I guess I missed the July issue of Consumer Reports with the photo software reviews. Can anyone summarize what they thought was the best for the price? I hear lots of good things about photoshop elements. A friend uses photo finale which came free with her camera and likes it for basic editing. Any other comments on photo editing?

All of the programs listed here are good ones. I haven't heard of any real complaints with any of them. A lot of the decision is based on your budget.

Free - Picasa for basic processing
Irfanview for basic processing
Gimp for more advanced; much closer to Photoshop in abilities

Under $200 - Photoshop Elements really can't be beat. It can do pretty much everything the full program can do, you just go about it a bit differently

Over $500 - the full Photoshop. It's the king.

I'm with Willit. While I started with PaintShop 5 and 8, I switched to Photoshop for its amazing control (took a class and got student rates) but I am an avid user of the free Irfanview at irfanview.com - be sure to download the free plug-ins set also. Loss-less rotation. It has batch editing of an entire directory if you just want to change brightness and contrast for all but also has the main basic adjustment features too.

I use this one everyday, for viewing and quick edits and resizing. I use Photoshop for problem pics.

You'll love the digital. I joined up in 2003 :-)

- Andrys
www.pbase.com/andrys/abtravels

I just read a short article about some type of photo program which is provided on Vista. I do have Vista but I haven't found a section like this so far.

I have the Vista-Business version. I'm not sure which version has the photo manager. Check into your manual (hah, hah, they didn't give us a manual)or buy one of the Microsoft Vista magazines.

Blackduff

The photo stuff is on Vista home and Ultimate.

I've used both PhotoShop and PhotoShop Elements, and I prefer Elements. I just saw it at Costco yesterday for $79.99 (Windows and Mac 10.3+).
:)>-

Hi everyone,
Bob, am I glad you asked your question--I have learned so much from the discussion! (I, too, tend to take hundreds of pictures when traveling.)

I have an "editing" question to ask of all of you, since we are talking about editing...(and because you all sound sooo knowledgeable): On our last trip (used FujiFilm Finepix F700 digital) after editing completed, including rotating all vertical shots, when trying to view the CD on TV (always back up finished slide show to CD), every single time we reached one of those pictures that I had rotated, the screen went pink and the slide show stopped. The only way we were able to continue the slide show was for me to come back to the computer and eliminate each and every one of those shots. I asked the gurus at the camera store about it, but they didn't seem to know what I could be referring to....have any of you had this happen and do you know what I can do ...sometimes those vertical shots are the only way to take the picture! Thanks for your wealth of editing info.

What software did you use to rotate the images?

Hi toedtoes, I believe I just used the "FinePix Viewer" program I installed when I first purchased the camera, (which, by the way, I have replaced now with a Cascio Exilim EX-V7). I have ArcSoft Photo Studio 5 on my computer (came with it), but I have never downloaded or purchased a program specifically for editing--maybe now is the time to do so, so this doesn't happen again?!?

By the way, when viewing ON the computer, everything seemed fine (I could view the rotated pix), just not after they had been backed up to CD and attempted to be seen on TV...not until they were deleted from the CD.

I did a search and couldn't find any known problems with FinePix viewer's rotation. It could be the software that you're using to back up onto CDs. You might try just doing a "copy to CD" or using another program to save to CD - whichever you're not currently using.

If that doesn't work, try downloading one of the free programs listed above and do the rotation from that program, then back up to CD and try viewing on tv.

Someone else may come along who's had this problem with an easy solution. Meanwhile, I'll keep looking for a "culprit".

Thank you so much, toedtoes--I'm not at all a "techie" LOL so I need all the help I can get! I will study this thread and look into a suggestion or two--it is probably time that I "upgrade". Let me know if anything comes to mind.