Sales and Photos

[Matt Newton]

I don't know if this is the right forum for this question, but what I want to sell and photo is turnings so here goes.

First, does anyone out there have a recommendation for a cheap (read FREE) photo editing software that is easy to use? I downloaded GIMP and there seems to be a bit of a learning curve. (Maybe I'm just a little slow.) :o

Second, I want to expand my sales past the friends and family. What venue (ie: craft fairs, internet, door to door) do you find works best for you.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Matt,

I use this graphics program and it does everything I want - plus has a few extra bells and whistles to keep your photos interesting. Check it out - it is free: http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm

As far as selling - really depends what kind of turnings you have to sell - meaning some venues will work better than others. If you want to sell pens, bottle stoppers, candle holders, bowls, etc - then any of your local craft shows should work well.

If you are aiming at the high end art market - then one way to find your niche is to do juried art shows to develop a name and get your turnings into galleries. This is the direction I am taking and should I figure it out - I'll let everyone know!

[Derek Gilmer]

I used paint.net for most of the websites I play around with (all free for friends, no reason to buy photoshop). Here is a link to their site: http://www.paint.net/ plenty of powerful options to do most of what photoshop will do.

[Howard Jahnke]

My kids use a program called "picnic" sp?. Looks pretty powerful. Lots of very easy editing and cropping tools.

[Aaron Wingert]

I use Picasa by Google for most basic fixes, resizing, etc. It is free and it is an excellent program that is easy to use compared to photoshop, etc.

[David G Baker]

Steve,
Almost any software has a learning curve even the free stuff. Picasa if probably a good place to start, but if you want to do exotic things you will have to pay the bucks. I use a 10 year old copy of Adobe Photoshop and it serves me well. You may be able to find an out dated copy of Photoshop on the Flea Bay for a good price, my old version works well on Vista.

[James Jaragosky]

Matt,

I use this graphics program and it does everything I want - plus has a few extra bells and whistles to keep your photos interesting. Check it out - it is free: http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm

As far as selling - really depends what kind of turnings you have to sell - meaning some venues will work better than others. If you want to sell pens, bottle stoppers, candle holders, bowls, etc - then any of your local craft shows should work well.

If you are aiming at the high end art market - then one way to find your niche is to do juried art shows to develop a name and get your turnings into galleries. This is the direction I am taking and should I figure it out - I'll let everyone know!
Steve, I like the new avatar you look younger with this one.
As far as photo software, I think Google pacasa (http://picasa.google.com/intl/en/#utm_source=en-all-more&utm_campaign=en-pic&utm_medium=et) may do what you want.

[Josh Reet]

Picassa if you want "free". But the better route would be to pony up $75 and get Photoshop elements. It will do everything the average person needs to do ever with photos.

[Eric DeSilva]

Can't comment on the other things, but seeing some of the other software mentioned--if you think GIMP has a high learning curve, Adobe Photoshop probably isn't for you either.

That said, maybe it should be. Digital cameras are not like film cameras in the sense that you sent off your film and got good pictures--there was someone in the darkroom adjusting things on the fly to correct for a lot of things you never saw. As a result, you can't really expect digital photos--right out of the box--to give you the kind of spectacular results you might remember from film. There are, however, some very easy techniques you can learn and apply to your pictures that can vastly improve them. Learn to crop. Learn to sharpen. Learn to adjust white balance. I tend to set white and black points and generally play with a curve to push midtone contrast. None of these things are hard, and there are tutorials on most of them. I seriously urge you to give it a try--especially since GIMP is free!

[David G Baker]

Josh,
I used Adobe Photoshop version 5.5 for so long that I found it very difficult to make the Photoshop Elements transition. I gave it an honest try then put it back in the box. It did get me a major discount on the latest version of Photoshop that is loaded on my computer but I haven't used it yet due to the learning curve. :D

[Ted Calver]

For photo work try Irfanview ( a free photo program that does all the basics and is easy to use). For beginning sales try ETSY dot com, a place where lots of crafty people successfully sell their wares on the net. They charge 20 cents per picture and a small (3% IIRC) percentage of the sale. My wife and daughter sell stuff on there all the time.

[Jim Becker]

Picassa if you want "free". But the better route would be to pony up $75 and get Photoshop elements. It will do everything the average person needs to do ever with photos.

Agree...and the learning curve is mild. It's designed for "normal" humans. (Don't ask me why I can use it as well as I do in that respect...:p)