Just throwing my 2c in on the matter, if you're looking for something that's a pretty good stack up to Photoshop, but don't want to go for that big price tag, (or you're like me and just do not like Adobe products in the least), you could try Corel Paint Shop Pro. (Priced usually around $100-$110.)
I know I'm in a minority, but I do find it's a much more user-friendly program when it comes to interface and ease of learning. It only took me a few days to learn all the basics, and while I'm still learning what some features do it is simply cause I was too afraid to play with them before.
The only drawback to Paint Shop that is available in Photoshop is the ability to edit graphics and animate all in the same program, but Jasc (also ran by Corel) has a program called Animation Shop to go along with Paint Shop that will only run you about $20.