Does anybody have any knowledge as to what would be the best free photo editor? I am looking to start such a hobby, but would like to get a feel for it before my purchase of Aperture, as I don't want to regret my purchase.
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Best free photo editor?
- Thread starter kildraik
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If you're not a serious photographer, then Aperture is likely overkill for you.
If you've outgrown iPhoto, then there are things like the GIMP which is free. But good free photo editing software isn't that easy to come by since they're relatively complex apps - there are several which are basically ways to run Core Image filters. There's a beta of Lightroom from Adobe currently available that you might want to try out - but it's hard to say without knowing what you want to do in such an editor.
Looking at Photoshops Elements (although not free) might be worthwhile. It's a lot cheaper than Aperture and depending on what you want to do, might be enough.
If you've outgrown iPhoto, then there are things like the GIMP which is free. But good free photo editing software isn't that easy to come by since they're relatively complex apps - there are several which are basically ways to run Core Image filters. There's a beta of Lightroom from Adobe currently available that you might want to try out - but it's hard to say without knowing what you want to do in such an editor.
Looking at Photoshops Elements (although not free) might be worthwhile. It's a lot cheaper than Aperture and depending on what you want to do, might be enough.
Applespider said:
Ditto this, as well as GIMP... (and on Windows, Paint.net and Picasa). If you're beginning in photography, iPhoto will even take you a ways. Aperture almost certainly won't do anything particularly good for you as a hobbyist... It's really about the ability to do recoverable changes and manage large volumes from shoots with multiple similar photos and so on. Really issues amateurs don't run into.
I asked myself the same question a while ago as well.
iphoto is a great app, I just wasn't happy with it when I started shooting RAW. Canon Digital Photo Professional is also really good (free with a canon dslr!). I also played around with a bibble trial, not too impressed mind you, and it costs $70 in full. At the moment I am using Adobe lightroom beta, it is the best so far. But I dread to think how much it is going to cost when it comes out in full.
These are all great apps for managing your photos.
When it comes to free image manipulation/editing. The Gimp or [url="http://plasticbugs.com/index.php?p=241]Gimpshop[/url] is the way to go. These are both free and have nearly everything that the industry standard Photoshop has, though the UI is a little bit difficult to get used to.
Have a go try all the software out, most of them have free trials. Decide which one you like best and get stuck in!!!
iphoto is a great app, I just wasn't happy with it when I started shooting RAW. Canon Digital Photo Professional is also really good (free with a canon dslr!). I also played around with a bibble trial, not too impressed mind you, and it costs $70 in full. At the moment I am using Adobe lightroom beta, it is the best so far. But I dread to think how much it is going to cost when it comes out in full.
These are all great apps for managing your photos.When it comes to free image manipulation/editing. The Gimp or [url="http://plasticbugs.com/index.php?p=241]Gimpshop[/url] is the way to go. These are both free and have nearly everything that the industry standard Photoshop has, though the UI is a little bit difficult to get used to.
Have a go try all the software out, most of them have free trials. Decide which one you like best and get stuck in!!!
kildraik said:
Yeah, I heard about this app and never got a chance to try it out. It does sound nice.
kildraik said:
Aperture is NOT a photo editor. It is designed to speed up the processing of large numbers of images. OK it's an editor if by "edit" you mean "to select some and reject others". Most people use the terms "photo editor" to refer to something like Photoshop that is used to edit an image
If you are looking to get some Photoshop-like software for free you should look at "Gimp". www.gimp.org This is not "light weight" and it's price does not reflect quality. With software the best can be free. Just look at Mac OSX. half or more of OSX is "Free" Open source software There are few things you cant do with gimp and if yu shoot JPG format then I's say there is nothing you can't do.
The only people I've hear say they don't like Gimp are people who are big time Photoshop users and their only complaint is that Gimps user interface is not exactly like Photoshop's. Kind of a stupid complaint if you ask me. You'd _expect_ then to not be the same
If you want "sort of free" buy a Wacom graphic tablet and notice that Photoshop Elements comes bundled with it.
Free image editing software?
Is there some free program for OS X which one can use to edit images as far as cut and pasting and superimposistion?
Is there some free program for OS X which one can use to edit images as far as cut and pasting and superimposistion?
wiseguy27 said:If only GIMP would come without the need for X11.
Why some do people not like X11?
ChrisA said:
I think it ranges from "doesn't look as nice or as integrated with other apps" to limitations in drag and drop and other interoperability issues...
Because it is an extra layer that needs to work correctly for you to use the program you need.ChrisA said:
I don't mind it, and in fact I like it. However it is a dependancy for some programs that I wish it wasn't.
whats the best photo editor for adding things and subtracting things to photos ????
also how do you make a color transparent in seashore??
also how do you make a color transparent in seashore??
To get 16-bit or 32-bit per component processing or do HDR the free option is CinePaint (a fork of the GIMP). It was used in the production of many movies.
But if you want to process RAW files, Photoshop Elements is cheap and it supports 16-bit, but not 32-bit or HDR. It also gives you access to many plugins.
But if you want to process RAW files, Photoshop Elements is cheap and it supports 16-bit, but not 32-bit or HDR. It also gives you access to many plugins.
Pixel Image Editor
http://www.kanzelsberger.com/pixel/?page_id=6
It costs $32 till the end of the year. I was running it on a Powerbook and just loaded it on my Macbook Pro. It has some photoshop features and can do HDR images. For the money it is the closest thing to a photoshop clone that is universal binary and cheap. I use photoshop CS but I always look for alternatives. I have tried Gimp, Inkwell and such. But Pixel comes the closest to an alternative.
http://www.kanzelsberger.com/pixel/?page_id=6
It costs $32 till the end of the year. I was running it on a Powerbook and just loaded it on my Macbook Pro. It has some photoshop features and can do HDR images. For the money it is the closest thing to a photoshop clone that is universal binary and cheap. I use photoshop CS but I always look for alternatives. I have tried Gimp, Inkwell and such. But Pixel comes the closest to an alternative.
http://www.digikam.org/
Digikam is a great program. Free, but Linux only. I might try to get it running with Fink. It supports 16bit images, CMYK, handles RAW formats, and has tons of editing/adjusting plugins.
Digikam is a great program. Free, but Linux only.
I might try to get it running with Fink. It supports 16bit images, CMYK, handles RAW formats, and has tons of editing/adjusting plugins.Of the three mentioned here, which is 'best' for "morphing" [or, where you can "paint" one jpg over/next to another, for example] - taking multiple images and placing them into one final image?
Don't mind paying for a better program, if such exists, so what would be other ideas to get that kind of effect? In just a quick look at the 'features' of the above three freebies, I don't clearly see where they can really do what I'm desiring, besides these brief blurbs...
gimpshop: "It offers an extremely powerful gradient editor and blend tool."
seashore: "Layers with over 20 merging effects"
imagewell: "Transparency Control"
Guess will d/l these and give 'em a whirl. In anycase, all three look quite
. Just need to be able to do that multiple images morphing. If you enter two words "gimp morph" (no quotes) in a Google search box you will get many hits and leads to tutorials and examples. Many people are using the "xmorph" plug in.
Thanks ChrisA. Unfortunately, I may have used the wrong term, 'morphing', as that is more of a video/animation, where image(s) change into different version. I'm looking in this particular case where multiple images can be grouped or saved all together as one, overlaying them and/or placing side-by-side. Maybe the correct term is 'painting'. Previously, had used a program from Ulead, Photo Express, which looked at again last night - they use the terms 'painting' and 'clone'.
Did a quick search and found these related to GIMP:
http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/feature/15037.html
http://docs.gimp.org/en/gimp-tools-paint.html
Interesting...
Did a quick search and found these related to GIMP:
http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/feature/15037.html
http://docs.gimp.org/en/gimp-tools-paint.html
Interesting...
Im wondering how to superimpose a head onto a body. I have iphoto but i cant figure out how to use it (i just started using it.) i need to do this for a computer class project so i need a fast reply thanks.