Another thing to add... "when in doubt, take a class".... I've taken several classes in Photoshop... that is, Photoshop 4, Photoshop 5, Photoshop 5.5, and Photoshop 7 (I skipped 6)... and it was worth every minute. I can do things in Photoshop that hobbyists only dream of. Of course I can use my Photoshop professionally, because my Photoshop 7 is not an educational version. It is worth every $$ you spend because it is the industry standard.