Hands down it’s Photoshop. You can certainly get away with PS Elements 6 until you reach a point where you see the need for the larger (CS3) version. $90 or so vs. $600 or so.

Lightroom is great for what it does. But it doesn’t offer features like Layers – which are pretty important to most serious photographers.

Photoshop is NOT designed primarily for Graphic Designers. It is first and foremost a program that performs all the development and image adjustment functions of the traditional darkroom. And it simply does these basics better than any other software.

After that – and only after that – does it offer the added features that are of use to graphic designers.

CropMom at is an onling scrapbooking and collage-making site where you can upload your photos and make them into a collage.

You must register, which is free to do. Just upload your photos, click start a new layout and drag and drop your photos onto the canvas. Move them around, enlarge them or make them smaller so that they fit on the page.

Once you’ve made your layout, click on the “view saved layout” link. From here, you can purchase the print-quality JPEG file of your layout for $1.79 and download it to your computer. Print it at home or have it printed by a photofinisher.

CropMom is easier to use than Photoimpact or Photoshop.

Tortuga Tom, you can merge to HDR in Photoshop.

PhotoMix software is my favorite. I use it all the time. I can create a wide variety of projects with it, as well as customize it to my liking. Whether I want a crazy and fun project or an elagent and fancy project.

They also have a great selection of templates and addins (most are free). And they are always looking for more ideas.

They even have a tutorial sections that helps you if you get stuck using the program…even though the program is very easy to use. And they have a support staff that is there to answer any questions you may have.

You can even add your own pics, backgrounds, clipart ect.. You can also save your projects as photos and print them where ever you want to.

I recommend this to everyone. It is not free but it is only a one time charge and it is well worth the money…you even get free updates.

Depending on your needs, Adobe Photoshop may be more powerful than you need (and as Tortuga Tom mentioned, is more geared towards graphic artists).

You might want to try Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, which is designed specifically for photographers.

Your camera should have come with a photo editing program. Also many printers have programs on their installation disk.
Adobe have a basic free program called elements2. It has quite a few basic editing tools. Go to their site and look around.

“Pdf Creator” is the best one, Its a free trial with FULL features. All trials on dowload.com do not have full features so you cannot convert docuents fully. I just re install after the trial expires that way I have the full benefits without the price.&%20internet.html

You should have no problems creating a collage in Photoshop.

Picasa2 a super freebie by Google. Does fantastic stuffs. Cant complain its free. While it cannot manipulate the photos like Adobe it can change the characteristic of the image. It allows the creation of Screensaver and slideshow…etc

You ask about Photoshop Elements and get answers from a bunch who have never used it… That is for sure, it shows in their answers. Elements is a powerful program that will do everything that you list and more. How well it does it, just as with the professional PS at 6 times the price, depends completely on how skilled you are and how well you know or learn the program.

Photoshop Elements 7 is being released this month, perhaps already on store shelves. With it you will get features that you should find very useful. An Organizer for keeping track of your photos and special feature for creation of both printable and displayable albums.