Are you using the "Save for Web and Devices" command in Photoshop? It is almost impossible to get it wrong with this wonderful feature. "Remember the I35W bridge--who needs terrorists when there are Republicans"
these days i import into iphoto, tweak a bit, mostly crop...sometimes the 'enhance' button makes nice changes, mostly not...
the adjust menu offers a bit of tweaking, saturation, contrast etc.
imagewell was a lot better, but i can't make it work any more, and flickrexport works, but i can't find any prefs to tweak in it...
thanks for your efforts to help, y'all!
i'm going to get aperture, i think, i hear it offers much more than iphoto, and is macfriendly.
meanwhile i'll try linca's suggestion... ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~