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Thursday, January 18, 2007 -
Photography Tool Comparison: Task 3 - Correcting White Balance
I forgot to select the special "snow" setting for one of the photos I took with the only camera that I'm brave enough to take snowboarding with me resulting in a very blue image.
There obviously isn't a quick fix tool in any of the products for this, but here are the steps I've gone through and the results.\
iPhoto - quite a simple fix, I opened up the Effects panel and selected Antique which had the following affect:
Lightroom - not quite as straightforward. I used the colour picker and tried to find a mid-level grey to act as a neutral by hovering over various pixels whilst watching the image change in the preview window.
Aperture - similar method to lightroom. I used the white balance colour picker.
Some quite different results, I think that both Aperture and Lightroom will be able to do a good job when practiced with. So, Aperture and Lightroom get a point each.
Current scores:
Aperture - 2.5 points
Lightroom - 2 point
iPhoto - 0.5 point
Gimp = 0 points
Task 1 - Black and White
Task 2 - Removing Red eye
There obviously isn't a quick fix tool in any of the products for this, but here are the steps I've gone through and the results.\
iPhoto - quite a simple fix, I opened up the Effects panel and selected Antique which had the following affect:
Lightroom - not quite as straightforward. I used the colour picker and tried to find a mid-level grey to act as a neutral by hovering over various pixels whilst watching the image change in the preview window.
Aperture - similar method to lightroom. I used the white balance colour picker.
Some quite different results, I think that both Aperture and Lightroom will be able to do a good job when practiced with. So, Aperture and Lightroom get a point each.
Current scores:
Aperture - 2.5 points
Lightroom - 2 point
iPhoto - 0.5 point
Gimp = 0 points
Task 1 - Black and White
Task 2 - Removing Red eye
Photography Tool Comparison: Task 2 - Removing Red-Eye
As I don't own an off body flash at the moment, I'm dependent on the on-board flash and so often end up with red-eye problems. Of the 4 tools I've been looking at, only 2 of them offer red-eye reduction, although there is a feature request for lightroom so time will tell if it makes it into the final version.
Note: clicking on the images will launch the full size images which makes it easier to review the differences
The original image:
The manipulated images, aperture on the left and iphoto on the right:
I have links to a couple of red eye removal tutorials for Gimp in the Gimp for Photographers post, but the point in this evaluation is ease of use, and how good a job the standard tools do, not a 3 or so step process of how to manage it.
There isn't much to chose between the two images, they both leave a small red rim around the eyes, so both iPhoto and aperture get half a point.
Current scores:
Aperture - 1.5 points
Lightroom - 1 point
iPhoto - 0.5 point
Gimp = 0 points
Task 1 - Black and White
Note: clicking on the images will launch the full size images which makes it easier to review the differences
The original image:
The manipulated images, aperture on the left and iphoto on the right:
I have links to a couple of red eye removal tutorials for Gimp in the Gimp for Photographers post, but the point in this evaluation is ease of use, and how good a job the standard tools do, not a 3 or so step process of how to manage it.
There isn't much to chose between the two images, they both leave a small red rim around the eyes, so both iPhoto and aperture get half a point.
Current scores:
Aperture - 1.5 points
Lightroom - 1 point
iPhoto - 0.5 point
Gimp = 0 points
Task 1 - Black and White
Saturday, January 13, 2007 -
Photography Tool Comparison: Task 1 - Black and White
One of the things I do with quite a few of my photographs is to convert them into black and white. Sometimes this is because of the level of noise on the images when taking low level photographs.
I've taken the following image and converted it using four tools - Aperture, Lightworks, Gimp and iPhoto.
The following are the outcomes - in each case you can click on the images to download the full image - they have an extension according to the tool used, so black and white - iphoto.jpg etc. In all cases I have used the basic transformation provided and haven't updated any of the settings, or done any further manipulation. The images are ordered, clockwise as Aperture, Lightworks, iPhoto and Gimp.
To my eye both aperture and lightroom do a pretty good job with this image, both Gimp and iPhoto seem to have lost a lot the contrast. So, for this task both aperture and lightroom get a point.
I've taken the following image and converted it using four tools - Aperture, Lightworks, Gimp and iPhoto.
The following are the outcomes - in each case you can click on the images to download the full image - they have an extension according to the tool used, so black and white - iphoto.jpg etc. In all cases I have used the basic transformation provided and haven't updated any of the settings, or done any further manipulation. The images are ordered, clockwise as Aperture, Lightworks, iPhoto and Gimp.
To my eye both aperture and lightroom do a pretty good job with this image, both Gimp and iPhoto seem to have lost a lot the contrast. So, for this task both aperture and lightroom get a point.
Photography tools
Since starting to use a mac, I've been using iPhoto to process my photos with some extra Gimp manipulation where necessary.
Richard sent me a link to aperture a while ago, and the other day I spotted Adobe Photoshop Lightroom (still in beta), both of which come with free trials. As one of my new year's resolutions is to do more with my photography, I thought I should investigate and work with them both. So, over the next month, that's exactly what I plan to do.
Initial thoughts: Lightroom is very easy to get going with, the 5 stages in its workflow make sense - Library, Develop, Slideshow, Print and Web. Aperture looks like a comprehensive libary management system, but so far I haven't worked out where to start. First point to Lightroom. Both have histograms to help keep an eye on the exposure of the image after various manipulations. I'm going to try and take the same image and manipulate it in both packages (and also in iPhoto I guess) and see how I get on. I'll try and post updates as I make progress and any decision.
Richard sent me a link to aperture a while ago, and the other day I spotted Adobe Photoshop Lightroom (still in beta), both of which come with free trials. As one of my new year's resolutions is to do more with my photography, I thought I should investigate and work with them both. So, over the next month, that's exactly what I plan to do.
Initial thoughts: Lightroom is very easy to get going with, the 5 stages in its workflow make sense - Library, Develop, Slideshow, Print and Web. Aperture looks like a comprehensive libary management system, but so far I haven't worked out where to start. First point to Lightroom. Both have histograms to help keep an eye on the exposure of the image after various manipulations. I'm going to try and take the same image and manipulate it in both packages (and also in iPhoto I guess) and see how I get on. I'll try and post updates as I make progress and any decision.
Thursday, October 14, 2004 -
Gimp For Photographers
What is Gimp?
Gimp, (or The Gimp to give it it's proper title) is a freely distributed piece of software suitable for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It was originally designed for Linux/Unix but is also available for both Mac OS and Windows. For more information about what features Gimp offers take a look at About the Gimp. It suffers from some usability issues, and many people say that it isn't as usable as Photoshop, however, these barriers can be easily overcome.
Downloads
Linux/Unix
More information, and download instructions can be found at gimp.org.
Windows
More information, and download instructions can be found here.
Mac OS
More information on the Mac version of Gimp can be read at MacGimp.org, and it appears you can order a CD from there as well.
Documentation
There is a useful User Manual for Gimo users which can be bought from Amazon.
Grokking the Gimp is a pretty complete manual which can be read online or bought from Amazon as a hard copy. It provides helpful information on all of the standard tools provided, and makes good use of photographs to illustrate the points.
Techniques and help
Red Eye Reduction
Little is more annoying than looking at a great portrait which suffers from red eye. This helpful tutorial by Eric Jeschke is easy to follow and should help rescue the photo. Carol Spears has also authored a tutorial to remove red eye which is available here.
Converting to Black and White
Okay, so everyone knows how to convert an image to greyscale, but that always seems to result in very flat images. There is a tutorial by Eric Jeschke discussing the different methods. There is also some helpful, but very technical, information provided in Grokking the Gimp.
Converting to Sepia
Changing a photo to sepia, allows you to create imagery that has that old look. Again, Eric Jeschke has provided a very thorough and easy to follow tutorial.
Simulating IR Photography
Some digital cameras aren't great at Infra Red photography, even if you do use the appropriate filters. So, the only way to produce these types of image is by manipulation. Eric Jeschke has provided another good tutorial to help this.
Simulating film Grain
Sometimes, especially when working with Sepia or Black and White images the addition of some grain makes the image look more realistic. Eric Jeschke provides another useful tutorial to explain how to achieve relasistic looking grain. There is also a tutorial by Eric Kidd here which also covers this subject.
Reducing Noise in digital images
In some circumstances, for instant low light shots, or at high ISO speeds an amount of noise can creep into your digital imagery. Eric Jeschke has provided a tutorial aimed at helping to clean up your low light noisy images as well as one for more general noise removal (such as for high ISO speeds). Atte Andre Jensen has also produced a tutorial to cover this subject, available here which uses the Gaussian Blur tool.
Altering the background of an image
Sometimes the background of an image can be distracting, and so the mask tools can be used to remove or blur the image. Eric Jeschke has a few tutorials to help in this, one is Replacing the Background, another is Selective colourisation and a third is Simulating Depth of Field.
Generating a lightening effect
The Gimp User Group has a series of tutorials which are mainly related to the artistic side of Gimp, however this one just may come in handy.
Generating a fog effect
Another one from the Gimp User Group, this one explains how to generate a fog to add atmosphere to your images.
Photo touch up and Enhancement
A simple tutorial demonstrating the different ways of enhancing a photograph.
Blending exposures
Sometimes when taking photographs it is almost impossible to create the photo you want without overexposing or underexposing the different parts. One solution is to take multiple images from the exact same spot, each metered to a different spot. Then, you just need to combine those images. Eric Jeschke has a tutorial explaining this in detail.
Further Reading
As with most things, there is a lot of information available on the web for Gimp manipulation, admittedly not as much as for Photoshop, but they are around. A good starting point might be this list of tutorials.
Labels: gimp
