PhotoActive

Peter Cope

Description

Photography can be an expensive hobby but it need not be as, these days, there is a wide range of free and low cost applications and software packages that offer sophisticated tools and techniques to help the amateur photographer to produce great photos. Using Free Image Manipulation Software explores the world of free (and almost free) image manipulation software and apps and provides guidance on how the software can help you to manipulate and enhance your photographs. This PhotoActive title also provides advice on free workflow software that can help you to process and store your images. The book covers software to use with digital cameras as well as apps for your smartphone or tablet, including, for example: Gimp, iPhoto, Picasa and Windows Media Centre for image manipulation, apps such as PureShot, Snapseed and Photogene4, and LightZone and DarkTable for image workflow. As well as considering what is on offer, Peter Cope examines what the software can and can't do when it comes to techniques like: - Converting colour images to black and white; - Cropping, colour and composition; - Removing red eye, adjusting for contrast and lighting, sharpening; - Major manipulations and creative transformations. Peter Cope has written many books that help beginners and amateur photographers develop skills and learn techniques to take their images from good to great. In this book he provides the same practical advice, helpful tips and useful shortcuts so that you can make the most of the free software that is available. With lots of photos and screen shots that demonstrate what you can achieve with the different software packages, Using Free Image Manipulation Software is an invaluable guide to developing your image manipulation skills in a cost-effective manner. So save your cash and start with what you can download for free - you will be amazed at what you can achieve with your photos.

Informations

• Publié par: RHE Media Limited
• Date de parution: 22 juillet 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781910226353
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

USING FREE IMAGE MANIPULATION SOFTWARE
By
PETER COPE


www.RHEMediaPhotography.co.uk

RHE Media Photography Titles
Series Editor: Tony Worobiec

Photographing Landscape and Weather by Tony Worobiec
Using Free Image Manipulation Software by Peter Cope
Camera Kids: Photography Projects for Children by Paul Sanders and Rachel Riley

MASTERCLASS TITLES:
Developing a Photographic Style by David Penprase
Exploring Black and White Photography by Paul Gallagher

For more information about our PhotoActive and PhotoWise series please visit our Photography website at www.RHEMediaPhotography.co.uk



CONTENTS
foreword: Tony Worobiec
introduction
1. Discovering Free Software Applications
2. Using Software to Improve your Photography
3. Discovering your Ideal Free Software Applications
4. Getting the Most from your Free Software
5. Creating Great Images on your Phone and Tablet
6. Wrap Up

FOREWORD

Peter Cope is an accomplished writer and photographer who has established an admirable reputation as someone who has fully explored and understood the potential of digital photography. In addition to his many books, he is regularly invited to write articles for numerous national photographic magazines. He enjoys a reputation of being able to engage with his readership, due in no small part to a very readable style of writing. So often books of this nature prove unappetisingly ‘techie’ and can so easily lose the reader’s attention. By way of contrast, Peter is a natural teacher who possesses the ability to explain issues from the point of view of the learner.
What makes Using Free Image Manipulation Software so interesting is that it is one of a very few publications to acknowledge the different ways we now take photographs. On a recent trip to Spain, I was impressed by just how many photographers were using either smartphones or tablets to capture prized moments and, I should hasten to add, with amazing success.
Aside from the excellent images contained within this publication, you sense Peter really has got the best out of the various software packages he discusses. His appreciation of what is currently available is broad-ranging to such an extent that I genuinely believe this book will prove of value not only to relative newcomers to photography, but also to seasoned pros who had mistakenly believed that Photoshop provided all the answers. Peter recognises that, in the same way as many of us have changed our habits regarding the downloading of music, a similar revolution has occurred with photography.

From a personal standpoint, I was both impressed and enthused by the range of software Peter was able to cover.
While this publication opens our eyes to what can be achieved with free imaging software, the author reminds us of the importance of taking good pictures in the first place; the numerous excellent illustrations he has included reinforce this. His comprehensive coverage of what can be achieved is clear and encouraging. While one senses the limits he is personally prepared to go to in order to manipulate an image, he remains non-judgemental, positively encouraging the reader to try for themselves and to find out what best suits them.
One very valuable point that other authors possibly do not consider is the need to organise folders. When shooting film, due to its many limitations, we would shoot fewer images but, with the ever-increasing file capacity of memory cards, photographers are now less restrained and as a consequence amass vastly more photographs than before. Peter Cope makes very useful suggestions as to how best to organise them.
Above all, this book celebrates creativity. The author encourages us to view the taking of the photograph as just the starting point, but then shows us how we are able to develop the image into a ‘personal masterpiece’. Better still, we are able to do this without ever having to spend the extra penny!
Tony Worobiec, April 2015


‘Free software’. It sounds compelling,doesn’t it? Doesn’t anything that is labelled‘free’ at least demand further investigation?In this book you will discover how,through the judicious selection of softwareresources that have no cost attached,you can enhance your photography, bothliterally and figuratively.

INTRODUCTION

I will start by giving an explanation of what is actually meant by ‘free software’ and why it is so. After all, you can’t really get sometime meaningful for free, can you? I will also look at what you can expect from this free software and what compromises – if any – you will need to accept when comparing it with commercially available software (spoiler: there are none!).
I will then continue this investigation of free software by looking at what you want from your photography. Though the software may be free, there is no point burdening yourself with a complex piece of kit when something simpler will suffice. Similarly, there is no reason to struggle with basic applications, attempting to do what a more sophisticated piece of software would take in its stride.
Also, I have not forgotten that many people today will shoot their images on mobile devices – smartphones, tablets and those hybrid phablets. Some will want to edit, manipulate and transform those images without the need to resort to a desktop or laptop computer, so I will take a close look at what is available here too.
What I will major on, though, is how you should always treat software as a tool – as much of a tool as your camera, your lenses, filters and flash kit. It is there to help you make your photography and your photographic experience better. Software is definitely a means to an end, rather than an end in itself.

While most will think of photographic software as synonymous with image manipulation software, there are other applications that won’t enhance your images but will support your photographic process and make your life easier. I’m talking here of applications such as those that help you keep track of – catalogue – your images and even those that help you process large number of images.
Photography is an expensive hobby. I hope that when you have read this book you’ll discover how, in terms of software at least, it need not be so. So save your hard-earned cash and, perhaps, put it towards that new lens or essential accessory, or even towards a visit to some great photogenic locations.
A small admission. When I talk about photo apps for iPhone, iPad and Android devices I do mention a small number of apps that come at a very small cost – no more than the equivalent of one or two music tracks. I know that breaks the ‘free’ ethos but, really, the benefits they could bring your photography far far outweigh that cost. Also, I’ve made sure that there are always some free alternatives.



Figure 1 (above) and Figure 2 (right) Black and white: we all tend to shoot in colour most of the time, but sometimes black and white delivers more powerful images. Use free software to convert to black and white and to control how the conversion is applied for the most dramatic results.


There is an alternative…
… to those compelling but expensive software products. You can use free software to enhance, transform and organise your images.




Figure 3 (left) and Figure 4 (above) The picture within: crop and manipulate images. Discover more powerful compositions and give your shots some real punch with widely available free software applications.



Figure 5 (above) and Figure 6 (left) Bold transformations: adding drama is a forte of many free software packages, and you can even apply bold transformations like this using apps on your smartphone. It is also often easier and quicker than using commercial software.




1

It doesn’t matter what kind of photo-grapher you are: enthusiastic amateur, accomplished pro or someone who just likes recording memories. It doesn’t matter what kind of camera you have: a simple compact, smartphone camera or the latest top-of-the-range marvel. We all aspire to take great photos. However, events often don’t allow us to realise those aspirations.

Discovering Free Software Applications

There are many reasons why the photos you take often don’t resemble those you thought you took or wanted to take. It might be something totally outside your control. The weather, for example, may project a flat, characterless light on your subjects, denying them the ‘zing’ or ‘punch’ you would get if you had taken the shot in bright sunlight. Conversely, bright sunshine might produce annoying shadows that mask the true form of the scene and put the people we shoot in deep shade. A landscape might be compromised by a row of vehicles across a wilderness scene or some clumsy and untidy scaffolding amid some landmark buildings. Or problems can be caused by something avoidable like your own carelessness.
Not so long ago, before the time of digital cameras, it was possible to fix many problems such as these through some deft – and very skilled – darkroom work. The skills necessary for such work commanded a premium in the commercial world so, if you did not have such abilities yourself, you would have to put up with below par images, as so many of us did.
In fact, if you were to look back through photographic magazines of the 1970s and even the 1980s you would probably be a little surprised at the type of images that were considered acceptable. Some of those magazines’ most prominent photographs look positively mediocre today. Skilled photographers –and readers too – would accept that absolute perfection was a rarity and that a degree of compromise was often necessary. Photographers would po