Need a photo program

[Charlie Reals]

I have a new putor with windows 7. It does not come with a photo editing program. Which program are you using? I need suggestions please.
Charlie

[Paul Atkins]

Gimp for windows. Pixelmator for Mac, which reminds me of Corel PhotoPaint.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I just got a new Dell with Windows 7 a few weeks ago. I bought PhotoShop Elements 8 for the LOML.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Charlie,

I use FastStone. Does everything I need and the price is right. It's free!

Check it out: http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm

[David G Baker]

I use an older version of Adobe Photoshop that I have been using for over 10 years and have been very happy with it. Adobe Elements would be my second choice if I hadn't been spoiled by Photoshop. If you want to try Photoshop you may be able to get an older version on Ebay at a good price.

[Zach England]

http://downloads.sourceforge.net/gimp-win/gimp-2.6.8-i686-setup.exe?use_mirror=

[Roger Newby]

Picasa 3 from google. Also free:D

[Mitchell Andrus]

Paint Shop Pro. Doesn't have so many bells and whistles that you can't jump in and get good results. I edit every image on my websites with it.

I also have Corel Draw and Paint. A few cool tools, that I rarely use.
.

[Eric DeSilva]

Gimp for windows.

People don't tend to realize that back in the days when film was king, there was a nerd in the back of the photo place who looked at your film and made minor adjustments to optimize how your prints looked. There is a reason most digital snaps don't look good--the nerd is missing. Digital editing of pictures is necessary--it isn't cheating. Every picture I use or print goes into Photoshop where--at a minimum--I correct the color temperature, set the black/white points, adjust the contrast curves, level, crop (to a frame size and pixel density) and sharpen.

I'm a big advocate of decent photo software. Personally, I couldn't live without the pro-level Photoshop. But that is a huge program, very expensive, and the learning curve is steep. Still, if you are serious about it, I highly recommend taking a class and ponying up the money.

My second choice -- and the clear winner in my book -- is GIMP. It is not only free, it is open source and it is even available as a portable app. It is a very capable editor.

[Bonnie Campbell]

It's not free, but I really like ACDSee Photo Manager.

[Charlie Reals]

I used photo shop for years with my other computers so will probably go with that as I do like it. All I use it for anymore is fixing and resizing pics to upload to one site or another.As Eric said, all photos need to be fixed one way or another. As Ansel Adams said many years ago, "The art is in the dark room not the camera". I did my own B/W dark room for years and loved the results but those days are long past.
It surprised me when I found there was no photo shop with this new windows as there was with w/98 and XP. Thanks for the input.
Charlie

[Jim O'Dell]

I've found IrfanView to be a great little program. Easy to use and free. (You can send in a donation.) But I don't do anything heavy, just resizing for forums. It works very well for that. Jim.

[Jim Becker]

Adobe Photoshop Elements is what I've been using for years for photo editing. Very reasonable cost and many of the features of it's big sister, Photoshop CS4. I actually buy the bundle of Photoshop Elements and Premier Elements (video editing) as the combo is priced well and gets better after the $30 rebate I landed.

[Shawn Christ]

For serious editing, Paint.net is free for Windows and seems to rival Photoshop in functionality.

http://www.getpaint.net/

I haven't used Windows 7 yet, but I'd be surprised if it doesn't have something built in for simple editing like crop, rotate, resize, etc.

[Fred Belknap]

windows 7 comes with a good program. it is called windows photo gallery. it is free. it really helps keeping track of your pictures. just go to run and type in windows photo gallery. sorry about the lower case. using one hand.

[Charlie Reals]

windows 7 comes with a good program. it is called windows photo gallery. it is free. it really helps keeping track of your pictures. just go to run and type in windows photo gallery. sorry about the lower case. using one hand.

Fred,Photo gallery only does basic stuff, it will not resize for forum sharing. I am looking into a couple of the free programs mention by the other folks here as all I really care about is resizing to a smaller pic so I can prove I turned a bowl lol ya know how it is in the turning forum, no pic, it didn't happen:D
Charlie

[Bob Vavricka]

I like both Corel Paintshop Pro and Photoshop. Like Mitchell, I find Paintshop Pro easier to use. So if I want to do something quick I usually go to it. If I use Photoshop for photo editing I usually use a plug-in called Curvemeister. It has it's own learning curve and also works in Photoshop Elements.
A lot will depend on how much time you want to spend learning the program. I enjoy it, others find it frustrating.

[John Keeton]

Charlie, I have used Photoshop Elements for years, and like. Steve Schlumpf recommended FastStone, and it does a few things the Elements won't do - and vice versa, so far as I can tell. I have worked with FastStone some, but not enough to really know it.

Presently, I use both!! I use Elements to do my original contrast/color/align/crop/resize, all of which I can do in less than a minute. Then I use FastStone to do my borders. Steve does some great stuff with FastStone, and it may easily do all that I presently do with Elements - but, I have been too lazy to put enough effort into finding out.:o For free - sounds like a great place to start!

[Charlie Reals]

I did go ahead and download faststone. It was sure easy to re size. I haven't explored it too far yet but it doesn't seem too complicated and as implied, the price was right.:)

[Steve Schlumpf]

Charlie - I've been using it for a few years now. I am not an expert by any means but if you have any questions - let me know.