photo retouch program

I agree that Photoshop Elements is an excellent program and is much less expensive that the full version. Very few people really need the full version. You might also want to try Gimp, which is a free photo editor www.gimp.org I haven't tried Gimp, so I don't know if it's difficult to use. But Photoshop Elements is inexpensive (you might even find earlier versions at lower prices on Amazon or eBay) and you can download a great online user's guide. I don't know if you ever shot 35mm slides, but I have hundreds of slides I want to scan so I can share them with others. I just bought a Plustek 7300 slide scanner. It's great and also comes with a fantastic photo editor program (SilverFast). I wrote a web page on Squidoo about it. www.squidoo.com/Plustek7300ScansNegsandSlides You can buy the SilverFast program separately, rather than packaged with a scanner. I don't know how it compares in price with Elements.

Photoshop is considered the best but is very expensive. I use Photoshop Elements and I find it very useful and meet my needs. Many photographers I know use this as it is more reasonably priced and easier to use.