What is the best photo editing software?

I'm sure you're going to get a lot of people on here telling you that Photoshop is tops- and I totally agree! Now that I am into photography I find that having a good photo editing program is essential, and Photoshop hasn't let me down yet. And don't let the stores suck you in to buying the $700 CS2 version, because 1) it's veery expensive 2) it does most of the same things as the "less advanced" versions 3) it is very difficult to learn how to use. As for myself, I like Photoshop 4.0. They have a 5.0 out now, which would probably be a bit better, but I haven't looked into it so I don't know what is different about it. If you go that route you will be looking at spending about $100 or slightly more. It's definitely worth it to have, and it has so many capabilities. You'll be blown away! If you're new to using Photoshop, you'll definitely want to go through their tutorials and maybe find some others online that can help you achieve a certain effect that you're going for. Best of luck with your decision, and may all your editting look stellar!

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I work for a software reseller and I can tell you that Adobe Photoshop is the industry standard and I sell quite a bit of it. However, it is quite expensive ($650 for the full CS2 version) and there is a very high learning curve and frankly the functions are probably more than the average person needs or uses.

For photo editing there are several good and less expensive software applications on the market. One is Microsoft Digital Image Suite and Digital Image Suite Plus ($49.00-$99.00 after $30 mail in rebate). Another good program is Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo XI ($99.00). Both of these programs offer a wide variety of photo editing tools that are easy enough for a novice to use but provide results even professional enjoy.

I have used Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Digital Image Suite, and Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo as well as many other software titles for photo editing. The three I have mentioned by name are the best of the best. Unless you are going to do a lot of professional graphic design or want to spend hours trying to learn how to use the software, and pay for a lot of bells and whistles you probably won't use, Photoshop is probably too much of a good thing. Microsoft Digital Image Suite has some innovative tools and is easy to use but my favorite is Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo. It is very easy to use and comes with a lot of cool features like the makeover tool, Time Machine effects, and the color change tool, in addition to all of the standard photo editing tools.

I have included links to the manufacturers' webpages. Photoshop, Digital Image Suite, and Paint Shop Pro Photo all have 30-60 day free trial downloads available at the links below. You can try before you buy and decide which program is the best for needs.

Adobe Photoshop without a doubt is the best option you have for a photo editing software. It's got everything you need! BUT since I do alot of professional photography I've also found Adobe Lightroom to be quite impressive on the other hand most of Lightrooms features you can find in Photoshop...

PS: Lightroom is available as a free Beta release from Adobe, it's worth a try!

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From dealing with this question for several years this is my conclusion:

If you want to improve your photo images but are not a professional then Photoshop will do everything you want and more. Although there are limitless possibilities you will find that a few techniques will end up being used on most photos and can easily be learned so do not worry about it being complex because you don't need to learn it all. It is pricey, as others have said, but you don't have to go even further and get CS which would be even more pricey. If you just want to dip a toe in that water you can often find Adobe Photoshop Elements, the cut-down version, that might have all you need at a price that is often on sale for $40. It has a fraction of the features and at a fraction of the Photoshop price.

I downloaded GIMP and Picasa and was not impressed by anything about them except the free price. Most of the other programs available do not do anything much for you beyond a simple red-eye elimination, cropping, and some "enhancement." You can get those anyway in free downloads like OFOTO so they are not worth buying.

Corel Paint which comes in the Corel Draw suite has about the same functionality as Adobe Photoshop.

The current version of Corel's drawing and editing tools is about 1/3 the price of Adobe Photoshop and you get a vector drawing tool, web page maker, trace program and more fonts than you will ever need in a lifetime. Plus Corel products input and export WAY more file formats than Photoshop.

You can download a free demo of the current Corel tools at www.corel.com.

If you want a real bargain buy Corel Draw 12 for about $50. It's only about 2 years old, very stable on XP (with all updates) and has well over 90% of the functionality of the current Corel suite and about 300% of the functionality of Photoshop.

This is NOT a scam, you get real licensed disks, it's just that it's not the latest version. Do a Yahoo search for - {+corel +draw 12"}. Some of the discount packages don't come with a manual but once again do a Yahoo search for {+corel +tutorial}. Many of the tutorials are better than either the Corel or Adobe manuals.

Your choice ... $50 for 99.99% of what almost anyone except a really experience graphics designer needs or $600 for that 0.01%.

BTW - I don't work for Corel, I just think it's like Turtlewax, a product that is superior value for the price.

1] if you are looking for a software with very good capabilities, sure, Adobe is the one.

2] But, if you ask, Using which software I can get good results

in correcting photos that was not taken as perfect?

The answer is "it depends on how much you understand the

photos, lighting effects etc". Even the simple software now should

be able to give you good results for home users and home use.

Even with the best software, you might not be getting good results if you do have understand the fundaments. No software is really "automatic".

So, if you have a scanner/printer that will come with some

bundled software and ishould be sufficient for most home use.

I am a longtime graphic designer and I have used Photoshop for work for about 12 years at this point. It is the best, and you can do practically anything with it, the only limitation being your imagination.

But consider, also, that you can work in Photoshop for 5 years and still have things to learn about it. It is that incredibly complex and layered an experience. It's a masterpiece of software engineering -- and for users that has it's advantages and disadvantages. Even when you think you know all there is to know about it, some guru shows you an entire category of operations within Photohop that you had never explored with it, and then you realize that for the reams of knowledge you have about Photoshop, you have still just scratched the surface.

All this said to make a point: Unless you want to get derailed from your concentration on photography and image making for a good while in order to learn a piece of software of near human complexity, I might try 1) one of the Photoshop Lites or 2) something like Gimp. I think these will be easier to grasp fully and quickly, and maybe later, after mastering them, you can segue into Photoshop.

I would have to say Adobe Photoshop because it's what most professionals and regular people use. It's the standard. It's also very expensive. Adobe Photoshop is made by the same people that make Corel Draw, the standard in graphics design and editing software

For me, Paint Shop Pro (graphics design/editing software) has been a great alternative. It doesn't have all the "doo-dads" that Adobe Photoshop has, but it's features are quite formidable considering the cost, which is pretty reasonable. It's almost MUCH easier to learn and use than Corel Draw.

I design web pages and make cards. For me, Paint Shop Pro has been a blessing

It all depends on how in-depth you want to get with the work.

If you are just going to change things like tint, tone or sharpen and blur photos, then a program like PaintShop Pro or Photoshop Elements may be just fine.

If you are going to get into big layouts, image compositing and heavy manipulations, then a full (professional) version of Photoshop is about the best there is.

It does have a steep learning curve at first, until you get to that 'a-Ha!' moment, then it opens up. The other thing, is that it is expensive. Where Elements and PSP can be had for around one hundred dollars, a full copy of Photoshop was over 600 last time I looked.

If you can find it used, Photoshop 6 which came out about 6 years ago, will run on XP handily and it has all the major filters and functions that matter. It's got all of the muscle and none of the 'fluff' that the lastest version's got in it now (the Adobe software engineers *have* to keep themselves employed, after all!). I have a Mac and am still running PS5.5 to do the bulk of my own image manipulating and editing - the program is quite powerful, even when it's as old as what I've got!

Deb.