Free Software for Editing Photographs

In this technology age, digital cameras have made photography accessible to just about anyone who is interested. Many amateur or casual digital photographers eventually toy with the idea of editing their photographs, from a color boost or red eye elimination, to more involved edits. Then the search for editing software begins, only to halt with a gasp at the high-dollar cost of photo editing programs such as Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro and the like-especially for the hobbyist who does not earn money with the photographs. While there are some less expensive options out there, the least expensive price is the one price everyone loves-free. That is certainly an attention-grabbing word, free.

Here is a compilation of free photo editing software websites I have gathered in my photographic journey over the last few months. I have used each of these and will briefly comment on what I liked/disliked about them one by one.

Picnik- linked with Flickr, this one is by and far my favorite for actual editing of photographs. For free, web-based photo editing software, this one is hard to beat. Picnik recently began accepting ads and therefore opened many of their previously paid options up to the free crowd. There are numerous options for color boosting, resizing, and even fun text or graphic effects as well. You can upload your photos from various sources, such as your computer or Flickr account and save edited photos to such places as well. A fantastic tool is Picnik.

Picasa- run by Google, this free photo editing tool is a good one with it's biggest strength being that it allows you to organize as well as tweak your pictures. While sporting less options than Picnik, Picasa is nothing to sneeze at by far. A web album option is also available with Picasa for your photo sharing ease and fun.

GIMP-touted as a Photoshop-wannabe, this program sent my eyes to rolling and glazing over with it's huge learning curve and lack of instruction without extensive research on my part. While GIMP does appear to have many options, and does appear similar to the editing guru Photoshop, the learning curve/user friendliness took it off my list rapidly. I am an impatient sort, I want a help menu or tutorial to be very handy and helpful, not to take me hours to find and download and print in order to use with any efficiency. But that's just me.
In my photograph editing of late, I have run across another one or two free options, but am going to decline mentioning them due to virus issues. Wouldn't want to share THAT kind of information, now would we?!?

Hopefully one of the above suggestions will be of help in your search for free photo editing tools. Have fun!