If I'd like a Photoshop lite software that I don't have to pay a subscription to Adobe . . .

I recently embarked on the "small" amount of money it takes to gear up again.  I ended up with a TG6, etc.  I've now realized that this spending spree is not stopping and have no software to edit pics.  I had Photoshop 15 yrs ago when you just bought it and kept it.  It seems they now charge a rather handsome subscription fee every month to use the product.  Is there an alternative to that if I'm not going pro?  It looks like Da Vinci Resolve would be a nice option for video when I get to that, but wasn't sure for photos.  Is Photoshop Elements a decent compromise to be able to touch up some amateur pics?

Affinity photo is a good option, it offers a full set of filters in 16 bit, while PS elements has rather limited 16 bit support.  It is basically sn alternative to full photoshop these days ( as opposed to PS elements).  Affinity is significantly cheaper than elements as well.

One more vote for Affinity Photo. I prefer it to Photoshop even though I own both because of the photography bundle.

I'm pretty happy with the Abobe Photography subscription plan at $120 a year. You get both Photoshop and Lightroom, continually updated. The improvements delivered over the last several years have been significant, and many of the features would have merited a full upgrade without the subscription. I think getting the top tier apps for photo processing at less than the cost of a Netflix subscription is a fair deal.

Thanks all.  This was very helpful for the novice returning to the scene.

Yeah, I'm with davehicks. $120 a year with fairly frequent updates and improvements for LR/PS seems a fair deal to me. Compare that with what we pay for bits of equipment and it's an amazing deal!

I am with Tim and Dave. The new features in LR and Photoshop like "select subject" are awesome. That being said, Darkroom is free as is GIMP. Luminar is quite nice and Affinity is quite good. I am at a nice workshop in Anilao right now, everyone is using LR/PS. If you dive 50 dives a year and take 50 photos per dive then it is costing you about 5 cents per photo and $2/dive to edit and that assumes you are not shooting anything topside. If you have only a single computer then you could split it with your dive body since a single subscription can be used on two computers.  

We pay way more per airfill per dive than it costs to edit (and we do hopefully, more than 50 dives/year)

Bill 

You can also give the free Olympus Workspace a try.

Im a big fan of On1 PhotoRaw. Yes they come out with a new version every year but you dont have to update every year.  I have been using it since about 2018 and I just now bout 2022 because it has the new AI Resize and NoNoise features that is useful for us smaller sensor users.

Elements is fine, Grasshopper, for what you describe, and includes good categorizing tools.  As you probably know, it is buy-and-own.