Need to replace Photoshop (SOLVED)

[Taco.22]

It seems you may have to develop a workflow using more than one application.  Have you looked at DarkTable?

Unfortunately that package was pulled on the 12th of this month.  Had issues.

I haven't looked at ImageJ yet - interesting idea to do this in java! Gonna dig a little deeper, thanks for the tip!

I remember ImageJ as NIH Image in my early Mac days.  Great stuff.  If you're short on plugins you can always check here http://rsbweb.nih.gov/ij/plugins/ .

[OrdiDoc]

Wow, that is a lot of informations, thank you very much, at school they recommend lightroom if you want to be a journalist, i have it on my Windows partition but i would prefer working with pclos full so now i can

[newmikey]

Wow, that is a lot of informations, thank you very much, at school they recommend lightroom if you want to be a journalist, i have it on my Windows partition but i would prefer working with pclos full so now i can

I'm married to a journalist - she says all you need is a pen and a notepad

Good luck on your discovery mission. Remember: all programs have quirks, bugs and dark habits. (That includes Windows programs) Be sure to always make backups, NEVER work on original image files of any type and first and foremost: be prepared to learn! For a journalist, process precedes results so try to find efficient ways to deal with large amounts of images in bulk. Invest in some scripting knowledge.

Invest in an external 2Tb hard drive that you can back up your images to and store somewhere else, not in your house. Make sure you tag all of your images so you can still find them in 1 minute 2 years from now when you have 50K image files floating around. Tag them with location, subject, color, persons shown, category (architecture, nature, macro etc.).

Your (future) customers/employers will want quick results, not art. Settle on a good workflow and use it until you can do it blindly. If there's processor- or memory-intensive stuff, find a way to let it run in the background or overnight while you sleep. Waiting for 100 raws to be converted to TIFF can be excruciatingly boring!

All of this coming from a non-professional amateur photographer who sometimes spends 4 hours to find the pics I took 3 years ago at granny Jo's birthday. I know exactly how it should NOT be done so do not emulate me in any way shape or form.

[rekabe]

Great thread.

I took some photos this summer of my nieces visiting from Canada.

It was  in a restaurant and the photos were very dark. I am going to try this tool.

Thanks newmikey

[OrdiDoc]

Thanks newmikey,

I make backups of everything so pictures are included. I know that the RAW format is bigger than .jpg and takes a lot of room and that the original is never touch when working on it.

I'm going to try some of the software that were recommended here and see which one is doing what they want at school. I'll probably be posting results later on

[OrdiDoc]

I'm actually having a base kit, it's a Canon Rebel T2i with a Canon 18-200 lens and a Sigma 70-200 2.8 lens. Can you recommend some tutorials, we have something at school but it's not really getting deep into the use of the lens.

Thanks

[newmikey]

I'm actually having a base kit, it's a Canon Rebel T2i with a Canon 18-200 lens and a Sigma 70-200 2.8 lens. Can you recommend some tutorials, we have something at school but it's not really getting deep into the use of the lens.

Thanks

The Sigma actually trumps the Canon here. Although an entirely different focal range, it is pinsharp even wide open at f2.8 - cut yourself at f4.0 where the Canon needs a bit of work and really doesn't get to where the Sigma sits anywhere through its range.

Dpreview says about the Canon:
the good:
    Huge 11x focal length range, ideal general purpose and travel lens
    Excellent image stabilization system, consistently delivering three to four stops benefit
    Good central sharpness at all focal lengths (but inconsistent corners)
    Attractive rendition of out-of-focus regions of the image
    Improved build quality in comparison to the 18-55mm and 55-250mm kit lenses
    Well-placed zoom lock switch

the bad
    Poor sharpness across much of the frame at 18mm and wider apertures
    Pronounced barrel distortion at wideangle, and pincushion distortion around 50mm

the ugly
    High levels of chromatic aberration at either end of the zoom range

My advice: use the Canon as walk-around standard lens, take the Sigma when you won't run into scenes that need wideangle or extreme sharpness. The Sigma also has wonderful depth of field at f2.8 - lift your subject right out of the background.

[Vorteggs]

Great thread.


Thanks newmikey

+1

How about placing it in Tips and Tricks?

[newmikey]

I'm actually having a base kit, it's a Canon Rebel T2i with a Canon 18-200 lens and a Sigma 70-200 2.8 lens. Can you recommend some tutorials, we have something at school but it's not really getting deep into the use of the lens.

Thanks

Bonus answer: http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/telephoto-lenses.htm but a bit of googling will reveal enough tutorials so that were you to read tem all, you wouldn't take one more photo at all.

[OrdiDoc]

There is some video tutorial on the web but i like to have inputs from people as what do they use and like

[newmikey]

There is some video tutorial on the web but i like to have inputs from people as what do they use and like

I used the Sigma 70-200mm/f2.8 for a while and loved it but it had a big drawback: it's one heavy dude of a lens and it didn't quite fit my slingshot backpack with the hood on. I eventually switched to the Pentax 50-135mm/f2.8 and it is even a tad sharper than the Sigma and its range suits my style of shooting better.

I tend to stay away from extreme range zoomlenses because of the quality comprise but I'd have to admit it is very handy to have an all-purpose lens as walkaround on f.i. a vacation.

Use the close end (in my case 50mm, yours 70mm) for beautiful portraits at large apertures, throwing the background out of focus - just remember to focus on the eyes and not the tip of the nose. At f2.8, depth of field is just a few inches. Use the long end for architectural shots at smaller apertures. I also have a 16-45mm/f4.0 which I really use as my standard walkaround and then the Sigma 8-16mm for stunning wide-angle work - if you don watch your feet, they'll be in the shot! 

[OrdiDoc]

I'm a beginner and both the 18-200 and the 70-200 were recommended by a photograph as a good starting kit. I'll be using them for awhile to see and feel how it's working and see also what kind of photographer i'm going to be.

Thanks for your input

[newmikey]

I'm a beginner and both the 18-200 and the 70-200 were recommended by a photograph as a good starting kit. I'll be using them for awhile to see and feel how it's working and see also what kind of photographer i'm going to be.

Thanks for your input

One more advice: join a forum or community for whatever brand camera you have. Like this forum for PCLinuxOS users, camera forums are a goldmine of information and will allow you to post photo's and get critiques from which you can only grow.

Also stay glued to DPreview - tons of info there!

[tvmonster]

It seems you may have to develop a workflow using more than one application.  Have you looked at DarkTable?

Hi,

I would like to try DarkTable, but I can't find it in the repository.
How do I install in in my pclos install?

Thanks in advance,
Rob

[AndrzejL]

Also the gimp 2.8 will be a perfect candidate for replacing Photoshop... Gimp developers are doing a fantastic job...

http://andrzejl.no-ip.org:10101/wordpress/2011/10/16/gimp-2-7-4-on-pclinuxos-2011-x/

http://andrzejl.no-ip.org:10101/wordpress/2011/10/17/more-gimp-2-7-4-screenshots-and-info-it-really-rawks/

Many problems were fixed, many bugs were patched and a good few features were added...