On Sat, Jan 25, 2014 at 3:03 PM, Patrick Shanahan wrote:

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Today I stumbled onto Corel AfterShot Pro. I know, commercial software, but... they produce a Linux native version with both RPM and DEB builds. They have a 30 day trial so you can test it out. I've got it installed in openSUSE on KDE4 and it's working very well...

Used it for some time. Corel has succeeded in trashing it. Output from darktable is much superior. jmpo

Hmmm that's interesting. I haven't done a side-by-side output comparison. I guess that's the next task then. How is it better in DarkTable? Just general clarity/crispness? Or? C. -- openSUSE 13.1 x86_64, KDE 4.11 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

On 26/01/14 05:05, Patrick Shanahan wrote:

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On Sat, Jan 25, 2014 at 3:03 PM, Patrick Shanahan wrote:

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Today I stumbled onto Corel AfterShot Pro. I know, commercial software, but... they produce a Linux native version with both RPM and DEB builds. They have a 30 day trial so you can test it out. I've got it installed in openSUSE on KDE4 and it's working very well... Used it for some time. Corel has succeeded in trashing it. Output from darktable is much superior. jmpo

Hmmm that's interesting. I haven't done a side-by-side output comparison. I guess that's the next task then.

How is it better in DarkTable? Just general clarity/crispness? Or? I primarily shoot youth soccer and stadium lights are challenging to say

* C [01-25-14 09:10]: the least. AfterShoot no longer has noise-ninja denoising and their replacement is very poor. Darktable has much better denoising algorithms, at least to my eyes.

BibblePro was much faster processing than darktable, but also crashed a lot as does corel's version. I really liked the BibblePro interface as it was keystroke oriented much better than darktable plus the learning curve which after a year I still have to hunt and experiment.

I guess my biggie is the crashing and denoising.

ps: If you really decide to go with AfterShoot, mail me off-list.

Fred (Miller) uses GIMP exclusively to produce some fantastic works (I have seen some of them) but what is being stated above indicates that GIMP is unable to handle 'your' needs? Is it because it is assumed that Darktable works on 'NEGATIVES' while Gimp works best on final IMAGES? (But why should that be? - afteral Gimp can do marvellous and spectacular editing/manipulations of images produced from terrible original 'negatives', which in this age of digital photography no longer exist and one is therefore editing/manipulating the 'final' image when viewing a RAW/jpeg/whatever image from the digital camera.) BC -- Using openSUSE 13.1, KDE 4.12.1 & kernel 3.13.0-1 on a system with- AMD FX 8-core 3.6/4.2GHz processor 16GB PC14900/1866MHz Quad Channel Corsair "Vengeance" RAM Gigabyte AMD3+ m/board; Gigabyte nVidia GTX660 OC 2GB DDR5 GPU -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

On 26/01/14 16:39, C wrote:

On Sun, Jan 26, 2014 at 6:19 AM, Basil Chupin wrote:

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Fred (Miller) uses GIMP exclusively to produce some fantastic works (I have seen some of them) but what is being stated above indicates that GIMP is unable to handle 'your' needs?

Is it because it is assumed that Darktable works on 'NEGATIVES' while Gimp works best on final IMAGES?

(But why should that be? - afteral Gimp can do marvellous and spectacular editing/manipulations of images produced from terrible original 'negatives', which in this age of digital photography no longer exist and one is therefore editing/manipulating the 'final' image when viewing a RAW/jpeg/whatever image from the digital camera.) Gimp is good, and I do use it, but you have to convert the RAW to something Gimp can work with. The UFRaw plugin, and UFRaw itself has never worked properly for me - either being uninstallable on 64-bit, or simply failing to do what it is supposed to do once I did get it installed.

Gimp works directly on the image itself, and all edits are "destructive" whereas the dark room type processing that applications like Lightroom, DarkTable and AfterShot can do is non-destructive editing, working with the RAW files, and using an additional XML file to contain the edits/changes to the original RAW (the original image remains unchanged).

Doing the same work with Gimp IS possible, but it's a LOT more time consuming and requires a much higher level of skill and knowledge. If you look at an application like DarkTable, you can quickly pull the contrast on a muddy photo, increase the blue in a sky, and tweak the white balance.

It's about using the right tool for the job you want to do.

C.

OK, I accept this - but Fred has told me many times that if one forgets about all the other fang-dangled, "you-beaut", apps and get to know Gimp then you become 'The Master of the Universe'. Afteral, Photoshop came from Gimp. BTW, as it so happens I had to take some photos a few minutes ago of a couple of handbags my wife bought (ahem, that is which 'I' bought :-) ) for her birthday today (she wants to send the pics to some of her friends) and I used DigiKam to transfer the photos onto the HDD. Not that I was importing RAW pics but did you know that DigiKam has the ability to automatically adjust RAW pics, or leave them in original state, when importing them to HDD? DAMMIT! Why did this thread have to come up! Now I getting that strong urge to get back into photography and the desire to get my hands on the Canon EOS 5D Mark III (to replace my couple of A1s). I need to stop reading posts about photography :-) BC -- Using openSUSE 13.1, KDE 4.12.1 & kernel 3.13.0-1 on a system with- AMD FX 8-core 3.6/4.2GHz processor 16GB PC14900/1866MHz Quad Channel Corsair "Vengeance" RAM Gigabyte AMD3+ m/board; Gigabyte nVidia GTX660 OC 2GB DDR5 GPU -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

On 26/01/14 17:47, John Andersen wrote:

On 1/25/2014 10:37 PM, Basil Chupin wrote:

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BTW, as it so happens I had to take some photos a few minutes ago of a couple of handbags my wife bought (ahem, that is which 'I' bought :-) ) for her birthday today (she wants to send the pics to some of her friends) and I used DigiKam to transfer the photos onto the HDD. Handbags? Isn't this what smartphone cameras are for? B-)

Smartphones are a no-no in this household. A sheer waste of money :-) . A camera is for taking photos and not a 'smartphone'. Back in 2000 my father-in-law was diagnosed with lung cancer and my wife wanted a mobile phone (you call them 'cell phones') to be able to contact people while she was 'on the move'. I bought the Nokia 3310 - and this is still in use right now; but only kept operational for emergency purposes. I/we have a big guffaw when we see people walking around with a bottle of water in one hand and a smartphone in the other or attached to their ear while pushing a pram or walking in the street -- AND paying ~$A70/month for this 'yuppie-type' "privilege"! BC -- A civilisation is judged by how it treats the most vulnerable. Lauren Smith - 30 January 2014 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

Basil Chupin wrote:

I/we have a big guffaw when we see people walking around with a bottle of water in one hand and a smartphone in the other or attached to their ear while pushing a pram or walking in the street -- AND paying ~$A70/month for this 'yuppie-type' "privilege"!

Many people no longer have a home phone. Basic cell service costs about the same as home phone. Of course, data plans will add to that. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

Ted Byers wrote:

I don't know, off hand, what the exchange rate is between Canada and the land down under, but if it is close to 1:1, then that A$70/month is close to 50% too high, relative to what I pay. When I last upgraded my phone, my provider provided a cell phone that retails for C$600 to me for $50, and, because my old phone was not one of these stupid phones (called by my sisters and nieces smart phones), I did not have a data plan. When they upgraded my plan to include data, the incremental cost was less than C$0.50/month. I have yet to use even 5% of the limits on my data plan, so, for my usage pattern, it may as well be unlimited (I know a few teenagers, though, that could easily rack up in excess of C$1,000/month in minutes combined with data, so there, too, it depends on how you use it).

My cell plan includes 6 GB of data, unlimited evening and weekend calls, unlimited texting and a list of up to 10 numbers, anywhere in Canada, that I can call at absolutely no charge, not even off my weekday minutes. I also have a VoIP phone installed on it, so I can have free long distance to much of Canada and if I connect via WiFi, it doesn't count against my data plan. All this for $57.59 before tax. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

On Fri, 2014-01-31 at 18:48 +1100, Basil Chupin wrote:

AND paying ~$A70/month for this 'yuppie-type' "privilege"!

In this part of Europe, it's difficult to find a supplier where you don't have your mobile included along with a fixed 'phone line and Internet, so you may as well have it anyway. Unless you're downloading Gb of stuff onto your 'phone it would be difficult to run up a bill of $70. L x -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

* Basil Chupin [01-26-14 01:40]: [...]

OK, I accept this - but Fred has told me many times that if one forgets about all the other fang-dangled, "you-beaut", apps and get to know Gimp then you become 'The Master of the Universe'. Afteral, Photoshop came from Gimp.

Gimp is an excellent tool, but does not fit all usages as few tools do. The learning curve quite steep for even the most basic of tasks but once reached, also quite rewarding. For one working small groups of raw photos (emphasis on raw) or only jpgs, gimp is quite capable and gimp does not alter your jpg (non-destructive) but *you* must learn to save to a new filename. gimp can somewhat save your history steps but requires saving in gimp's own format imtermediately which it endeavours to force upon you. Working on raw photos is another story. gimp requires converting those to a format it can use, tiff and png being the *best* choices quality wise, then saving your final gimp processed image before going to the next. The first conversion can be batch processed but then working them in gimp is a singular operation, one at a time. Darktable and AfterShot{Pro} both read most raw images, allow you to adjust each image saving those adjustments to a *sidecar* file and finally processing the batch output while you do something else. Again as with all good tools comes the learning curve. I find gimp to seemingly be quite devious and operations not as expected and time consuming which is a great restraint to someone working large groups of photos. Darktable is much better but in a quite different way and AfterShot{Pro} very good. But I like Darktable's product much better, expecially in lower light situations, than that of AfterShot{Pro}.

BTW, as it so happens I had to take some photos a few minutes ago of a couple of handbags my wife bought (ahem, that is which 'I' bought :-) ) for her birthday today (she wants to send the pics to some of her friends) and I used DigiKam to transfer the photos onto the HDD.

I like the idea of Digikam but it also is quite convoluted, steep learning curve, *lots* of mouse clicks, and I am quite capable of transferring files from a chip into my desired file system and renaming them according to their internal datestamp (original record date). At the same time I also include the gps data.

Not that I was importing RAW pics but did you know that DigiKam has the ability to automatically adjust RAW pics, or leave them in original state, when importing them to HDD?

Yes, but Digikam cannot automagically know my preferences/desires for individual shots, turning the camera 15 degrees to the sun can completely change the color cast of the entire photo, ie: grass changes from deep green to yellowish. So if Digikam is going to make adjustments and then I have to *remake* them, DigiKam is just using cpu and time wastefully. Anyone shooting large quantities will tell you that time is very precious.

DAMMIT! Why did this thread have to come up! Now I getting that strong urge to get back into photography and the desire to get my hands on the Canon EOS 5D Mark III (to replace my couple of A1s). I need to stop reading posts about photography :-)

It's what makes the world go round and fills retirement with challenges. btw: I have only touched upon most points but enough words for now. One uses what fits best, or that which they are most comfortable. You have Canon and I have Nikon. -- (paka)Patrick Shanahan Plainfield, Indiana, USA @ptilopteri http://en.opensuse.org openSUSE Community Member facebook/ptilopteri http://wahoo.no-ip.org Photo Album: http://wahoo.no-ip.org/gallery2 Registered Linux User #207535 @ http://linuxcounter.net -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

On 01/26/2014 12:37 AM, Basil Chupin wrote:

OK, I accept this - but Fred has told me many times that if one forgets about all the other fang-dangled, "you-beaut", apps and get to know Gimp then you become 'The Master of the Universe'. Afteral, Photoshop came from Gimp.

+1, especially challenging if you come from a vector graphics background (CAD, etc.), but once you take the time to learn gimp you become the master of the universe... (at least the bitmap universe...) -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

On 01/28/2014 01:57 AM, David C. Rankin wrote:

On 01/25/2014 08:03 AM, Patrick Shanahan wrote:

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Used it for some time. Corel has succeeded in trashing it. Output from darktable is much superior. jmpo

As they do with most things. I used Jacs Paintshop Pro on windows for a while and it was an excellent package - fast, small accurate, the Corel took it over and released PaintShop Pro 12 - bloated slow crap. They did the same thing to WordPerfect after they took it over from Novell. (whoever that is...)

While Corel are, I would venture and I don't expect much argument, the exemplars at this, they are not alone. Microsoft rates pretty high in the take-over-and-trash stakes. At home and whenever possible I'm a *NIX user but many clients insist on using Microsoft. I recall at one the problems we had when MS took over Visio and integrated it into the office suite. All our carefully drawn diagrams, network logical and physical, and much more no longer rendered properly. Back when Skype was separate company I got it working on various machines without much of a problem. Now since MS took it over Skype-for-Linux is a battle to get working and needs another battle with every machine -- I can't simply clone the setup. And it seems to need doing over with each update. So I'm not updating it. I hate to think about the possibility that MS has introduced back doors at the request of the NSA. And no, I've never managed to get any Corel product to work under Linux. -- Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties. --Abraham Lincoln -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org