program help

[fightin14]

Hey guys I am not that new to photography but I am new to the forum as well as the idea of "Photoshop". now to get to the real reason for this post. I am on a short budget because most of my money is tied up in hardware (camera, lens etc...) and car payment and soon a house what is a cost effective editing program? I am looking for one that will give me some creative freedom and the ability to "clean up" some of photos what do you guys recomend. I guess the real problem is that I am not very computer oriented and I don't understand what the diffrence is between the photoshop elements programs vs. say cs3, cs4 full version, extension etc.. A little insight from you guys which are much more intune with this stuff would be greatly appreciated.

 

[eminart]

I've never used Elements, but from what I hear it covers all the basics that you'd need for simple editing.

If you decide to go the full photoshop route, you may want to check into some of the older versions instead of the newer CS3 or upcoming CS4 models. I would think that you could get Photoshop CS for a relatively decent price. Then, if you wanted to, you could later buy the upgrade and upgrade to CS4 or whatever.

 

[tr0gd0o0r]

You may also want to consider gimp. It is a free photoshop-like editing software. It will do pretty much anything you'll want to do with PS at none of the cost.

 

[The_Photography_Studio]

I would definately take the Photoshop route there is no imaging software that is nearly as good. You can get Photoshop 7 very cheap on Ebay and will probs have all of the features you will ever need. I found a copy on there for $70 which isn't too bad.