Adobe Photoshop Elements is the consumer-priced "little brother" of Adobe Photoshop professional software. It's what I teach and recommend for photo processing as it has the most features for the money, is easy to use, and there are many how-to books and free online tutorials written for it. You can convert your Raw images with it, improve contrast and color, crop and sharpen your images. You can also edit scanned photos, and restore old photos. You can print your photos right from the program at the size you want. In addition, Elements makes great slide shows, scrapbook pages, and greeting cards.

Mimimum System Requirements for Elements 9:

Windows
1.6 GHz or faster processor
Microsoft® Windows® XP with Service Pack 2 or 3, Vista or Windows 7
1GB of RAM (2 preferred)
3 GB of available hard-disk space
Color monitor with 16-bit color video card
1,024x768 monitor resolution at 96dpi or less
Microsoft DirectX 9 compatible display driver
CD-ROM drive
Internet connection required for internet-based services

Mac OS
Multicore Intel processor
Mac OS X v10.5.8 through v10.6
3.4 GB of available hard-disk space
1024x768 display resolution
Internet connection required for Internet-based services

A Dozen Reasons to Use Photoshop Elements 8

1. Elements is easy to use. There are 3 editing modes from the simplest “show me how to do it” to “let me do it myself” for more control.

2. Elements has most of the features of the professional Photoshop CS5 program that amateur photographers need to produce great images.

3. Easily catalog and find all of your pictures with the Organizer. The tagging and search features allow you to quickly find pictures in your catalog.

4. Special effects. Use filters, layers, photo effects and other tools to transform an image with a few clicks. And if you don’t like it, it only takes one click to revert to the original image.

5. Photomerge technology allows you to easily clear your scene of unwanted moving elements, combine 2 photos with different exposures into a single, perfectly lit photo, and create great group shots and stitch panoramas.

6. Recompose your photos without distorting key subjects.

7. Clean and simplify your image using the Clone tool to copy one portion of an image and apply it over an unwanted portion. And easily brush away wrinkles and blemishes using the Spot Healing Brush for instant results and the Healing Brush for finer control. Useful tools for photo restoration!

8. Photo projects. Have fun creating projects such as photo books and calendars. You can create your own layouts or use ready-made templates.

9. Get the highest quality results by performing nondestructive editing on raw image files with the finely tuned lighting and color adjustments, sharpening and noise reduction, and save time by applying the same set of adjustments to multiple raw images simultaneously. You can even see batch-applied changes as they're made.

10. Create slideshow videos. Elements lets you create a slideshow of your pictures, which you can then export to video format, complete with video effects, transitions and other effects.

11. Easily share photos via e-mail, iPhone, online albums, and TV, and CDs/DVDs.

12. Print your photos. You can make individual prints, contact sheets or picture packages.

Watch the videos from Adobe that showcase the features!

There are several inexpensive books available for learning Elements step-by-step.

Elements 9 Books

Elements 8 Books