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  #1  
Old 17th March 2020, 01:42 PM
Terry S Terry S is offline
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Default A little moan, but a way to improve your pictures for the gallery and... :)

Okay, time for a little moan whilst some of us have more time to do it...

First off, it's not a big deal, but I notice that quite a lot of people, when uploading pictures to any gallery on this forum, but mostly in the Print Exchange rounds, they upload b/w pictures in RGB colour mode, hence giving the pictures a slight purple tinge. Well, (usually) under the menus in P/shop, first under IMAGE, then MODE, you will find RGB colour and then above it you will find GRAYSCALE (US spelling).

I quite often take pictures that I like on this forum across into my P/shop Light (before they named it Elements) and convert them to GRAYSCALE, so that I can see them how they are supposed to be viewed, i.e. without a (usually) purple tinge.

It only takes a second to do and prints look so much better! And another bonus, is that the files are smaller to upload.

Okay, whilst in the moaning mode, can I also suggest the following for people to try and follow?...

Can photos be cropped correctly before upload please? There's nothing worse than an irregular border (usually white-ish) around three sides of a print. Again, the pictures look so much better when cropping correctly and cropping a picture after scanning only takes a second or two. I'm sure you wouldn't present a print straight from the scanner and printed out, if showing in a public exhibition? Yet it's done here on a regular basis.

And finally spelling. This forum underlines incorrectly spelt text that one types, and if the mouse is right-clicked over one of these highlighted words, it will give you a choice of suggested words. I say this as someone who quite often skips over replies on this (and other) forum(s), because sometimes the post just doesn't make much sense, with so many unknown words. And yes, of course one will slip through occasionally, even on my posts, but I'm talking about in general.

I want to ENJOY reading posts by other members but sometimes it's a strain...

And I know not everyone is totally computer savvy, but these few points are so simple to do and mean that I will enjoy both your pictures and your posts so much more.

Moan over and I'm sure someone will disagree with me.

Terry S
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Old 18th March 2020, 09:43 AM
MikeHeller MikeHeller is online now
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Guilty as charged wrt uploading B&W prints in RGB.

I use Lightroom 2 and it does not give the option of a greyscale export. I have tried scanning them in greyscale using the 'Scanner and Camera Wizzard' on a PC not connected to the Internet and Windows XP with an Epson Perfection scanner I was given ages ago which results in the tones not being right. I do have Photoshop Elements 11 but haven't really used it but will investigate making use of it when I have a chance.

I am not that keen on spending any money or time on the 'other' side, photographically or not, without a VERY good reason.
Mike

Last edited by MikeHeller; 18th March 2020 at 09:46 AM. Reason: Corrections
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Old 18th March 2020, 12:48 PM
Terry S Terry S is offline
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I totally agree with you regards the spending on anything digital Mike.

I was lucky enough to get a FREE copy of 'P/shop light' enclosed with my first bought Canon inkjet printer, many decades a go now. It has everything and more that I need for my very limited digital practice.

And again I was lucky to receive a number of FREE computer programs during my degree years, not long ago, including a version of Elements, which I've barely looked at, as I have the above product.

But it really surprises me that a programme such as 'Lightroom' does not have such a simple command as 'Grayscale' mode.

Remember it was only myself having a bit of a moan, and if something's not possible, then it's not possible.

Terry S
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Old 18th March 2020, 01:53 PM
alexmuir alexmuir is offline
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I use an HP scanner that cost £29 from a supermarket. It does B&W, Greyscale or Colour scans up to 200dpi. It also allows easy rotation and cropping. As far as I can tell, it doesn’t need any additional software to do this. I don’t own, or use any photo editing software.
I hope this doesn’t sound critical of anyone, as it’s certainly not meant to be. I thought it worth mentioning, however, that in my own experience scanning and uploading prints has been inexpensive and pretty straightforward.
Alex.


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Old 18th March 2020, 02:03 PM
Richard Gould Richard Gould is offline
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Foe me I use a 3 in one printer/copier/scaner from HP, and the windows fax and scan that gives colour/greyscale and black and white, for photo editing I use the editing in the windows set up.allows me to turn the picture around, which mainly gives me all I want
Richard
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Old 18th March 2020, 03:16 PM
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Dave Hodson Dave Hodson is offline
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Does Photoshop Light (the old Elements) currently support working in a Greyscale colour mode? I know Photoshop does but I wasn't aware that PS Light does.

The reason I ask is that I've been looking for an editor (other than Photoshop) that does and I haven't been able to find one yet. They all let you convert the image to greyscale by altering the RGB channels but none give you the option to work in the Greyscale workspace. As you've pointed out, there's the colour cast issue with that but also the file is much larger with the extra channels which is a problem for me working on 4x5 images scanned as TIFF's.


Thanks for any help you can give
Dave
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Old 18th March 2020, 04:08 PM
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How about gimp?
And it´s free!
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MonoArt - fine photographs
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Old 18th March 2020, 04:54 PM
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Dave Hodson Dave Hodson is offline
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As far as I've researched, GIMP works the same as the others (convert to greyscale via the RGB channels) and doesn't have a dedicated Greyscale workspace. Maybe somebody who uses it can confirm this.

There are a lot of great packages out there. If you are using one that has a dedicated Greyscale workspace, can you let me know please.

All the best
Dave
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Old 19th March 2020, 07:48 AM
SanMiguel SanMiguel is offline
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I've tried taking a phone shot of a print and for some reason this always results in a warm purple tinge (similar to what you are saying, Terry) which is horrible. And if I use the phone's in-built image editing software to convert to grayscale this can result in a very cold image by comparison to the print.

If I've printed on anything other than a neutral paper (e.g., if I've used a warmtone paper) I find that using my old Epson flatbed scanner with the scanning options set to colour results in a digital image that is closer to the print.

Michael
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Old 19th March 2020, 08:14 AM
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Miha Miha is offline
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Thank you Terry. We have received some very practical, sound advice here, much needed.
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