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Beyond Photoshop

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88V8
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Beyond Photoshop

#349275

Postby 88V8 » October 20th, 2020, 6:08 pm

Didn't get on with Photoshop.
Probably didn't spend sufficient time learning to use it.
I stuck with Olympus Viewer 2, which is pretty old hat, but does all I need.

This, Luminar AI https://newatlas.com/photography/lumina ... d-92456261 aims to be the next thing. Beyond Photoshop.

Photography used to be about capturing what one saw. Now it seems to be about capturing what one would like to have seen, or indeed inventing what was never there. Photography as art.

Recently made a desultory start on sorting a huge pile of hard-copy photos. Trying to remember what and when they were, deciding whether and which ones to keep. Thousands. Forty years of clicking. As OH said, will we ever look at these? And should we scan them?

The prints will still be here in 20,30,40 years when someone else is making that decision. Not so sure about our digital photos.

V8

swill453
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Re: Beyond Photoshop

#349279

Postby swill453 » October 20th, 2020, 6:23 pm

88V8 wrote:The prints will still be here in 20,30,40 years when someone else is making that decision. Not so sure about our digital photos.

That's one way of looking at it. But I've got boxes under the bed with old slides and photos and I never look at them, but my digital archive of 30,000+ images from 2001 onwards is instantly to hand wherever I am in the world, and always will be.

(I get you point about when one pops one's clogs though, they'll still be "out there" but will anyone know?)

Scott.

JohnB
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Re: Beyond Photoshop

#349307

Postby JohnB » October 20th, 2020, 7:55 pm

Scanning is the easy part, labelling them is harder and throwing any of them away is like killing your children

I'd focus on photos of family and views that trigger memories. If you can't remember taking it, why document it?

88V8
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Re: Beyond Photoshop

#349316

Postby 88V8 » October 20th, 2020, 8:17 pm

JohnB wrote:If you can't remember taking it, why document it?

Partly because it reminds me that I was there.
Wherever 'there' was :?

V8

stewamax
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Re: Beyond Photoshop

#364440

Postby stewamax » December 9th, 2020, 1:32 pm

I own the maternal family archive of glass slides that were taken 1904 - 1918, most in still recognisable locations around Chester and of people I knew as a child.
Having scanned the lot, I now need to decide what to do with this relic of the past, all neatly labelled in partitioned wooden boxes.

When I ceased riding, I sold my breeches and other riding impedimenta but held on to all my Northampton-made bespoke boots (with trees) on the specious 'just in case' grounds that I could never afford to replace them. But last year I gave in, advertised, and they were snapped up.
But the slides are worthless outside my family but of huge sentimental value, particularly at this time of year: my grandfather used them for magic lantern projector presentations on Xmas night (I have the original magic lantern as well).

AsleepInYorkshire
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Re: Beyond Photoshop

#364450

Postby AsleepInYorkshire » December 9th, 2020, 2:21 pm

88V8 wrote:Didn't get on with Photoshop.
Probably didn't spend sufficient time learning to use it.
I stuck with Olympus Viewer 2, which is pretty old hat, but does all I need.

This, Luminar AI https://newatlas.com/photography/lumina ... d-92456261 aims to be the next thing. Beyond Photoshop.

Photography used to be about capturing what one saw. Now it seems to be about capturing what one would like to have seen, or indeed inventing what was never there. Photography as art.

Recently made a desultory start on sorting a huge pile of hard-copy photos. Trying to remember what and when they were, deciding whether and which ones to keep. Thousands. Forty years of clicking. As OH said, will we ever look at these? And should we scan them?

The prints will still be here in 20,30,40 years when someone else is making that decision. Not so sure about our digital photos.

V8

I've long held (or at least for 13 years) that I should allow my daughter to tinker with stuff. She has a bridge camera and has taken some stunning photographs. She has a Wacom graphic tablet and has played around with that too. She's recently shown interest in Adobe Photoshop so "we've" acquired a decent spec new laptop for her Xmas present.

I've had a quick look at this software and it does seem pretty slick. So does the price though. Would you happen to know which of the software I need for her or haven't you looked that close yet?

Thank you for the heads up it does look like some nifty software.

AiY

stewamax
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Re: Beyond Photoshop

#364519

Postby stewamax » December 9th, 2020, 5:34 pm

Photoshop is big, complex, has a substantial learning curve but is the bees-knees. It is subscription only.
Try Photoshop Elements which is a one-time purchase at around £50 and has all the fundamental features of Photoshop.

staffordian
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Re: Beyond Photoshop

#364537

Postby staffordian » December 9th, 2020, 6:16 pm

It seems a bit unfashionable these days, but I think GIMP has a lot going for it.

For a start, it's free :D

Like Photoshop, there is a relatively steep learning curve, but IMHO it can do all that PS can, (though a graphics professional might disagree with this), and I've never failed to find an instructional video on YouTube to cover whatever I need to do.

kyu66
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Re: Beyond Photoshop

#364551

Postby kyu66 » December 9th, 2020, 7:15 pm

For photo processing Adobe Photoshop/Lightroom subscription is the gold standard.

Lightroom for digital asset management (DAM) and Photoshop for stuff that cannot be done in Lightroom. However, it is subscription based and for a beginner it is overkill. I would second the use of something like Photoshop Elements as a one-off purchase to get someone started but it does tend to tie you into Adobe somewhat.

Free Open Source alternatives are:
- digikam - DAM and RAW processing/editing
- RawTherapee - very powerful RAW convertor and editor, it outshines Lightroom in some areas (but not a DAM)
- darktable - similar to RawTherapee
- GIMP - direct Photoshop alternative (very very capable but not as good as Photoshop)

Whichever route you take the software has a steep learning curve (Lightroom the least) but they all do similar things and once the processes are learnt they are reasonably easy to transfer onto other software.

There are Youtube channels devoted to this stuff so there are plenty of tutorials to watch/work along with.

NomoneyNohoney
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Re: Beyond Photoshop

#364643

Postby NomoneyNohoney » December 10th, 2020, 7:37 am

I've not used it myself, but a lot of people enthuse about Affinity : https://www.photography-raw.com/affinity-photo-review/

Just offering the article for a read, to see if it's worth the OP investigating.

+

There is another free program that I've also heard good mentions of: Photopea, which works in your browser.

Have a look here https://www.windowscentral.com/photopea ... ur-browser to see if it whets your appetite. It seems very competent.

NomoneyNohoney
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Re: Beyond Photoshop

#364652

Postby NomoneyNohoney » December 10th, 2020, 7:59 am

88V8 wrote:
The prints will still be here in 20,30,40 years when someone else is making that decision. Not so sure about our digital photos.

V8


If it's of any interest, in my box of papers for my executors, I also have an external hard drive, similar to this kind of thing:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1TB-USB-3-0- ... 4045290639?

It contains all my digital family photos, plus a photo viewer program and a USB cable.

I update the photos every couple of years or so, in the hope that whoever goes through my stuff finds a stand-alone USB drive, that they just have to plug into a PC, and the USB port powers it on (no mains adaptor needed.) That way, they have a simple and I hope long-lasting digital photo store, independent of whatever happens to my old computer. They can either keep it in a drawer for eternity, or whatever - at least I've given them the chance not to lose access to family photos with my passing.

I had toyed with the idea of burning my photos to DVDs but feel that a 'normal' hard drive will survive the years unscathed, better than flash drives or DVDs, and by including the USB housing, it should be instantaneously accessible, without my successors having to work out how to play an obsolete or outdated format.

staffordian
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Re: Beyond Photoshop

#364667

Postby staffordian » December 10th, 2020, 9:10 am

NomoneyNohoney wrote:
88V8 wrote:
The prints will still be here in 20,30,40 years when someone else is making that decision. Not so sure about our digital photos.

V8


If it's of any interest, in my box of papers for my executors, I also have an external hard drive, similar to this kind of thing:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1TB-USB-3-0- ... 4045290639?

It contains all my digital family photos, plus a photo viewer program and a USB cable.

I update the photos every couple of years or so, in the hope that whoever goes through my stuff finds a stand-alone USB drive, that they just have to plug into a PC, and the USB port powers it on (no mains adaptor needed.) That way, they have a simple and I hope long-lasting digital photo store, independent of whatever happens to my old computer. They can either keep it in a drawer for eternity, or whatever - at least I've given them the chance not to lose access to family photos with my passing.

I had toyed with the idea of burning my photos to DVDs but feel that a 'normal' hard drive will survive the years unscathed, better than flash drives or DVDs, and by including the USB housing, it should be instantaneously accessible, without my successors having to work out how to play an obsolete or outdated format.

The problem is, even USBs or even computers as we know them might be obsolete when someone decides to deal with things. Floppy disks aren't that old , and how many could read one of those now? :)

NomoneyNohoney
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Re: Beyond Photoshop

#364676

Postby NomoneyNohoney » December 10th, 2020, 9:41 am

If needed, the USB housing could be opened and the standard drive extracted. I'm sure people will be able to read hard drives for many years to come, one way or another.

NomoneyNohoney
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Re: Beyond Photoshop

#364742

Postby NomoneyNohoney » December 10th, 2020, 11:40 am

NomoneyNohoney wrote:
There is another free program that I've also heard good mentions of: Photopea, which works in your browser.

Have a look here https://www.windowscentral.com/photopea ... ur-browser to see if it whets your appetite. It seems very competent.


Just for curiosity, since posting the above comment, I've been experimenting with the Photopea program, and I'm very impressed.
Layout is obviously based on Photoshop, the tools are pretty well the same, it opens and handles .psd files with ease, and all the keyboard shortcuts that you use on Photoshop seem to work exactly the same in Photopea. Layers and so on are just the same as with PS, so it's easily usable, if you usually use Photoshop.

I'd expect that the speed of processing will be influenced by how much RAM you have in your computer or laptop - mine has 12 or 16 GB RAM so you might get different results, which will influence your opinion of the program, if it's laggy or slow, but for me, it's a very acceptable alternative, with the bonus that its free.

servodude
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Re: Beyond Photoshop

#364757

Postby servodude » December 10th, 2020, 12:15 pm

NomoneyNohoney wrote:If needed, the USB housing could be opened and the standard drive extracted. I'm sure people will be able to read hard drives for many years to come, one way or another.


Indeed, USB has been pretty good at maintaining backwards compatibility for 20 years or so not

Just give your drive a spin every so often (to help prevent stuff seizing)
- once a year is probably fine
- and if you haven't used a fancy partition format (which will be forgotten) and you'll be fine for a few decades

Eventually it will de-magnetise a bit (1-2% a year)
- so probably worth copying it all to a new USB HDD every decade or so

I've got a job to do converting a bunch of miniDV and one 14 year old Vaio laptop with the right FireWire port to do it
- problem is it's a 1x real time job to transfer the video
- and I really am not that enthusiastic about reliving most of it right now

-sd

BobbyD
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Re: Beyond Photoshop

#364996

Postby BobbyD » December 11th, 2020, 8:30 am

NomoneyNohoney wrote:If needed, the USB housing could be opened and the standard drive extracted. I'm sure people will be able to read hard drives for many years to come, one way or another.


If USB has become unusable the native connector on the drive will have been long lost to the mists of time.

AsleepInYorkshire
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Re: Beyond Photoshop

#365018

Postby AsleepInYorkshire » December 11th, 2020, 9:45 am

Thank you for the heads up regarding all the options available.

My daughters been using Adobe Photoshop at school. For those who are joining mid-thread may I just point out that's she's 13 (going on 22 :lol: ). She's doesn't have a flair for art but simply enjoys it. She fills her spare time well, although I must admit she's getting [typically] stuck to the TV. Hmm ... I suspect that's a direct cause of C19. Anyway I digress.

Adobe do a Student package for just over £16/month for all their software. I'm always happy to spend to support her where it's correct to do so. I think the two options I've focused on are this package or Luminaire 4 with the AI which I think is a one off cost of £119. Neither are budget breakers.

I'd welcome thoughts and advice from those who are more familiar with this type of software please. Noting she's getting a new laptop for Christmas which will handle either of the above with ease.

Thank you

AiY

servodude
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Re: Beyond Photoshop

#365348

Postby servodude » December 12th, 2020, 6:06 am

AsleepInYorkshire wrote:I'd welcome thoughts and advice from those who are more familiar with this type of software please. Noting she's getting a new laptop for Christmas which will handle either of the above with ease


Both my daughters have used the Adobe suite on their school laptops for school stuff (via school license)
- and once they were comfortable with what they were doing (rather than just how they were doing it) moving to other software wasn't a problem
- and I find it reassuring that they didn't feel constrained in what they could use

I even found one of them choosing to use gimp for some project - which I find to be quite "different" from most of that ilk

The thing that really got them involved in stuff beyond the minimum for school, was a decent stylus on a touchscreen; they both found it much more direct than mouse or Wacom pad

-sd


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