Gainesville Photography Club

Estate Sale of Vintage cameras, framed and unframed photographs,
frames, slides, projectors, furniture, piano, kitchenware, crystal,
collectibles- everything from the 1920's til now...
Presale Thursday July 30, 2009-  2-7pm, Friday July 31 and Sat Aug 1 9-5pm.
5540 SW 98th Terr- Haile Plantation Gainesville Fl.
call 352-591-1508 for more information

 

Visit http://gainesvillephotoclub.com/photos/album/187 to see sample photos for the Pan It theme for July '09.

We have from time to time suggested software that you may find useful. In many cases, it seems our recommended software is available for PCs and there is no Mac version. Perhaps our Mac owners are unaware that Mac has provided a utility that allows you to run Windows software on a Mac. It is an application called "Boot Camp" and is found in the utilities section of the applications menu. you can learn more about this utility (and your Mac) at http://www.apple.com/macosx/what-is-macosx/compatibility.html . If you own a Mac I strongly suggest you visit this web page and visit it's many links. You will learn a lot about your computer.

This is my last post today on photo editors. I now bring you a free open-source photo editing program called GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program). This program has most of the same features as Photoshop. However, it has a rather steep learning curve if you have little or no experience with photo editors. It is absolutely FREE as are all upgrades and is available at http://www.gimp.org/ . Check out the web site and see if you like it. It costs you nothing but a little time to try it. If you are looking for compact, fast, high performance free software, this is for you.

Paint Shop Pro was published by Jasc Software which was bought out by Corel. Paint Shop Pro has been around for years and has had numerous upgrades. It comes in two flavors, Standard for $49.99 and Ultimate for $79.99. Upgrades are very inexpensive unlike a certain other Adobe product. It has been available on Amazon at a discount. The price may be low but this program is BIG on performance meeting and beating Photoshop in some areas PLUS it has many features left out of Photoshop Elements. The Ultimate version includes are big bag of goodies well worth the extra bucks. Paint Shop Pro uses all the same filters, brushes, gradients, etc. files as Photoshop. There are tons of tutorials and free downloads available on the web.

WOW! Yet another Mac software package. Pixelmator is an easy-to-use, fast and powerful image editor for Mac OS X users. It cost $59 to buy but there appears to be a free demo download available. Find it at http://www.pixelmator.com/ . It has lots of cool features, some of which are not available in Photoshop Elements. If you try out the demo, please let club members know how you like this package at our next meeting.

Here is another free photo editing package for Mac users. You can check it out and get a copy at http://www.livequartz.com/ . It looks easy to use and has some special features Mac users will appreciate. I am not a Mac user so have not tried this software. If you are a Mac user and give it a try, please report on this software at our next club meeting. Anyone out there (not a member of our club) reading this can also submit comments to this web site.

It seems we offer software for PCs on this web site while  ignoring Mac owners. Well, check out http://www.greenwavesoftware.com/ where you can see a photo editor for Macs. I am not a Mac owner so have not tried this program. However, I have examined the features, screenshots and demo videos on their web site and would definitely give MagiBrush-Photo a try. There is a free demo available for download. It is another tool to add to those you may already have. If you use a Mac and give this software a try, please give a report on it at our next meeting.

I found good article related to July 4th, "how to photograph fireworks". Check out  http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-photograph-fireworks . Hope you get to see this article before the celebrating begins.