Thread: Fixin me ugly fugly dial!!

The best prog' in my mind and possibly the one you are thinking of as being one the pro's use would be "Adobe Photoshop", but be warned it aint for beginners. I worked in the photog' business for some time and have used photoshop for years - still only know a little. Not only that but you may be shocked at the price of it - without having a look I guess you wont get much change out of $1600.
There are other prog's out there thatare more than capable of doing what you want (including some freebies) but to be quite honest for your daughters wedding you wouldn't want anything but the best so the alternatives are

1 go for broke and pay a pro'

2 is there someone that you know can do the job

3spend the next year or so learning a photo' manipulation prog'

Denn

Hi Ding,

Yes, what Denn said mate. Done some fiddling myself, digital photos and software manipilation.

My experience is; You can make a good photo a bit better with the software BUT is almost impossible to make a bad photo really good even with professional software abilities.

Sooo, if you really do need to cut costs, get a mate with a GOOD digital camera to take the main photos and get everybody else that attends to take as many photos on their own cameras as possible.

Then get all your friends to send you all their photos so you can pick the very best out of the whole lot.

A friend of mine did exactly that and ended up with about 1/4 of the Album photos being from friends that captured that magic moment or missing scene or Aunt that missed all the other photos. They even selected two of mine for their album, but I took over 50, (mostly duds of course).

Oh ! They aslo only 'touched up' a few of the photos, on a cheap program, just darkened the image or sharpened it a bit or cropped it, (cut that Aunt out etc.).

So mate I reckon you can still get a great album without spending a bucket of money on fancy software or real fancy (read expensive)cameras.

Best of luck.

Cheers
Pops

Cheers fellas
Pretty much what I thought but had to ask anyways!

Ive got the plans for the veneer timber album I think if memory serves via Wendy so thats sorted the missus is going to get me a new ubeaut digimal SLR camera when she nicks of to Singypore in 10 days time... so its just up to me to learn the thing in time for the first wedding (Dec 1) I think there will be a fair few digimal cameras there since pretty much everyone thats going has one so hopefully I can punch their lights out after theyve drunk the bar tab dry and nick their cards... they can have the camera no worries... that way Im sure to get many more than I miss eh!!

Anyways cheers
Shane

Why not go to the Adobe site and download a free trial for 30 days. That way it will give you an idea of what to expect from a full blown digital image prog'

https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/i...duct=photoshop

Denn

'The Gimp' is suppose to be a good free alternative to photoshop .
I think its about a 15 MB download (you will need to download help files also) from here:

http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.html

Have a read of the other pages on that site for more info. Remember to only work on copies of your photos, its very easy to stuff up.
Cheers.

WD,

If you need a hand with PhotoShop give me a yell, only too willing to lend a hand.

Originally Posted by Wild Dingo

Need a good portrait manipulation program... yeah okay it can do other stuff but mainly fixing faces... ie mine!!

No were planning on doing our own wedding photos for the daughters wedding from making the album to printing the photos to taking them and therefore making them right. and with another 2 daughters getting hitched in the next 12 months thers going to be a great need for something like this

I think theres one thats for the professionals... what do they use? professional photographers I mean

Shane

the absolute best (and cheapest) photo manipulation program is the one inside the camera you're going to buy.

it's the one the pros use all the time.

get the image right when you take it and it wont need tweaking

Photoshop and it's kin (I use Corel Photopaint) is for farting arround with one or two photos in a thousand not for fixing most shots.

everyone has a preference in cameras, a good place to go for ideas is http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech.htm

Important points:

who is going to be the designated photographer?
It shouldn't be you as you'll be too busy being "father of the bride"

get a friend who is interested in photography give them the camera and tell them to learn how to use it, and I mean really learn. Shoot a thousand or two photos experimenting with sun angle, flash setting, exposure compensation, the different programs within the camera, etc.
I'd volunteer, but by the time you paid my air fare, a local pro would be cheaper.

once you know what works best when you wont need Photoshop and you'll be able to do what needs doing with the software that comes free with the camera.

Also, printing photos yourself is a good way to spend a lot of money very very quickly.
I can get 6x4 prints commercially for 15 cents each, (29 cents if I can't be bothered shopping arround)
printing them myself costs upwards of $1 just in ink and paper.



ian

Struth Ding!!!! Fotoshop your flam'n head?????

She'd hav'ta be the metalbasha's version.

Here's an idea, put a couple disposalable camera's on each table... then pick the best shots, betcha some will make you laugh

For the main photo's it is advisable to get a real pro... you only get one shot after all!

I agree with the others, you can't turn a crappy photo into a good one.

But a decent editor can improve a good photo.

Forget Gimp and the freebies, Get a decent program Shane.

Paint Shop Pro Version 8 or later is a great easy to use program and theres heaps of tutorials online. Its now owned by Corel

look at this its very cheap, fully legal and only got 6 hours left to run
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Corel-Paint-S...QQcmdZViewItem

Ding,

Gimp is good, but it's not quite up to Photoshop in user-friendliness, and there's a better choice for clots like us:

PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS. Yep, it's about 90% of the real thing, and you and I will never learn enough to understand what's missing anyway. It'll do all you want, and cost about $150.00.

Then, take up the Major's offer and Robert'll be your mother's brother.

Check out Ken Rockwell's site as well, specially his 2007 Camera Guide. Before you do that though, read his 2006 guide for an overview.

He talks the kind of language that beginners understand, and people who know a bit get jealous of.

He covers "all the cameras needed by people who want photos, as opposed to wanting fancy cameras." which I'm guessing is you!

cheers,

P

Originally Posted by ian

..............
Photoshop and it's kin (I use Corel Photopaint) is for farting arround with one or two photos in a thousand not for fixing most shots........ian

You better tell all the digital printing labs they are using the wrong program then...............

PhotoShop is the INDUSTRY STANDARD for photo manipulation & has very powerful tools for batch processing 1-9999 photos in one hit.

Shane, I'm with Harry, you only get one shot at it, we used a mob called wedding works photography and just got a basic package for around $500. Basically just pay for a photographer, film and processing. The photographer we had was brilliant and was not a pain in the ???? stuck up pratt like allot of our friends had. We did what we wanted and she photographed. Good thing is you get to keep all the negatives, you get one copy of every photo and the whole lot burnt to CD. (my avatar was taken by them)

Compared to the price many were charging and the level of service given they come highly recommended from us.

http://www.weddingworksphotography.com.au/

Possibly the only answer http://www.new-face.com.au/ though even then