DaVinci Resolve Photo Editor
Ranked 5 of 12 photo editors by recommenders
Photo editing inside DaVinci Resolve with color grading and library tools, a subscription-free alternative to Adobe. Caveat: critics say it feels built for video editors, not photographers.
Photo editing inside DaVinci Resolve with color grading and library tools, a subscription-free alternative to Adobe. Caveat: critics say it feels built for video editors, not photographers.
27 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 23
- criticize it
- 4
- approval share
- 85%
Recommended in 1 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 23 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 5.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 1 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Avoids Adobe subscription fees
“One more piece of software that makes the world less reliable on A*be's expensive subscription fee based software”
Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “DaVinci Resolve releases Photo Editor” “anything that takes market from Adobe and their shit licensing is good news”
Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “DaVinci Resolve releases Photo Editor” “lets me process everything properly, skip the monthly subscription”
Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “DaVinci Resolve releases Photo Editor” - Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “DaVinci Resolve releases Photo Editor”
Video editing tools work on photos
“it all just applies to photos too. I tried today some basic Magic Mask and color tab editing with photos, and it works exactly the same”
Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “DaVinci Resolve releases Photo Editor” “I've edited stills in Resolve for years thinking this day would come”
Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “DaVinci Resolve releases Photo Editor” “DaVinci handles a lot of things better than LR from the start.”
Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “DaVinci Resolve releases Photo Editor” - Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “DaVinci Resolve releases Photo Editor”
Praise for Blackmagic Design
“regardless I'm a happy user of Davinci Resolve and this is amazing!”
Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “DaVinci Resolve releases Photo Editor” “I really like what BMD is doing.”
Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “DaVinci Resolve releases Photo Editor” “This is really awesome news.”
Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “DaVinci Resolve releases Photo Editor”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Feels built for video editors
“It feels very much like video editing software with photo editing tacked on.”
Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “DaVinci Resolve releases Photo Editor” “It doesn't appear to attempt to target photographers who are not coming from a video editing background, and photographers will probably be disappointed.”
Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “DaVinci Resolve releases Photo Editor” “I personally didn't like the new Photo mode because it's clearly intended for video editors and not photographers at all”
Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “DaVinci Resolve releases Photo Editor” Poor color rendering on raw files
“Neat that they try to support JXL compressed raws but colors render very off.”
Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “DaVinci Resolve releases Photo Editor” “The Sony RAW file rendered terrible compared to Lightroom.”
Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “DaVinci Resolve releases Photo Editor” Freezes or lags on some machines
“no discrete GPU which might have been the issue”
Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “DaVinci Resolve releases Photo Editor” “so far it's been frozen for 8 minutes”
Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “DaVinci Resolve releases Photo Editor”
Other photo editors people recommend
The four most recommended other photo editors, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Photopea | 84 | 13 | 87% | 11 | 6 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| Affinity Photo | 81 | 41 | 66% | 11 | — | — |
| Adobe Lightroom | 68 | 75 | 48% | 10 | 17 yrs6 owners | — |
| Pixelmator Pro | 29 | 9 | 76% | 10 | — | Approved |
| DaVinci Resolve Photo EditorThis page | 23 | 4 | 85% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
25 of the 28 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“This is really awesome news.”
“no discrete GPU which might have been the issue”
“DaVinci handles a lot of things better than LR from the start.”
“Neat that they try to support JXL compressed raws but colors render very off.”
“This is cool, but I can't help but notice the first 50% of the page has breasts featured in every photo”
“Photoshop has needed a real competitor for a long time.”
“One more piece of software that makes the world less reliable on A*be's expensive subscription fee based software”
“it all just applies to photos too. I tried today some basic Magic Mask and color tab editing with photos, and it works exactly the same”
“anything that takes market from Adobe and their shit licensing is good news”
“$295 pricing and think that is a very reasonable price for something that could help my photos look like my photos”
“It doesn't appear to attempt to target photographers who are not coming from a video editing background, and photographers will probably be disappointed.”
“It feels very much like video editing software with photo editing tacked on.”
“it works on Linux. Finally!”
“I personally didn't like the new Photo mode because it's clearly intended for video editors and not photographers at all”
“The Sony RAW file rendered terrible compared to Lightroom.”
“this looks like a total win for me as 90% stills”
“so far it's been frozen for 8 minutes”
“I really like what BMD is doing.”
“Native photo editor with decent ux was the missing piece.”
“It always comes back to it not just being a decent photo editor, it's also a library management tool.”
“regardless I'm a happy user of Davinci Resolve and this is amazing!”
“I've edited stills in Resolve for years thinking this day would come”
“The cinematic color grading seems super cool, can’t wait to give this a try.”
“lets me process everything properly, skip the monthly subscription”
“Would be great if you could use it on its own app instead of having to load a Resolve project.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.