Originally posted by DSLRnovice I need layers, but also the ability to add text or do special effects, resizing etc.
Batch processing and file organization are not important to me and in fact I don't want a program that tries to interfere with my way of organizing things. The full Photoshop CS6 is out of my price range and probably more than I need for editing and printing my images. Are there any suggestions for software around $150 or less that are Win7 compatible?
Photoshop Elements supports layers, and you can do a fair amount with it, though perhaps not as much as you can in Photoshop. Certain features are crippled in Elements 9 ( which is what I'm using ), or they're implemented slightly differently. In particular, you can't work in the CMYK colour space, and you are limited in what you can do in 16bit mode ( many functions are grayed out until you convert to 8 bit mode ).
FastStone, which is free, is very good, especially on older computers, because it is not very resource intensive. It supports most of the basic editing functions you would want to do on a day to day basis, in a very intuitive way ( at least, I find it to be ). It is my go-to editor. I do a lot of work where I need to quickly prepare low resolution images that I'm going to attach to emails, often with simple text captions, arrows pointing to things in the image, etc. Faststone is FANTASTIC for this, as the draw board allows you to add those sorts of simple annotations very easily. Yes, it is limited in what it can do, but I find it is a "less is more" kind of trade-off. It doesn't support layers, and it doesn't do any kind of non-destructive editing. FastStone can convert a RAW file, but as far as I know, it doesn't allow you to adjust any parameters like exposure or white balance, so there's not much point in using it that way. By default, FastStone will display the embedded JPEG in the RAW file ( which can be a huge advantage ).
I have a number of RAW converters. Often, I just work with the camera JPGs. If I need to convert a single image ( say, because I want to correct an exposure problem or white balance ), I will usually use DCU5. The interface isn't great, but for a one-off conversion, it's fine. It launches from FastStone seamlessly, which is nice ( ie. you can configure FastStone so that while you're looking at the RAW file in it, hitting the 'E' key will launch DCU with the raw file loaded ). I also have DxO, which I like because of the camera/lens profiles, but I don't use it as often unless I am converting a large number of photos ( say, from a trip ).
I shoot RAW+ on my K30. My workflow looks something like this:
1) I do all my file browsing using FastStone - the full screen image comparator feature is great for culling ( you can compare up to 4 images )
2) I do all my simple editing using FastStone
3) If I feel I need to go back to the RAW file, I launch whichever RAW converter I want to use directly from FastStone ( DCU, DxO, Silkypix, or even ACR via Elements )\
4) If I need more complex editing functions like layers/masking, I use either Elements or GIMP
I hope this helps.