• Verdict: DxO OpticsPro is the best photo editing software Mac if you are looking for a program that is simple to use.
• Luminar has been ranked among the best photo editing software for Mac by CleverFiles and Photolemur, among others. What could be improved: Mobile users might consider a mobile-specific app for an on.
• Luminar has been ranked among the best photo editing software for Mac by CleverFiles and Photolemur, among others. What could be improved: Mobile users might consider a mobile-specific app for an on-the-go photo editor, since Luminar is desktop only.
• Dec 12, 2020 Video editing software for Mac comes at various price points, with some even being open-source. Our favorite, Adobe Premiere Pro CC, is the most complete solution available. For this, however, you're going to pay monthly. With this, you'll also receive Premiere Rush, which lets you capture footage on all your devices.

Videos play an increasingly important role in modern society. More and more people tend to record their lives, ideas, talents, and memories in the form of video. To produce a quality and pretty professional-looking video, they have to learn some video editing techniques. As a result, video editing software has blown up in the last few years. With so many video editing programs and tools out there for a variety of budgets and skill levels, how to choose the best video editing software for mac users? Is there any free Mac video editing software for enthusiastic amateurs or people who are merely trying to keep project costs to a minimum?

Oct 27, 2019 One of the very best photo editing software for mac is Luminar 3. It has come a long way since its inception and has become the preferred RAW editor for a number of professional photographers. Luminar has many photo editing features that are easy to use.

On this page, we have collected some of the best free video editing software for mac users. Now, you can choose one of them according to your video editing skill level!

Part 1. Top 3 Best Free Video Editing Software for Beginners

1. Apple iMovie

Apple iMovie, a software developed by Apple Inc. for Mac and iOS devices. It is a simple video editor and has all basic editing tools that allow you to make a good-looking video. With this powerful and easy program, you can rotate/trim/crop/split videos. It supports 50+ video formats and 300+ amazing effects. After you create a video, you can share your great masterpiece with your family or friends or post them online. All in all, iMovie is an ideal video-editor for people who are interested in doing some basic editing to movie clips.

Features:

• Supports 4k & HD video
• Supports working together with iMovie for iOS
• Supports open multiple projects simultaneously

Pros: User-friendly layout; Available on iPhone/iPad; Easy sharing; No watermark.
Cons: It doesn't have the full capabilities of a full video editor.

2. OpenShot

OpenShot is a simple and powerful video maker for Mac, Windows, and Linux. With this editing software, beginners can easily create an excellent video. If you are an amateur and want to do some basic editing, OpenShot is what you need. Apart from doing basic video editing, this application also contains many other amazing features, including an unlimited number of layers, no watermark, 70+ languages, and more.

Features:

• Supports for many videos, audio, and image formats
• Supports scaling, trimming, rotation, alpha, snapping, and adjusting X, Y location
• Video transitions with real-time previews
• Supports 70+ languages

Pros: Powerful curve-based keyframe animations; unlimited tracks/layers; Supports 3D animated titles (and effect); No watermark.
Cons: Crashes very often; Video rendering speed is not very fast.

3. Shotcut

Shotcut is an open-source free video editor that can be used to turn video clips into a fantastic movie. Similar to the free video editors we introduced above, Shotcut also allows video with no watermark, free trial, and necessary editing tools. Although Shotcut is not as professional as its competitors, it has a robust framework behind its simple layout. Moreover, this editing software boasts many other impressive features, such as video and audio effects, wide format support, codec, and cross-platform independent, etc. If you are looking for a simple free video music maker that can make the editing process smooth and easy, Shotcut is a good choice worth considering.

Features:

• Support a variety of format
• Multiple audio features
• Editing features and video effects
• Cross-platform

Pros: Support edit and render 4K videos; Contains advanced features like multiple track editing timeline; Video rendering is fast.
Cons: Can't preview filters; Unstable.

Top 3 Best Free Video Editing Software for Semi-Professionals/Professionals

1. HitFilm Express

HitFilm Express is a free all-in-one video editor that aims at indie filmmakers with great tools and powerful features. This free program allows users to create realistic shotgun effects, import and animate complex 3D Models, recreate and enhance the iconic head-up displays, etc. It is an ideal free video editor for semi-pros.

Features:

• Zoomable preview window
• A separate trimmer
• Easily export
• Advanced tracking and screen simulation

Pros: Excellent effects and transitions; Support 3D models.
Cons: Users have to share a link to social media to download the video; Limited export formats; Need a powerful processor to run it.

2. Blender

Blender is considered as one of the best free video makers for Mac, thanks to a wide variety of editing tools and advanced features. It has some basic editing features like rendering, rigging, editing, masking, compositing, modeling, etc. Beyond the basic features, it also boasts many advanced features like volumetric, subsurface scattering, screen-space reflections, and refractions, etc. Besides, it is a free 3D graphics program that can be used for modeling, UV unwrapping, rigging, skinning, animating, texturing, water and smoke simulations, and rendering. If you are looking for a professional video editor that can do some complex editing tasks, this excellent editing software for Mac is the best option for you.

Features:

• Rendering, rigging, editing, masking, compositing, modeling
• Game creation
• Integrate with pipeline tools
• It is excellent for animation

Pros: Free and open-source; Contains many advanced features; Allows to export blender files to different file formats; Allows to render with GPU instead of CPU.
Cons: Painful animation management when you have over 15 animations; Lack of proper motion capture support; Unintuitive layers system.

3. Adobe Premiere Pro CC

Adobe Premiere Pro CC is one of the best professional non-linear video editing programs for mac users. Currently, it has been widely used in various video platforms. If you have basic knowledge of editing and want to make your video look like a Hollywood film without spending a fortune, don't miss free and powerful this video editor.

Features:

• Multiple video types
• Multiple formats support
• VR rotate sphere/editing

Pros: High-quality video and audio editing; Built-in non-linear video editing; Support Flash video, HD, HDV, and many other formats; Advanced tools; Plenty of built-in effects.
Cons: Complex interface; Works for free only 30 days

Part 3. Extra Recommendation: EaseUS Video Editor - an Excellent Free Video Editor for Beginners and Professionals

As we introduced above, there are a lot of free and creative Mac video editors for you to choose from. However, most free video editor without watermark is a trial version with limited features. If you want to get full functions, you have to purchase it. However, as we all know, Mac apps are more expensive than PC. If you have a limited budget for your project, we recommend you use a video maker for Windows, such as EaseUS Video Editor, which costs you less for the same features. EaseUS Video Editor is a powerful video maker created by EaseUS Inc., which is an internet company committed to data recovery, computer backup, and disk partition. This free application supports a variety of effects and allows you to export the video to MP4/MP3, actually to any format. It is easy to use and simple to learn.

With this free video editor, you can:

• Clip footages with video shoots, images, audio files, and text files
• Multi-tracking edits with advanced clipping features like trim, split, rotate, mix audio, zoom, mosaic, etc
• Use 50+transitions, 40+filters, and 30+ overlays
• Share videos with your family or friends with only 1-click or post it on YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, RecCloud, Dropbox, etc., platforms

The Bottom Line

Best Free Photo Editing Programs For Mac

On this page, we collected 6 free Mac video editing software for beginners, semi-professionals, and professionals to create great movies. You can choose the perfect one based on your editing skill level and demands. If you don't want to pay a fortune to buy its full version, just choose EaseUS Video Editor to help you make a perfect video.

• January 02, 2020
• 18 min to read

Most free photo editors available on the App Store are quite basic, offering just a limited number of filters and allowing you to easily and quickly liven up your photos before posting them on social media.

But if you’re an aspiring or professional photographer, you probably need a more powerful app with a broader set of tools to use your creativity to the fullest. Besides, you probably use your Mac for photo editing because working on a large screen makes it possible to adjust the slightest details.

1. Apple’s Photos (Built-in app)

Apple’s Photos app is included for free on all recently released Macs. It does a good job at organizing your photos, but its collection of photo enhancement tools leaves much to be desired. Hopefully, our selection of the best free programs for photo editing on Mac will help you choose the right app to suit all your creative needs.

2. Luminar (7 days trial)

Luminar is another full-featured photo editor that’s popular with both Mac and Windows users. It can work as a standalone app as well as a plugin for such popular programs as Apple Photos.

Luminar uses Artificial Intelligence to enable sophisticated yet quick photo enhancements. Among these AI features are Sky Enhancer, which adds more depth and detail to the sky in your photos while leaving other areas untouched; Accent AI, which analyzes a photo and automatically applies the best combination of different effects to enhance your image; and Sun Rays, which allows you to place an artificial sun and adjust the lighting to your liking or make the sun rays already in your photo look even more incredible.

Luminar has over 60 filters you can apply to your photos to enhance them in a moment. Luminar also provides a set of powerful tools for cropping, transforming, cloning, erasing, and stamping, along with layers, brushes, and many more incredible features. Luminar supports the Touch Bar on the latest MacBook Pro, making photo editing even more effortless and pleasing.

3. Photolemur 3 (Free Version with watermark)

Photolemur is a relative newcomer on the photo editing market but it has all the chances to win the favor of beginner photographers and hobbyists. Running on Artificial Intelligence, Photolemur is a completely automatic photo enhancer, meaning that it does all the editing for you in no time. It has the simplest interface, with only a few buttons and sliders to adjust the enhancement to your liking and view the before and after results.

All you need to do is choose a photo (or a few) that you want to improve, drag and drop or import them using the Import button, and let the program make enhancements. After it’s done, you can compare the edited version with the original image by using the before–after slider and, if you want, adjust the skin tone or even enlarge the eyes using additional sliders. Pretty easy, huh?

Photolemur also offers a number of impressive styles to touch up your photos and give them a sophisticated and professional look. With this app, you don’t need to stuff your head with photo editing nuances and terms. Just run Photolemur and watch the magic happen!

4. Aurora HDR (14 days trial)

Best Editing Programs For Mac

As you probably can tell from the name, Aurora HDR is designed to help photographers enhance their HDR photos, making them even more detailed and beautiful. It’s an ideal tool for editing your photos, with an extensive collection of more than 20 tools including details, tone, mapping, color, glow, and vignette. Each tool has its unique selection of controls to adjust its effects.

Aurora HDR enables you to work with brushes, layers, and masks, and provides a number of automatic AI tools for recognizing and removing noise, enhancing colors, lighting, and details, improving clarity, and adding contrast to dull areas while leaving other areas untouched.

Aurora HDR does a great job dealing with difficult lighting situations and creating full-of-life images while being easy to use.

5. Pixelmator (Trial 30 Days)

Pixelmator is a photo enhancer beloved by many Mac users, as it offers a good combination of a modern and simple interface, the ability to work on multiple layers, and powerful features that take photo editing to a whole new level. With so many editing tools, brushes, and effects, you can enhance your photos to your liking. You can choose between two versions of Pixelmator – standard and pro – depending on your needs. The standard version is great for basic photo editing with its selection of essential tools and filters, while the pro version is packed with extra brushes, tools, and effects that let you push your creativity to new boundaries. You can decide which version is suitable for you according to what features you’re looking for in a photo editing app.

6. Adobe Photoshop Elements 2020 (Trial link)

Photoshop Elements isn’t as affordable as other photo enhancers for beginner photographers. But luckily there’s a trial version available, so you can check it out before deciding whether this app is worthy of your money. Photoshop Elements acquired many powerful features from Photoshop, only Elements is simplified for amateur photographers and enthusiasts. It includes a good number of effects and filters, plus automated editing options for improving lighting, color balance, and exposure, and even opening closed eyes and reducing the effects of camera shake.

In addition to all of these awesome features, Photoshop also offers editing modes for beginners, intermediate users, and experts. Beginners will probably prefer Quick mode, as it focuses on essential tools to quickly enhance your photos by improving color, lighting, and other basic settings. Guided mode provides intermediate users with step-by-step guidance with more professional features like artistic effects, skin tone correction, and background replacement. Expert mode gives you full access to the app’s really powerful editing features and is ideal for creating stunning images.

7. Affinity Photo (Free Trial)

Affinity Photo’s interface may seem overwhelming at first, especially for novices, but when you come to grips with it you’ll find that the app is just what you’ve been looking for. Its numerous professional tools, effects, and filters encourage you to get creative with your photos. Among the coolest features Affinity Photo has to offer is a before and after view to compare the original photo with its edited version.

Affinity Photo works with 15 file types, including common ones like PDF, PSD, JPG, and GIF as well as some less popular ones. The app amazes with its abundance of basic and top-notch editing tools, allowing you to tweak your photos using all possible kinds of instruments. Affinity Photo allows you to edit HDR photos, apply artistic filters and effects, play with masks and layers, and create breathtaking compositions by combining several images in one. If you find its interface a bit much and are afraid of getting lost in all those advanced tools, you should probably look for something more suitable for your level. But Affinity Photo is worth mastering.

8. Google Photos

Google Photos is a popular cloud storage service for photos and videos. It can’t boast countless masterly tools like other photo enhancers that we review in this article, but it includes some fundamental features like filters, color adjustment sliders, and transformation tools.

Although Google Photos may not be that helpful when it comes to editing photos, it does a pretty good job at storing high-resolution images and videos with 15GB of free online storage, compared to iCloud’s mere 5GB (which you can upgrade to 50GB for a monthly fee). If you’re planning to go on a trip and take plenty of photos, then it might be smart to sign up for Google Photos to use that extra storage space when you come back.

Photo Editing Programs For Mac Free

9. PhotoScape X (Free)

A relatively new photo editing app, PhotoScape X has been gaining popularity with many Mac and PC users since its release in 2008. Its interface is simple but unconventional, with a number of tabs running along the top of the window. Each is responsible for a specific stage of editing. The Viewer tab allows you to browse and organize your photos. After you pick a photo, you can switch to the Editor tab, which includes a broad set of instruments, filters, and effects and a useful feature that enables you to compare the adjusted photo with the original.

The next tabs, including the Batch tab, mainly concentrate on editing and renaming multiple photos at once. The GIF tab allows you to easily create an animated GIF from a group of selected photos.

The downside of PhotoScape X is a lack of selection tools, so all changes are applied to the whole image rather than to a selected part.

10. Gimp (Free)

Gimp is a free open-source photo editing app that has been on the market for over 22 years and is available for Windows, Mac, and even Linux. Unlike many free apps, Gimp doesn’t have any ads or in-app purchases. Its grey interface might seem a little old-fashioned and it may be a bit sluggish when it comes to complex effects, though.

Photo Editing Programs For Mac

Gimp offers a vast collection of advanced tools that hardly any free photo editor can boast. It has numerous enhancement options such as clone and heal brushes, layers and channels, accurate selection tools, a number of transformation instruments, and, of course, color adjustment controls. Gimp is one of the most powerful tools for enhancing photos and is beloved by so many users for its price (free) and versatility. But if you can’t come to grips with Gimp’s interface, it may be worth paying some cash for a more user-friendly program.