Recommended Photo Editing Software

Please Note: This is by no means an exhaustive list. It is, however, an attempt to familiarize beginning photographers with a variety of digital photography software that is available. Given the nature of digital photography, I expect this will be updated regularly. Feel free to comment if you see a glaring omission.

The following recommendations are based off my personal experiences with this software. You may find other software to be more useful to you and your needs. These recommendations are ranked in order of usefulness in my opinion.

Criteria - Good digital photography software allows you to quickly and easily:
1) download photos from your camera
2) find the downloaded files
3) open/view the images
4) manipulate them
5) resize the photos
6) organize your finished photographs
7) output prints, books, etc

Good software will also not overwhelm your computer and hopefully be inexpensive with a simple user interface. Digital photography software that does all of the above is available from several different companies.

Recommendation One
Picasa - Google’s Free Photo Editor
http://picasa.google.com/
Cost: Free
Pros:
1) Download your photographs and file them on your computer. Great search features allows you to easily tag, categorize, and find your photos.
2) Manipulate your photographs in general, basic ways. (non-destructive editing)
3) Organize your photographs.
4) Output your photographs to social media, Blogger, Facebook, email, webpages, and online photo retailers (Wal-Mart, Walgreens, etc.)
5) Completely supported and regularly updated by one of the biggest companies in the world: Google.
6) Most complete software available, in my opinion, for the digital photographer. Simple, clean, fast, and intuitive."It just works". Supports Raw formats without additional updates or drivers.
7) See my full list of why I use Picasa here.
Cons:
1) Limited photo editor.
2) Does weird things with raw files.

Recommendation Two:
Adobe Photoshop
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/index.html
Cost: $199 (upgrade) or $649 (new)
Pros:
1) The professional standard for image editing.Comprehensive suite of tools to edit, organize, and output your photographs.
2) Once the drivers are installed for your camera, unparalleled Raw file support.
3) Huge numbers of people use the program. Robust community support, books, and Howtos written about the program (and you'll need it). I took several college classes that dealt specially with Photoshop.
4) You can pretty much do anything you want to an image with Photoshop.
Cons:
1) Wickedly expensive. Prohibitively so for the novice
2) Monstrous learning curve for the novice.
3) Some tools are more complicated than they need to be. (See the retouch tool in Picasa and compare to clone stamp in Photoshop).
4) Several ways to edit your photograph. Photoshop is overkill for the new photographer.

Recommendation Three:
Adobe Photoshop Elements http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopelwin/
Cost: $79 (upgrade) or $99 (new)
Pros: See above. Elements is basically Photoshop with a few subtractions that pure digital photographers WILL NOT MISS. I would highly recommend Elements to the new and advanced hobbyist photographer. Excellent value for the price.
Cons: See Photoshop.

Recommendation Four:
Paint.net or Gimp
http://www.getpaint.net/
http://www.gimp.org/
Cost: Free
I have used Paint.net and Gimp (weird names... I know). I haven't used them enough to give a comprehensive pro or con list. I know they are both free and are serviceable photo editors. I've read articles about both that swear they are "photoshop killers". Unfortunately, I have used Photoshop for about 10 years and I'm also completely in love with Picasa. Besides the price I don't see anything with Paint.net or Gimp to pull me away from either Photoshop or Picasa. Gimp and Paint.net are both free. For what you get, that makes both programs incredible values. If I wasn't so accustom/set in my ways with Photoshop and Picasa, I might be a little higher on both Paint.net and Gimp. Raw support, in the versions I have used, was non-existent.

Recommendation Five:
Browser-based Photo Editors
Cost: Free (with option to go “pro” for a cost but very useable without “pro” option)
https://www.photoshop.com/
http://www.picnik.com/
http://snipshot.com/
http://www.picture2life.com/
http://pixenate.com/
http://www.splashup.com/

If you are considering these services, I would probably stick with the Photoshop option. It is well constructed and I trust Adobe with my information/files. Overall these services are fun to use but offer little more.

Other Thoughts/Products:
Paint Shop Pro
Cost: $54
http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/us/en/Product/1184951547051
I have not used Paint Shop Pro but some people are very happy with it.

iPhoto/Aperture
Cost: About $2000 for a new iMac.
http://www.apple.com
Some MAC users I know tell me that iPhoto is better than Picasa. These MAC users (who happen to be friends of mine) don't know what they are talking about. :>

In all seriousness, I have MACs and PCs and iPhoto is a fine program that serves a specific purpose in the OS 10 environment. I personally think Picasa does it better. If you like iPhoto, more power to you. I have all the raw support I need with Picasa and Photoshop. Aperture certainly looks pretty.

Adobe Lightroom
Cost: $299
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom/
I was a beta tester for Lightroom. I know many photographers love it. I don't see the attraction. See above comments about Aperture.