PSElements is probably more than enough for the average person, and $100.00.
PS has more books, on line tutorials, magazine articles, etc., than any other program.

As a beginner you need to purchase a program that you can get help or support for. There are a ton of online resources for Photoshop and Elements.

Even asking on this forum, if you ask about a non standard program, no one will be able to answer.

I too have been wondering this as I am just now getting into digital manipulation, i still dont own a dslr , just have the negatives scanned to burn to cd etc. My question is, I dont make a living with my camera, but am a pretty serious enthusiast. I try to get as much right in the exposure as possible, negating the need for some of the features in digital editing. However alot of times consumer level products really leave you hanging on some features that most soccer moms with a camera wouldnt use, but the serious shutterbug would love to have. Is the $400-$500 price difference for elements and cs3 really worth it for someone like me? I would rather have it and not need it than need it and not have as the old saying goes, but like alot of hobbyists, i dont have unlimited pockets. I also dont do video, which i understand cs3 does as well? anythoughts/advice on which one? Im not all up to speed on the digital editing stuff, but did notice like you were saying, everytrhing is about photoshop, not other programs, so I know thats the route to take. does adobe have add ons for elements that alows an advanced consumer to end up some where in the middle of the 2 for a couple hundred bucks?

Best bet would be to purchase Elements which can usually be found for $59 to $89 on sale. It will probably do everything you need in image editing. Lacking is CMYK support and the ability to run actions.

You might try (free trial) an intermediate image editor which is as easier if not more so than Elements with much of the power and sophistication of Photoshop CS3, and it is Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2, which has a price of $99.99. Got to http://www.corel.com and check it out, and maybe download the trial version.

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Best bet would be to purchase Elements which can usually be found for $59 to $89 on sale. It will probably do everything you need in image editing. Lacking is CMYK support and the ability to run actions.

as of right now the only requirements/musts i will need are:

*ability to seperate green, red and blue channels (playing with digital infrared imageas)

*able to layer multiple shots taken of the same object into one image

*able to layer 2 diferent shots into one image (adding a background that wasnt there when pic 1 was shot)

*able to stitch multiple images together for a panoramic pic

other than that just some mino tweaking will be in order. will elements do these things?

You might very well benefit by taking a serious look at Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2. You can download a free trial version at Corel.com. I think you will find the features you are looking for as well as a lot of sophisticated image editing support.

wow! I am very impressed with what I saw for corel pro. I know its not the standard program of the industry but for the price it seems to be the best bang for the buck! however one thing about elements i did notice that would be very beneficial to me is the group shot repair/adjustment. most of my photos right now involve my kids football and other sports teams. taking group shots of 4 to 8 yr olds and getting them all to look at you is a challenge for even the best photographers! being able to "one click" (theoretically) merge all the good head shots to one photo would save hours of work and several pictures/time spent shooting i think. EFX, you seem to be familiar with corel, does it have a simular feature? I didnt really see anything in the poduct info about it specifically. Also I assume it will, but didnt see for sure either, will it convert raw to jpg once editing is complete?(im about to make the plunge on a DSLR so raw will be an option for me, one I plan on using most of the time).

If you have several exposures of a group and can edit down to two selections, then using Layers with one image above the other it is really not that difficult to remove, by selectively erasing the top layer face of a subject so the face that is better in the bottom layer replaces it, and then merge the layers to obtain a composited and better final image.

One of the nice features of Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 is you can set it to preserve the original archive file automatically, and PSPPX2 open Raw format files directly without any intermediate conversion step required, and then saving an edited .JPG version has no affect on your original file and is simply and easily done.

I have been using the DIP 10 program for a few years now and still don't understand all that it will do and am always looking for others that use it and can help with explainations. That being said, it is a very good program and can be obtained on EBay very cheaply. Unfortunately, MS has decided to not support the program anymore but it will do a lot of what anyone desires and many of its quick fix items work extremely well and its selection tools are goos.

With DIP 10, any .8bf plugin will also work and its border creation is excellent. There is also newsgroups and some other sources of assistance re the program but unfortunately a lot of them are more related to digital scrapbooking more than photography.

I have tried most of the freeware programs and also PSP XI and PSE2 and PS7 and while the latter has some excellent features, for most things, DIP 10 does what I need and it may work fine for you too.

Don't know what the original creator of the thread finally did but I hope he at least tried DIP 10.