Originally posted by Freckles
Look into Adobe Photoshop Elements. Costs about $100. It's a slimmed down version of the true Photoshop but has lots of features. I haven't quite mastered it yet, (in that way it's very similar) but I'm sure it will work well for you.
Yes, Elements is the way to go if you're not a professional. I got my computer in the beginning of December and I'm only now getting around to checking out all it has to offer (Photoshop that is). I came from Microsoft Picture It! which is a very user friendly program, so I was kinda lost when I started working with Photoshop. The user's manual and the "help" button are wonderful though. I know I've still only scratched the surface because with these pictures, all I did was click on the "effect" and it did all the work. For each effect there were different things you could manipulate to get different looks, but I'm not anywhere near ready to start messing with all that.

I think I paid something like $89.00 from Amazon.com, and I got a $20.00 rebate from Amazon (in the bank) and a $30.00 rebate from Adobe (still waiting on this one). And I know I saw it on sale for even less than that in last Sunday's ads, so check around and you could probably get it for around $20.00 or so.

With all that the Elements version has to offer, I can't even imagine using the whole program. It would take me years to be able to use it to its full potential, so check out Elements - not very user friendly, but worth going to the manual or help buttons for.

Oh, and I bought Photoshop on the recommendation of others here at PT. So thanks! I like it a lot.