The new beta version of the DaVinci Resolve video-editing software now includes a lot of powerful photo-editing tools. And it’s still free!
DaVinci Resolve from Blackmagic Design is well-established as a free, a non-linear video editing program that is suitable for beginners and less experienced users.
In a surprise move, the Australian company has announced a beta version of DaVinci Resolve 21 with a new ‘Photo’ page that enables you to edit raw files, reframe and crop images, and carry out sophisticated colour grading and correction.
Raw images from Canon, Sony, Nikon and Fujifilm cameras are supported and the software also supports pictures in JPEG, PNG and HEIC format.
This new Photo page also gives access to common photo-editing tools, such as sharpen and denoise, with the ability to apply edits to an entire photo album.
‘The new Photo page lets you import and manage photographs, integrating with the Color page for node based grading,’ said Blackmagic Design. ‘Now colorists and photographers can use Hollywood color grading tools on still images.’
AI editing tools, too
The Photo page also gives access to Resolve’s AI editing tools, including the AI Magic Mask for one-click selection of your subject, and there is support for tethered capture from Sony and Canon cameras.
Interesting new features on the video-editing side include a Face Age Transformer and Face Reshaper, an AI Speech Generator for creating spoken audio from text, AI Blemish Removal and AI Ultra Sharpen.
It remains to be seen whether the new photo-editing features in DaVinci Resolve 21 will lure photographers away from Lightroom, but it’s a powerful alternative for those who resent paying a monthly subscription – particularly as it’s free, and offers lots of powerful video-editing features, too.
You can download a copy for Windows or MacOS here.
Further reading
The best video-editing software in 2026
