Photoshop vs. The World

There is absolutely no doubt that Photoshop is the best image editing program currently available. But the price is a problem for non-professionals. Also it is complex - very complex. It is the type of program when opened it can fill one with fear rather than joy. This is a program that is not for everyone. Without Photoshop I would not have been able to create photographs like

http://www.flickr.com/photos/paullight/2564806251/

Thank you Thomas Knoll. Thank you Adobe.

All photographs look better edited. But quite often all that is needed is basic darkroom stuff - brightness, contrast and selective adjustment of brightness and contrast in a few specific areas. Photoshop does this perfectly but simpler programs like Photoshop Elements, Lightroom, Aperture and even to some extent Gimp are more than adequate.