GIMP Version: 2.8.10
Operating System: Windows
GIMP Experience: Beginner Level

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Greetings,

I'm an amateur photographer who does not have a graphic-artist's eye. I can't draw and I am not artistic in this sense. I am, however, developing a talent for taking good pictures, seeing creatively (to an extent) — maybe more so seeing "a bigger picture" rather than seeing creatively, and making that work for me in my shots. Overall, my photography is more "street" and "catch it as it happens" rather than asthetic or graphically conceptualized.

I got a hold of Photoshop a few times and thought, "Oh my gosh, I don't even know where the ON button is!" Not only was it not intuitive, but it wasn't intuitive! I mean, I am not a graphic artist! Besides, it costs...well, more gold than even God has! Then I saw Lightroom, and that was it! I was sold, and it works wonderfully for me. But it's limited.

I'm now at the point where I need advanced image manipulation, which Lightroom cannot do: composite bracketed images; layering, better healing/cloning capability, and panorama creation. These are the most important issues for me.

What I don't need is the ability to create or manipulate images graphically, artistically (in the sense a painter or graphic artist does), or change images in any of these senses. As I say, I'm not gifted in these areas, nor are they the passions of my photography. Additionally, I don't think I'll need CMYK printing ability, and I don't think 16-bit capability is an issue right now.

I did read something, if I recall correctly, that GIMP doesn't recognize RAW files. Is there a work around? I work totally in RAW, converting to JPEG only when submitting to the Web or for (basic) printing. If however, I ever needed to print professional quality, I can do that from Lightroom, but I don't know how this works with GIMP not recognizing RAW files.

So, with the above said, is GIMP something that will work for me? Photoshop, cost aside, was not intuitive to me, and, having downloaded GIMP and fired it up for a few minutes, I can see that it is going to be a challenge, but I have to do something here sooner or later.

Thanks very much for the advice.

For starters visit the photography inclined, Getting Around Gimp.
Get the Unidentified Flying Raw (UFRaw), Separate+ and G'MIC plug-ins.
Try the Essential GIMP Tutorials and the link in my signature.

Thanks very much for the links, though I'm not sure at all what to do with G'MIC.
I have also amassed a collection of sites for GIMP, so I think I'm good to go.

I'm still interested to know if panoramas can be efficiently created using GIMP, and what, if any, limitations there are with layers and masks. (Again, I don't know that I'll ever do sophisticated work with these, but I do know that I have to learn them.)

Thanks again.

Gimp is not the best for panoramas I suggest using Hugin - Panorama photo stitcher.
G'MIC is an essential plug-in for a photographer. Once you've looked around Pat David's site you'll know why.

When you download the latest version of GMIC, place them in your plug-ins folder and when you boot up Gimp it will be under Filters, down near the bottom.
Someone here that is using windows will be able to help you install GMIC. I use Linux Fedora and it is installed differently.

You only need RAW for the initial color/levels/balance processing (and even then...). Local editing can be done in 8-bit. When I start from a RAW file, I use some specialized de-mosaicing application (Canon DPP did the job when I was on Windows), produce one (or more) color-balanced version of the image, save them as high-quality JPEGs and then do the final editing with Gimp. Of course the next version of Gimp may change the workflow a bit since it supports 16/32/FP processing.

Great. Thanks very much for the help, folks.

Well, I'm on my way, then, to learn this program...or at least those parts of it I need.

Thanks again.

There was talk of Gimp being able to open RAWS in the near future. Has that not been realised yet?
I haven't got the last couple of updates, so don't know.

By the way starkman best site to check out probably would be Pat Davids http://blog.patdavid.net/ as he is a photographer that uses gimp and strongly recommends it. A lot of photograph workarounds were added to the last G'MIC.
Here is another link from Parthas page to tutorials for photography using gimp.
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/

Cambridge in Colour is a gem.

Well, if the G'MIC is for creating a 3D look for 2D images, I probably won't need it, but I definitely have his site marked for GIMP stuff!

For me, that is the problem with G'MIC - it's trying to be all things to all men. A small sub-set of it's features are useful to photographers.

I find I do almost all the adjustments I want in my RAW processing tool of choice (Photivo) then only use GIMP for final spot editing (removal of sensor dust etc).

Kevin

Perhaps not too clear from the above posts:- you can use UFRaw as a Gimp plug-in for processing RAW images.

The GIMP and G'MIC are brilliant. I am very much a newcomer to them and only use them for photographs.
It is not always self-explanatory as to how to use them, but on this site you will find an enthusiastic set of people who offer great help and advice.

david.