I have no interest in Photoshop or Gimp. Just looking for something easy to use. My most pressing issue is I've scanned in some photos and some have little specs on the digital image (like dust) even after wiping down everything. In general, I'm just looking for something easy to use to play around with.

8/14/2013 8:01:38 PM

Can. You still download picasa? If I remember right there were some retouching tools in there. I don't know how indepth you're trying to get, but it might do what you need.

[Edited on August 14, 2013 at 8:19 PM. Reason : i dont have anything else to compare it to]

8/14/2013 8:18:43 PM

You can still download Picasa

also consider Paint.NET if you're on Windows

8/14/2013 9:04:15 PM

Just curious, what dont you like about photoshop? It's overkill for most, but the basics are easy to do once you learn how to use it.

Pixlr.com is a good free online version of a photoshop clone.

8/14/2013 9:25:19 PM

Could do Lightroom or Photoshop Elements.

8/14/2013 9:56:40 PM

lightroom is super easy to use and the newish version 5 has improved it's speck removing capabilities.

8/14/2013 11:04:09 PM

^^

both are super easy to use for basic stuff.

[Edited on August 15, 2013 at 8:05 AM. Reason : ]

8/15/2013 8:04:53 AM

If you really are just cleaning up digital photos, I would suggest Lightroom over Photoshop Elements. Lightoom is designed exactly for photo editing, you can do similar (and more) stuff in Photoshop but photo editing will be easier in Lightroom.
Also, Capture One Express should do what you need and recently they were giving away Capture One 6 Express for free.

8/15/2013 9:10:58 AM

^Guess I just never got into Lightroom, but I am more comfortable using Elements for light touching up.

8/15/2013 9:22:26 AM

I too recommend Lightroom if all you are looking for is basic retouches, plus the good thing is that you can apply the same retouches to multiple images at the same time; also do multiple edits without having to save the file over and over.

Plus the built-in archiving and catalog feature is pretty nice to have, provided you learn how to setup and organize your files from the start. I think its one of the most powerful features of LR; not the easy to use UI for editing. And this is coming from a PS guru who still hasn't completely switched over to LR.

8/15/2013 2:48:38 PM

Photoshop CS2 is still free...

8/15/2013 5:00:55 PM

It also doesn't play nice with Windows 8 or 7, you have to fiddle with compatibility settings and stuff.

8/16/2013 2:55:25 AM