Photo Touchup Program

[brentcarlson892079]

I'm looking at purchasing a Photo Touchup Program.
Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop, ect....

I need it to touch up motorcycle pictures.
We take pictures of the bike with a white background.
I need to separate the bike from the background, and then add another picture behind the bike. (I think they use layers? )

I am going to download these two programs and try this.

I was wondering if any of you have a preference between the two, or another suggestion for me.

Thanks in advance,

Brent

[hand471037]

If you don't mind the love-it-or-hate-it stange interface, there is an open-source program called 'GIMP' (stands for General Image Manipulation Program, I think) that's free and more than able to do what you want. It's mostly for Linux/Mac/Unix, but there is a version for windows.

http://www2.arnes.si/~sopjsimo/gimp/

Just a word of warning, however; I can't get either the latest 2.0 or the 'stable' 1.3 version to work on my laptop due to conflicts with my touchpad and Wacom tablet. :(

Also you might think about buying a Wacom Tablet. The latest ones come with Photoshop Elements, which is 'photoshop lite' and is about the same as photoshop 4/5-ish (think filters, layers; but no vector shapes, history, or actions). A new Wacom costs $100 and comes with the software, so you'll both get the software you need and a much better and easyer way to work with your images. Cutting out things within pictures with a mouse is like trying to draw with a chunk of brick...

[brentcarlson892079]

Also you might think about buying a Wacom Tablet. The latest ones come with Photoshop Elements, which is 'photoshop lite' and is about the same as photoshop 4/5-ish (think filters, layers; but no vector shapes, history, or actions). A new Wacom costs $100 and comes with the software, so you'll both get the software you need and a much better and easyer way to work with your images. Cutting out things within pictures with a mouse is like trying to draw with a chunk of brick...

I was just reading the posts about the Wacom, looks good.

The bundle, where is that at? The Wacom site?
I just download photoshop elements (reg photoshop costs waaaay too much :shock: )

[gregcashen]

It's an automatic bundle. It may not say it but if you buy it you get it. Make sense?

[brentcarlson892079]

I checked out the Wacom website.
The Graphire3 comes with PhotoShop Elements version 1 (the demo i'm downloading is version 2)

I read that people have liked the Wacom Graphire2 more than the 3.
They have the 2 on their referb. store for $75 or 80.
Does that have the software also? (I assume that is the part you mention as it might not say)

If I buy it on Ebay, it will come with the software?
Where have others purchased them from?

Thanks

[gregcashen]

I bought one on ebay. I own 2 graphire2's and one graphire3. I got the 2nd graphire2 from ebay and it works great. Ironically, I am pretty sure that the graphire2 i got from ebay came with photoshop elements 2 instead...so I think it is a better deal all around. Expect to pay around $65 on ebay.

[brentcarlson892079]

Greg, what kind of settings do you use for Revit? You had said that was one reason that you liked the 2 vs the 3.

Any other reasons?

[gregcashen]

Actually, I use the default settings for Revit, but I change them for autocad, photoshop, etc. I don't use right-click in autocad, so I change the right-click button to pan. In Revit, I use the right click all the time, so I can't give it up, though it would be cool if Revit exposed this so I could set the right-click to pan and then let us have access to the right-click functions in some other way. Right now, there is no way around some of the right-click functions in Revit.

The driver is more featured in the graphire2. I spoke to a Wacom rep and they said that most users were not using the advanced settings of the graphire2 so they simplified it. I think the truth has more to do with the fact that they still have these features in the Intuos, so they are obviously trying to get people to spend an additional $100 to get these features. I would rather spend $30 less and get them :wink:

[brentcarlson892079]

I spoke to a Wacom rep and they said that most users were not using the advanced settings of the graphire2 so they simplified it.
I called them also, and they told me the exact same line.
They want you to have to fork out the extra cash to get the advanced settings. :(

So... I just bought the 4x5 graphire2 Quartz color with shipping $85 (or should I say, you helped me get it for free, with the software I had to get)from coolgraphicstuff.com

Thanks Greg :beer: :beer: