Photoshop prices out of your league? Try Paint.NET, a free alternative photo editor. I use this all of the time to re-size, re-color, and add certain effects to photos and other digital images.
The great thing about programs like this is that they include about 95% of the basic functionality of the expensive versions. I admit that there are certain things that would be nice, like more filters. However there is an extensive list of plugins that I haven’t tried that might do some cool stuff.
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The great thing with paint.net is that it is free and it has many plugins you can use to enhance it with new functionnalities.