

What you can do with the Gimp - macco
http://www.rosiehardy.com/1145-self-portraits

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vanderZwan
I might use GIMP for finishing touches or work involving multiple layers, but
on the whole darktable[1] is a much better option for the vast majority of
photography work, both in terms of UI and plugins.

EDIT: And that is not because I think GIMP is terrible, but because darktable
was designed as photography workflow software. That results in better fitting
UI for this use case, and non-destructive higher precision image manipulation
(floating point values instead of 8-bit channels, if I understand correctly).

EDITEDIT: There's also RawTherapee[2], but I haven't followed the development
of that and can't say how it compares these days.

[1] <http://www.darktable.org/>

[2] <http://www.rawtherapee.com/>

~~~
lttlrck
Darktable _is_ awesome, but should be compared to Aperture and Lightroom.

~~~
grumps
I'm actually trying out Dark table. Currently its crapping out on some Tiff
files. I have yet to report the bug.

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pcx66
One can do the same stuff in Photoshop with less learning. But this also shows
it to the GIMP skeptics that if you put a little more hardwork GIMP can do
outstanding stuff too and you will also save a good amount of money. GIMP is a
boon to beginners (& students specifically). It's free, capable and
accessible. Stuff like this should be showcased a little more so that
beginners don't run away from GIMP.

I for one am happy they put all the stuff in a single window. GIMP & Blender
are those FOSS killer apps in multimedia/graphic tools, they give lots of
power to the user. I would like to see some FOSS app do so well in video
editing & FX. The ones we have now are not even comparable to Adobe/Autodesk
ones.

~~~
dizzystar
I use both Gimp and Photoshop. I don't agree that the learning curve of Gimp
is shallower than Photoshop. I also disagree that mastering Gimp will save
money in the long term.

\-- The tools that are available in Gimp are basically broken, _especially_
the fuzzy-select tool. In Photoshop, you usually click and go on, in Gimp, you
always have a halo and then you have to dive into pixel deletion. I don't care
how good you are at Gimp, this will cost you tons of money.

\-- "Smart Objects" in PS. There is no debate which is better. Working with
Vector to Raster conversion is clean. You can open EPS in Gimp, but the
conversion is terrible. To get it to look right after rasterizing will cost
several hours.

\-- Photoshop has CMYK, various RGB modes, etc.

\-- Text in Gimp...

I thought it was well-understood that Gimp is not meant to be a replacement
for Photoshop. A half-user of PS will pay for the program in less than a week
if you consider $$/hr.

With that said, I always tell beginners to try out Gimp before trying
Photoshop. The first things one must master is working with layers and pixel
manipulation and Gimp is a free way to learn that. Photo manipulation is not
everyone's cup o' tea either, and telling someone to get PS before Gimp is
like telling a new pianist to buy a Steinway when a Casio will do well for the
initial learning curve. Moving to Photoshop is more or less learning a few
oddities and relearning hot-keys after a certain point, which is really no big
deal.

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etfb
A better title would be:

 _What you can do with artistic talent and sufficient time even despite the
Gimp._

~~~
smtddr
GIMP gets a bad rep, but really it's pretty good if you get over the fact that
it doesn't do everything like photoshop. That being said, I am aware that
Photoshop has several advanced features that are simply not present in GIMP
right now... and I'm still waiting for GIMP 2.8 to be the default install so
everyone can stop complaining about the floating windows.

~~~
damncabbage
And unfortunately some more basic features. :(

I've been using GIMP for the last eight years now, and I still run up against:

* Bad text handling. Can't kern individual letters, just coarsely set tracking for the entire block; this is particularly bad given Linux's decidedly average font rendering.

* Fuzzy Selection needs a _lot_ of manual cleanup.

* CMYK. I have to jump over to Adobe tools on the Macbook whenever I want to work with things destined for print.

I'm not a professional graphics/design guy; I'm a mostly-backend web developer
who dabbles in graphics and print design on occasion. I want to love GIMP, I
really do. :(

(I'm running GIMP 2.8 on Ubuntu 12.10; I've been a Linux user since Red Hat
7.2, so it's not a Noobuntu issue.)

~~~
pbhjpbhj
GIMP is terrible for text input, but then it's a raster graphics app and so I
don't really think it's a major use case. I tend to use GIMP for photo editing
mainly and then use those raster elements in Inkscape for composition and
anything vector-y.

Inkscape is pretty good for text but there are still some things that trip me
up on it. It could use some of the multi-page elements from Scribus IMO.

~~~
michaelbuddy
At first I was thrilled Gimp 2.8 added live text input. But I don't use it
because when I make text, naturally I want to do Layer Styles to it like
Photoshop and I can't. For 11 years now I've been waiting for GIMP to get
those features that would make it usable for me. It's always just a tool to
play around with every month or so.

I think in the next 5 years Linux will get a port or a new graphics app that
will take Gimp to the cleaners.

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gabriele
The Gimp finally supporting [1] a 16-bit workflow could make its way to pro
photo retouching.

[1]
[https://plus.google.com/116634837115748851709/posts/hY3orKUQ...](https://plus.google.com/116634837115748851709/posts/hY3orKUQAGg)

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shocks
You can also do this [1] with MS Paint, but that doesn't make it the best tool
for the job.

1: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUWqRhReaZk>

~~~
iso8859-1
That one doesn't work in Germany, but here's Mona Lisa:
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3anYbEtl9E>

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bulatb
A gallery page is not very specific. What is it you can do?

~~~
NuZZ
It doesn't appear to be obvious in what way these pictures are enhanced,
either, as one would need the originals to compare. I'd be more inclined to
judge Gimp with pure digital art.

~~~
skore
I think it's a somewhat sleazy ploy to get people to find the tutorial DVD
that you can buy[0]. There does seem to be some content there, but I really
don't like this submission as it only says "here is what you could achieve"
without giving away at least a little tutorial. I _could_ achieve the Mona
Lisa with MS Paint, probably, but how is that noteworthy?

[0] <http://www.rosiehardy.com/online-tutorials>

~~~
pseut
"Here's what you can achieve with oil paints and a brush! Buy the DVD to learn
how!"

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zokier
I don't think the end results are a good way to judge software such as this. I
mean can you judge text editor based on some apps people have written with
them?

~~~
iso8859-1
If you consider speed too, then maybe. For example, if I see a 100 page
document, and I'm told word wrapping was done manually cause the test editor
was incapable, it is a bad text editor.

~~~
michaelbuddy
wordwrapping.... hmm based on that, it sounds like some text editors are worse
than web-based email clients.

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michaelbuddy
As much as gimp bugs me, I do play with it occasionally and dream one day of
being able to squeeze everything out of it that it can do.

check out gimp magazine, which is a good window into what regular power users
manage to achieve with it. <http://gimpmagazine.org/>

I learned about the GMIC filters from reading it. Also learned there's an
online image filtering app from the same creators, which is pretty cool -
<https://gmicol.greyc.fr/>

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jpkeisala
Are these photos manipulated in Gimp?

~~~
sp332
Most likely. Under the "online tutorials" link she says, _There are also
tutorials which cover a range of editing techniques - including the basics and
tools of GIMP, the editing program I use._

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smokingkipper
I would have loved to have been able to pay for a download to those DVDs she
is selling.

~~~
michaelbuddy
how about a CD-Rom with some Real Player .ram files.

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happywolf
It is very hard to judge how much touch-ups are done (i.e. how much Gimp is
used) if the pre-production images are not shown.

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pandeiro
Wish she had some screencasts.

~~~
macco
Actually she has:

<https://www.youtube.com/user/rosieburst> <http://www.rosiehardy.com/online-
tutorials>

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moron4hire
I haven't checked recently (as in any time in the last 6 months). Does the
Gimp have color profiling yet? Without it, it will be completely useless for
professional photography. It might be fine for making pretty pictures to show
off to people on message boards, but real pro photography is about print, and
real, pro print houses care about getting color right.

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antidaily
You can also bring him out.

