I’ve heard that Lightroom is really good
You’ve heard correctly! 🙂 I use it for all of my photos. I think it’s “goodness” mainly extends to it’s user-friendliness though. There is free software available that is every bit as good, or better than Lightroom, but they have a much steeper learning curve, and may not include all the features that Lightroom does. If you have the money, and want something that’s easy to use, definitely go for Lightroom.
If you’re looking for the best “bang for the buck” then definitely give the free software a try first.
The free alternative is RAWTherapee, and it actually looks somewhat similar to Lightroom, as far as the UI goes. It is immensely powerful, but you really have to know what you’re doing to feel it’s force. I would recommend that you try out the free 30 day trial of Lightroom, and learn the basics of Photo Editing, then when you know some of the basics, see if you can transfer those to RAWTherapee.
There’s a little discussion on it going on in the “Lonely Owl” thread…