Photo Editing Software?

[Sui Fong]

So I'm getting a new camera before k-con 2011 because I LOVE photography and I can now finally afford a nice camera. I'm hoping to use it at 2011 to take pics at photo shoots and pics of everyone around! However, I am now in the need for some good photo editing software. I don't want to spend a whole lot of money though. Any suggestions?

[yelloweyedowl]

In my opinion Adobe Lightroom and Photoghop are the best, but I'll be honest and admit I haven't used anything else in a good few years. I've seen the two programs sold together for under $100, which is pretty good. People generally aren't are familiar with Lightroom as Photoshop, but it's basically a digital darkroom (hence the name). If you've done any darkroom work in the past most of the editing tools with make perfect sense, but the best thing about it is that any changes you make doesn't actually effect the file in question, meaning that you don't lose quality as you work as you do with many Photoshop alterations (though if your working big enough in Photoshop it's not generally enough to notice).

Now, before I start getting too technical here, how much experience do you have in Photography? I can totally beak in down into simpler terms or go into other (more technical) benefits if you'd like.

[Wuntvor]

If you just want powerful image editing software look no further than GIMP.  GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages.

GIMP is the FREE software that is as powerful as Adobe Photoshop.  Nuff said.

[reppy]

GIMP is good, although I find the interface to be confusing because I am so used to Adobe Photoshop. ^^  There are videos on YouTube that explain how to set it up to resemble Photoshop, so if you want a Photoshop-like environment but don't want to pay money it's a good combination. 

[Cherry]

I think a good starter question is when you say photo editing software what exactly do you want to achieve?  Ability to just do some basic retouching of people, lighting etc?  Or get into full on photo manipulation? 

Also what kind of camera will you be using?  A DSLR?  A point and shoot?  The file formats that come out of each type differ and different programs offer different compatibility.

[ironmonkey]

GIMP is free and it can do a lot, I used it for everything for many years, but it is not that easy to use, you will need to do a lot of research on how to use GIMP to do X.  I think Lightroom is the most efficient, all purpose program, but it doesn't have layers and there are things it cannot do. Photoshop is the most powerful, and I use it a lot, but it takes more time to learn and to use.  I'd say start with GIMP and learn how to do some things, then get Lightroom, then get Photoshop.

[Shiba21]

I've never been a big fan of GIMP. It feels difficult to use once you've gotten used to Photoshop.

Since you're taking costs into consideration, I would recommend Photoshop Elements, which is very cheap compared to the actual Photoshop but has enough photo-editing tools for most jobs.

[RozenMaiden_Girl]

I use gimp. All the pictures in my icon are edited in gimp...

Anouther thing you can use is the site Picnik.com

EDIT: I can't stand photoshop at all, and I feel you can do more with gimp any way.