While super simple automatic tools can be used to edit images, one way of making professional photo retouching is, instead, to use layers or layers that allow you to superimpose images even by merging two different photos together, to example to create different atmospheres, colors or change settings. This is a typical job for those who know how to use Photoshop, which however is certainly not the only program that allows you to use layers and overlays, indeed there are some even easier, free and free.
In this article we then discover 5 programs, some of which have never been mentioned before, which are open source photo editors with which you can work with layers, ideal for merging two or more photos and creating overlays or even retouched photo retouches .
These image editors therefore have the tools called, Overlay, Burn, Soft light, Hard light, Addition, Subtract, and HUE, which are all methods of merging images.
1) GIMP is the alternative open source program to Photoshop, a complete image editor, even complex in some respects, with many merging methods for playing and managing levels.
In the tools section to add layers you can open other images above the main one to create different layers and different blending methods in the list.
GIMP is a feature-rich program, not the easiest one you can find, but one that includes almost every Photoshop feature.
2) Paint.net is another alternative program to Photoshop, a little more modern and lighter,
Paint.net includes some advanced tools to easily cut, rotate, flip and blur images.
Paint.net also has all the tools for merging images and also controlling the opacity of each layer.
Very briefly, after opening Paint.net and loading any image, you need to locate the layers window to add another layer.
In the newly added layer, load another image, then select any layer, click on the properties icon from the Layer window, and choose any blending mode to then also configure the opacity of the layer.
3) LazPaint is a much lesser-known program that has layer support as its main feature.
The interface is really simple to use, which opens immediately with Layer options, which allows you to add two or more layers and then merge and overlap them with different methods.
Before applying any blending operation, you can preview the final appearance of the image.
Obviously, apart from adding layers, other image manipulation operations can also be done using the basic and advanced toolset.
LazPaint can also be downloaded as a portable program, to be used without installation.
4) Chasys Draw IES is another free, open source and free image editor, which also works as an image viewer and format converter.
You can edit images using layers and different blending modes in a fairly simple way.
The layer addition section is similar to Paint.net and also includes some parameters including opacity, layer position and other effects.
5) RealWorld Paint is another very good image editor with blending and layer management methods.
On the left side of its interface you can immediately find the Layers pane, where you can open many layers.
Upload the images to their respective layers and then choose from the different blending methods using the drop-down list from the bottom left side.
READ ALSO: Top 10 programs for editing and managing images and photos
