I've decided that it's time to start doing some postwork on my digital immages but am on a limited budget.  I was contemplating buying Photoshop Elements but need to know if it could handle the job of layering multiple renders for the creation of a complex scene.

I have a very early version of PSE  on my HD even think it's version 1. It came as a bundled package when I bought my Pentium lll about 5 years ago or so. It's quite capable of handling layered work although I never used it since I'm using CS3. I don't see any problem for that use. I keep it around for its handy redeye removal filter which can also be done with a little more work using other packages. I would also eye up PaintShop Pro if You're on a limited budget. I hear GIMP is a free and suitable alternative as well.

Thank you for your response.

I talked to the people at Adobe but they have a vested interest in selling the most expensive program they can get away with selling so input from someone who isn't working for them is much appreciated.

The problem is that I've recently upgraded from Vue 6 Pro Studio to Vue 7 complete.  That's sort of scrunched my sofware budget.  Since I'm a hobbyist and not a professional I usually do try to find cheaper solutions.  I'd decided that for the main work I needed serious programs and I can't find anything that will out perform Vue for landscapes.
   I may eventually grow to the point where a full version of Photoshop is necessary for my higher demands but I really don't want to expend that kind of money if I'm not going to be using the features.

Love your avatar. :)

Gimp is free and its probably a lot better than the low end Adobe

Photoshop Elements came packaged with my Wacon Graphire Tablet. But since I already have Photoshop I didn't bother with Elements. Why not buy Tablet and get Photoshop Elements included? The 4x5 Graphire is probably less expensive then buying Photoshop Elements software.

At present Elements 7 is on sale at about $87.

I use Elements at home on a Mac for 3D postwork and other 2D artwork, and at work on a PC mainly for web site graphics.

It is really not the hugely cut-back version of Photoshop CS that many people assume. It has many of the features of CS (including full layer support) and also supports most Photoshop plugins (one of the obvious exceptions being Actions that call up CS-specific effects). It's a powerful image editing and painting tool, and as a hobbyist just starting out on postwork techniques I think it should suit you very well. Well worth the price.

So is The Gimp, of course... that cannot be denied!

Thankk you all for your comments they were much more useful than anything I got directly from Adobe.

I don't see the Graphire there now but they have the Bamboo Fun tablet ($99) that comes with "Software DVD that includes: Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0 Win/6.0 Mac, Corel Painter Essentials 4.0, and Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0 WE"

I forget I did also get those softwares as well. Painter is great.