If are not planning to use Photoshop professionally, or if you are new to the world of photo editing, the scaled down version of Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, may be just what you are looking for.

Photoshop retails for over $500, while Elements can be found for a much more reasonable $99. Elements contains all the features necessary to remove speckling and damage from images, crop and rotate images, create professional looking graphics, and create attractive special effects in your photos. Elements also allows for the creation of artistic effects, color and lighting adjustment, and layer effects.

Unless you plan to regularly use custom printing separations and high-end color management, the huge variety of professional options you pay for when purchasing the full version of Photoshop will go unused.

Photoshop Elements is much easier for the beginner to learn, as well. Please know that if you have purchased Photoshop Elements and feel constrained by its limitations, it is an easy upgrade to the full version through the Adobe website.