Hello - Canon G15 for Christmas but new to photography

[Rotaree]

Hello all this is my first post in this forum so be gentle!

As the title says I was given a Canon G15 for Christmas which I'm delighted with as I've always wanted to get into taking better pictures than my previous point and shoot efforts but didn't really want to go the whole DSLR route for portability's sake.

I have started playing with the various settings to try to see what different things do and trying to match what the camera does on 'auto' (the dog's starting to get bored during his walks when I stop and spend ten minutes photographing a set of railings to try different effects!).

My question (probably the first of many) is about editing software. I currently save all of my photos to iPhoto on my Mac which has some limited editing facilities so do I 'need' anything else? Reading through the forum it seems that you lot all use Photoshop but, to say the least, it's not cheap is it? What do people think about editing software? Is it worth getting something good but expensive from the start or do cheaper versions do nearly as much equally well?

Any help and advice much appreciated!

[Gemm]

I think many people go for Photoshop Elements at your stage or Paint Shop Pro is an alternative. There are some good free ones too, like GIMP. BUT more importantly, I'd concentrate on learning your camera and improving your technique first before thinking of doing any editing. You need to have good images to start with if you want to enhance them even more. Enjoy the photography!

[Grenoble]

You can pick up 30 free trials of Lightroom and Aperture as well. Picasa is pretty good if you want an alternative to iPhoto. (and is free)

For guides, try here:
http://lifehacker.com/5815742/basics-of-photograph...

And here:
http://photo.net/

[Craikeybaby]

I wouldn't worry about the full fat version of Photoshop, Elements would be more suitable, but it you're happy with what you can do it iPhoto I'd stick with that, if you start to find it limiting Aperture is the professional version of iPhoto, a lot of what you have learnt would carry over, as would your iPhoto library.

Generally there are two types of editing software:
Photoshop etc - For full editing with layers etc. This is best if you want to swap skies in images, merge different images etc.
iPhoto/Apterture/Lightroom - Quickly edit images, mainly changing the whole image at a time, but with limited ability for local editing, cloning out dust spots etc. These all have built in image catalogues.

[LongQ]

Presumably you also have the Canon software - I assume it offers something that works on a Mac?

Sometimes a but clunky but useful for providing some insights into how to approach things.

[Rotaree]

Thank you all for your advice - I think I'll do as suggested and carry on with what I already have until it becomes too limiting then take it from there.