Open Source and free software

[Ian Grant]

Lets be frank from the outset I'm a committed film userand darkroom printer, but I need to use digital occasionally and have done for well over 20 years.

Having said that I was into the terabytes of Digital images over 10 yeas ago mostly for work so know the issues of image processing etc.

I won't accept the Adobe Photoshop/Lightroom licensing, I do keep relatively up to date with Coreldraw (licensed) but Photopaint is not that good. Paintshop Pro was once excellent but the current versions interface is awful. Microrafx Picture Publisher was my main editing software for many years - it had layers well before Photoshop, but was bought by Corel and dropped.

Now I use LightZone a free alternative to Lightroom, GIMP a free alternative to Photoshop, Inkscape for the odd function not in CorelDraw. I've used Libre/Open Office for a decade as well

My point is all you need is free, you can contribute financially if you wish, I do occasionally.

The latest Open Source software I've installed id Hugin which is brilliant for multiple exposure Panoramas.

Ian

 

[Pete Askew]

Thanks, Ian.

 

[Ian Grant]

This is a seriously downsized image re-done with Hugin last night.when I first put it together it was by hand in Picture Publisher

It's Yr Wyddfa from the Horseshoe pass in Wales.

 

[Julian de'Courcy]

Thanks Ian. Ive used most and loved Corel some ten or more years ago but seemed to go backward over the years

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Wow, that's one heck of a pano!

Just in case anyone missed it (Julian!) click on Ian's words "seriously downsized image" - the greyed-out text is hard to see on my screen.

 

[Julian de'Courcy]

Wow, that's one heck of a pano!

Just in case anyone missed it (Julian!) click on Ian's words "seriously downsized image" - the greyed-out text is hard to see on my screen.

Yes I saw it. I have Hugin . The other decent stitcher for those with Windows be it on a mac or not is Microsoft ICE http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/ice/

 

[Ian Grant]

Thanks Ian. Ive used most and loved Corel some ten or more years ago but seemed to go backward over the years

I've used CorelDraw since version 3 and it's always been way ahead of Illustrator, I used to do a lot of commercial graphics and used it for all sorts of printed materials, calendars, posters, advertising flyers, books etc.

My main gripe though is PhotoPaint isn't that good it's been very neglected.

Ian

 

[Ian Grant]

Yes I saw it. I have Hugin . The other decent stitcher for those with Windows be it on a mac or not is Microsoft ICE http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/ice/

Actually I used Microsoft ICE from it's first release but the current version is way behind Hugin and not as useful as the older versions which I found much better.

Ian

 

[Julian de'Courcy]

Actually I used Microsoft ICE from it's first release but the current version is way behind Hugin and not as useful as the older versions which I found much better.

Ian

Not actually used either for a year or so and and forgot I had them until it was mentioned here. I do though use Cs6 I never inspect things to closely but does an ok job at stitching. I fortunately got a stand alone version prior to them going to the cloud I enjoy it mostly because I know it well.

 

[Ian Grant]

Not actually used either for a year or so and and forgot I had them until it was mentioned here. I do though use Cs6 I never inspect things to closely but does an ok job at stitching. I fortunately got a stand alone version prior to them going to the cloud I enjoy it mostly because I know it well.

I always found Hugin difficult to use but now all the tools work from one interface so it's far more intuitive. I've been typically stiching 8 or more images together t is possible to do it in Photoshop, I used to do them in Picture Publisher but it's very time consuming and Hugin works quite fast and I find the quality excellent.

Ian

 

[Julian de'Courcy]

I always found Hugin difficult to use but now all the tools work from one interface so it's far more intuitive. I've been typically stiching 8 or more images together t is possible to do it in Photoshop, I used to do them in Picture Publisher but it's very time consuming and Hugin works quite fast and I find the quality excellent.

Ian

Ian what amazes me with Cs6 is, not saying any software is better than another or even know, is that Ive put in several shots of differing exposures and it takes care of that. I'd guess other software do this maybe also. I'll look up Hugin again and give it a try next time.