Microsoft Picture It

Microsoft Picture It Digital Pro offers dedicated amateur photographers the
advanced features they’ll find in Photoshop but in a much more friendly interface.
Novices who just want an easy way to remove red-eye from their photos or create a simple photo album should grab the less expensive Picture It Photo ($34.95) or Photo

Premium ($54.95). But if you’re an enthusiast who wants to do some high-quality image

retouching, Pro is the way to go.
Got a batch of pics full of red-eyed friends? Want to crop out your ex from that photo you took in Hawaii? With Picture It, you can easily correct red-eye, crop, rotate, clean up scratches and dust, or add text and special effects. The program also offers a variety of templates for displaying your photos, including digital albums, flyers, calendars, frames, and so on. You can send e-cards of your pics through MSN, and for a fee, you can even plaster your images on cups, T-shirts, or other gift items.
Still not enough to justify Pro’s $100 price tag? Picture It Digital Image Pro’s
editing tools are worth every dime. For instance, the Adjust Levels tool lets you fiddle with the exposure of your photo, either by hitting an autofix button or using sliding controls to tweak the shadows, midtones, and highlights of the image. Another new tool, Adjust Lighting, increases the overall brightness of your photo (in case your flash didn’t go off) and lets you darken overexposed shots.
Note that many of the more sophisticated tools are accessible from only the top menu, rather than in the left-hand tool panel. Also, if you used an older version, keep in mind that Microsoft has renamed several features. For example, the Illusions tool for adding painting and drawing effects is now called Filters, and instead of focusing a blurry image, you now sharpen it.