If you keep your photos on the web and want to do your photo editing on the web too, I recommend Picnik. So does Walt Mossberg.
[Picnik] is focused on being an editing complement to popular Web services — such as Yahoo’s Flickr, Google’s Picasa Web Albums, and the independent Facebook — that already allow for storing and organizing photos…
The program is currently in beta… though in my tests it worked smoothly and surely. During this beta period, all of its features are offered for free. Later this summer, the company expects to end the beta period and begin charging something like $20 or $25 a year for access to some of the more rarified special effects.
Picnik just works. I point it at my Flickr photostream, select a photo, edit it, and send it back to Flickr. There’s no download, edit, and upload. I admit that I do photo editing even less frequently than I shave, and that my editing needs are as modest as my photographic skills.
For a simple web-based life form like me, the Picnik “free lunch” is perfect. I don’t think I’ll need the “Gourmet” version, whatever it ends up being called.