Photo Editing Software
Photo Cataloging/Management Software
Photo Printing Software

When you purchase your camera, you will typically receive a piece of software that will allow you to do some basic to intermediate image editing. Many cameras provide you with Photoshop SE, a special version of ArcSoft Photo Studio or some other program. This software will more than likely be fine for most users. For some users, this won't do at all. The free editing programs that you receive typically do not have most of the advanced features that allow you to make professional quality images. There are some that say that 80% of your digital photography time is spent in front of the computer, not behind the camera. If you fall into that category, you'll need to look at upgrading to something a little more advanced, like the full version of Adobe Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro 9by Jasc software) or Digital Image Pro from Microsoft.

Sometimes included with your camera is a piece of software to help you manage your photos. In all honesty, the majority of users should focus all of their attention on this program. This is the program that will allow you to keep track of all of the photos that you take, organize them and usually classify them so that you are able to find them when you want or need them. One of the biggest advantages to digital photography is the fact that there's no cost to taking one more picture, because of this, you'll have many many more photos to keep track of than with a film camera. Image management software is critical for anyone doing digital photography.

The final catagory of imaging software is printing software. There are a large number of users that could focus on this category of software for all of what they will use their computer for. With this type of user, all that's important is to view the pictures and then print out what they want with little to no editing functionality available to you other than some basic brightening or contrast adjustment. The type of user that will find the most use out of this software is the user that doesnt actually want to do photography, but just wants to take pictures and put them into the family album. Some of these printing products allow the user to do some creative projects, like make calendars, cards and other projects. If you have kids, this is a great category for you to investigate.