Wanted: basic editing software recommendation

[Tannin]

Well, I've finally bitten the bullet and got rid of Photoshop. I was paying through the nose for it every single month and barely using it. Happy to see the back of it.

Photoshop was useful to me for four main tasks:

• Raw development. However quite some time ago I switched from the (excellent) Adobe Camera Raw to the (even better) DxO Photostudio.
  
• The DxO Nik tools. For these, Photoshop was just a platform to run them in (back in the day they were Photoshop add-ins which needed Photoshop to run). But these days I can run the Nik tools stand-alone, or from inside DxO Photostudio: Photoshop is no longer required.
  
• Basic dodge and burn. I can more-or-less achieve the same result using Photostudio and/or Nik, but get there in different ways. I would like to be able to dodge and burn explicitly (as in Photoshop, and many other packages).
  
• Basic image joining and layout (like the example below).
  

So what I need is something that:

• Does basic dodge and burn (similar to Photoshop, Corel Paintshop Pro, probably 50 other programs)
• Can lay out 2 or more pictures (like the example above)
• Can't think of anything else I can't already do with PMView and/or Photostudio + Nik, but there may be the odd other thing.
• Easy to learn and use, small and efficient.

Free and open source is good, but I'm happy to pay for something better or easier to use. (Last time I looked at The Gimp, it was big and clunky. Possibly it is better now, but why not ask here for advice first?)


Thanks all.

[ameerat42]

I find GIMP like trying to drive a road train from underneath the chassis somewhere.

I suppose you know about Faststone Image Viewer[don't let the description fool yer]'s
editing functions? Most of it's global for the image, but you can work on local selections,
thereby mimicking some aspect of brushes - at least at a pinch

- - - Updated - - -

Listen, Tannin. I might remind you that if you want most of the current Photoshop for fr,
download and install the free CS2 version that I have betimes pushed on AP. It's from the
?Techspot site. You DON'T need to register it, but you need the number key for WIN or MAC
that is supplied on the page to install it.

What's the drawback, I hear you ask? - Well, you have to click on Do Not Register each time
you start the program.

Search on Adobe CS2 Free here on AP.

OTOH, sit back and have a beer, then open this:
http://www.ausphotography.net.au/for...Adobe+CS2+Free