The link to travel is that I take lots of pictures in Europe. I finally went digital.
Now I need suggestions as to which software is the best for editing digital files, jpg format.

I need the ability to color correct, contrast adjust, brighten/darken, crop, and resize for printing.

I cannot make Vicman work with Vista.

I have the distinct impression that Adobe might be my best option.

Hi Bob,

You might want to give Google's Picasa (free!) a try. It's definitely not Photoshop, but it does all the things you listed, plus many other effects, some utilitarian and some purely aesthetic.

It's a wonderful photo organizer as well, allowing you to easily create web albums, email resized photos, or submit photos to popular printing services. It's the only software I miss since moving from Windows to Mac.

I've also heard great things about Picasa but haven't tried it myself (I have a Mac). Just in case you don't know - there's a scaled-down version of Photoshop called Photoshop Elements that will do everything you likely need at a MUCH lower price than full-fledged Photoshop.

For very simple tasks to be executed in bulk, you can go with IrfanView.

I use Photoshop Elements for most things. Resizing I do in Irfanview as well as turning photos as it has a lossless plugin for jpegs. Always make a duplicate of your photo before you do anything to it, and back up the originals too! Be aware that jpegs are lossy and you will end up losing details if you do much or open them too often. Another good reason to back up the originals.
PSE also handles RAW photos should you move on to shooting RAW.

Oh and Photoshop organiser which comes with PSE is very good too.

Thanks for the help.
I looked at Picasa but I did not see the resizing option. I must have missed it.

I will also consider the other one. That is a very good suggestion.

I am new to this digital game having spend the last 25 years with SLRs.
I hated to give up my lenses, but my new Canon S5 IS has a 36 - 400 zoom equivalent and is very compact.

I love the option of deleting the bummers. I think 70% of what I take gets the zap button.

I cannot wait to try it in Switzerland next month. Hope it quits raining so much in the Berner Oberland!!

And please, no more avalanche tragedies.
I know personally Dr. Durrer who had to go up there and organize the rescue.
The helicopter pilots who got the rescue team up there to the Rottal on the Jungfrau deserve a national award as well for bravery and skill.

Durrer is a high altitude specialist who also has a more mundane practice in Lauterbrunnen. He once patched up my wife after she caught her arm on a sharp piece of metal.

Fortunately, the good doctor is multi lingual. His English is quite good in addition to at least French and German.

There's also the free program, GIMP. It gets good reviews.

If you want to pay, Photoshop Elements is a great option as Jent103 mentioned.

Everything you can do in the full Photoshop, you can do in Elements - you just might have to do 10 steps instead of 2.

There's also a new software suite that's coming out called Aviary. It is created by the folks from Worth1000 (a photo website). The photo editing software portion is Phoenix. It may be something to watch and see.

I just received a disc from one of the Microsoft magazines. It has PaintShop Pro. This is a very good program which will handle everthing you need. Your biggest problem is finding the "Windows Vista" magazine for the "Summer" version.

Blackduff

This has all been most helpful.
I will download two of the editors at least and see what I can do with them.

I have space to store all of them!

When I got the digital camera, I also upgraded my storage capacity.

I tried a couple of them, but they would not run under Vista and I ended up deleting them. I know Picasa will run under Vista. I will check out the others.

Bob, keep adding to that storage capacity. It's amazing how quickly it disappears.

One of the best is Adobe Lightroom, what alot of amateurs and most pro's use.

Again thanks for all the good advice. I have acted on the free ones and will continue to experiment with them for the next few days. Now I need to check out the Adobe ones.

As for storage, I have a flash drive plug I can use and a hard disk with a capacity of 232 g which is intended for picture files.

I think playing with the pictures may be a fun chore to do after I get a little better at it.

I'm nor sure what you mean by 'resize for printing'.

I use Picasa2 and am very happy with it. When I put a photo in the 'Photo Tray' and then click on 'Print' on the bottom, I get a screen where I can get many sizes of the print. Is that what you want?

Bob, I have loved Picasa 2 and find it a great organizer. I also edit and print from it. Holler if you want more.

Bob - I'm betting you'll love post processing. It's like having a darkroom. It's amazing some of the things you can do. And once you get the hang of it, all those family photo albums are waiting for restoration.

You can correct discolored photos, torn photos, faded photos, etc. It's wonderful!

The July issue of Consumer Reports reviews photo software.

Everybody has their own favourites. I have an older version of photoshop that is superb but does about 5000% more than I will ever need.

I have heard excellent reviews of "The Gimp", and it appears to be able to do nearly everything that photoshop can do (And it is free), but it also appears to have a very steep learning curve.

For simple editting , particularly of batches of files, I use Irfanview. This is another free program and I find it excellent for resizing large numbers of files for webpages or thumbnails.

As others have said, if you want a simple , straightforward program for simple editting, then Picasa is very hard to beat - particularly as google give 1gb of webspace to upload photos.

You folks know what I am after and have advised me very well. I have played with Picasa a little and it seems ok.

I need to do more experiment with this new toy of mine. After all these years, the old guy has gone digital.

Anybody want a Minolta SRT 202?

bob - I came upon your OP a little late, but I have tried so many programs and at last I tried PS Elements. It works with Vista (download an upgrade).
It just is so much superior IMO and worth the price and the learning time.
Bonus - it will grow with your abilities and cameras.