photo editing

this is not so much a question as some observations. i have three different photo editors on my machine. MS 'picture it", Kodak "easy share', and HP image and/or album editor. each one achieves different results. and/or has different tools.
easyshare has a very good 'enhance' button that makes a great deal of positive difference to some of the pics. it is also the easiest to understand. the drawbacks are that the brightness, contrast and exposure buttons are cumbersome and impossible to 'fine tune'. there is no color adjustment. in addition it is not very compatible with MS. if for example if i move a pic in 'my pictures' to a different file, Kodak can no longer read it. as i have a Kodak camera the pictures are simultaneously downloaded to both. i edit them mostly in Kodak. i cannot save the pictures from easyshare to CD as Kodak wont recognize my driver. so the originals often get 'lost'. (i am getting better at preventing this from happening by constantly remaining the photo in order to save it to a file.) if i edit it with 'picture it' then again Kodak will no longer read it.
'picture it' has got a 'straitening tool' which comes in very handy especially for the ocean views. but again i cannot save those pics back in easyshare. the color and brightness tools are easier to manipulate in 'picture it', but the photos are not easy to sort or store. the various tools are not well explained either so its a question of playing around with each photo to see what effect each tool will have, which is OK if you have loads of time, which i don't.
hp is almost impossible to operate due to the fact that the editing image is so small. you have to transfer it to album printing first, then click each photo separately to edit it, and again to enlarge it. shame because it has useful sharpness and exposure tools. i haven't really played much with the hp because of the time involved so i don't know whether it 'plays nicely' with the other two.
a friend of mine is going to give me photoshop, which (i hope) will combine all these features. meanwhile the more i get used to manipulating these tools, the easier it will be to work out which program i need for editing each photo.
if anybody has any comments, ideas, or advise please feel free.
much aloha from a very tired, sore eyed, brain frazzled, laurie.

 

Photoshop is the bone daddy of all Image Editors... in my opinon of course

The program is so versatile, it can do everything you just said and a lot lot lot more. As for compatbility with Kodak for making the cd's... I'm not sure about that. If you have a photoprinter though, you can import the photo's directly into PS, edit, chop, crop, level and do whatever to your heart's content and then print them while still maintaining the original image.

I use it mainly for custom image generation such as forum signatures, wallpapers and icons, etc. but edit the hell out of Kodo's face whenever I can

 

Photoshop is the hands down best photo editor around but it is extremely pricey. JASC PaintShop Pro 8.0 is $80 or $90 and is very, very powerful.

 

i have easyshare 3.4.(new camera, new printer, new puter!) i can burn my pics from 'my pictures' in the puter, but it would be easier to download them staight from easyshare. i dont know what version of photoshop im getting.....but it will be a 'used' one not new. thanks for the tip on the picture it file type. it diddnt occur to me to check whether it was saving as JPG. i did wonder what happened to them. lol. i spent some more time playing with the HP editing but really unless i just want to do something to just one picture it is just too slow to do a batch. its not really a photo editing programme, its a printing programme that edits a photo in order to print it. if im not printing them out, just editing and saving, then its too cumbersome. i think easyshare must have been designed for mac cos it just 'doesnt like' windows. i rang them and they said thay were adding more drivers to the list' ('your name's not on the list and you aint coming in'...isnt that the line from a song? lol) ill let you know how i get on with the photoshop, meanwhile the others are good practice. fortunately im not pressed for 'space' so it dont hurt to have them in more than one programme. thanks for the imput guys. much aloha

 

And, of course, there's the OSS/GPL "Photoshop": The Gimp. (Not to be confused with WinGimp.)

Personally, however, I like Jasc PSP.

 

That is neat that you are getting Photoshop. It is a super program. Even if it is not the newest edition out - it will do so many things. And be sure to search for free Photoshop tutorials - there are many to be found and they will help you become aquainted with all the layers, masks, etc. Adobe also offers free downloadable chapters of their Classroom in a Book if you don't get a manual with your version. "Elements" does a lot of stuff too. And it is very user friendly. Good luck. When you get your program be sure to use the RGB mode for pics that will be on the net and the CMYK mode for any you want to print out.