If it is just basic stuff you want to do then
Picasa 3 will do most basic things, and few effect too. It costs nothing, allows you to play around without harming the original files, and lets get into editing in an easy way. You may quickly upgrade to a more sophisticated editing program, but you may not. :shrug:
There are other alternatives though,
Paint.Net is a more advanced program than Picasa and is free.
Gimp is another free but more advanced program than Paint.net. (I think)
Paintshop Pro is another program, not free, but quite advanced.
And of course there is
Photoshop CS and
Elements.
If you decide to go down the Photoshop route then there are a few ways to learn, books, magazines, videos, internet and Adult Education courses (if you are lucky, though maybe not for much longer
). What you go for depends on what type of learner you are. Adult Education classes, at least in Liverpool, tend to focus on Photoshop CS (CS2 in this case) and I would imagine a lot of them do the same around the country.
Although the full Photoshop is about £600,
should you enrol on a Photoshop course you could qualify for a student edition of the program which is about £170. Quite a saving.
Most magazines tend to focus on Photoshop CS, despite the cost of that version of Photoshop. (an indication of the widespread piracy of the program I think
) There are more videos and books for the full Photoshop too, again the publishers aware of the high Photoshop piracy rate, and targeting that market.
Lots of the things you learn about the full Photoshop can be transferred to Photoshop Elements should you not be able to find Elements specific tutorials.