My son just gave me Adobe Photoshop Elements 7.0. I haven't used it yet but he said it's the version for dummies. (NICE) Just got it today and will let you know as soon as I have tried it.
I have Photoshop Elements for the Mac, and I really like it. But I did buy a book for it, just to learn about all of the tools and everything else it can do. I think there's a program called Gimp Shop that you can download for free that does a lot of the same things as Photoshop Elements. A friend of mine uses it and really likes it.
I use Photoshop CS4, I am not very good at it and have very limited knowledge and some day I will learn it. I really like Photo Explosion Deluxe but cant find the CD. It was good but basic. There was a clone feature that allowed you to click on a part of the picture then go to the part you wanted gone and it would basically repaint the other area to this new area to remove the unwanted item. I always used it to remove dead grass or tags on collars.
I just downloaded Adobe Photoshop Elements free trial (30 day) this morning and without any tutorials or directions I was able to hunt and peck my way through to create this (my new stud boy!) This is exactly the kind of junk I wanted it for, so based on what I've seen so far, I'll probably buy it when the trial expires. The literature on this does say that you can use it to remove things.