Free software - Commercial software

There are many software programs available that will enhance your digital images. Your camera probably came bundled with a basic imaging program - some are more useful than others but the general standard is pretty low.

You can get some very good imaging software without spending the £500+ needed for the Rolls Royce of imaging software - Photoshop CS2.

There are a number of free imaging programs available for downloading such as -

Picasa - Free from the Google stable. It has one of the very best cataloguing facilities as well as many of the basic functions such as cropping, rotating and removal of 'red eye'. There is also a very effective compression facility for emailing images.

The Gimp - A very powerful free imaging program that emulates Photoshop. I would not recommend this to someone starting out on digital photography as it is too advanced.

Vicman's Photo Editor - I have not tried this free program but the reports from beginners are very favourable.

Paint.NET V3.01 - Another free program that is both powerful and simple to use.

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There is a mountain of commercial software on the market most of which follow the accepted system of menus and command buttons. Some of the others are distinctly quirky. I can strongly recommend the following mid-range programs -

Photoshop Elements - This is undoubtedly one of the very best mid-range editing programs. The price is in the £50-70 range and a free 30 day trial can be downloaded from this link .

This is the program I shall be using throughout the imaging tutorials.

Paint Shop Pro XI - This is another very good program for beginners and experts alike. Slightly cheaper than Photoshop Elements there is again a trial version available for downloading

Ulead PhotoImpact - A powerful program which has its own individual style that some find confusing.