For example, if I wanted to type "add-ons" to a photo, or place a face from another photo onto someone's body, how would I go about doing this? Please Assist!
Best software program: Photoshop. But it is expensive, unless you know how to get your hands on a free version. Adobe also allows you to use it free for 30 days.
Agreed. Photoshop is the industry standard, but the full-up version is pretty pricey. There's some freeware out there that does a lot of the same things, but I don't recall the name off the top of my head.
The Gimp, does most of the same things Photoshop does, is absolutely free, slightly easier to use, and works with any OS. Don't bother with Inkspot, as IME, it's a royal PITA to use, and to figure out how to save things in anything other than it's own bizarre format.
If you are more familiar with Photoshop but you don't want to buy it, consider GIMPshop... basically its just GIMP with a UI more similar to photoshop. Also there is a free web app called Photoshop Express. Not sure if it is more like "elements" or not but check it out.
I just switched over to Gimp about a month ago. I gave it a try in the 1.x days but was very disappointed by it. The work they've done since then is very impressive and I must say I'm looking forward to 2.6 (CMYK support yeah!).
The fact that it's taken them this long to get CMYK support says to me that they never really "got" the point of Photoshop. If you're going to use it, at least use GIMPshop, which is far better at replacing Photoshop.
Ultimately the point of Photoshop is to manipulate images. Some people need to transfer that to commercial printing, some don't. The Gimp developers have never tried to keep up with Photoshop. It's almost a weird sense of pride for them (or just a convenient excuse). There's less motivation to improve the software or listen to users when FOSS isn't or can't be monetized. I never used Photoshop to begin with so it's not an issue. Things are finally laid out in a semi-logical manner so I don't have a problem with it.
