You can dramatically improve the appearance of your pictures with an image-editing program which allows you to fix problem photos and make your photos look like the scene you photographed. Basic color, contrast and tone adjustments, sharpening, redeye and color cast removal can be done very quickly and easily. You can also crop, resize your photos for email, clone out unwanted objects, add text, and create composite images and panoramas.

Adobe Photoshop Elements is what I teach and recommend as it has the most features, is easy to use, and there are many how-to books and free online tutorials written for it. You can also import and edit scanned photos and restore old or damaged photos. You can print your photos right from the program at the size you want. In addition, Elements makes great slide shows, scrapbook pages and greeting cards.

Mimimum System Requirements for Elements 8:

2GHz or faster processor or dual-core processor
Microsoft® Windows® XP with Service Pack 2 or 3, Windows Vista or Windows 7
1GB of RAM
2 GB of available hard-disk space
Color monitor with 16-bit color video card
1,024x768 monitor resolution at 96dpi or less
Microsoft DirectX 9 compatible display driver
CD-ROM drive
Web features require Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 - 8 or Mozilla Firefox 1.5 through 3.x

Top Reasons to Get Photoshop Elements 8

• Do it all with one product. Edit, organize, and show your digital photos with one powerful yet easy-to-use product.
• Make your photos look their best. Fix common flaws with a click and edit with less fuss, perfect your photos with advanced options, and have fun with artistic special effects.
• Show off your creativity. Share your photos in entertaining and creative ways. Use fun templates or customize the way you want.
• Find and view photos the way you want. Keep your photos
  at your fingertips with powerful and flexible tags, search options, and comparison tools.
• Create top-quality images with software based on Adobe Photoshop software.
  

Features in Adobe Photoshop Elements 8:

• Retouch specific areas and brush on effects with the Smart Brush
• Clean up unwanted items with the Scene Cleaner
• Create the perfect group shot with Photomerge feature
• Combine multiple exposures to create the perfect exposure with Photomerge Exposure, new in version 8, including ones with and without flash
• Now you can quickly resize - even going from landscape to portrait or vice versa - without distorting key subjects like people or buildings with the new Recompose feature
• New full-screen previews, which let you make quick edits to photos while viewing them
• Eliminate red eye
• Store and share photos online at photoshop.com (2 Gb stored free!)
• Realistic skin tones
• Isolate objects from backgrounds
• Find and sort photos by face. New face recognition in v. 8
• Order prints or hard-bound photo books online with one click
• View photos on your TV
• Edit photos with Quick Fix, Guided View or Full Edit
• Convert Raw images with Adobe Raw Converter