Ask a TechLord

What are some good alternatives to commercial image editors like photoshop?

When "paint" is just not powerful enough for you anymore, there are two fantastic programs I would recommend you look into. Both are open source, which means they are completely free to download and use. Each has a different feel to it, so download both to find out what works best for you.

The GNU Image Manipulation Program, other wise known as GIMP.

It is a freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image
composition and image authoring. It has many capabilities. It can be used
as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online
batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format
converter, etc.

The second image editor is Paint.NET

Paint.NET is free image and photo editing software for computers that run
Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for
layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and
powerful tools. An active and growing online community provides friendly help,
tutorials, and plugins.

Please note that Paint.NET requires the microsoft .NET framework to be installed first if you do not currently have it. A link to the framework is provided in the Paint.NET download page.