Photo editing software

[zetta]

Can anyone recommend some photo editing software that goes beyond the basics (crop, red-eye, color adjust, etc.)? I'm looking for something that will do things like cut and paste a person in/out of a photo, blur a nipple that was inadvertantly caught in the picture, cut/paste open eyes from one photo to another, etc...

[Broken Arrow]

blur a nipple that was inadvertantly caught in the picture

Um, that made me stop and laugh because... I'm immature. But I know you're a mom so I know what you mean.

Well, I currently use freewares. Irfanview is an absolutely wonderful freebie if all you need is something like cropping or basic (automatic) color adjustment for the entire image.

For specific touch-ups, I usually turn to GIMP. That's not as easy of a software to use, but it is more than up to task. Gimp is also free.

If you don't mind paying some money, then a huge world of choices opens up. The stalwart king of photo editing hill is of course Photoshop. The cheaper Elements version will also do everything Gimp does, but Photoshop's most advanced tools (such as healing touch) are reserved for their professional version.

If you really want to get serious, then I also recommend looking into something like Corel painter and a decent-sized Wacom graphics tablet. But that's probably way overkill.

When using these more powerful editors, I recommend experimenting with smudge and clone. The results can be hit or miss, but if you think about it, blur won't give you a professional-looking result.

There is more, but that should be enough to get you started.

[zetta]

Originally Posted by zetta
blur a nipple that was inadvertantly caught in the picture
Um, that made me stop and laugh because... I'm immature. But I know you're a mom so I know what you mean.

Yeah, we've got a great picture that unfortunately would result in a real Seinfeld moment!

[disneysteve]

I swear by Photoshop. Elements will do 99.9% of what the typical person needs. In fact, most users, myself included, won't ever use even 50% of Elements' features.

[MonkeyMama]

Since my spouse is a pro, we have Photo Shop, which is awesome. I think it came with Elements - which I agree, has anything most people would need.

Since I just got a netbook, dh installed Infanview because it is smaller. I have found it is all I need, and it was free. We were considering GIMP as well. Pretty much, the next step if Infanview doesn't cut it.

[kork13]

Zetta, thanks for asking this -- I've been meaning to look into it myself for my photography, and I appreciate the input thus-far.... I've always heard very good things about Elements, I think it's probably something worth downloading the trial version to do a test drive with. I'll also have to look into Gimp; I've never heard of it before.

...which, btw, for your specific purposes, you may just try downloading the trial version and doing it with that. For the length of the free trial, you get the benefit of the great software, can get your photos taken care of, and also get a chance to decide if you want to get the full version for your future use.

[Broken Arrow]

I'll also have to look into Gimp; I've never heard of it before.

It's an open-source, cross-platform project aimed at providing a free alternative to Photoshop.

The thing about Photoshop, Gimp, and Painter for that matter, is that the work flow for all of these applications are very different. So much so that digital artists tend to cut their teeth on only one. Once the work flow become fluid and transparent, you can then focus on the creative aspect of the work, rather than get bogged down fumbling around the menus to find where each tools are located and how they work.

The safe bet is definitely Photoshop though. The online resource and community is simply massive. For simple touch-ups, any of the above will do, and is even overkill.

If you're going to be on Linux at all, it's probably best to pretend Photoshop doesn't exist and get used to Gimp.

While I'm here, for those interested in focusing on website creation, I recommend looking into the Macromedia suite. I simply love the power and flexibility of Fireworks, and it is tightly integrated with Dreamweaver.

[Broken Arrow]

By the way, I just ran into Pixlr Express. Pixlr is a set of image editors, except it's they're free, online web apps! Amazing!

The link goes straight to their basic image editor that includes sharpen, auto color adjust, and red eye reduction. Might require a decent computer to use.

Here is their full editor for touch-ups.

[Guest]

Give Adobe Lightroom a look and see if it has all the features you need. It doesn't have the editing abilities of photoshop, but it's features are more geared for photograhers and is cheaper too.