LandscapePro review

LandscapePro is a photo editor with a difference. Unlike general purpose programs equipped with the usual set of filters, brushes and color-correction tools, it's designed specifically for enhancing landscape shots, and the results can be as subtle or dramatic as you like.

LandscapePro's tools adapt the the various elements in your scene (including skies, water, buildings and foreground elements), and let you edit them independently. 

There's a great selection of presets that let you give your photos a new look with just a few clicks, plus a huge range of manual controls for fine-tuning the results so they look as believable as possible.

Some photos are better suited to editing with LandscapePro than others, and you'll need to spend a fair about of time making small adjustments if you want to make major changes to complex scenes, but the whole process is easy and, most importantly, fun.

There are three versions of LandscapePro, offering different feature sets at different price bands. Compare features and prices.

User experience

After opening an image, you’ll be prompted to label a few key items in the image, including the sky, water, mountains, buildings and other subjects. You don’t need to label everything – just a few key things you’d like to edit. As long as you've selected the sky and any areas of water (which the sky will be reflected in), you're ready to get started.

LandscapePro will use your labels to isolate the areas and mask them using different colors. This usually works well, but you might need to make a few tweaks. If you need to capture any small architectural details (like supports on a bridge, for example) the 'Object in sky' tool is brilliant. Clicking and holding the ‘Original’ button will help you see where you need to make any adjustments.

Once that’s done, drag the white line to the horizon (or where the horizon would be if it wasn’t hidden) and you're ready to begin editing using the following tools:

• Global presets (ready made effects that affect the whole image)
• Lighting brushes (effects that follow the physical shape of the scene)
• Whole picture (options like color temperature and saturation)
• B&W, vignette (monochrome and vignetting effects)
• Depth (haze effects for the background or foreground)
• Adjustments for individually labelled areas
• Lighting (position and strength)
• Specific fixes (removing noise and straightening horizons)

There’s a great set of moody and atmospheric global presets to choose from, which will alter the whole image. Some of the effects are more convincing than others, and in our experience the more dramatic effects tend to work better with natural landscapes than urban images.

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These auto settings are a good starting point, but to create a convincing effect (particularly on photos with tricky lighting) you'll probably need to delve into the wealth of manual sliders that let you fine-tune elements like environmental haze, lighting, saturation and strength of effects.

It’s unlike any other image editor you’ll have used, but handy little tooltips appear to guide you through the process, so you'll never be lost or confused.

LandscapePro is great fun, and there's a free trial available so you can give it a spin before deciding whether to invest in a license.

• Check out our guide to the best free photo editors