Photo Ring

Photoshop versus GIMP?

My xp stuffed up, so i had to get linix, and i loved photoshop and obviously i cant use that now. Can GIMP be a good replacement for xp? Is there a huge difference? Should i just save and get microsoft?

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you can use gimp as well as you use PS, but you must learn it as well as you learn PS too

Both programs provide a strong set of basic photo editing commands and tools:

1)Ability to open/import most of the basic bitmap graphic filetypes including PNG, JPG, GIF;
2)Ability to adjust those images with crop, rotate, resize and many other transformations;
3)Ability to make local retouches, sharpening and other image corrections;
4)Do color and exposure/lightness corrections with a broad range of dialogs and tools;
5)Mask selective areas on an image(or layer)- only there will edits/brushstrokes apply;
6)Allow creating a stack of two or dozens of layers from other images, text, vector graphics, etc;
7)Allow filters or special effects to be applied to one or more layers including the base image;
8)Produce output to several graphic filetypes, printers, and/or web pages/galleries.

yeah, i know PS is more pro than GIMP, but if u cant use PS, dont bother with it. use GIMP as well

hope my point of view help you …

Notebook or Net-book for a broke writer?

I’m a student with very little money, and I already have a Toshiba Laptop. But it’s a few years old, it tends to over heat and is so big and heavy I don’t bring it anywhere with me. I’m sore after carrying it around with me for just a few minutes.
I would really like a more portable alternative that is smaller, and cheaper so I won’t worry about hurting it as much.
So Notebook or Net-book?
I just don’t know which I should go with. I’m considering another Notebook so I can run photoshop on it, but that isn’t a requirement. I am mainly just looking for something small, and cheap that can run Word. Any suggestions? Or should I just save my money?

if you’re really ready to upgrade i’d say go with a notebook. netbooks are great. i have one and love it. but it’s really more of a supplemental computer. i also have a macbook that i use on a daily basis. the netbook is more for travel. netbooks are cheaper but have their drawbacks. namely, for you, i’d say it’s the smaller keyboard. since you’re a writer and would probably using the computer extensively to write the smaller keyboard of the netbook would probably drive you crazy after a short while. even using my netbook to blog when i travel can drive me crazy if it’s a longer entry.
if you shop around you can find a full size laptop to suit your needs for under $400. newegg.com always has great deals and often carries refurbished laptops for great prices. many of the big box stores also have great deals especially around the holidays. keep your eyes peeled and when you see something that’s too good to pass up, just get it!

Reducing the grain that is found in photographic film has been a problem since the creation of film as we know it.

What is film grain you ask? To be technical, film grain is caused by the silver halide crystals in light-sensitive photographic emulsions. The faster the film, the larger the grain size. The larger the grain size the more evident the film grain becomes. Larger grains, or silver halide crystals, give film a greater sensitivity to light. That is why faster films have more grain.

Digital GEM is a technology that was developed by a company called Applied Science Fiction. The GEM acronym actually stands for Grain Equalization & Management. What DIGITAL GEM does is that it analyzes a film’s grain pattern, extracts all data that is related to image quality, color and sharpness, and removes the grain from the scanned image. This results in dramatically improved images. This is essentially the equivalent of noise reduction in digital images.

So, who should use this technology? It is my opinion that this technology should always be used when any type of film image is to be scanned into a digital format. When applied, this technology can greatly improve the overall quality of an image by reducing or, in some cases, removing the unwanted grain altogether. Using this technology in conjunction with other technologies and photo correction techniques your photographs can have the wow factor that you have always dreamed about.

Even in the world of digital photography these days, most photographers are using some sort of noise reduction technology to clean up there digital images. As part of my regular workflow I use Noise Ninja which is an excellent product that can be used as a Photoshop plugin. It can be run in automatic, which is great for running batch files, or in manual mode.

As part of my regular workflow when scanning in my personal images I always use Digital ICE and Digital GEM with a setting of 3 or 4 out of 5. These settings appear to give the optimum results for reducing film grain on images.

Unlike Digital ICE, Digital GEM appears to work very well on Black and White film as well as Kodachrome films. Digital ICE cannot be used on Black and White film, unless it was developed in color, and has reduced impact on Kodachrome films.

Digital GEM is considered to be part of the Digital ICE4 group of technologies. Also included in this group are Digital ICE, which is used to remove surface defects, Digital ROC, which is used to restore and correct color, and Digital SHO, which is used to optimize exposure and contrast. There are several scanners on the market today that use this technology today. These would include the Nikon Coolscan 5000 and 9000 series film scanners that we use as well as the Epson 4990 flatbed scanner that we use for scanning photographs and large format positives and negatives.

About the Author:

Stephen Cornfield is a photographer who has several years experience photographing weddings, sporting and informal events. His company, Photo Field Imaging, www.photofieldimaging.com, also provides photo editing, restoration and scanning services for all types of photographs, film and slides.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Digital GEM: Going Against The Film Grain