View Full Version : Is photoshop necessary for PDN?
It looks like I am heading in this route to get what I need but there is no way I want to pay a whole lot of money for a program I will only use a very small portion of. Honestly it would be like using an 11x14 to shoot roll film.
Is there a program out there that will work with PDN that is not so damned huge and expensive. I thought about photoshop elements but they do not have a MAC version anymore. I have an old version. Will that work?
donbga
02-08-2006, 04:23 PM
It looks like I am heading in this route to get what I need but there is no way I want to pay a whole lot of money for a program I will only use a very small portion of. Honestly it would be like using an 11x14 to shoot roll film.
Is there a program out there that will work with PDN that is not so damned huge and expensive. I thought about photoshop elements but they do not have a MAC version anymore. I have an old version. Will that work?
It will work if that version supports layers which is essential for use with PDN. I don' t recall that Elements does support layers except for perhaps the latest version. I think this probably precludes products such as GIMP and Picture Window Pro. Corel Paint Shop Pro X may work but I've not tried it myself. You can download a trial copy.
http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Corel3/Home
My advice is to save your money and get CS2.
Perhaps someone else has some different advice.
Don Bryant
Jeremy
02-08-2006, 04:24 PM
Mark, don't forget that as a teacher you qualify for the education discount which does bring the price down considerably.
donbga
02-08-2006, 04:25 PM
Pro. Corel Paint Shop Pro X may work but I've not tried it myself. You can download a trial copy.
http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Corel3/Home
Don Bryant
Whoops! Looks like PSPX is for WINTEL only.
Don Bryant
Derek Lofgreen
02-10-2006, 03:10 PM
I don't know what PDN is but you can get GIMP for free and it is very capable. http://www.gimp.org/
D.
donbga
02-10-2006, 03:46 PM
I don't know what PDN is but you can get GIMP for free and it is very capable. http://www.gimp.org/
D.
Does it have layers like PS?
Don
donbga
02-10-2006, 07:50 PM
It looks like I am heading in this route to get what I need but there is no way I want to pay a whole lot of money for a program I will only use a very small portion of. Honestly it would be like using an 11x14 to shoot roll film.
Is there a program out there that will work with PDN that is not so damned huge and expensive. I thought about photoshop elements but they do not have a MAC version anymore. I have an old version. Will that work?
Hi Mark,
I've just downloaded "The Gimp" (God I hate that name), and it does look like you can use it for making digital negatives with Mark Nelson PDN software.
I was able to open a Tonal Palette and do a color fill, however I am bothered a bit about how to precisely enter individual values for curves, but I did do a Google search and there seems to be tons of online help sources for Gimp.
Gimp would not open a PhotoShop Curve file but I did find a Perl script that would convert PS ACV files to the Gimp file format. I will most likely download this script just to glean some info about PS curve file formating and structure.
So again, I would cautiosly say yes Gimp could be used.
Don Bryant
P.S. If you do decide to use Gimp you may also want to download CinePaint for the Mac when it is released. CinePaint is an image manipulation package that will allow you to work on image data in 16 bits as Gimp is an 8 bit only package.
don,
since i have cs2 is there any advantage to taking a closer look at teh Gimp program?
regards,
ann
donbga
02-16-2006, 10:46 PM
don,
since i have cs2 is there any advantage to taking a closer look at teh Gimp program?
regards,
ann
Absolutely not! GIMP is simply second rate when compared to PS CS2 though it is a really good app especially considering the cost.
Don
Stephanie Brim
02-17-2006, 02:36 AM
http://www.newegg.com/product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16832105125&CMP=OTC-Froogle&ATT=Adobe+Photoshop+Elements+3.0+For+Mac
Not exactly sure what you mean by there not being a Mac version of Elements anymore...
I went looking and could not find one listed on the adobe site. Only windows. Thanks for the link though.
donbga
02-23-2006, 06:01 PM
I went looking and could not find one listed on the adobe site. Only windows. Thanks for the link though.
Mark,
As I said in my PM to you Gimp can be used with PDN. Since then I've found free MAC versions of Gimp. The version of GIMP that I found for the MAC requires OS X. I think you said you have a G3 so I'm not sure which version of the OS you may have.
Anyway you can Google "gimp for macintosh" and perhaps find out which MAC OSes are supported if you aren't running OS X.
Of course you can always just make traditionally enlarged negatives. I'm sure Aggie could help answer any questions with that.
Don Bryant
I would love too make traditionally enlarged negs. No darkroom though. I'll check out the gimp for mac thanks