elements 2.0 or GIMP

moonraker

moonraker

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77
Name
Neil
Edit My Images
No
pretty much as title I am using Photoshop elements 2.0 at the moment I know its an old program would GIMP be better?
 
Gimp has a unique interface, which provides all the features of the Adobe system. It is free, which makes it the best value for money.

There are Gimp mods available which make it much more Adobe like in appearance Gimphoto 'fixes' the menus (or breaks them ;) ) and Gimpad, at the same URL, makes it a one window application.

B.
 
I'd imagine gimp is the way to go if you've only got elements 2... give it a try - nothing to lose since its free :) Just remember that lots of the functionality in gimp is accessed via right-clicking to bring up extra menus...

I used to use gimp but I absolutely hate the way it was put together - I should love it since I love open source philosophy, but I just find elements v7 better...
 
On Mac I prefer element 2.0 to GIMP, but as said above, try both and see which you prefer...
 
Stay with Elements 2, i still use it and theres nothing quicker when downloading and sorting through 5-600 images when theres deadlines to meet.

For me it does all i could ever want, bolt on e few extras like Noise Ninja ans a curves plugin and youve got a great and fast program.
 
Gary Coyle said:
Stay with Elements 2, i still use it and theres nothing quicker when downloading and sorting through 5-600 images when theres deadlines to meet.

For me it does all i could ever want, bolt on e few extras like Noise Ninja ans a curves plugin and youve got a great and fast program.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't a decent card reader and good image viewer do the downloading job just as well?
Or am I missing something?

The Gimp has most of the features Photoshop Elements has (up to v. 5, I think), except for text live effects (there's no preview for those, they're run by a script) and maybe something else I haven't really used. It's quite fast and if you have a multicore/multiprocessor computer, it should be able to make use of the extra cores/cpus.

Feature wise, the GIMP is still behind Photoshop (the big one, not Elements), but I've been using it exclusively for my photo editing (not for raw conversions) for a few years now and with version 2.4 it got really nice and it has all the features I need to get things done.

That said, it's free, so why not give it a shot?
The UI is different from that of Photoshop, but it's mostly a matter of habit.
 
i do download with a card reader using the browse feature in elements 2, i browse to my cardreader and right click, select all then open all images, takes approx 5 minutes to open 5-600 full res photos direct into elements 2.

From there on in i do what i want with them.
 
Gary Coyle said:
i do download with a card reader using the browse feature in elements 2, i browse to my cardreader and right click, select all then open all images, takes approx 5 minutes to open 5-600 full res photos direct into elements 2.

From there on in i do what i want with them.
Click to expand...

Gary mate, Tell me more if the OP doesnt mind.

At the moment....

I open CS2 if I have album of 150 shots say
I click open, Then select 1st 70 (ish) it takes about 25 mins to open all them in editor then about 15 mins to simply crop for web (not resize)
Then do 2nd half of album
Close CS2
Open Elements 6
Times that by 3 or 4 albums my PP is taking up all Saturday night and Sunday nights after games.

Obviously for deadline I only select the few I need. This is doing my head in never mind the wifes, If out all day shooting my nights are took up with the above, Its not as if its extensive PP, Its simply croping and maybe odd 3 or 4 straightening.

Cheers bud

Ste
 
it takes about 25 mins to open all them in editor
Click to expand...

Youre seriously kidding me, right.

I can open 5-600 photos, most of a 4gb card in about 5 minutes into image editor.

Typical Sunday afternoon, shoot a game, get home about 5-5.30pm, stcik CF card in Belkin reader, open Elements, browse to card reader, open folder, wait 30 seconds or so for card to update and download thumbnail and meta data, quick scan and select 30-40 images and open them in less than a minute, pick 6-8 and resize at 7x5 inch @ 300ppi, caption and save at level 8 then send to newspapers for 6pm

Back to browse, click first image, hold shift and click last image, select open, all images start to open, first 100 or so take approx 1 sec each to open then it slows down a little as Ram is used up and rest of images are cached to scratch disk (2nd internal drive) from then on it takes about 5 minutes for all to open, just enough time to make a brew and check the images i sent to papers have got there.

All this has taken place before 6pm, the next hour or so is spent filtering through all images and cropping and saving 60-70 photos at 7x5 and 300dpi for the agency, those 60-70 and then batch resized to 700x500px at 72dpi and then uploaded to my website.

The 300dpi versions are then sent via an external mail server to rlphotos.com to be sorted at that end.

7pm-7.30pm im sat on the sofa with my supper.

Following day the whole card is transferred to internal and back up external storage, takes about 3-4 minutes.

And thats why i stick with Elements 2, its so quick.
 
it takes about 25 mins to open all them in editor
Click to expand...

Youre seriously kidding me, right.

I can open 5-600 photos, most of a 4gb card in about 5 minutes into image editor.

Typical Sunday afternoon, shoot a game, get home about 5-5.30pm, stcik CF card in Belkin reader, open Elements, browse to card reader, open folder, wait 30 seconds or so for card to update and download thumbnail and meta data, quick scan and select 30-40 images and open them in less than a minute, pick 6-8 and resize at 7x5 inch @ 300ppi, caption and save at level 8 then send to newspapers for 6pm

Back to browse, click first image, hold shift and click last image, select open, all images start to open, first 100 or so take approx 1 sec each to open then it slows down a little as Ram is used up and rest of images are cached to scratch disk (2nd internal drive) from then on it takes about 5 minutes for all to open, just enough time to make a brew and check the images i sent to papers have got there.

All this has taken place before 6pm, the next hour or so is spent filtering through all images and cropping and saving 60-70 photos at 7x5 and 300dpi for the agency, those 60-70 and then batch resized to 700x500px at 72dpi and then uploaded to my website.

The 300dpi versions are then sent via an external mail server to rlphotos.com to be sorted at that end.

7pm-7.30pm im sat on the sofa with my supper.

Following day the whole card is transferred to internal and back up external storage, takes about 3-4 minutes.

And thats why i stick with Elements 2, its so quick.
 
asterix said:
Gary mate, Tell me more if the OP doesnt mind.

At the moment....

I open CS2 if I have album of 150 shots say
I click open, Then select 1st 70 (ish) it takes about 25 mins to open all them in editor then about 15 mins to simply crop for web (not resize)
Then do 2nd half of album
Close CS2
Open Elements 6
Times that by 3 or 4 albums my PP is taking up all Saturday night and Sunday nights after games.

Obviously for deadline I only select the few I need. This is doing my head in never mind the wifes, If out all day shooting my nights are took up with the above, Its not as if its extensive PP, Its simply croping and maybe odd 3 or 4 straightening.

Cheers bud

Ste
Click to expand...
I'm a bit confused by your workflow here, why use CS2, then open in Elements? It sounds like for what you are doing something like Lightroom or Aperture would be a good bet.

With regards to the speed of the process, what spec is your computer? Does it run everything slow? Opening lots of images at once will use up a lot of memory, so maybe sent up an extra scratch disk?
 
I do that as CS2 doesnt do "process multiple files", I know you CAN do actions, but I dont know how too. Just seems easier on Elements. That bit of the process is rapid, Its the intial uploading to CS2 thats a ball ache. I seem to have followed Garys advice a bit and tried that tonight, Will have a good go for real on Saturday after one of the games Im doing. Ive got to speed things up somehow, Sunday just gone my day was 9am leaving the house and home at 2pm, Finished editing etc at 10pm and as said before, Thats just cropping, no curves, levels, sharpening etc etc
 
Ha, Ha, this Sunday ive got local footy at 10.30 am then home to save the images to the PC, Hunslet for a 2pm KO, do 40 minutes there then over to Dewsbury for Rams v Bulldogs for 20-30 minutes, go home and scan through images and select 6-8 from those 2 games, caption and resize then get them sent to RL Papers, Back in car then off to Elland Road for 4.30-5pm for the World Club Challenge Final.

Asterix, do you have a scratch disk set up either internal or external. how much Ram do you have installed.
 
Erm...... hmmmmm..... a what ?

Seriously, No, Havent a clue what your on about. Ive got my Camera side of things right but obvious now my PC and workflow is the bugbear.

Any help and advice appreciated pal.
 
The Photoshop scratch disk is your hard drive. Photoshop uses your hard drive as temporary "swap" space, or virtual memory, when your system does not have enough RAM to perform an operation.

If you only have one hard drive or partition in your computer, then the scratch disk will be the drive where your operating system is installed (the C drive on a Windows system).

You can change the scratch disk location and add multiple scratch disks from Photoshop Preferences. Many power users like to create a dedicated hard drive partition for the Photoshop scratch disk.

Although Photoshop will function with a single scratch disk on the system partition, you can improve performance by setting the scratch disk to be the fastest drive in your system.

Other useful guidelines for setting scratch disks are to avoid using the same drive where your operating system is installed, avoid using a drive where the files you edit are stored, and don't use network or removable drives for a scratch disk.

Photoshop also needs a large system page file (2gigs) is ideal.

When running photoshop open task manager, under the processes tab right click photoshop and set priority to either high or realtime.

In your photoshop preferences allocate much more ram to photoshop

Ram, Ram, whatever youve got you need more and its the quickest, simplest and cheapest way to speed up photoshop, ill assume youre a total PC idiot here.

Right click the my computer icon on your desktop and secect properties, under the general tab it will tell you how much Ram you have installed, 1gb isnt enough, 2-4 is good.
 
Oh Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh :eek:

Processor; AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3800+ 2.40GHz
Memory; 1.00 GB
System Type; 32 Bit Operating System

:thumbsdown:

Right then, Time to sort that little lot out, Im gathering I can buy extra RAM ? Any pointers on type and expected cost (so I know Im not being diddled)

TIA
 
Moonraker, Im very sorry, Ive realised ive highjacked your thread matey, I will open up my own now, Gary (and others, I need the help before divorce is filed for) take it to my other thread.
 
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