How do you get into photo editing?

I've recently been interesting in learning the basics of editing photos. I think I might start off using GIMP, as it is free to use and I can learn the basics before using more expensive software. Are there any tutorials/lesson plans that you might recommend to a beginner? Thanks!

 

It all depends on what style of photo editing you would like to do. GIMP is a great starting place and alternative to more heavy and expensive programs. If you're looking to manipulate photos and create designs and such, Photoshop is most likely the way to go. If you are more into photography and brushing up your shots, Lightroom is great for that. Being Adobe products these come at a cost, but there is no harm in going for the free trials. Cheaper alternatives to Photoshop include GIMP, Paint.net [Windows], and Acorn [Mac]. Alternatives to Lightroom include Luminar and RAWTherapee. All of these applications have many tutorials online. YouTube is a great place to start!

 

Hey Ube.

GIMP is a brilliant program to get started with, I did. I didn't want to pay out for a major program before knowing some basics and getting a feel for photo editing programs first.
I would also suggest you spend some time watching Youtube videos and tutorials. This helped me massively when I didn't know where to start.
Have fun experimenting!

 

Thanks for these tips. I find them very helpful.

 

I have to say that if you really want to go with photo editing you need to go for Adobe Photoshop, this is the app that everyone uses to edit heavily. I also use Photoshop. At first it might look like you just landed in an airplane and don't know what the buttons do. But as soon as you start learning you'll see that Photoshop can do so many things. The chances that every good edited photo that you see out there are made with Photoshop are high. It takes some time to learn, but Photoshop also has so many tutorials on the internet.