photo-editing software

[momonan]

I want to put a couple of things for sale on ebay.  I'd like the pictures to show up really well (absent backlighting, enlargeable, good color).  Any ideas -- especially something free?

[nudone]

you could try Paint.NET from http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/paint.net/

[mouser]

paint.net might be overkill for image correction..
i wonder if there is a nice freeware for common image correction stuff.

ps. not sure what you mean by enlargeable.

ps2. anyone using ebay recently to sell stuff know what the current procedure for sellers to upload pictures.. do you need to have your own web space for that, etc?  is that an issue that momonan has to figure out as well?  or does ebay handle it for you?

[mouser]

if you don't already have a good image viewer, irfanview is freeware and is excellent, and includes quite a bit of image correction tools:
http://www.irfanview.com/
its an all-around good tiny utility to have even if it not perfect for this task.
i would recommend irfanview to everyone for general purpose image viewing and editing.

Paint Shtop Pro's little brother (cheaper and made to be simpler) Paint Shop Pro Studio, has always been nice and gentle and seem to have some very friendly photo correction.
http://www.corel.com...mp;cid=1047023969489
but its not cheap at $79.  you could download a trial though and see if that's sufficient for your current task.

and in a similar vein to jasc, adobe photoshop elements ($99): http://www.adobe.com...oshopelwin/main.html

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unrelated to your request, but a cute freeware program i stumbled across while looking, it casts different colored lights on images from different directions:
http://www.snapfiles...nshots/rgblights.htm

[momonan]

Mouser writes: "not sure what you mean by enlargeable."  I want the prospective buyer to be able to enlarge an image to view details.  I'll try the paint shop pro studio, as I'm open to any product that's not created by microsoft, and love that it's produced by rival Corel.   Thanks for taking the time to pass your tips on to me.

[mouser]

here is how "enlargeable" images on webpage are "usually" done.

typically you have 2 pictures.
you have your original picture, and then you make a tiny version of it (a thumbnail).
then on your web page (or in your ebay listing) you would do something like:

[Select]

<a href="mypicture.jpg"> <img src="mypicture_thumbnail.jpg"/> </a>

it can be done with a single picture as well, but it's typically done using 2 pictures, one large one and one thumbnail.  so that html code above shows the thumbnail picture "mypicture_thumbnail", and if they click on it they will be shown the main big picture "mypicture_thumbnail.jpg".

i don't know to what extent the ebay listing system helps you with such things.
i know there are shareware programs to help you post listings.
maybe there are freeware tools also.

[mouser]

nice free tool to help you post ebay listings, made by ebay themselves:
http://pages.ebay.com/turbo%5Flister/

with tutorials on how to use here:
http://pages.ebay.co...tools/resources.html

[mouser]

there are also a lot of 3rd party web sites that offer various tools and services to sellers, some free, some not.
for example:
http://www.alouwebde...on-tool-software.htm


if there was a need for a small amount of low-bandwidth hosting of images by members, this might be something we could set up as a way to say thank you to members.

[nudone]

i don't think there will be a problem with ebay hosting the images - you are paying them for such an option after all.

it's probably a good idea to resize the images you are going to use before uploading them to your auction page - if they are too big you won't be able to upload them anyway but getting them about the right size in the first place will make things quicker.

[zridling]

Check out PhotoFiltre, which will provide you with a tool you'll probably want to keep.

[kfitting]

Or you can try FastStoneViewer at www.faststonesoft.com.  Of course this evening the site was down for exceeding bandwidth (first time this has happened).  But I know the program is turning people's heads.  It certainly did mine.  You can check out the latest demo over at Betanews. 

Features lossless crop (jpg)
Lossless rotation (jpg)
Brightness/contrast
Compare up to four images at the same time
Excellant fullscreen mode
Excellant slideshow mode
and theres more... probably a lot I dont even use!

Kevin