Easy to use photo editor

[DarkTXKnight]

As one of my "get to actually use your computer" projects for my Mother, Ive got her scanning some photos both old and new so that she can manipulate them. We are looking for a user friendly editor and management program. Something that you don't have to yearn to be a pro to use. I have barely used paintshop pro over the years and found it nice but just not had the time to fool with it too much. With the baby here now I have even more pictures to touch up and such so Id like to hear suggestions. Free as always is great, but if its a reasonable price (100) I might be willing to buy it if everyone will be able to use the program .

 

[pontifex]

google's picasa

 

[DarkTXKnight]

Is Picasa really as good as Adobe or PaintShop Pro? or is it the ease of use focus?

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: DarkTXKnight
Is Picasa really as good as Adobe or PaintShop Pro? or is it the ease of use focus?

oh, i don't know if you can compare it to photoshop. its free, so download it and try it out.

 

[mc866]

Faststone Image Viewer is free and fairly easy to use.

 

[Gooberlx2]

I'll second Google's Picasa. It's free and does very decent image corrections/manipulations. Unless she'll ever use 1/3rd the power that Photoshop and PaintShopPro offer, they're just going to waste. Picasa excels in ease-of-use and image management.

Microsoft's Digital Image suite is pretty good as well, but probably no better for your use than Picasa which, again, is free.

 

[Rottie]

I use Photoshop CS2 for image work touchup, etc
Graphic Workshop Professional for batch processing like renaming, image size, etc.
Canon Easy-PhotoPrint for final professional printout.

 

[DarkTXKnight]

You know, I never thought of using the easy photo print for the output.... I have an IP4000 printer...may have to look at the software. I tried picasa last night and was impressed with a lot of features - it still seems light on editing features though, or else I couldnt find them. Does anyone know where good tutorials can be found for software like this/?

 

[fierydemise]

I haven't used Picasa so I can't comment on that but Adobe Photoshop Elements will have every feature you need without being hugely expensive.

 

[weeber]

If you want a more powerful image editor, you can try Paint.net It's another free program that may have what you're looking for. Click Me

 

[jjones]

Ulead Photo Impact. Has an easy mode and a full feature mode. Bought that as the photo editor in my office so even people with no photo editing experience could use it to enhance pics, while giving those that can do more complex editing the tools to fine tune their photos. Personally, I use Corel Photo-Paint (similar to Photoshop), but Photo Impact has worked very well for us with its ability to meet a wide range of user skill levels.

http://www.ulead.com/pi/

 

[brikis98]

picasa is fantastic for easy touch-ups, such as cropping, red eye, colors, contrast, blur, etc. it's about as easy to use as it gets and for the basics it can't be beat.

if you want some more advanced functionality, the best free choice is probably gimp. it can do the vast majority of what photoshop does, but it doesn't come with the nearly $1k price tag.

 

[quikah]

I use Picasa for Management/simple editing and Paint.Net for anything heavier.

 

[Schadenfreude]

I'd voice in for picasa as well. :thumbsup:

 

[Rottie]

Originally posted by: DarkTXKnight
You know, I never thought of using the easy photo print for the output.... I have an IP4000 printer...may have to look at the software. I tried picasa last night and was impressed with a lot of features - it still seems light on editing features though, or else I couldnt find them. Does anyone know where good tutorials can be found for software like this/?

I also have IP4000 printer I bought last year...very good printer

 

[mulletgut]

I use photoshop CS2 and it is not really for the novice photo editor. It isn't hard to learn, mainly just time consuming.
It sounds like Picasa is all your mother would need from what you have said.
In saying that, if other family members want good software for photo editing, or for that matter you think your mother may later want to develop some skills in this regard, Photoshop Elements (as mentioned above) is a great compromise. Powerful with not so many features to confuse and a fraction of the cost of CS2.
If it's free you're after Paint.net or Gimp