We find these useful. You might, too.
1. Photrus. Number one on our list of tools that help us create our artwork is Photrus As I said in my review of Photrus, this may be the biggest no-brainer in all of landscape photography. I love TPE [more below] and pay for but just tolerate PhotoPils [don't be a hater]. But there is nothing else like Photrus.
2.. TPE. I don't know anybody who calls it by its rightful name, The Photographer's Ephermeris. Everyone I know calls it TPE.
3. Capture One. Some people love Lightroom—and I respect it begrudgingly, but I will not use it ever again, ever since it lured me into mistakenly deleting a boatload of original files from the Maldives and Bali; that was my doing, but trust me, LR lured me—and some swear by DxO PureRAW, but for me, it is Capture One. And as long as I am shooting a Phase One camera, it always will be. At one time, perhaps a little as 2-3 years ago (I am writing this in 2026)
4. Photoshop. I used to loath working in Photoshop, and that was only because of its complexity and depth. it intimidated me, and I suppose it still does. But there really is nothing else that can compete with its capabilities. There are in fact other software offerings that can do a lot of Photoshop does, and there are several that offer more attractive pricing. I know there is an entire segment of the photographic community dedicated to hating on Adobe's subscription plans, and I get it.
5.. Boris FX Optics. This is a new addition to our toolkit. I had known about Optics for several years—there are lots of other tools on their platform but Optics is the one for still photographers—ever since a webinar with the French photographic artist David Duschens. But I was initially turned off by the kludgy platform and candidly, the price.
6. Luminar Neo. Skyrim is the company that develops and markets Luminar Neo. This pixel-editor has been through a lot of twists and turns over the years.