Editing Software Advice for a Novice looking to Appearslightly Pro

[m1m1williams2]

Hi, I am a novice in every sense of the word. I recently brought a Nikon D5100, my first DSLR. I started taking images in RAW and I wanted to purchase some type of image editing software without breaking the bank. Here's what I'd like to do: Edit wrinkles, blemishes, whiten teeth and eyes, remove unwanted things in an image, make a person slightly thinner, fix red eye and adjust image color.
I have looked at Adobe CS6 and it's way too expensive for me. My photos will primarily be for personal use for now but I wanted them to have a professional look. I also checked out Adobe Lightroom 4, although I'm not sure if it can do everything I listed.I also would like to know if there are any other software programs that I may have overlooked...Any help, suggestions or advice will be greatly appreciated thanks.

 

[Overread]

Photoshop Elements is an affordable adobe based software option for image editing. It's essentially CS6 but with bits cut out, however there are quite a few simple functions that can be added with free addons and its also compatible with most 3rd party Photoshop program addons as well (although it won't work with Photoshop actions).

It's a great place to start editing and taking control whilst also not breaking the bank. Lightroom is also a good option and the newer versions can do quite a bit, though it lacks all the options of an editing software package Lightroom 4 is certainly very capable of taking most images through their RAW processing to a finished and ready item - although its best used in tandem with an editing program (eg Elements or Full Photoshop) so that you can export those photos that need more specific attention into those editing packages.


GIMP is a freeware software option (ie free legally) which has some very powerful editing features; however its interface is not that intuitive and it can be a more difficult software package to learn how to us.

 

[texkam]

Expect to go through quite a learning curve in order to do all these thing well.

 

[Big Mike]

Welcome to the forum.

I will second the recommendation for Photoshop Elements. It's basically 'Photoshop Lite'. It does most of the same things that Photoshop does, but is more tailored to photographers and/or less-advanced users.

I'm also a big fan of Adobe Lightroom. It will do most of the things that a typical photographer will want...but it has it's limitations. For example, you can apply many adjustments, not only to the whole image, but to specific areas. But it doesn't have the ability to use 'Layers' (which is what makes CS/Elements so powerful). It can remove simple blemishes but it can't do 'liquify' (to make people thinner etc) type edits.
Lightroom also acts as a great cataloging and organizing tool.