whats the best picture/video editing program out?
 

I just got a nikon d3100 for christmas and now with taxes i am buying a dedicated laptop and photo/video editing program when my taxes come in. I am new to editing photo's but i would like to get a program that will be good for quite some time. I am a pretty fast grabber/learner on things so i would like to get an intermediate style editor. Alot of people say photoshop, but which one? I seen they came out with cs5 and some others but i would like to get an opinion from some of you that do this quite often and quite well. Oh. It will be for windows based if that makes a difference.

Photoshop CS5 or Lightroom / Elements are pretty much where it is at. I prefer CS5, but several people on here also love Lightroom.

Photoshop CS5 is where its at also photoshop lightroom 3 is amazing its geared towards editing pictures you can edit in CS5 but not as well i use both

CS5 is looks to be real good for photo's. I was checking out lightroom 3, i see it supports dslr video but do you know if it allows for editing of video? looks like cs5 doesnt support video.

I use both Lightroom 3.3 and PS CS5. I use lightroom first to get the lighting and colors the way I want them exactly and then I export them to photoshop and start my actual post editing to smooth out textures and manipulate the photo it's self. the two really are great when used together. Lightroom has a much better platform for adjusting white balances and other things of that nature if you shoot in RAW NEF format like I do. But photoshop is great for actually tweaking and making the image from a photo to a piece of art.

ok. so the general concensus is CS5 and lightroom. Cool, that's what i will do then. thanks for the advice.

Adobe Premier(PC) or Final Cut Pro(MAC) for video

90% Lightroom, 10% Photoshop CS5.5 for me.

Thank you pro street, that was what i was looking for
Big c, I will get those both,your pictures speak for your knowledge sir.