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Photography aids

Photography aids

Old Jul 8th 2012, 8:32 am
  #1  
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Default Photography aids

I've been asked a few times now about programs for making your digital photographs more attractive, i.e. photo manipulation. Maybe if people were to have a look and download this free program we could see some more pictures up in the Spanish Photograph thread

So have a look at Fast Stone Image Viewer

Its not a commercial site. Its free software, and it's easy to use and quite powerful. You can view your albums through it, and make simple changes to light, colours and much more

Have a go, and put some shots of your local area up on the Spanish Photo Thread

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Old Jul 8th 2012, 8:12 pm
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Default Re: Photography aids

Originally Posted by Mitzyboy
I've been asked a few times now about programs for making your digital photographs more attractive, i.e. photo manipulation. Maybe if people were to have a look and download this free program we could see some more pictures up in the Spanish Photograph thread

So have a look at Fast Stone Image Viewer

Its not a commercial site. Its free software, and it's easy to use and quite powerful. You can view your albums through it, and make simple changes to light, colours and much more

Have a go, and put some shots of your local area up on the Spanish Photo Thread


In what way does it differ from Windows Live Photo Gallery or Microsoft Office Picture Manager? ie what functions would be better/easier/etc? Cos I use these two and am generally quite happy but always happy to learn of better!
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Old Jul 8th 2012, 8:16 pm
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Default Re: Photography aids

Hi Mitzy, has it got the things I miss from CS3, like re sizer, find edges and good framing options ? ta
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Old Jul 8th 2012, 8:31 pm
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Default Re: Photography aids

Looks like a good tool. Probably as good as PS Elements
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Old Jul 8th 2012, 9:05 pm
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Default Re: Photography aids

All I can tell you is that photographers I know that used CS5 now use often instead. You can change colours, brightness, clone tool, frame tools, .... sharpen, blur, the following probably wont mean much to you, but it does far more than Windows Photo Manager

And its free, so why not just try it!

True Full Screen viewer with image zoom support and unique fly-out menu panels
Crystal-clear and customizable one-click image magnifier
Powerful image editing tools: Resize/resample, rotate/flip, crop, sharpen/blur, adjust lighting/colors/curves/levels etc.
Eleven re-sampling algorithms to choose from when resizing images
Image color effects: gray scale, sepia, negative, Red/Green/Blue adjustment
Image special effects: annotation, drop shadow, framing, bump map, sketch, oil painting, lens
Draw texts, lines, highlights, rectangles, ovals and callout objects on images
Clone Stamp and Healing Brush
Superior Red-Eye effect removal/reduction with completely natural looking end result
Multi-level Undo/Redo capability
One-touch best fit/actual size image display support
Image management, including tagging capability, with drag-and-drop and Copy To/Move To Folder support
Histogram display with color counter feature
Compare images side-by-side (up to 4 at a time) to easily cull those forgettable shots
Image EXIF metadata support (plus comment editing for JPEGs)
Configurable batch processing to convert/rename large or small collections of images
Slideshow creation with 150+ transition effects and music support (MP3, WMA, WAV...)
Create efficient image attachment(s) for emailing to family and friends
Print images with full page-layout control
Create fully configurable Contact Sheets
Create memorable artistic image montages from your family photos for personalized desktop wallpapers (Wallpaper Anywhere)
Acquire images from scanner. Support batch scanning to PDF, TIFF, JPEG and PNG
Versatile screen capture capability
Powerful Save As interface to compare image quality and control generated file size
Run favorite programs with one keystroke from within Image Viewer
Offer portable version of the program which can be run from a removable storage device
Configurable mouse wheel support
Support multiple program skins
Support dual-monitor configurations
And much more...
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Old Jul 8th 2012, 10:10 pm
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Default Re: Photography aids

It's a programme I have used for years, but purely as an image viewer. No way is it comparable to CS5, that's why one is free one one costs over £500!!! Anyone that switched from CS5 to FSIV either doesn't know anything about Photoshop and has never used it to it's full potential, or they have a hookey copy and never paid for it. I don't think there is hardly a day goes by when I don't use PS, but I'm still on an ancient PS3 version. FSIV is a nice programme but not in the same league as PS, nor does it claim to be.

Last edited by agoreira; Jul 8th 2012 at 10:13 pm.
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Old Jul 9th 2012, 7:34 am
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Default Re: Photography aids

Thanks for reminding me of this viewer Mitzyboy. I say 'viewer' because that's what I have always used it for. The earlier versions weren't so versatile and FSIV was useful for very quickly viewing lots of pictures to find or sort photos. I had it on my old computer and didn't remember to transfer it. I just downloaded 4.6. I see it does have many more options than the earlier versions. I agree with agoreira, I shan't be changing from my photo manager/editor, Lightroom 4, any time soon but will probably look out the installation file for my simpler version 2x as it can be very useful at times. I hope 2x will run on a 64 bit system.
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Old Jul 9th 2012, 7:35 am
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Default Re: Photography aids

Originally Posted by agoreira
It's a programme I have used for years, but purely as an image viewer. No way is it comparable to CS5, that's why one is free one one costs over £500!!! Anyone that switched from CS5 to FSIV either doesn't know anything about Photoshop and has never used it to it's full potential, or they have a hookey copy and never paid for it. I don't think there is hardly a day goes by when I don't use PS, but I'm still on an ancient PS3 version. FSIV is a nice programme but not in the same league as PS, nor does it claim to be.
Unfortunately it seems fashionable these days for some software developers that have written a very useful little programme that does a specific task very well to then try to reinvent the wheel and bloat it to add functions that are freely available elsewhere.
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Old Jul 9th 2012, 8:30 am
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Default Re: Photography aids

Originally Posted by rafikiphoto
Unfortunately it seems fashionable these days for some software developers that have written a very useful little programme that does a specific task very well to then try to reinvent the wheel and bloat it to add functions that are freely available elsewhere.
That's fine, if you have a programme that does everything you want for free, why pay for anything else? Lots of people swear by gimp for example, it does what they want, why pay for PS? I only ever shoot in RAW, and there's loads of free RAW converter programmes about, but you'll find anyone serious about their photography will be paying to use something like Lightroom or Capture One. A lot of people nowadays simply want a one click solution, click a button and something brilliant appears, or they are asking for actions to get an effect, the forums are full of them. Despite the abundance of free programmes about, PS can still charge silly prices and get away with it, there are people out there that are still prepared to pay for their product, why aren't they all using Faststone? Faststone will do the job for lots of people, and if that's the case, those people would be wasting their money on PS.

Last edited by agoreira; Jul 9th 2012 at 8:32 am.
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Old Jul 9th 2012, 9:07 am
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Default Re: Photography aids

Originally Posted by agoreira
Faststone will do the job for lots of people, and if that's the case, those people would be wasting their money on PS.
I think there is a bit of a myth that to be a "proper" photographer you have to use PS.

I have a friend who is president of the local camera club and that's definitely his attitude. The sad thing is that he takes lousy photos!

I've tried most of the photo programs and find PS so complicated that I doubt if many people use more than 10% of its functions!

These days I manage to do 90% of what I want in Picasa which is undoubtedly the easiest program to use and makes a great organiser for people who have no idea how to manage folders.

There is a world of difference between just getting the best out of a basic photo, which doesn't require much effort and being really creative which seems to be where the more sophisticated option come into their own.

Bearing in mind that probably 90% of all photos are now taken on a mobile phone, some of the apps available there are pretty good. I have used iPhoto on my iPad and that's pretty good.
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Old Jul 9th 2012, 10:06 am
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Default Re: Photography aids

Originally Posted by Fred James
I think there is a bit of a myth that to be a "proper" photographer you have to use PS.
That's not what I said, however I expect that most "proper" togs do you use PS. As I said for most amateur togs PS would be a waste of money, the freebies will do all that they need. As for not understanding PS, a lot of people will be using a hookey version so it doesn't matter if they don't use it, but the serious togs would not invest £500-600 in a programme without careful prior consideration. Certainly it's a huge learning curve with PS, probably those that have paid for it are prepared to do all the work necessary to get the most out of the programme. A lot that buy CS5 say, will have worked their way up from Elements and earlier versions of CS, so it's a natural progression. As you have noted, presidents of camera clubs are rarely the best photographers!
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Old Jul 9th 2012, 11:07 am
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Default Re: Photography aids

I think this has been taken a bit off the point

OK, I start in Camera RAW, I go to Fast Stone for the odd tweeks, then I go to Photoshop CS5 and / or Bibble.pro for finishing touches, or anything FS wont do

The point I'm making is that very good amateur photographers I know use FastStone as a starting point. For people who just want a simple program that is quite powerful without having to Span a fortune, it is an excellent choice .... all I was trying to do by posting this thread was to try and help budding photographers take a step up to a helpful aid
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Old Jul 9th 2012, 11:49 am
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Default Re: Photography aids

I was going to give you karma Mitzy but the website is all out off sync for me today, lines on top of each other and the karma box is almost all covered by the ad below it.
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Old Jul 9th 2012, 3:19 pm
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Default Re: Photography aids

Originally Posted by Mitzyboy
I think this has been taken a bit off the point
I have agreed Faststone is a good programme, it was just the bit about "is that photographers I know that used CS5 now use often instead." Just seems weird splashing the cash on PS, only for to give it up for Faststone.
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Old Jul 9th 2012, 3:36 pm
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Default Re: Photography aids

Not exactly a mainstream Photo program but I came across Portrait Professional which I though was amazing if you are interested in portraiture.

Yes, you can probably do everything that it does in PS but the ease of use is astonishing. You can get good results in just a few clicks.

http://www.portraitprofessional.com/

Not free but there is a free trial.
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