Photo Editing

Discussion of photography, editing and publishing techniques
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Athos
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Photo Editing

Post by Athos »

Can anyone suggest a good reasonable priced photo editing program. What I'm specifically looking for is one that I can use to take a picture of my lego creation and paste/impose it onto a landscape background.

(Specifically, I'm looking to get a picture of an airplane onto a sky background)

Steve
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forester3291
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Post by forester3291 »

Yea, it's free. Paint or ACDsee. You can do most anything on those two prgrams, just not as well as you could on Photoshop, but almost as, if sometimes not better.
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ottoatm
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Post by ottoatm »

I've heard of ppl downloading photoshop from e-mule or bit torrent...

Free... but kinda illegal.

There are lots of other programs out there that you can either try for awhile, if you only want the program for your one picture (maybe www.cnet.com has something). Also, if your in a college or know someone who is, you might be able to find a program that is an "educational version". Basically the same thing as the normal product but cheaper... I guess.

I'd be interested to see what you end up using.
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1.A member of an order of knights founded about 1118 to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land during the Second Crusade.

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Drucifer
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Post by Drucifer »

The GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Project). http://www.gimp.org

Should be a version available for just about any OS you might be running. And it's free (as in beer and speech).
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Athos
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Post by Athos »

The GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Project). http://www.gimp.org
I tried GIMP when it was posted on the main page. Couldn't make it work for reason. I couldn't get my pictures opened so I could work on them.

Here is what I was able to do with Vic's Photo Editor (I think it's call that):

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/Athos ... /bhg13.jpg

I'm not real pleased with how it turned out.

Steve
[url=http://www.johnny-thunder.blogspot.com/]Travel with Johnny Thunder![/url]
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forester3291
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Post by forester3291 »

Athos wrote:
The GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Project). http://www.gimp.org

Here is what I was able to do with Vic's Photo Editor (I think it's call that):

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/Athos ... /bhg13.jpg

I'm not real pleased with how it turned out.

Steve

Just to prove to you and others that Paint and ACDsee can be just as good as some other editing programs I did THIS!
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Drucifer
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Post by Drucifer »

I tried GIMP when it was posted on the main page. Couldn't make it work for reason. I couldn't get my pictures opened so I could work on them.
Hmmm. I haven't really had any problems with the GIMP (but I usually use it in Linux). The Windows version was kind of a pain to get installed when it was first released, but the new version is pretty quick and easy.

I'll help you get it working if you either post or PM the specific details of the problems you're having. The GIMP has the color selection, and masking tools you'll want to crop out the plane. An example of some compositing can be found in an assignment webpage I had to do a few years back. http://www.vr.clemson.edu/~arakel/815index.html Check out the compositing project, scene 2, which specifically deals with compositing a LEGO minifig into a picture. It's not great, but shows the general idea.

Also, a tablet can really make the painting/selection part of image editing much less tedious. It can take a little while to learn how to use a table effectively, but it's a lot less strain than a mouse.

If you really want to get serious about compositing Apple's Shake software is some of the best I've used, but it's expensive ($2999, it's really meant for film/movies, but it's also great for single image composites but not editing) and only runs on Mac OS X and Linux (there was an older version for Windows). A local university might have an educational license though (that's where I've used it).
Last edited by Drucifer on Sat Dec 18, 2004 10:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Athos
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Post by Athos »

Just to prove to you and others that Paint and ACDsee can be just as good as some other editing programs I did THIS!
Very nice. Didn't have to prove it to me though. I believed you. Now where can I down load it/them?

Steve
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forester3291
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Post by forester3291 »

Umm....ACDsee comes with my digital camera, for pentax. MS paint comes with all Microsoft computers. So, you can't really download them. :wink:
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Scnicker
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Post by Scnicker »

Good news is Acdsee is downloadable :)

I didn't know which one so here are two links:

http://www.download.com/ACDSee/3000-220 ... ag=lst-0-1

http://www.download.com/ACDSee-PowerPac ... ag=lst-0-3

(They have trial versions,but you may find some registration codes around even if they are illegal, but hey, everything in Turkey is illegal :P )

-Yankı
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Drucifer
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Buy software, don't steal it!!!

Post by Drucifer »

I've been sort of ignoring this, but I really can't.

ottoatm
I've heard of ppl downloading photoshop from e-mule or bit torrent...
Snicker
They have trial versions,but you may find some registration codes around even if they are illegal
:x :x :x

As a professional software developer myself, I have to demand, that if you want to use a piece of software you do so through legal means. There really is no argument for stealing software. If you want the power of Adobe Photoshop, you need to be willing to spend the money on it. I haven't used ACDsee, but $50.00 seems like a bargain price for photo editing software, and forester3291 seems to have done some pretty good work with it. If you can't afford either of these products, the GIMP is free (and almost as powerful as Photoshop).

Please, if you want to talk about pirating software do it somewhere else, you're not setting a good example for anyone reading these forums, especially the young readers.
Thank you.
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ottoatm
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Post by ottoatm »

Drucifer -

Personally, I don't think I said he should go download it, I usually have a modem line, so you can imagine how many times I've done so. ;-)

In any case, I'd like to request you to PM me with this kind of direct message, and post a more general message addressing the issue to the forum if you feel strongly about the issue. Public lectures are no fun.
Knight Templar
n. pl. Knights Templars or Knights Templar
1.A member of an order of knights founded about 1118 to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land during the Second Crusade.

[url=http://legelot.50webs.com/mainPages/myStory.html]My Lego Stories: The Land of Legelot![/url]
[url=http://z13.invisionfree.com/Castle_World]CW-THE Lego Story Writer's Guild[/url]
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Post by Scnicker »

Yes, in what I and ottoatm had said, there's no direct word that he should use pirate software. And I also noted that it's illegal so it's his own choice to do that or not. So yes, please don't lecture because we just tried to help him out.
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Drucifer
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Post by Drucifer »

Yes, in what I and ottoatm had said, there's no direct word that he should use pirate software. And I also noted that it's illegal so it's his own choice to do that or not. So yes, please don't lecture because we just tried to help him out.
You are right. You did not directly say here's where you can go and download pirated software, but by making the statement you imply that it would be acceptable to do so. If you're just trying to help (as you say) and you don't believe in pirating software then why would you even mention it?

If someone asked you where they might obtain a rare castle piece, would you say you can buy one from a store on Bricklink, or would you say I've got one, if you look around you might find out where I live and break into my house and steal it? You've basically opted for the second choice by mentioning that you can pirate software.

I'm glad you posted the links to ACDsee. That was helpful. The rest of your post is what I take issue with.
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Scnicker
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Post by Scnicker »

Yeah all of that was for help, and about the mentioning, I just wrote it, I don't know exactly why, but I understand you perfectly.Sorry for the problem that I've caused.
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