system for payment subscriptions, starting from $4.95 for 100 credits to $17.95 for 1,000 credits.
The tool is really dope and I’d warmheartedly recommend that you take it for a test run.
11. HitPaw Photo Enhancer
HitPaw is a complete software suite for various video, image, and sound editing processes. As for its Photo Enchacer, the software provides basic functionality, including picture upscaling and noise and blur removal. The software can upscale content to 4K and 8K without any loss in quality. Lastly, the AI-powered image editing platform does a fantastic job updating vintage pictures.
My favorite thing about the app is that it actually uses 4 different AI technologies seamlessly, providing significantly different results than its competitors. While some people might look at this as an overkill, the results indicate otherwise. The Photo Enhancer comes with a 1-month plan ($23.99), a 1-year plan ($69.99), and a lifetime subscription ($129.99).
12. BeFunky
BeFunky can become a perfect addition to your marketing workflow. One of its main selling points is the Collage Maker, which you can use for all sorts of social media campaigns and marketing materials.
The image editor has similar functions to many of the other AI editing tools on this list, including cropping, upscaling, and resizing. However, you can also use the program to create digital art, turn images into cartoons, and auto-enhance pics. All in all, BeFunky allows you to experiment with various styles without having to make extensive edits yourself.
Further Reading: 33 Leading AI Marketing Tools to Explore
13. Fotor
Fotor allows you to generate AI images with a single click of a button. You can use the program to remove background or specific elements from your images. This tool excels at making small tweaks to your content, removing unnecessary details that ruin visual composition. No fuss and no extensive edits!
Aside from basic, realistic edits, you can also turn your visuals into sketches, anime, cartoons, and watercolor pieces. Fotor has a massive base of graphic and media elements that can add a special flavor to your content. You can choose between three plans: The Free plan, Fotor Pro ($3.33/mo), and Fotor Pro+ ($7.49/mo).
14. Picsart
Picsart is a video and image editing suite that is tailor-made for marketers. With this software, you can create all sorts of content for social media, websites, email campaigns, and other channels.
The tool offers a wide range of photo editing features, including magic correction, collage maker, brightness and size adjusting, text editors, and much more. The reason why I love Picsart is that you gain access to all sorts of marketing templates, which you can combine with your raw photos.
Picsart has several artificial intelligence functions, like the AI content generator. I also liked the AI Sketch feature, which turns simple sketches into beautiful imagery, but we also can’t neglect the logo and GIF generator. Basically, it is a perfect tool for marketers who like to tinker with their design and surprise their followers.
Further Reading: 23 Recommended Tools for AI Content Creation
15. Leawo PhotoIns
Leawo is one of the older software companies dating back to 2007. Today, their suite features all sorts of video and image converters as well as streaming downloaders.
From a photo editing software perspective, Leawo PhotoIns, is a high-performance tool that can upscale images by 40x. The AI technology can remove blurry and hazy sections, make color palette improvements, balance adjustments, and make numerous other fixes. The software also does a fantastic job with human imagery, removing any facial imperfections.
The company has simple pricing plans, allowing marketers to choose between Annual ($79.95) and Lifetime ($109.95) models. Honestly, if you like the tool, you might as well go with the lifetime version as it will do the trick for your brand in the long run.
Further Reading: 15 Best AI Social Media Post Generators to Check Out
Conclusion
For all intended purposes, AI photo editors are the thing of the future when it comes to easily and quickly managing your images. Besides providing a wide range of incredible features, some of these platforms have auto-editors that can make perfect modifications with minimal human input. You can also use them to create beautiful art from scratch or to completely revamp the visual style of your images.
AI Photo Editors FAQs
After conducting extensive research and testing, it is clear that Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom are the top contenders in this category. Both tools offer a wide range of features and functionalities that allow users to achieve professional-grade results. Photoshop, in particular, is known for its versatility and ability to handle complex editing tasks, while Lightroom is praised for its efficient workflow and easy-to-use interface. Ultimately, the choice between the two will depend on your personal preferences and the specific editing needs of your project.
Yes, there are numerous AI-powered tools available these days that can edit photos with great precision and efficiency. These tools use complex algorithms and deep learning models to analyze the image and make adjustments automatically, such as adjusting the brightness, contrast, color balance, and sharpness of the photo. They can also perform more advanced tasks like removing unwanted objects from the picture, enhancing skin tones, and even generating realistic-looking backgrounds.
Yes, there are various free AI photo editors available in the market. These photo editors use artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to enhance the quality of an image automatically. Many of these tools provide basic editing features such as adjusting brightness, contrast, and saturation. However, some advanced photo editors offer more specific features such as object recognition, auto skin retouching, and background replacement.
Yes, ChatGPT offers photo editing services through its team of highly skilled and experienced graphic designers. Whether you need minor touch-ups or major changes to your photos, our team can help you achieve that perfect shot. With access to cutting-edge software and technology, our designers can enhance your images by adjusting color balance, removing blemishes, or correcting lighting issues.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Photoshop both have their unique advantages when it comes to various image processing tasks. While AI has been making incredible strides in recent years, it is not necessarily better than Photoshop. AI utilizes algorithms and deep learning to adjust and refine images automatically, which can be incredibly useful for reducing the time and effort required for complex image edits. However, Photoshop still remains the go-to software for professional image editors due to its comprehensive range of tools and customizable features.
Different AI photo editing software programs have different strengths and weaknesses. So, it is important to choose the right tool for the job. For example, if you need to remove the background from a photo, you might want to use a program like Adobe Photoshop AI or Luminar AI.
Yes each one is different so find the one that meets your needs and GO!