Happy People at LinuxFest Northwest
For the first time in 9 years I decided to take my camera to the after-party. I found a lot of happy people. If you like the picture enough, let me know. None of these have been through post, so I could clean up your portrait a bit. Great to see you all there! I look forward to 2014!
Linux Photography: Basic Darktable Tutorial
I know why my first few minutes with Darktable seemed so frustrating–they were all me scrubbing this modal interface looking for things I thought all should be in a menubar. But there are no menubars. While DT has quite a bit of keyboard shortcuts (not discussed today) Those were no help because you have to study the Settings dialog Shortcuts tab…no quick to get started with when you’re used to mundane office software. Darktable is as different from GIMP as GIMP is from Photoshop. Is DT similar to PhotoShop? You tell me.
- select photos in light table mode
- enter darkroom mode
- select an action group “basic”
- enable a module 
- reset a module using the furthest right “standby” icon
- spot selects are often a rectangle
- return to lighttable mode
- turn down stars of photos you don’t want
- expand right sidebar
- select group, select all
- where will it save?
- export selected group with the Export button at the bottom of the column. This will batch-export all the photos on your light-table screen.
Certainly this is nothing like the GIMP. You do have to scrub the interfaces to find all the gritty little features, but it is more batch-oriented and possibly a cleaner work-flow.
Lightroom vs Darktable [Tutorial Geek]
Here is a more in-depth comparison of features and processes available in Darktable and Lightroom.
Linux Photo Processing
Example of GIMP
At LinuxFest Northwest 2013 April 28/29, I will be giving a talk comparing the GIMP and Darktable. These are two very powerful photo manipulation tools.
I am particularly looking at two programs that provide a strong post-processing capability. You use them for different purposes and how they are used is quit different as well. There will be a few more posts on each of these. (What about digiKam? Honestly, I don’t know anyone who uses it, so it didn’t immediately come to mind. For all-around photo-management, digiKam is certainly worthwhile. I won’t speak against it.)
The GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP)
Largely, the GIMP is what many people might think of a Photoshop for Linux. Many would strongly disagree–commonly what you hear is this: Gimp is nothing like Photoshop. I think people will agree on this: if you need retouching, layer compositing, text, and pixel-pencil drawing, your choices are pretty likely going to be some version of Photoshop or the GIMP. If you dont want to pay for a copy of Photoshop but want to produce layered screen graphics or high-res graphics for printing, here’s your tool. (And while GIMP has some vector tools for pathings, it is not a vector drawing program–see Inkscape for that).
Darktable
Example of Darktable
If you have used Lightroom, (a semi-pro and above level raw photo organizer and post-process workflow program), Darktable shall fill an analagous role. Darktable is has no intentions of being a drawing program. Color control is Darktables primary focus. It’s internals operate on color as 32-bit floating point values, which is mighty accurate. However, this means it wants a 64-bit computer with at least 2 gigs of ram. WIth it you can run through a batch of photos imported from your SD card, pick a few 4- and 5-star photos, isolate that set, apply color correction and “make snapshots” of them to jpg or png images.
Next
I look forward to writing out a few examples comparing and constrasting how GIMP and Darktable are used. Linux and digital photography are getting along quite well these days, and I look forward to helping you get a leg up on these two programs!
Minotaur Rock Star, Bellingham 2012-05-05 [wallpaper]
This guy (or gal) was rockin’ the scene at the 2012 Procession of the Species.
minotaur @ bellingham procession of species 1920×1500 2012-05-05
Biplane, Bellingham Air Museum
2012-11-09-flight-museum-biplane-01-1920×1285
2012-11-09-flight-museum-biplane-02-1920×1285
Eloise, Ravenna Park, 2012-04-03
I cooked this one to emphasize her magic.
Ellie, Ravenna Park, 2012-04-03
Beach Stones with Glow [wide wallpaper]
Wide wallpaper. Have fun!
Beach Stones macro panorama 2012-07-18 – wide desktop wallpaper
Jesse’s First Violin Recital
Jesse was apparently quite the champ during his first violin recital. My beautiful wife is so thoughtful, she cooked him a violin themed meat pie in honor of his first recital!
Ellie with Red Cloak
Ellie with red cloak 2012-10-27
Astoria Bridge, 2011 [wallpaper]
This is not altered with a smartphone goody like iPhoto or instagram, this was modified with the GIMP, of course.
Astoria-pier-stumps 2011-08-30 wallpaper
Beach Fort panorama
Beach fort panorama, Samish Island, 2012-10-06
Split Bark macro panorama [wide wallpaper]
This one came out probably wide enough for four panorama monitors.
cracked bark panorama
Bolted Boards [wide wallpaper]
Panorama of bolted boards Samish Beach
Samish Beach Broken Shell Panorama
Another macro panorama. Let me know if you think its too much of something.
Samish Island, Broken Shell
3x Monitor Background: Beach Pebbles
More from Deception Pass:
This one was more difficult to produce because the color gamut was beyond what Hugin could deal with. I posterized each picture down to 256 colors to get some reasonable color control. I took it back into Gimp, resized it again and did a bit of enhancement. Let me know if you think this color is bad.
Two 3x Monitor Backgrounds from Deception Pass
I had good fun with my camera on Memorial Day. Been a while since I filled up a memory card.
Since I have such a nice computer at work, I’ve decided that I refocus my photography towards landscapes, and put out multi-desktop wallpapers.
How should one set up slave flashes?
random flash picture
I’ve been considering doing some product photography at Candelatech. I want to get that “brilliant white” background and try and escape the weird colors that come out in fluorescent light. Looking at lights online it would seem that the inexpensive way to proceed is to use a series of flashes on tripods.
Have YOU done this? Please share, eager to learn.
