working with still photos & don't have photoshop - what to use?

My producer just sent me some photos to use but they are way too hires for Final Cut and also some need to be rotated and cropped. Usually I use photoshop for this but haven't upgraded to the new version and the old version won't work with OS 10.5 so what can I use? Does Final Cut studio include software that would help me do some basic photo manipulation? I have never used Motion but it seems way too complicated for what I need to do.

Can I use iPhoto or will that compromise my picture quality in some way?

Thanks!

christy

for rotation i think you can use Preview.

but i don't think you can use it to reduce the image size.

definitely look into iPhoto,
otherwise have a look at Graphics Converter. it does a lot of what you need, for a fraction of what Photoshop costs.

[www.lemkesoft.com]


nick

just download the free 30 day demo of the new photoshop

Ah - the 30 day demo. I didn't think of it. perfect.

thank you!

Only problem with using a Demo in a project is...what happens when the Demo runs out and you have to make changes? Not sure if Adobe will let you download a demo twice. Could be a sticky situation.

iPhoto 08 is cool...lets you enhance / remove red-eye / retouch / apply a handful of FX / adjust hue - sat - tint - exposure - contrast - sharpness - noise reduction. You can reduce the size of a pic in the Export dialog but not blow it up (at least I couldn't figure out how to do it).

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

I ended up using the demo version of Photoshop Elements and will probably buy it - it's not that expensive and has all the tools I need. It turned out that I needed the magic wand selection tool from photoshop to select a color and iPhoto definitely does not do that. I couldn't find it in Graphics Converter either.

Also I needed to straighten some scanned photos that were a little off center and iPhoto automatically blows up your picture when you do this, which means you lose whatever is on the edges. Graphics Converter doesn't let you do this visually (as far as I can tell) - you have to type numbers into a dialog box and it's easier for me to do it visually & manually.

btw, you probably wouldn't ever want to blow up a pic in iPhoto because it would only make it pixellated. Even photoshop can't create information where there is none.

thanks again!

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btw, you probably wouldn't ever want to blow up a pic in iPhoto because it would only make it pixellated. Even photoshop can't create information where there is none.

I kinda knew that Anyway, you can't blow up a pic in iPhoto.

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...help me do some basic photo manipulation

Your description was vague and I hear of folks blowing up pics all the time so I tried to cover all the bases with the information given. You didn't mention you needed the Magic Wand in the first post or I would not have even looked at iPhoto.

Good Luck!!

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Yeah, I didn't realize I'd need the magic wand until I started working with the photos. thanks!

It's been a while since I've been into it but Thorston Lemke's GraphicConverter shareware is a spectacular Photoshop-like app with a huge format support.

Should still have the same sort of sophisticated tools. I believe V 6.1 is the current stable release.

Take a look here.

- Loren
Today's FCP keytip:

Cycle bin views with Shift - H !

Final Cut Studio 2 KeyGuide? Power Pack.
Now available at KeyGuide Central.
www.neotrondesign.com

We use PhotoGimp for mac. Works great and it's free. Photoshop is ideal for FCP because you can export and animate layers but Gimp does everything Photoshop does minus that.


Andre

This also looks interesting, but I haven't tried it:

[www.pixelmator.com]

if you just need to resize -- use Automator to batch convert them if you email me off line or post your email I will send you the macro I made to do that -- the sweet spot for photos at maximum pixel size seems to be It's 1800 x 1350 x 72 dpi. That gives you some room to zoom around with enough room to not lose resolution. Automator will do this for you with an entire batch very quickly (it won't change anything else about the photo though)

Best Andy