gmw12 Loc: Indianapolis & Windsor/UK & Montreux/Switzerl

If you just want to experiment with your raw files and see the differences with out-of-camera-jpegs, you can play with a free raw converter such as rawtherapee.

Forget Photoshop Elements 5, it's seriously outdated. Gimp is a free alternative.

Yooper 2 Loc: Ironwood, MI

Elements 12 should give you all the options you need to work with RAW photos. And I see it's on sale now. It's easy to use the guided mode and fairly easy to use the Expert mode. Just learn one thing at a time in Expert mode and soon you'll have it mastered. There are plenty of tutorials on UTube for whatever you need to do. Elements does 90% of what Photoshop can do but without the steep learning curve. If you are doing weddings you should be using something other than free PP software so you can correct skin tones, work with shadows & highlights, sharpen, crop and etc.

Wallbanger Loc: Madison, WI

Deleted to comply with OPs request

dcampbell52 Loc: Clearwater Fl

Nikon's View NX is okay as an extremely basic editor, and Nikon's Capture NXD (the follow on to an exceptional Capture NX2) is a so so advanced raw editor and just a shadow of the Capture NX2 which was a program that had to be purchased. Capture NXD has one thing going for it and that is that it is free. Again, personally, I like Adobe, which is the gold standard of photo editing and the price is right. I have, probably 15 or 20 programs installed and the ones I use most a Nikon Capture NX2 ( a little) and Adobe Photoshop constantly.

GaryI Loc: NY & Fla

Actually Picassa will convert raw to jpeg. Just have to save it. But it's really not a good conversion program.

If you use a canon camera, try DPP. It's on thedisk that came with the camera (so it's free). Works as well as anything you can buy.

I've also had good results using the faststone viewer (also a free program). Just adusst the pic and save it in the file you prefer.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

The problem is, Papi, that jpeg is not a suitable editing image format, due to it's compression, lossy format, and being limited to 8 bit color depth. Tiff and PSD are editing formats, jpeg is primarily intended for output. If you shoot raw, you'd want to take full advantage of the camera's dynamic range, 12 or 14 bit color depth, larger color space, and the ease, range and granularity of adjustment that is possible in a good raw converter that is just not possible with certain challenging images when all you have to start off with is an 8 bit compressed jpeg.

Active D Lighting does exactly what you would do if you were shooting a high contrast scene and decided to preserve the highlights- but with some considerable compromises. It under exposes the image to preserve the highlights, and applies a curve to the midrange tones to provide the appearance of a well exposed (for midtones) image, and lets the shadows go noisy, muddy and dark.

When you do the same with a raw file, there is a lot of data remaining in the underexposed shadows that can be easily recovered with decent quality, certainly much better than anything that can be done with a jpeg or even Active D Lighting. So not only do you have more dynamic range, but you also have greater exposure latitude allowing you to underexpose a raw file with less negative impact. A 14 bit file has 16,384 distinct tone gradations to a jpeg's 256. Granted, many images generally fall within the modern digital cameras dynamic range, but there are some images that don't and must be underexposed to avoid blowing highlights, and often cannot be taken as a series of bracketed exposures. This is where raw files really do produce better results than jpegs.

You don't have to go too far to find an example of where it is better to shoot raw than jpeg - a wedding, with lots of white and highly reflective women's dresses and the wedding cake for highlight material, and lots of dark colored men's suits for shadow detail. Raw files are clearly superior for this.

Wallbanger Loc: Madison, WI

Based on the original posters request, I'm pretty sure he wasn't looking for this to turn into (another) RAW vs JPEG thread.

That said, I think most of the options have been covered.

Eblong Loc: Colorado

One thing to remember is that Adobe lightroom - a go-to tool for many - is available as a 30 day trial. You can try befor you buy. Likewise, I believe Photoshop Elements and for that matter, pretty much the entire Photoshop toolset, is also available as a trial. It give you time see what fits you best.

Me, I started with elements and then graduated to elements since it supports RAW naturally (Elements doesn't). Now I use lightroom and Photoshop in the Photographer package.

spdmn54 Loc: Avon Lake, Ohio

I shoot raw and use the factory program that came with my Nikon, works very well, has many options for editing. Eventually I plan on stepping up to some thing else, but for now, works well.

Madman Loc: Gulf Coast, Florida USA

Generally, for the NEF (raw) files out of my Nikon, I use View NX2 which came with the camera when it was purchased. It is very basic - exposure adjustment, white balance, shadow and highlight control, cropping and straightening. A feature that I really like about View NX2 is that after you have made the adjustments that you like, they can be saved in Raw.

If I have clutter to remove or to restore an old photo, I'll use Fastone Image Viewer which has Clone/Heal ability. As mentioned previously, it is a free download. I find it to be very intuitive and user friendly.

Chuck H Loc: Norwich,Connecticut

This may sound a bit simple but I use a free program from file hippo free downloads. The name of the program is faststone image viewer. Handles raw quite well does alot what other editors do and is free. Give it a try You might be impressed.

BooIsMyCat Loc: Somewhere

With DPP... click on Tools, Start Trimming/Angle... This will allow you to crop.

I disagree with those telling you to use LR5. Yes, you can get PS CC and LR5 for $10/month but, LR5 is mainly a photo organizing tool that comes with editing tools. PS CC interacts with LR5 and allows you to do additional editing such as layers (which is a very powerful way to edit/enhance you photos). Both have a very steep learning curve and you will find yourself spending a lot of time trying to figure out how to use them.

You have stated that you do very little editing yet want to try it out. I would agree with those who suggest looking into PSE 13 as it has three modes - Quick, Guided and Expert and allow you to pick which you use, based on your level of expertise. Pretty much everything you learn can be used if/when you decide to move up to PS CC and LR.

Also, PSE 5 will NOT work with the current RAW Code files you will need. RAW Codec files are what allows PSE xx to open RAW images. The install of the current version will apply the most current version. Adobe does not support versions that far back. If you are running Windows, you may find you need to upgrade to Windows 7 also.

In my opinion, PS CC and LR are NOT for beginners nor the faint of heart. There is a ton of over-kill there for those who simply want to learn how to edit their photos.

donnab

With Picasa 3 you can click to open "tools" open "options" select email, click okay.
At the bottom portion of your picture folder, you can send the pic via email it you like.

BooIsMyCat Loc: Somewhere

Not sure what you mean by this statement. PSE opens RAW images in the same manner as does PS CC - in a RAW Editor.

I've used PS Elements for many, many years and from a user viewpoint, your comment makes no sense.

Whuff Loc: Marshalltown, Iowa

Since you already have DPP on your computer there's no sense buying something else. It will do all you want it too. You may need to watch some tutorials, but there are plenty on-line. I use DPP for the majority of my PP work. Once you figure it out it works well for RAW conversion.

Walt