A longtime favourite among photographers looking for total control over image editing and organisation, Adobe Lightroom has only gotten more accessible and powerful with each version.

What we love: AI-powered features that greatly simplify complicated edits. Take for example Generative Remove, which lets you erase an object by painting over it: instead of filling the area by clumsily cloning what’s nearby, it uses AI to generate content that realistically blends with even the busiest backgrounds. And Lens Blur uses AI or a photo’s own depth map to let you adjust the image’s focal point, the amount of background blur, and much more with incredible precision.

Quick tip: Point Color is a great tool for fixing colour casts and adjusting particular colour ranges without affecting the rest of your image. Simply select a colour (or range of colours), then use the tool to adjust hue, saturation, and luminance values within that selection. For even more precision, you can create a mask to confine those changes to an area—you can tweak a red car, for example, without affecting other red hues in the photo.

Meet the creator: Lightroom was started as a side project, code-named Shadowland, by Photoshop developer Mark Hamburg. Over time Lightroom has grown to an entire ecosystem that includes Adobe Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, and mobile apps on iOS, iPadOS, and Android devices.