IMHO, and to cut the long story short: - use the GIMP - learn how to use it by means of the help included, the many excellent tutorials existing, Akkana Peck's book and MeetTheGimp.org video-shows. There are still other resources available. - CMYK: you won't be needing that any time soon, and some day it will be better managed with the GIMP (as of now, there are some plugins as of separate+). CMYK is mostly important for printing, but many printers can do well using RGB color space. - 8 bits depth: you can live with that, and 'soon' the GIMP will allow you to use higher values. Maybe towards version 3.0 (?).
I can be wrong, of course, but it does work for me. I'm not a photographer pro, though; so take my opinion FWIW. No need of Photoshop, or even LightRoom in my book. Best of lucks Jaime Nuno Miguel dos Santos Baeta wrote: > Hello! > > I don't understand anything about digital image manipulation but I've > got to learn as, last year, I finally bought a digital camera, after > making photos with film for many years, mainly B&W which I developed > and printed myself. To learn digital image manipulation I need a > program such as GIMP and Photoshop. > > Another important piece of information about me: I've been using Un*x > since 1986. These days I use OpenBSD (server) and > Debian/Ubuntu/gNewSense (desktop/laptop) and I don't want to change OS > - if I have to, I'll be changing to Mac OS X, no Microsoft Windows. > > According to my 'research', Photoshop is the 'de facto' standard for > image manipulation, quite expensive and exists for Mac OS X or > Microsoft Windows. GIMP is free, its license is GPL, and exists for > GNU/Linux, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows. > > My 'research' included asking on a mailing list about photography > (photos made with a specific brand of cameras) about technical > differences between these two programs. The answers I got can be > summarized to: > > * Photoshop: Must be used for 'serious' work. > > * GIMP: May be used for 'serious' work if that means showing a photo > on a web page. Otherwise forget it because: > > ** Is has no color management (I don't know what this is); > ** Just 8 bit/channel; > ** No CMYK. > > Even though answers on this list may be biased, I have to ear them. > So, are this statements true? > > TIA! > > PS - I have also been advised to use a program such as Aperture (Mac > OS X only) or Lightroom (Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows), as that is > what a photographer really needs. Because of this advise, I guess > I'll be asking some questions on the digiKam and F-Spot mailing lists, > as presume these make the same job as Aperture or Lightroom. > _______________________________________________ Gimp-user mailing list Gimp-user@lists.XCF.Berkeley.EDU https://lists.XCF.Berkeley.EDU/mailman/listinfo/gimp-user
