Picasa is a free photo editing program from Google that allows basic editing like exposure correction and adding effects. It has a simple interface and tools like an "I'm Feeling Lucky" button that automatically enhances photos. Gimp is a more advanced free program similar to Photoshop that has thousands of features for heavy editing but is harder to use initially. Both programs can be downloaded for free for Windows, Mac, and Linux computers.

2. Programs
There are a ton of programs for photo editing
out there, each with prices ranging from $0 to
$10 to $700 and on.
This guide is designed for high school students,
so all of the programs that are discussed here
are free!

3. Picasa®
One of the best programs available for
organizing, simple editing, and viewing is
Picasa®, which is made by Google.

4. Picasa®
Other than a great organizational tool, Picasa® can
be used to fix photos with improper exposure, do
simple editing, and add some effects to your
photos. The two slides show a before and after of
a photo edited in this program.
The story: I was outside playing basketball when I saw some
interesting light on a tree behind the goal. I got my camera, took
the picture and continued to play basketball until the light was
gone. When I got inside and uploaded the photos, I found that the
photos were composed just fine, but the exposure was off by
several stops of light! Picasa® came to the rescue and saved my
photos with just a few clicks!

5. Before

6. After

7. Picasa®
Just by clicking the “I’m Feeling lucky” button in the
editing menu, Picasa® changed the lighting,
colors, and saturation in less than a second!
There are also manual options for editing light,
saturation, tint, and tons of other features. There
is also a built in version of “picnic”, a popular,
basic, user friendly online editing and
manipulation tool.
You can download this program by clicking on one
of these links
Windows (PC)- http://picasa.google.com/intl/en/
Mac- http://picasa.google.com/intl/en/mac/
Linux- http://picasa.google.com/intl/en/linux/

8. Gimp
Gimp is a program modeled after Adobe®
Photoshop, and is designed for heavy photo
editing, manipulation, and effects. This program
is not as user friendly as Picasa, but it gets a lot
more work done, has thousands more features,
and although it is a bit hard to use at first, with a
little practice and time, you can create some
beautiful work with this program.
The next slide is some examples of just a few things
that can be done with Gimp.

10. Gimp Downloading
Gimp can be downloaded at (Windows/PC) -
http://www.gimp.org/downloads/ Click on the
button that reads Download Gimp 2.6.11 (or
whatever the current version is)

11. Gimp Downloading (Mac)
For Mac Users you must first download a program that
will allow Gimp to open correctly which can be
downloaded at -
http://xquartz.macosforge.org/downloads/Leopard/X1
1-2.5.3.dmg (For Leopard - OSX users)
OR
http://xquartz.macosforge.org/downloads/SL/XQuartz-
2.5.3.dmg (For Snow Leopard - OSX users)
Then you can download Gimp itself at-
http://sourceforge.net/projects/gimponosx/files/GIMP
%20Help/GIMP-2.6-User-Manual-en.zip/download

12. Download some programs, and have fun! Don’t
forget to check out the guides and tutorials for
these programs!