Photo program ?

[THE HAT]

I was with talking with my dmil today, and we were trying to fig out which photo program would be the best and easiest. Well of course I knew right where to ask...The Photo Board!!

We want a program that will be very SIMPLE to use, not cost more then 100.00 and be able to do such functions as: Add words or comments to pictures,add boarders, put other images into the photo, (ie/ someone's head on something else etc), do creative croping, and be able to make one part of the photo black and white and leave something with color. does this exist?
What would you all recommend?
I saw a pic on another board here on the dis and it was of street lights and such with decorated wreaths hanging off of them full of color. All but the wreaths were in black and white. I would like to have a program that I could do that with.

I hope that I have explained myself ok
I am very camera illeterate. I am the person with the really expensive digital camera that can only fig out how to use the automatic settings....
I do have the really basic (free) downloaded Kodak photo editing program and I can get the red eye at least...

THANK YOU

 

[SplshMtn99]

Well, without getting into Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, I would say Microsoft Picture It Premium can do all that you mentioned.

But everyones idea of VERY SIMPLE is different. Some of the things you want to do, I wouldn't call VERY SIMPLE. They're not hard once you figure out how, but I know several people who would have a hard time even following directions...IF they were given.

 

[MICKEY88]

I personally prefer PAint SHop PRo Photo XI,

it will do everything that photo shop does, at a fraction of the cost...from all the reviews I read onlione before purchasing, it has an easier learning curve, plus comes with tutorial on the disk you can download a 30 day free trial from corel...

check out these folders for a few samples of things I've done...
Selective coloring

Altered reality

that having been said a lot of other members prefer photo shop,

there are also some free programs such as picassa and gimp...I actually have them on my pc also and will play with them occassionally but always come back to my Paint SHop pro.


last week a good friend of mine who has always argued that photo shop is better, spent hours trying to edit a photo for his family christmas card, could not do what he wanted to do, I made the changes in 5 minutes with paint shop pro, he went home that night and downloaded paint shop pro..LOL

 

[THE HAT]

Thanks for the opinions on which on to try. I will look into all of these and see which one(s) might be right. I am pretty good at figuring things like this out as long as the instructions are clear.
I used to have a PSP8 a looong time ago that a friend had sent to me on my old computer, but I never really tried to figure it out and when I switched to my new puter I never bothered to transfer it. ( I am sure it is very outdated anyway).
Thanks for the help and if anyone has any other suggestions please give them!!

 

[Gdad]

Photoshop Elements

 

[SplshMtn99]

Photoshop Elements

I was going to suggest that too, since I have the new PSE5, but I wasn't sure how simple it needed to be. So that's why I suggested Microsoft Picture It before. And PSE5 is close to their $100 limit...and add another $20 or so because you are going to NEED a book. lol

I will say, I've have/had LOTS of programs. Never totally happy with the way just 1 program handles all needs. Prior versions of PSE were impossible for me to figure out....and I have a BS in Computer Science. lol PSE5 is much better in terms of being user friendly....but its certainly not idiot proof. lol You are going to need a book...or 2. And their are lots of tutorials online since its such a widely used program.

 

[jann1033]

you can download a free elements 5 from adobe now and try it out...however some of what you seem to want to do involves layers which once you get it in your head what they are doing aren't that hard but it's kind of like fractions in grade school...expect some headaches before the light bulb goes off.

imo elements is way easier than photoshop cs2 (or what ever the newest one is) but you can download that for free also...i just downloaded every free trial i could till i hit on one i could use( photoshop element 4 for me, then i upgraded to 5). i think most except very basic ones(as in the ones that come free with cameras) would do most or all of what you mentioned.

agree with splash about the book i really like the missing manual series as it has lots of pictures and step by step...makes it kind of idiot proof, at least i can use it somebody said elements was on sale for 50. i spent $74 including tax for the upgrade on adobe, the nonupgrade version was 80 ish with out tax but lots of posted here finding it for lots less...

 

[Groucho]

I know I saw Elements on sale for $50 in the past week or two... maybe even less... even without the $20 upgrade rebate, you can probably find it for under $100 if you keep an eye on the Sunday ads.

Actually, Amazon has it on sale for $70 at the moment. That'll be tough to beat, what with no tax and free shipping. Knock off another $20 if you have a registered version of an older Photoshop Elements/Album, PictureIt, Picasa, Paint Shop Pro, PhotoImpact, PhotoSuite, or a couple other ones.

You can also get it for $1 cheaper through buy.com at the moment - $89 minus $20 Google Checkout discount. Both places have it in stock.

 

[THE HAT]

Thank you all so much for your opinions....I think the best one is going to be the photo shop elements WITH a book! ( it is really +/- 100.00 budget we have so that will work).
I will now have my eye on the sales. my local staples usually has really great sales and with my teachers card I can get an extra discount too.

 

[truebelievers]

Paint Shop Pro Photo XI costs around $70-$80 and is embarassingly easy to use. Photoshop Elements is good as well, but I found it to be more confusing (at least in the beginning) than Paint Shop Pro.

Good luck!