Back in 1868, Samuel J. Carter patented his famous “Carter’s Little Liver Pills.” Somehow, this heavily advertised medicine became better known in the expression: “He has more money than Carter has pills. Carter’s pills faded out some 50 years ago, before the digital age, but that expression comes to mind for those looking for either digital cameras or editing programs – or both! More choices are available for both amateurs and professionals alike when choosing a device to capture photos, and for choosing programs for “improving” those photos after capturing them.While Photoshop is still the standard by which all other editing programs are compared, there are now so many programs from which to select that it might be difficult to find the best one for your needs.You might consider looking first at the programs included with many of today’s digital cameras, especially the ILC (interchangeable lens cameras) and the dSLRs (digital single lens reflex cameras). Both Canon and Nikon offer excellent basic editing programs, Digital Photo Professional and Nikon Capture NX-D, respectively, and are written for both Macs and Windows. As I’ve written in previous ADP columns, the ability to see certain information in digital images, such as specific focus point(s) and color style, is unique to the camera manufacturer’s software and is well-worth a serious look before looking elsewhere.GIMP and Paint.net are excellent free programs and offer users a wide array of tools and even Photoshop-like layers options. GIMP is available for multiple platforms, while Paint.net is Windows only.Photoshop was originally Mac-only, but the growing PC market demanded a version in the early 1990s. Currently several excellent programs run on either Mac or Windows, and many are available for both platforms. Corel PaintShop Pro is one of the most popular Photoshop alternatives for Windows, and it can create vector graphics and use Photoshop’s own brush tools, as well as having 16-bit RAW capability.Also, for Windows users, ACD Systems offers ACDSee Pro 7 and ACDSEE Photo Editor 6, “lighter” alternatives to Adobe Lightroom 5 and Photoshop CC, respectively. ACD Systems does not offer quite the same support for the Mac platform, but it does have a basic editing program in its lineup. Lightroom 5 is an excellent alternative to the full-blown version of Photoshop, as long as you do not need to do any serious actual pixel editing, or slicing and dicing of your image. It’s a great organizing program, and it allows photos to be quickly tagged and also “fixed” quickly.Mac users also have some excellent “Mac-only” choices. Apple Aperture 3 is essentially a Lightroom alternative and very inexpensive given its capabilities. Pixelmator 3.2 has an incredible array of tools, including a brand new content-aware healing tool that easily rivals Photoshop’s content aware tool – tough to beat for $30. For you RAW shooters, make sure that whatever editing program you use has either the latest RAW converter update, or that your operating software is current and supports your camera’s RAW files.For me, well, I use a variety of editing programs. Because of its wide array of tools and pixel editing capabilities, I subscribe to Adobe’s most recent Creative Cloud programs, enhanced with NIK, Topac, OnONE and Imagenomic plugins. However, I truly enjoy the ease of Picture Code’s excellent program “PhotoNinja,” which might just have the easiest batch-editing routine currently available. Aperture 3, Pixelmator, Lightroom and Nikon Capture NX2/NX-D round out the programs. The NIK plugins are available for Aperture, Lightroom and Capture NX2. Photoshop is still the one that does just about everything, but those others are coming pretty darned close.A few tips: Always start your edits by reducing noise – subsequent editing steps can add noise, and starting with as little as possible is always best. Where possible, batch process your edits – it will make life a lot easier and keep you from getting that glazed, eight-hour monitor look … and save your file(s) with a unique name. Don’t overwrite your original, just in case you need it in the future.