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Sobotka: Why GIMP is inadequateSobotka: Why GIMP is inadequatePosted Jan 12, 2011 12:08 UTC (Wed) by farnz (guest, #17727)In reply to: Sobotka: Why GIMP is inadequate by dgm Parent article: Sobotka: Why GIMP is inadequate
I'm rescuing bad exposures that wouldn't be usable at all if not retouched from RAW. These are not subtle improvements; I'm still not a good enough photographer to get the exposure almost right first time. If I were working with JPEGs, I'd just have to discard the exposure entirely, no matter that it's the only one where I got the composition right. It's simple things like catching a reflection of the sun in an otherwise dark composition, resulting in the swan (that then chooses to fly off) being too dark, and the duck in the shade being virtually invisible. Now, you can argue that I should have made better use of the camera, and got an exposure where the sunlight reflecting on the metal object is overexposed, but the rest of the exposure is good, and I'd not disagree. I need to get better at using the tools I have in the field, not just fixing it up later. But the fact remains that I didn't manage that: I got an exposure with 12 bits per channel from the sensor; of those 12 bits, for most of the image, only the lowest 7 to 9 bits per channel are actually interesting data, except in the area that reflected the setting sun, where it's the top bits that are interesting data. By working in 16 bits per channel while I'm fixing my mistakes, I get to recover an otherwise lost exposure; if I were limited to 8 bpc, the major corrections I need to make will also trash the image.
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Sobotka: Why GIMP is inadequate Posted Jan 12, 2011 18:44 UTC (Wed) by dgm (subscriber, #49227) [Link]
Then you're clearly outside of the Gimp current capabilities. Fortunately that doesn't mean you're out of options.
You could use ImageMagick, that uses internally floating point operations, to create semi-enhanced versions, and then make the final combination with the Gimp or some of the many HDR tools out there.
Another option is, of course, waiting until GEGL gets fully integrated in the Gimp.
Sobotka: Why GIMP is inadequate Posted Jan 12, 2011 19:50 UTC (Wed) by farnz (guest, #17727) [Link] I've never claimed to be out of options; for my needs, digiKam is powerful enough - and for the cases where it isn't powerful enough on its own, digiKam to get me a good 8 bpc source, then Gimp to fix the remaining defects (unfortunate spots on people, that tiny bit of light that makes it look like my father in law has a boil on his nose, the spaghetti sauce stain on the tablecloth etc) is an amazing combination, especially given the price. I'm just giving a real example of why 8 bits per channel isn't enough for all amateur uses of computer image editing; given that my needs stray into the high bit depth world from time to time, I can easily understand why a professional would sometimes need high bit depth. And, of course, extending your final point, if I really, really need Gimp to be the ultimate editing tool for my images, I can do things to help get GEGL fully integrated. Maybe I work on it myself, as I'm a programmer. Maybe I pay someone to get it in there, if I were a rich man. Maybe I make sure that there are bugs for all the limitations in Gimp that affect me, and I follow them and help with testing (including learning enough sysadmin stuff to build versions from git). The joy of Free Software here is that I'm not quite as stuck as I would be with proprietary software.
Sobotka: Why GIMP is inadequate Posted Jan 18, 2011 21:39 UTC (Tue) by daniel (subscriber, #3181) [Link]
"Then you're clearly outside of the Gimp current capabilities. Fortunately that doesn't mean you're out of options."
Upgrading to GIMP 2.6.11 for example, which supports 32 bits per channel?
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