Better ways to do image processing?

I am interested to learn what image editing software other photographers or webmasters are using. I have picked up different programs along the way but I may not be using the most efficient way to process images. I do not use Photoshop (I can hear the gasps now).

I use Lightroom to do cropping (if necessary), reduce image size, convert to JPEG (for small images) and convert ARGB to SRGB (for web images). I do not use Lightroom to modify colors/exposure/etc. This is the realm of the photographer (read “artist”). I believe the photographer has a much better eye for such things than I do. I receive photos that have already been adjusted.

For thumbnails I use a little program called Easy Thumbnails and for watermarking I use another freeware program. I suspect there are easier ways to do all this photo manipulation. Perhaps Photoshop does all this? I’m actually not sure. It would be interesting to hear what some others use to handle all these tasks. I’ve seen some output from Photoshop’s “save for web” feature and they look pretty good in my opinion. My getting a decent quality preview image for the site requires some trial and error – and, as a result, time.