Adobe or Corel?

cozumel

So I bought a digi camera last year and now I want to be able able to edit and manage my photos. I want the best product available for a fool like me.

It's either Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 or Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2. Photoshop has been the standard-bearer for years but now Corel bought paint shop is it a credible challenger? Both are similiarly priced. I already have photoshop on trial for 30 days but will probably never learn what it can do before it expires lol

Your thoughts please.

BlueMak

have you tried paint.net ?

cozumel

Is it any good? Have you used it? I'm always vary wary of freeware, what with spyware etc. I may give it a trial run on a virtual machine.

BlueMak

it's good and safe, at least if you download it from the official site.

cozumel

Any idea how it compares to the above budget suites from Adobe & Corel? There is GIMP as well to consider.

Matth

Another possibility, Serif
FreeSerifSoftware - free software downloads - Photoplus 6 is free, or in the Value store
http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/store/default.asp
Photoplus 8 is £9.99 or Photoplus 9 is £19.99
NB. Even Serif freeware requires registration, and they will try to upsell you. They also got busted out of the alt.comp.freeware pricelessware list, for "phone home" issues, an update and offer checker.

Another one I would highly recommend, is Photofiltre, maybe a little on the basic side, but "perfect freeware", installs to it's own directory with minimal clutter, and does not inflict any nastiness upon you.
http://www.photofiltre.com - "Studio" is the Pro version, with layers and 8BF filter support
Graphisme et utilitaires Version 6 is the free one - Studio is an extension, released after this - V6 is not a cut down.