Texas Photographer Not Charged with Crime

[fgianni]

Only liberals have brains?

I believe that remark is totally innappropriate on a photography forum.

I am a liberal too, but I could not agree more, let's avoid political remaks here please.

 

[Hektor]

Hmmmm..... I shall consider them as unruly colonials, - and respond with a suitably stiff upper lip.

They make good bombs, and tanks, and 'planes, and aircraft-carriers, and submarines, though.

Not always careful about who they damage with those either...........


p.s. O/T and not PC.......I won't continue this comment......sorry chaps !

 

[fgianni]

They make good bombs, and tanks, and 'planes, and aircraft-carriers, and submarines, though.

Not that I am likely to buy any of those anytime soon...
They make some good software thou, shame they charge soo much for it, I could have bought myself a nice Summicron with the price I paid for Photoshop.

 

[bmattock]

Linux! The Gimp! Free!

 

[fgianni]

Linux! The Gimp! Free!

I tried using the Gimp, but I did not find it as good as Photoshop, same as an I50 is not as good as a Cron.

(I have the I50 but I'll get myself a cron as soon as I get some more cash to burn)

 

[bmattock]

I tried using the Gimp, but I did not find it as good as Photoshop, same as an I50 is not as good as a Cron.

(I have the I50 but I'll get myself a cron as soon as I get some more cash to burn)

Oh, Photoshop is too expensive! Oh, The Gimp is not as good as Photoshop! Whah, whah!

You'd bitch if you were hanged with a new rope.

(JUST KIDDING)! 😛 😉 😀

Seriously, I know TG is not the same as PS. But free is hard to argue with, and for what I need to do, it does exactly the right thing. Adjust levels, Resize, Apply USM, Clone Tool to remove dust/scratches, export in a variety of formats. Even reads RAW format from my Pentax DSLR now, thanks to UFRaw (also free). I only pay for hardware now (well, and Vuescan, but that's well worth it), and that makes life a lot easier.

I know it is not for everyone, but it does the trick for me.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[fgianni]

It is a matter of finding suitable tutorials, for photoshop I can find easily a lot of ready made recipes to do my stuff pretty easily, and all the books I want to easily learn new tricks and so, with the Gimp it is much harder work, and with two small kids and a job I can afford to spend money more easily than to spend time.

 

[bmattock]

It is a matter of finding suitable tutorials, for photoshop I can find easily a lot of ready made recipes to do my stuff pretty easily, and all the books I want to easily learn new tricks and so, with the Gimp it is much harder work, and with two small kids and a job I can afford to spend money more easily than to spend time.

I call it 'trading airspeed for altitude' and you're right, of course.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[satbunny]

It is a matter of finding suitable tutorials, for photoshop I can find easily a lot of ready made recipes to do my stuff pretty easily, and all the books I want to easily learn new tricks and so, with the Gimp it is much harder work, and with two small kids and a job I can afford to spend money more easily than to spend time.

There are GIMP books on Amazon. However Photoshop is the only reason I haven;t gone totally Linux yet.

 

[GeneW]

There are GIMP books on Amazon. However Photoshop is the only reason I haven;t gone totally Linux yet.

Same here. I've built Linux and FreeBSD systems for some ten years, but not as my primary workstation, mainly because I need Photoshop.

GIMP needs three things: full 16-bit editing, RAW image processing (maybe a side product can do this?), and printer profiles.

With those elements in place, I think could shift over. Or maybe get a Mac next time...

Gene

 

[bmattock]

Same here. I've built Linux and FreeBSD systems for some ten years, but not as my primary workstation, mainly because I need Photoshop.

GIMP needs three things: full 16-bit editing, RAW image processing (maybe a side product can do this?), and printer profiles.

With those elements in place, I think could shift over. Or maybe get a Mac next time...

Gene

GIMP now has the ability to read RAW via UFRaw Plugin (freebie). Now I just do a file/open on my Pentax PPM files and there you go. Very nice:

http://ufraw.sourceforge.net/

It does not yet have 16-bit editing, and I have no idea on the printer profiles. I don't print locally, just upload and print to Walmart, etc, so that has not been a problem for me.

Plus, being color-blind - color profiles mean nothing to me, I'd never be able to adjust a printer or a monitor anyway. So B&W is my thing mostly, and for that, I'm not sure what 16-bit gives me.

But I understand why you need them!

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[GeneW]

GIMP now has the ability to read RAW via UFRaw Plugin (freebie). Now I just do a file/open on my Pentax PPM files and there you go. Very nice:

http://ufraw.sourceforge.net/

It does not yet have 16-bit editing, and I have no idea on the printer profiles. I don't print locally, just upload and print to Walmart, etc, so that has not been a problem for me.

Plus, being color-blind - color profiles mean nothing to me, I'd never be able to adjust a printer or a monitor anyway. So B&W is my thing mostly, and for that, I'm not sure what 16-bit gives me.

But I understand why you need them!

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

Thanks for the info on UFRaw. I've always admired the GIMP and have used it a little.

Actually 16-bit editing gives you a lot in B&W. You get thousands of shades of grey rather than 256 shades of grey, which allows you to do more with levels and curves without creating posterization. It allows for more subtlety.

My goal in 2006 is to get a high-quality printer (probably an Epson R2400) to start making exhibition-quality prints. Both Col and B&W.

Hmmm. I see this thread has drifted a bit from its original topic ...

Gene

 

[ch1]

John in the good old USA it does not work like that, a friend of mine went in holiday, on his way back the airport security opened his checked-in luggage (god know wht since the X-rays for checked in baggage are powerful enough to see clearly what is inside virtually everything), damaged quite a few things including his suitcase, and left a note saying that they opened his bag due to new anti-terrorism security measures and BTW forget about asking for compensation since they are not responsible for any damage they do.

Essentially looks that across the pond law enforcement officials have such protection agains their own actions that they can get away with almost anything.

Yes, this is why you should never lock your checked-in baggage. X-rays are not a substitute for searching your bag - if anything - they reveal "suspicious looking" items that will result in searches.

So never lock the bag - make it easy for TSA to get in and you'll be unlikely to get damaged baggage. As to what this means for valuables - carry them on and don't put them in checked luggage. :bang:

 

[Hektor]

Gene, I'm interested in your comments about gimp.......

Do you mean the mac version is different or better than the linux or PC version ?????

I'm just trying to get into computerised photography.

 

[GeneW]

Gene, I'm interested in your comments about gimp.......

Do you mean the mac version is different or better than the linux or PC version ?????

I'm just trying to get into computerised photography.

What I meant was I could enjoy the benefits of a Unix-based computer system (OS X), which I prefer, and still use the current (Mac) version of Photoshop. Though I'm certain the GIMP would run better on a Mac than on Windows... Sorry for the confusion.

Gene

 

[Hektor]

Ok, thanks Gene, I confuse myself about computer-photography at the moment.

This topic is of great interest to me and I apologise for going a bit O/T but I won't stay long......

Is it possible for one of you to tell me briefly, what are the shortcomings of Gimp compared to Photoshop....?

I think I understand about RAW images but what is this 16 bit thing...?

 

[GeneW]

Is it possible for one of you to tell me briefly, what are the shortcomings of Gimp compared to Photoshop....?

I think I understand about RAW images but what is this 16 bit thing...?

I'm not so sure I'd call them 'shortcomings' -- the GIMP has made admirable progress for an open-source effort. I'm proud of the work those folks have done ... and offering it for free.

Alas, Adobe has the resources to take photo editing to another level. Here are a couple pieces I just snagged on the difference between 8bit and 16bit editing:

http://www.earthboundlight.com/phototips/8bit-versus-16bit-difference.html

http://www.earthboundlight.com/phototips/more-8bit-versus-16bit.html

Another thing that makes Photoshop attractive is the support it gets from the photo industry. Calibrating a computer monitor and a colour printer is tricky business, but many manufacturers offer printer profiles for their photo papers, for instance, and these can plug directly into Photoshop.

You don't need 16-bit editing and printer profiles for web presentation or small prints for family, etc, but if you want to make the best prints possible, these are features that help you get there.

BTW, another fine photo editor that is reasonably priced and does full 16-bit editing is Picture Window Pro (for Windows only): http://www.dl-c.com/ It works differently from Photoshop and I could never get the hang of it, but it has a strong, loyal following.

There may be others as well, but the industry standard is Photoshop.

Gene

 

[Hektor]

Thanks Gene, thats given me a start for further research, I have a desktop PC (family use) and an ibook G4 which I'm just getting to grips with, but no photo printer yet.

Meanwhile back on topic !...........

 

[fgianni]

Yes, this is why you should never lock your checked-in baggage. X-rays are not a substitute for searching your bag - if anything - they reveal "suspicious looking" items that will result in searches.

So never lock the bag - make it easy for TSA to get in and you'll be unlikely to get damaged baggage. As to what this means for valuables - carry them on and don't put them in checked luggage. :bang:

I alway thought that X-rays were there exactly for that, to avoid having to hand-search checked in luggage, unlike x-rays for hand luggage, the machines for checked-in luggage are powerful enough to see virtually trough anything.
If you put film inside your checked in luggage it WILL get fogged even inside his metal canister.

Also both airlines and insurance companies here ask to lock all checked in luggage, and about valuables, I can't put 15 kg of photo equipment in the hand luggage.

So we have yet another admirable example of Catch 22: if I lock it they can wreck it, if I don't they can steal it and insurance won't pay because was left unlocked, brilliant, just brilliant.

 

[fgianni]

I think 16 bit editing is extremey useful in both B&W and color.

If you have access to photoshop try the following:
Take an 8 bit image whose histogram has a significant empty area to the left or to the right (maybe due to underexosure or overexposure), then do a bit of level manipulation getting rid of empty zones, and after that look at the shape of the histogram again, it is full of holes, and the image has lost much of its smoothness.
Do the same with a 16 bit image and you will immediately see the difference.