young-eclectic-encounters: New Toy

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

New Toy

For the most part I use free editing software for editing my photos. The advantage to this is obvious, they are free. However the disadvantages are not so obvious. First you have to find them on the net and since they are free nobody pays for advertising. CNET.com has a pretty nice selection and their downloads are safe but they do not have programs to cover all that you might want to do, so the search goes on for safety and editing ability. Even with CNET I have downloaded programs only to find that they do not work the way the programmers say they will and I end up deleting them. Of course I have bought one program that I dearly wished I could have returned and another program I was able to return only because I happened to find a free trial of the program before I opened the package and it would not work with Windows 7. The hunt for what I want can be quite time consuming and frustrating as I try out each program and learn them without a manual.

Here is my first attempt with the new program.

Not great. The original is at the top. This is way to dark. So I tried an entirely different setting and got this

Kind of funky looking. Might not be too bad if the entire thing was lighter but in the same proportions. Thus far my edits look nothing like the ones on the web site but there are only two and actually I'm still having fun.

It's a good thing I learn quickly; there is obvious improvement in the third. I think I am really going to like this one.

I found this one on MyShutterSpace.com my favorite photo site. Great people and great photos. I have found those people who participate on this site are wonderful sharing people and I have learned much. Up until now I was one of the few that I knew of who used free programs almost exclusively, but I have now found someone else of like ilk. He wrote a blog on the site recommending this program. It's nice to have someone else who tries and knows which programs are good.

I am still looking for a program that will do a good sketch edit of my photos to make it easier to do paintings from my photos.

I am glad that I took the time to do this blog- writing my blog almost always makes me feel good; it is a pleasure. Right now I needed that pleasurable distraction. I still have that horrid sinus infection and even though the migraines have become intermittent; I woke with one this morning, that and a fever.

The infection has gone into my lungs and tonight I am having a hard time breathing. I have a pulse/oxygen meter at home and my oxygen level is not where it should be. It's real close to 911 time but I am well equipped at home and have been able to bring it up some, but if it goes down again then I go to the hospital. I'm still considering, but I do have an appointment tomorrow with the infectious disease doctor who I would prefer to treat me and his hospital is in Atlanta and I would end up in the hospital in Griffin if I went tonight, sooo I sit and chill out and think and chat with my cyber-friends.