Best & cheapest image making/editing program

[marc512]

As title says. Going to be useing it to edit pictures of me to make me look good, make banners and help me get my websites to look better.
Im not the best at decideing what program to use because theres so many. Iv used fireworks up until now (having a lot of problems with it because of W7 i think)

Im useing the free paintnet at the moment for my light work till i get something more powerful

 

[marc512]

Iv tried gimp, but i prefer paintnet over it

 

[marc512]

I guess ill stick to paint.net D: but from opinions from people i know they always say photoshop CS3 is the best in the world.