photoshop cs2. but i'm a professional retoucher (i fix pix on the comp for ad agencies, photographers & the like), so i have to have the pro stuff. photoshop elements is a very nice package- you get a huge chunk of the stuff for 1/6 of the price. adobe is a great company. i work on a mac, so my pix are organised in iphoto. you can do some editing in there, but i much prefer to go in to cs2. tammy

As much as I love to give bloated companies more money for software, there are a few free programs out there. If you just need to crop or do minor adjustments try irfanview. If you want some more advanced power take a look at the gimp. You can do a google search for both. I like both of them. They work well, and you don't need to spend a penny. Saves more money for gardening.

Photoshop is nice, but really overkill for what most people want to do.

For the budget minded, try Paint Shop Pro- I think they might even have a trial download online- at least they used to. Search for Jasc Paint Shop Pro to get a link. It can't prep photos for ad copy, but it does some amazingly wonderful things and is pretty user friendly. I also use Photoshop, but I like PSP better for working in layers and cloning.
-Nan

after rereading, i don't think i was clear- photoshop elements is a much lower priced, light version of photoshop cs2. i found it marked down at target for $30 for a friend. it usually retails for around $100. ps cs2 by itself is about 650, but in a package it's cheaper. i don't think elements is overkill for most basic users- it's got the basics but also a lot of filters to play with. anyone shooting digital would find it a nice consumer program for the price (especially on sale!!). :) tammy

I agree with Tammy. That was a big bargain you found by the way! I would have grabbed it up myself if I saw that price. I think Elements also has some fun stand-alone add-ons you can buy as you progress too.
-Nan

As an underpaid graphic artist who uses Photoshop all day long - I can only comment on it. My brain will only hold so much programming so in order for me to learn something new I would have to throw away something old. So all my stuff is bootlegged copies from work. Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh! don't tell anyone.

yeah, i knew that was a great price. and i also knew she was wanting it, so i grabbed the last copy & she repaid me. i didn't even realize that elements had add ons you could buy. there are tons of plug ins made for regular ps- i guess i never thought about the fact that they could work with elements, too. i don't know if you can change brush tips in elements, but if you are a halfway serious user, go to adobe's website and look through the user forums. people make all these neat actions, tips and brushes and you can download them for free. i've gotten some indispensible stuff on there i use every day in cs2. i'm not as familiar withelements, because i only use it when i'm at mom's 3 states away from home and have no other way to edit/look at my digi pix from when we're there. at home i use cs2, all the way. i was really impressed with how much elements has in it for a fraction of the price. and, i assume they've had some updates since the version i gave mom that came with my camera.