Photo Software Advice

Mike has already detailed some Tools for Writing Posts. Following are few more software recommendations...

Experiment with Adobe Photoshop Elements (free trial, US$139, often bundled), Google's Picasa download (this dovetails with Blogger's web albums) and the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP).

This freely distributed piece of software is nifty for retouching, composition and image authoring (see this handy post about gimping a header and also notes about modification for Blogger's Minima template. This is the best option for folks who want to create a stylish banner and then not bother with photo-manipulating).