Programs/applications to edit pictures

[Your Paragon of Virtue]

Vague thread title I admit, but mainly I'm talking about the programs where you can take an existing picture and make a giant collage out of it with a bunch of little pictures, I recall Michael Moore using this with American soldiers in the CE folder awhile back, and I wanted to know how I could do it myself.

 

Also, I wanted to know how to take existing pictures and just change the style, perhaps make it fade out, change the outlines, just stuff like that. An example

 

Any and all help would be appreciated.

[Guest Vitamin X]

Besides the obvious and otherwise extremely costly (both in size and retail price) choice in Adobe Photoshop, I'd recommend JASC Paint Shop Pro. If you're cheap, cracks for that program are plentiful all over the net, although it takes a bit of work to find em. But it's not as overwhelmingly packed with features as Photoshop and I find it easier to use, so you might like it.

[Guest DVD Spree]

I second Paintshop. I own both and use PhotoShop at work, but particularly if you're a newbit to fiddling with images Paintshop is the one to plum for. Unless you have any incling to go into design or publishing, in which case get playing with PhotoShop as soon as you possibly can, as the experience will serve you far better.

[Your Paragon of Virtue]

Thanks for the suggestions, I'm guessing paintshop is the same thing as photo shop just a little easier to use along with the fact that it's not as, uhh, detailed?

[Guest Vitamin X]

I find Photoshop to be overcomplicated and a bit too feature-loaded. Definitely go with Paint Shop Pro.

[Jobber of the Week]

ArcSoft PhotoMontage is the software I see most mentioned for doing this stuff. Haven't seen any others mentioned via Google yet. It seems to be pretty favorable for doing this, though, if you can find it.

 

EDIT: Nevermind, that Photoshop link was some college thing. oops.

[Mole]

Photoshop owns Paint Shop Pro.