Help! I'm using paint to edit my photos!

[Seedy]

Ok....I've been using "Paint" to edit my photo's and I've noticed it doesn't work so well....any suggestions as to some free software for resizing, croping and basic photo "tweaks"?

[finz]

Try irfanview

http://www.irfanview.com/main_start_engl.htm

[Glaive]

gimp for windows (http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/)

[Jeto]

both are very good suggestions...

how about picasa2?

[Seedy]

Thanks! :ok:

I've downloaded both, and am going to give them a try...We'll see if the pics look better...I think "paint" has been been killing the resolution...
Thanks again.

[Seedy]

Any change?

Gimp:
http://www.cichlidforums.com/postimages/2006-02-19/130910-001.jpg

Paint
http://www.cichlidforums.com/postimages/2006-02-19/130910-002.jpg

[finz]

Doesn't seem to be much difference between the two

[firemouthman198]

i dont know if my eyes are buggin but it almost seem sthe paint is a tad bit better...i use hp photo and imaging, but it came with out color photo printer. works well enoiugh though.

[Glaive]

Quality is the same, resolution is slightly different.

What are you doing in the graphics program? Just resizing?

[Seedy]

Just resizing and croping

[Glaive]

Now for the barage of Q's.

What camera do you have and what quality are you shooting in?

If I can grab the manual I may have some suggestions.

You may give a shot at a little "unsharp mask"<not sure if gimp has it> before cropping.

However for all the wonder that can be worked in post production, the best bet is to take a better picture from the get go.

[kirch24]

Adobe Photoshop CS!!!!

[Jeto]

seedy,
if you just did some cropping and resizing, the paint program did a much better job.....IMHO....

[Glaive]

Kirch24 Photoshop is probably overkill for CD's budget. The other options are free or close to it. I honestly don't see a quality difference between the two pictures above, but I would also have to admit that this monitor is tined for games and not images.

[Jeto]

I'm using my laptop right now to view the pix and guess what, the gimp is much better. Earlier i was viewing it in a CRT monitor. hahahahhaha:D

[Glaive]

Either way I guess seedy has his answer, paint is honestly good enough, it's all about learning to take pictures in some of the most difficult environs.