sybren
07-05-2007, 09:44 AM
There are many tutorials about Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro. However, not many photography websites and magazines offer tutorials for Open Source software. I like Kubuntu Linux, which comes with plenty of good graphics software, and is also nearly an Apple Mac when it comes to my hardware - I just plug it in and it "just works". Of course, the software is free as well, which leaves more money for equipment.
Before and after
Here's the original picture:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sybrenstuvel/529980390/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1079/529980390_b7511227f3_m.jpg" width="240" height="160" alt="Original boat in amsterdam" /></a>
It was taken using a Canon EOS 350D body with a Sigma 70-300 mm F/4-5.6 lens at 300 mm. The exposure is 1/400 sec at an aperture size of F/5.6 and 200 ISO.
And this is what I turned it into:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sybrenstuvel/525092550/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1004/525092550_3e1b4ed4e8_m.jpg" width="240" height="168" alt="A boat in Amsterdam" /></a>
Basic editing in Digikam
I stuck my CF card into my computer and chose "Download with Digikam (http://www.digikam.org/?q=image)" to get the RAWs onto it. After choosing the best photo using the Digikam photo browser and deleting the others, I hit F4 to start editing the image in the built-in photo editor. RAW conversion is done automatically; Digikam handles RAWs like just another read-only format.
The first thing I did was convert the image to black and white (Filters - Black and white) since I didn't like the distracting orange plastic. I chose a green filter to even further filter away the orange and intensify the green.
This left me with a fairly decent picture, but it missed impact. To focus the eye's attention onto the boat, something had to be done. I saved the file as TIFF to continue editing in The Gimp.
Final editing in The Gimp
After opening the file in The Gimp (http://www.gimp.org/screenshots/') I duplicated the background layer. This duplicate was treated with a thick "unsharp mask" effect. I used a radius of 40 and an amount of 2.
This creates a heavy sharpening effect that's simply too much for this image. I added a black mask to the sharpened layer, and painted it white around the boat and at some spots in the water. This selectively applies the effect to only the areas that benefit from it. Then I toyed a bit with the layer's opacity slider to get the effect just right.
To further improve the look of the photo I added some vignetting. I hand-drew an oval-like selection, feathering it by 100 pixels. Then I inverted the selection and filled it with black. I set the layer opacity to something small, 20%-ish.
Preparing for upload
Before uploading the photo to Flickr I always scale down the image, add a black border and include my name and website URL. This is automatically done with a small script (http://www.stuvel.eu/archive/49/bordering-an-image) I wrote for the occasion. I upload my images using KFlickr (http://kflickr.sourceforge.net/wikka.php?wakka=Kflickr).
That's it
That's it, a 100% Open Source work flow in Linux. Hopefully, more people will follow my example and give the Open Source developers the spotlight they deserve. Digikam has made tremendous steps forward in the last six months. I'm anxious to see the version that comes with the next Kubuntu in October this year.
If you want to see more of my pictures, visit http://www.stuvel.eu/photography or my Flickr page (http://www.flickr.com/photos/sybrenstuvel/)
Before and after
Here's the original picture:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sybrenstuvel/529980390/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1079/529980390_b7511227f3_m.jpg" width="240" height="160" alt="Original boat in amsterdam" /></a>
It was taken using a Canon EOS 350D body with a Sigma 70-300 mm F/4-5.6 lens at 300 mm. The exposure is 1/400 sec at an aperture size of F/5.6 and 200 ISO.
And this is what I turned it into:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sybrenstuvel/525092550/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1004/525092550_3e1b4ed4e8_m.jpg" width="240" height="168" alt="A boat in Amsterdam" /></a>
Basic editing in Digikam
I stuck my CF card into my computer and chose "Download with Digikam (http://www.digikam.org/?q=image)" to get the RAWs onto it. After choosing the best photo using the Digikam photo browser and deleting the others, I hit F4 to start editing the image in the built-in photo editor. RAW conversion is done automatically; Digikam handles RAWs like just another read-only format.
The first thing I did was convert the image to black and white (Filters - Black and white) since I didn't like the distracting orange plastic. I chose a green filter to even further filter away the orange and intensify the green.
This left me with a fairly decent picture, but it missed impact. To focus the eye's attention onto the boat, something had to be done. I saved the file as TIFF to continue editing in The Gimp.
Final editing in The Gimp
After opening the file in The Gimp (http://www.gimp.org/screenshots/') I duplicated the background layer. This duplicate was treated with a thick "unsharp mask" effect. I used a radius of 40 and an amount of 2.
This creates a heavy sharpening effect that's simply too much for this image. I added a black mask to the sharpened layer, and painted it white around the boat and at some spots in the water. This selectively applies the effect to only the areas that benefit from it. Then I toyed a bit with the layer's opacity slider to get the effect just right.
To further improve the look of the photo I added some vignetting. I hand-drew an oval-like selection, feathering it by 100 pixels. Then I inverted the selection and filled it with black. I set the layer opacity to something small, 20%-ish.
Preparing for upload
Before uploading the photo to Flickr I always scale down the image, add a black border and include my name and website URL. This is automatically done with a small script (http://www.stuvel.eu/archive/49/bordering-an-image) I wrote for the occasion. I upload my images using KFlickr (http://kflickr.sourceforge.net/wikka.php?wakka=Kflickr).
That's it
That's it, a 100% Open Source work flow in Linux. Hopefully, more people will follow my example and give the Open Source developers the spotlight they deserve. Digikam has made tremendous steps forward in the last six months. I'm anxious to see the version that comes with the next Kubuntu in October this year.
If you want to see more of my pictures, visit http://www.stuvel.eu/photography or my Flickr page (http://www.flickr.com/photos/sybrenstuvel/)