Hello, looking for some input.

[wannabe]

I am soon to be new to the world of photo editing. I am looking for advice on which version of photoshop I should be purchasing.

Here are some of the things I am looking to do with my personal photos.
Excuse me if the terminology is not correct.

Merge or fade two photos together, like adding a faint image to the background or foreground of another photo.

Repair or restore some scanned photos

Perhaps add some text to photos (make greeting type photo cards?)

Enrich or change colors (sky brighter ect...)

Remove unwanted parts of a photo, enlarge, shrink and general editing.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[steve.ledger]

Welcome to TG.

I'm not sure how easy it is to buy earlier than CS3 versions of Photoshop. However eveything you had described as wanting to do with your pictures, can be done with XaraXtreme4 (...and so much more).
If you are new to graphics and photo editing - then do yourself a favour, have a look at XaraXtreme4 (free 30 day trial).
It will save you much money and much time.

[wannabe]

Thank you download in progress. There are many older versions of Photoshop available on Ebay currently. Such as Photoshp Elements 2.0 and newer for less than $100.

I will take any and all advice I can get at this point. I just want to be able to make some nice prints of our pets, family, party and vacation pics. I am sure more interest will come in time.

Working on windows XP. Have a decent digital camera Sony 8mp and a good eye.

Thanks

[steve.ledger]

Good luck with purchasing software from eBay.

Working on windows XP. Have a decent digital camera Sony 8mp and a good eye.

I hope the other eye is just as good

XaraXtreme requires far less in the way of computing power than almost all other graphics apps, especially PS.
You'll enjoy it's speed I promise.

[wannabe]

Nope just the one eye