My 30 day free trial of Photoshop Elements has run out, so before I spend £50 on a copy, what else would STW recommend that I use?
Something free is preferable, but the thing I like about PS is the amount of tutorials on YouTube that I can use to help me out
Cheers in advance 
I've got a copy of Gimp on my PC now, but when I tried to open a raw file it didn't seem to recognise the file (.cr2). Am I doing something wrong?
IMO Gimp is the best of the freebies. And Photoshop Elements is worth £50 if you have it!
TBH, thattud be fifty quid well spent. PS Elements is really good. I've taught Photoshop, and unless you need the pro-level functionality of the full fayt version, which the vast majority of people don't, Elements is perfect.
If you look about, you could get it bundled with a graphics tablet for just a few quid more. Tablets are way better than just using a mouse, and much nicer to 'draw' and 'paint' with.
http://uk.shop.wacom.eu/detail/index/sArticle/443
Funnily enough that one's got the perfect name for you...
Just upgraded to PSE 10 so can sell you PSE9 for £20 posted
What's the benefits of PSE10 over PSE9? I'm a complete novice (I can't even use layers properly yet!), so I'm guessing PSE 9 would be enough for me?!
PSE9 will be fine. Speshly for just twenty pounds. 
when I tried to open a raw file it didn't seem to recognise the file (.cr2).
You need to install the RAW filter. Look on the website for your camera manufacturer.
I'm liking Paint.Net and Picasa for free photo editing / managing duties. Photoshop Elephants and Lightroom are 'the' paid apps though.
Not really noticed a lot of benefit from PSE10, a few bits have changed a little and the advertising tells me that there are new 'features' but not spotted anything I actually want/need to use yet. I am sure there is extra benefit in there somewhere, but probably take someone with more time than me to find it
timwillows - ygm
TBH, thattud be fifty quid well spent.
Elf speak truth.
edit: can't see much in 10 that isn't in 9. the only thing that might be interesting is 'Improve photo composition with crop guides' which was much nicer in Lightroom than Elements9 but probably not worth the extra.
I have elements (7 I think) and lightroom. I never use elements, Lightroom just does everything I ever want to do and is much, much nicer to use. I don't know how much they cost, I bought mine ages ago and only paid for the upgrade.
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