The title says most of it

I have borrowed a camera and taken all sorts of photos (deleting about 95% of them) - so what next - they are about 600+Kb and I have tried "cropping" them with Paint (thats a joke) - I have downloaded GIMP and cant make it work

What other Freeware options do I have?

I have also noticed a heavy reliance on a US Site for "storing" photos - unfortunately that site seems to want desperately to penetrate my firewall for some reason or other - any further insights? - I am just a wee tad sick of some of the "happenings" on this great internet thing

Time for bed - see ya later today

Dont get caught

The GIMP is a great program but the user interface is very peculiar.

One freeware program that behaves a bit more understandably is Paint.NET. You can download it from http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/paint.net/download.html. You will probably have to download the "big version" of it. The smaller download depends on additional software that is not installed in most home PCs.

I'm assuming you want something that stays free even in next month. Popular image editing programs like Photoshop Elements and Paintshop Pro have free downloads but they are try-outs and usually function only for thirty-something days.

-- Pasi

The best tip I can give you is to buy a Mac

Sorry, I couldn't resist. Unfortunately I know very little about PC's, but I'm certain that 99% of the others on this forum use PC's and will come up with something.

One thing I can say is, the easiest way to reduce size is to save them as a jpg. Most programs have the option of exporting photo's into other formats. When you export it, or save it as another format you should be able to reformat the size.

You can upload them to your gallery here on this site or use the image shack option when posting pictures in the threads. The max file size for photos on this site is 128kb and the max dimensions are 800 x 800 pixels. I usually choose 400 x 400 and then export as a jpg, average file size is 50kb.

I should also say that I am also new to all of this, so hopefully someone else in the know will put in their 2 cents. I just happen to know how you feel.

Good luck.

_________________
Curunír
Please visit My Gallery

Hehe - Probably is the best advice - at least that way I could get away from M$haft - hang on doesn't HE own Mac by now as well?

Thanks anyway - still trying all sorts of things and getting less hair by the minute

Wheres me sedatives?

looks longer and more complicated than it is!
once you've done it 3 times, it becomes a automated workflow of your hands

1. make a copy of folder of your digicam images and name it oldie_minis_digipics (name the other folder '... originals' and don't touch them again)

2. take one image, open it in your program (e.g. gimp)

3. look for image/adjustment options like contrast, levels, curves, colours to adjust the image so that it resembles the original mini, colour and light as much as possible. play with these options around, you can always go back to your last saved state (or any history step if the program provides such)

4. save the image when satisfied. choose a high jpg quality (10 or 12, or maximum).

5.then change the image dimensions to e.g. no larger than 800x800px for your gallery here or max width 600px for the forums here.

6.many programs do have the option to do a 'save for web'.
which reduces the filesize for jpg (for the web) to another great amount, making pics of 800x800px at decent quality (e.g. 60% which is middle range of quality options) appr. 120kb (the max size for the galleries on this site)

the larger the pic in dimensions=the larger filesize
the more details and more colours=the larger filesize
the sharper the image=the larger the filesize

thus, you're always trying to get a good compromise of dimension/quality/details ...

save the reduced image with decent filename to a folder called e.g. 'one ring optimised images'.

7. choose your personal gallery here on this site
type in title and if you want image description

8. hit the UPLOAD button

9a with a 'browse' button you can browse to the image in that 'one-ring' folder, and upload it

9b at the forums use a similar function with the browse and 'host-it' button for uploading an image to imageshack.

10 the imageshack website opens in an own browser window where you have the choice of several image sizes (I usually take that with 'direct link to image'), copy the image filepath

11. in your message have a look at the many buttons above the white textfield. choose 'Img' (this produces a codetag in your text) then paste the imagepath. then hit the 'Close Tags' (again at the top buttons above the text fields

12. click preview at the bottom of the message to check if everything is as intended

13. if satisfied hit submit and expect our respect and admiration!

(have I forgotten anything?)

Thanks a million Beate - I got at least half way - boy it just goes ta show that even old dogs can learn new tricks

Gotta go practice now - thanks again

If you have MSword then you have a good editing program. Its a doddle to use and very intuitive.

Hmmm - now, you have got me thinking - I dont have it on this machine (thats a Looong story) - But I do have an old ver (Of2000) on my other one - just never thought of investigating that angle

Thanks

Thats the bit I struggle with, I do not know how to , or where to start looking, for this. The few attmepts I have made have eitehr turned them into glossy feaks or a very bad cartoon.

some programs have only automatic correction of these adjustments (which can turn out terrible if e.g. you had a digipic at artificial light or strong contrast differences)

some programs have additional dialog boxes with curves or sliders where you can adjust the amounts in very small steps. or where can choose to only adjust the shadows or only the highlights of an image.

what program do you use Nygyll?

After realising that my Photoshop version 3 was immensily out of date ( and completely unstable on my new XP machine) I have been struggling to get to grips with GIMP. Some of it I confess I have absolutly no idea about.


This is the place I know I should be using but I have no idea what it all means??

okay, gimp. should be similar to photoshop (as it was developed as a free competitor for it).
you are looking at filters which are doing all weird effects.
what is at the submenu at 'image' in the main menu?
anything that sounds alike adjustments, hue/saturation, contrast, levels, colours, curves, shadow/highlight, ...?
...
found it, http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/ gimp has it
e.g.
<Image> Image -> Colors -> Levels) or
Curves (<Image> Image -> Colors -> Curves)

AARRGGHH!!! she's asking me GUI things *quiver*.....me stupid Databse man, only know things like APPEND, INSERT, CONCATENATE, $sql=SELECT * FROM 'brain' WHERE working = 'still'

Don't do pretty things...





Is this what you mean???

yes! yippieh!
now you can adjust your images, e.g.

choose CURVES to adjust the overall light
e.g. when my image is too blueish, I choose blue at the curves, grab the curve in the middle and draw it slightly (into which direction you have to find out yourself, in photoshop it is right bottom)

choose BRIGHTNESS/CONTRAST if the image looks too dark, and the differences between light and dark areas are too weak

choose LEVELS to control the amount of darker and lighter areas

choose COLOUR BALANCE to control various individual colour ranges
e.g. if your green looks too blueish on the pic, though your original mini shows one more yellowish, you can adjust it there

choose HUE/SATURATION to either change the overall colour appearance and saturation colour brightness (or for individual colour ranges)

choose AUTO and check if this option might already take care of some adjustments as intended.

intended always means here to make the digipic look like your original!

(you can of course play with it and e.g. check what other colour combination might look good on high elves. especially when you only select e.g. the blue cloak (there is a tool for it somewhere in the tool's palette, maybe looking like a wizard tool

I will admit I did read this... twice...but still have not a clue what you mean . I will try again after i have had a lie down in a darkened room
*head hurts*

I have always struggled with this sort of thing. I just don't get the terminology of it all.

Thanks for your help anyway, must just be a bad student

This is all going a bit too fast for an ol'fella - I managed to get one into my gallery showing the Isengard army (I am not going to say how I managed - you will all laugh)

NoW - That Gimp looks nothing like the one I got from an old disk (or at least I cant get it that far) - I have managed to aquire a mates copy of PSP v5.something that I am trying to get working on my sacrificial machine (there is SO much wrong with it I dont mind) at this one has not got enough room until I tidy it up and get the network back up

I have setup my testing area like you said Beate and will have a go at folling this thread when I get the rest sorted

At the moment I am just shooting because I have to return the camera

Thanks for everything so far

I downloaded it from the link [color = red]> here [/color]
It seems to want to check for latest versions each time I load and I am always booting up from a ADSL connection therefore do not neccessarily notice if it is downloading new files or not. Plus I never really pay that much attention to it (far to many things to click and play with and I get very confused.)

ROFL - you are NOT the only one - sheesh

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Buy a Mac

Thanks Beatrice for the tutorial, I think most of these functions are similar regardless of the program. I am using Photoshop elements, but mostly do quick adjustments in iPhoto, and am still stumbling through the photographic process.

I think this would make a great article, or an ammendment to the one that is currently in the Library (HINT)

_________________
Curunír
Please visit My Gallery

Steady down there Wolg (or should I use a shortened version of your "new" name) - I am in ENOUGH trouble as it is - I went out and bought a camera (garbage duty for 2 months) today

So far - I have given myself another migraine trying to work out the 101 great functions (up to #8 - I think) and I have even managed to get one (sort of clear, focassed) pic onto the computer - instead of dealing with 600Kb images - I now have to contend with 1.8Mb

All I now need to do is work out how to get the PSP 5?? whatever off my other machine onto this one that the camera "talks" to and then learn to use it

The new camera seems to be a wee tad better than the one I borrowed - all I now need to do is get over my minor "breakdown" caused by information overload and start shooting again

Give me a couple of days to recover and I hope that I can ask some semi-intelligent questions from all you mob here

.....skulks off - looking desperatly for aspirin.......


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