Hi Plateman
I'm a newbie at this much like yourself and I tried loads of demos of programs to do just what your trying to do. I wanted a tool that would do it all; resizie, thumbnails and help generate the gallerys (within reason, i don't want a 'cookie cutter' type site).
I wanted the option to make a few decent templates and have a program that would help me create pretty good gallerys in a relatively short period of time.
I got some advice from an old hand at the game and he pointed me at Arles (
www.digitaldutch.com).
It was exactly what I was looking for and it's a great timesaver once you get used to it. Even if your pretty proficient with Web techonologies and software etc. it's still worth spending a couple of hours with it but it's time well spent.
Just thought I'd offer my help.
Lux
PS: And no I'm not affiliated with Digital Dutch

I just really like this program.