Need advice on software for basic photo editing

[charlie boy]

Apologies if my request is similar to others recently posted, but I'm looking for advice regarding photo editing software. Up until now photo editing isn't something I've really bothered with - I've just been taking my photos as they come off the camera - but I really want to start getting more out of my pictures. I've been looking at Photoshop Elements, but I don't want to spend £70 on something that is far too extravagent for my needs. Basically the main features I'm looking for are straightforward colour and exposure fixes, fine rotation for the occasional wonky photo, resizing and cropping, and the ability to make decent slideshows for playback on my dvd player; I'll mostly be working with JPGs. I'm not looking to spend an arm and a leg, I just want something affordable and easy to use that will produce good quality results, and if there is any freeware that can do the job, then so much the better (assuming that's not like asking for the moon on a stick). I'm on the verge of buying a new camera, so perhaps the bundled software will be adequate for my needs?

Also, I've recently signed up for a Flickr account, and see that this comes with a photo editor (picnik, I believe). I'll have a play with it myself, of course, but am wondering how this compares to offline software?

[SpecialK]

How about Picasa from Google?

[Anthony]

The trouble with online editors are that you have to upload the photo and at 256kb which seems to be the standard upload time here in the UK could take 4.5min for a 5Mb file. You are also restricted to any server restrictions and speeds which you have no control over.

There are loads of free editors around; I use Gimp and am very happy with it although it can not do slide shows - I do not know of any that can as when I was looking before I had to use some differernt software for that. http://www.xat.com/xatshow/index.html

I use multiple image resizer .net if I want to resize a lot of images quickly http://www.multipleimageresizer.net/ It can do more than just resize.

You can check out www.snapfiles.com for some other free and pay software.

[K1W1]

Photoshop Elements is probably one of your best choices.
Look around because you can often find whatever the version before the current one is very very inexpensively or even free bundled with scanners and printers.
Gimp has already been mentioned and is worth a look.
Irfanview (http://www.irfanview.com) is free and does some basic editing but everybody should have it anyway as a viewer, resizer, slideshow creator, watermarker and the myriad of other things it does.
Another option is your local newsagent or book store. many computer magazines have CDs or DVDs bundled that contain trial or free software. I have seen older versions of Elements on these discs but there may be other programs there that are worth a look.

[Joe Fisher]

Microsoft makes something called Photostory 3 that makes incredible slideshows. I made quite an elaborate one a few years back, I tried a bunch of commercial ones, but Photostory turned out to be the best for me.




the ability to make decent slideshows for playback on my dvd player;

[Margus]

If you happen to have Microsoft Office installed in your computer then you should have the MS Office Picture Manager included. The PM will meet all of your criteria, except slide shows. However I would expect that your dvd player should be able to show pictures as a slide show.