Everyone likes taking digital photos. But all too often, what could have been a perfect shot can turn out not so well because of a few little flaws. This is the sort of thing that you need shareware photo editing software for.

You can also use shareware photo editing software for tweaking a reasonable shot and making it even better – or even into something quite spectacular and out-of-the-ordinary that would make a fantastic gift or is worth framing and hanging on your wall.

While Adobe Photoshop and Corel are the software packages the pros use to edit photos, there are other packages on the market that are less expensive and don’t’ have a huge range of tools that the majority of us – who only want to make our family snaps look good and maybe make the odd card or silly "magazine" cover – will never use. For most of us, shareware photo editing software is quite good enough.

There are a number of shareware photo editing software packages out there. However, remember the old adage that "you get what you pay for" and most shareware photo editing software downloads are probably designed to give you only a small taste of what’s available so you’ll come back and buy a more advanced version.

But there are some good basic shareware photo editing software packages that are just for free and can be used to do most of the things that the average person with a digital camera will want to do.

A good shareware photo editing software should be able to eliminate common problems like "pet eye" and basic touching-up or cloning to get rid of unwanted blemishes – either on you or on the landscape – or to remove unwanted objects.

Just say you’ve taken a nice vacation photo of your honey on the beach. Great pose, nice smile – but there’s somebody’s dropped litter in one corner and the light has made your honey’s sunburn exaggerated. You can use your shareware photo editing software to clone out the dropped litter and to touch up that sunburn so that it looks merely like a nice summer tan (next time, remember the sunscreen!).

Some shareware photo editing software packages have a nifty photo edit tool that allows you to create animations from your photos. This means that you can create a moving picture where your kids can be waving at the viewer or your dog can wag its tail.

Check also that the shareware photo editing software package will allow you to share your photos the way you want to after you’ve edited them. And it’s best to check this before you download it! A good shareware photo editing software package will allow you to save your images in a number of file formats (JPEG, GIF, BMP, etc) and in such a way that they can be easily posted on the web, used as screensavers, emailed to friends, or whatever else you want to do with them.

Above all, have fun with your shareware photo editing software!