Thanks for the comments! I do have photoshop CS and iPhoto but I
think I'm doing something wrong. It seems when I try to lighten a
photo it looks washed out and not very good, I'll try playing with
the levels and curves more (I don't think that is what I was
using).
Lightening in general is about the worst way to brighten a photo - but the other methods do take a little getting used to. Levels and Curves are much more advanced in that you can lighten or darken different gradations of the photo separately - highlights, midtones, and shadows, and many variations in between. But they are hard to learn for a beginner.
I've got a suggestion I think you will find fairly simple - try this method, with a little fine tuning to make it look right:
Open your photo in CS. Then, in the 'layers' box, right click on your photo which should be listed there as the only layer - it should give you an option to make a 'duplicate' layer (you can also go to Edit, Copy, then Paste as New Layer). Now you essentially have two copies of your photo, one stacked on top of another. In the layers box, you will see a column called 'blend' or 'blend mode'...and it will probably be set to 'normal' by default. Next to this should be a little slider, from 0-100...which is the 'transparency' level. It should be defaulted to 100%. If you click on the drop-down menu next to 'normal' in the blend mode, you will see some other blend choices - choose 'screen'. Screen mode will blend your two photos together by combining or doubling their lightness value - making the photo significantly brighter. If it's too bright, just move that little slider back from 100% until the blend looks good. If it's still not bright enough, you can repeat the process and make a third layer.
Once the photo is brightened using the layers, if you go to the 'layer' menu at the top, you will find an option to 'flatten' all layers - this will compress them back into a single photo layer at the new brightness! It's easier than it sounds - try playing around with it a bit. And when you have free time, try playing around with the other blend modes so you can see what each of them do to the photo.
As far as getting rid of noise, do I just use despeckle in
Photoshop?
Older versions of Photoshop didn't have true noise reduction built in. Despeckle is not what you want. The good news is that there are plenty of free noise removal programs you can download - some of which even function as plug-ins with your CS. Do a search for Noiseware, Noise Ninja, Neat Image, or Helicon...to name a few. Most have a lesser-featured free version, and a more fully featured pay version. You can get by on the freeware versions for most of your needs, at least until you become a pro at post-processing!
Also, when I crop a photo, how do I know if I am maintaining a
certain number of megapixels? I would want the picture to remain
printable but sometimes I might want to use a more extreme crop too.
Really, you have to know what pixel dimensions equal what megapixels. Lots of online sites can probably break it down for you. Basically, many will recommend that you try not to crop down lower than 5MP if you want a perfect 8x10 photo - 5MP generally measures 2560x1920 pixels. So you can crop quite a bit from an 8MP photo out of the H9. If you only need smaller prints, such as 4x6 or 4x5, you can crop alot more - all the way down to 2MP will still get you a fine looking small print. 2MP is approximately 1662x1224 pixels.
Of course, you can crop more and print larger if you need to - just know that you won't get 35mm film quality out of an 8x10 print from a 2MP photo. That said, I've got two 8x10 photos I printed from a 2MP shot, and though they don't compare to my 5MP or 7MP 8x10s with your nose right up to it, from a reasonable viewing distance, they still look great. It depends on your needs, and how perfect the print has to be. My 5MP 8x10s are basically film quality - even with your nose pressed against it, they are still crystal clear with minute detail. My 7MP photos really don't look any different at 8x10. If I were to pritn larger, like 15x12, then the 7MP might show an advantage in fine detail.
Hope that helps!
--
Justin
galleries:
http://www.pbase.com/zackiedawg
(I'd be honored and overjoyed to have any of my posted photographs critiqued, commented on, or post-processed - I can attribute everything I know about photography to the wonderful people who have done this for me in the past!) 
. So here it is, not only my first H9 pictures but my first duck pictures 
. I uploaded 21 of the first pictures I took (about 10%) though I did make a second trip back to the lake. 
