What Image software are you using?

I guess it all depends on what effects you are looking for. I don't have any imaging software right now but would love to get my hands on Photoshop. I'm just not ready to dish out the money for it yet.

I often find corners where my shot has gone beyond my backdrop.  So I need to either crop or else clone those areas.

I use Corel's Paint Shop Pro.  My wife has photoshop, and I prefer PSP to Photoshop, because there are more icons I can just click on rather than using the pull-down menus.  But the big reason is I cannot afford it.  My wife uses it at work so she gets it on her computer from the company she works for.  Paint Shop Pro retails for about a hundred bucks but is frequently on sale for considerably less.

For cheapness there are also GIMP and IRFANVIEW, both shareware.  I don't like them as well as PSP or Photoshop, but they do work, and I have them on my machine.

Oh, btw, I also use photo software for model ships.  I build full-hull style, and for my realistic photo backdrop shots, the hull has to be cut off below the waterline anyway, so I just take a regular plain-background shot, cut out the UPPER hull and deck and masts and whatever, and paste it to one of my photo backdrop files for water background.  I frequently add some bow waves and maybe smoke from funnels.  Admittedly, cutting away that plain background from the ship is a bit of work, but with software that gives good "selection" tools it is not too bad.

For image resizing I use ACDsee, nice and quick for doing 3 or 33

On the rare occasion I need image manipulation for plastic models (mainly just the odd crop) I use photoshop (use it VERY regularly for CG Modeling)

I use Lightroom and Photoshop. Just my personal preference, as editing software is yet another personal choice with lots of good alternatives out there.

As Don mentioned, Photoshop is expensive and IMO unless one knows why one wants it, it isn't necessary.

BTW, Adobe has recently gone the subscription/cloud route re Photoshop. Far as I know, it is no longer available for outright purchase anyway.

IMO, yes, post processing is important when using a decent DSLR, arguably more so. I regularly use images as is from my compact point and shoot, almost never from my DSLR's. But again, that's just my opinion and the way I happen to do things. No rules, personal choice again.

If I had to choose one and only one piece of software, it'd most likely be Lightroom. 5 - 10 years ago, it would have been Photoshop.

Corel PhotoPaint.

For the price of Photoshop alone, you can buy the full suite of CorelDraw (which includes PhotoPaint) and has a MUCH EASIER learning curve.  I'm a graphic artist and I've been using the CorelDraw products for 25 years.  I've also used Photoshop but I can do the same things in Corel PhotoPaint in 1/2 the time it takes me to do it in Photoshop.

I use both Photoshop and Image Ready from Adobe. Gives me a ton of flexibility for post-processing an image. Not cheap and there is a learning curve but very powerful tools.