One of my favorite programs to use is Adobe Photoshop CS3. I absolutely love it!
About 90% of the work I do is with CS3.  One huge problem with Photoshop (and any other Adobe program) is that it is very expensive. I think the new CS4 suite is going for $1,800.00! That’s pretty steep for designers that are just starting out.
Recently I was talking to a friend of mine who was taking a course in Digital Media. She needed some help with an assignment that required her to use Photoshop. Problem was that she didn’t have Photoshop and couldn’t afford it. She used the “Try It” version but that had expired and really didn’t have any other options. For the life of me I could not understand how the course would have their students pay for the course (up to $4000 per semester) and then require them to pay another $2000 on books and programs. Anyway, enough with the small rant…

What I recommended her to do was to use one of the many Photoshop alternatives that are online. Of course they are not going to have the same features of the full version of Photoshop but they can help you with basics.

Here’s a growing list of sites:

Pixlr
www.pixlr.com

This is the one I use when I’m away from my PC’s and need to do some quick editing.  No need to sign up or register. It’s pretty fast and easy to use even for beginners.

SUMO Paint
www.sumopaint.com

Sumo Paint had to be the most feature rich online editor out of all of them when it comes editing tools. This webapp was amazingly beautiful! It’s free, fast, has layer support and has support for the Cool Iris plugin. I thought this editor was by far the closest you can get to Photoshop. Yes even better then Photoshop Online (see below). Sumo Paint is based in Flash and very lightweight so it will work in any browser with Flash support. You can use this program for free or you can register which allows you to save you work. I really recommend this webapp!

Splashup
www.splashup.com

Splashup works with Facebook and Flickr and also Picasa which is always a plus. You can also use this program right away but you do have to register to use all the features of the webapp. It has a very eye pleasing interface!

Picnik
www.picnik.com

A nice, clean interface that also works with most of the popular social sites. Picnik has 2 user versions to choose from which are Free and Premium. Free of course has some limitations like only allowing you to upload 5 photos at a time, and only letting you connect to only one of you social sites at a time. You also have to deal with ads and the fact that you can’t use Picnik in a full screen-mode might be a problem with many users. Premium version has no ads, unlimited history and access to lots of fonts, clip art and effects. The price for it though is about $25 a year. My advice, If you plan to make a career out of designing, save the $25 dollars to purchase Photoshop.

Photoshop Onlne
www.photoshop.com

Well, if you plan on making a career out of designing and plan on purchasing Photoshop in the near future, might as well get used to using it. Photoshop Online was like all of the online image storage services (Picasa, Flickr, Photobucket) on steroids! There is way too many features to list so I would recommend checking them out for yourself. You do have to sign up but it will be worth it.
Bottom Line
If you’re in need of Photoshop but don’t want to shell out that type of money right away, you can at least download the “Try It” version for 30 days but when that expires, try one of the webapps above. My top webapp for doing quick edits away from my PC is Pixlr. If you want to do edits and have a place to show off your work, try Photoshop Online and it’s gallery feature.

Other Alternatives:

Phixr – www.phixr.com
Foto Flexer – www.fotoflexer.com

Hope this helps.