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photo advice needed

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Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain

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posted 9 years ago

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What free downloadable photo shop type programs are best? I am wanting to find something a few steps above the paint program that is already on my computer in order to play with some pictures I am shooting and others I am scanning in to store. I'm lost as to what to choose...I don't think I need something huge or super complicated.

Any advice? I know it depends on what I want to do with them...but sometimes I don't know unless the option is offered

Although one option I would like is to 'sharpen' up some kind of fuzzy really old pics and also to turn some others into 'cartoon' or a line drawing look.

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Eric Thomas

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Location: Northeast Oklahoma, Formerly Zone 6b, Now Officially Zone 7

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posted 9 years ago

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Judith, the best one I've found, and I've tried a couple, was GIMP GNU Image Manipulation Program GIMP GNU

I used it until I invested in some better camera equipment and moved up to Lightroom & Photoshop. It will process and give you control of RAW files almost as well as Lightroom.

“You meet your destiny on the road you take to avoid it.”
~ Carl Jung

Judith Browning

Posts: 9197

Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain

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Eric Thomas wrote:Judith, the best one I've found, and I've tried a couple, was GIMP GNU Image Manipulation Program GIMP GNU

I used it until I invested in some better camera equipment and moved up to Lightroom & Photoshop. It will process and give you control of RAW files almost as well as Lightroom.

That is one I had looked at but had no idea if it was a good choice or not. Thank you!

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Craig Dobbson

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I'll second Gimp. I used it for my PDC final Project and it was pretty easy to learn. There is also InkScape which was also useful for some modification of images as well. Each program has it's own best uses but since they are both free, I say get both and figure out which one you like best. Of course there are Youtube tutorials for each as well.

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Dan Boone

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The one I have been using for many years is PhotoFiltre. It doesn't try so hard as GIMP to do everything, but it does more than I've ever needed:

http://www.photofiltre-studio.com/pf7-en.htm

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Eric Thomas

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There's also Paint on steroids, Paint.net, same vein as GIMP Paint.net

“You meet your destiny on the road you take to avoid it.”
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Judith Browning

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Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain

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I've loaded and am playing around with PhotoFilter7. I started with Gimp but before the download I was told to go to the wikipedia article here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_BitTorrent_clients and chose a 'torrent' something or other and they lost me

I am not at all computer savvy and don't know a lot of the implications much less the terms and what they mean. so I went for what seemed a bit simpler to start off with and then if this doesn't do all I'd like, I'll work up my nerve (and brain) to trying Gimp later.

thanks all of you....I always know I can count on some good advice here

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Eric Thomas

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Posts: 189

Location: Northeast Oklahoma, Formerly Zone 6b, Now Officially Zone 7

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Ahh...don't fear the client. BitTorrent is just a peer-to-peer file sharing client used to download a large file like GIMP. Get the official safe version from the source Bit Torrent client Relatively self explanatory.

“You meet your destiny on the road you take to avoid it.”
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Josh J.J. Jones

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Location: MO_AR stateline Zone 6b/7a

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I have been a photo editor since the late 90s. Yes Gimp is FREE, but Photoshop and Lightroom together are only $10/mo. Sooooo worth the money. Don't be intimidated because it's Adobe. Because it's Adobe there are more video tutorials out there than Gimp or any other product. If you have never used Lightroom before, it's the best way to edit all your photos (individually or batch) without having to open a single one. If you need PS or LR help (or if you get stuck on a photo and don't know how to fix it), post here or PM me.

http://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/photography.html?sdid=KKTGD&kw=semgeneric&skwcid=AL!3085!3!71734055538!e!!g!!photoshop&s_kwcid=AL!3085!3!71734055538!e!!g!!photoshop&ef_id=U2lT8AAAAYA3vgkF:20150605201433:s

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Judith Browning

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Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain

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Thanks everybody

I loaded PhotoFilter and played for awhile and then got up my nerve to load GIMP....I like it! Too many words that I don't know but the F1 key is staying busy and has good explanations. I wanted something for picture collages and also something that could let me do text right on the photo for labeling old scanned in pictures..........I have to say there is a lot of fun stuff there and I am spending way too much time on it today

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Eric Thomas

pollinator

Posts: 189

Location: Northeast Oklahoma, Formerly Zone 6b, Now Officially Zone 7

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Josh is right, PS has a huge tutorial base, some better than others, but ten bucks a month is ten bucks a month. It is a good deal and there's no question it's the best. If you look at what they used to charge for the whole enchilada and the fact that it's usually supplanted by a new version every 3 years or so, it's a good deal. I figured I'd try it for a year then reassess. There are still a lot of resources for GIMP tho. GIMP Tutorial More GIMPs

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