El 30/05/13 10:52, Pat David escribi:

Hi guys,

Not sure about the best place for this, so figured I would talk to this list about it.

I recently became a part-time writer for PetaPixel.com (photography-centric site). They do a fair amount of traffic with photographers, and as a long-time F/OSS user, I figured it might be a good opportunity to mention/share/promote the cause.

Hi Pat,

These are great news. As you said, it's a great opportunity to get extra exposure, but I'd like to add a couple of comments regarding the way of exposing our tools.

I figure more exposure certainly can't hurt, and if it can be done in a context where our F/OSS tools are spoken about in a manner that considers them as on par or better than commercial offerings, even better.

Be careful when you describe our tools. Try to do it in a honest, objective manner. Sometimes we, as long time users and advocates of free software tend to make some mistakes, like overstating some advantages and hiding some disadvantages our software has. I would avoid using stuff like "on par or better than" because it often calls for a flame war and we don't want that. Also (I'm not sure if this applies to you, but still) the more we use free software, the less we use the other software. And it's easy to miss new stuff when you're not using that software anymore and it might happen that the comparison isn't accurate enough.

I love GIMP, I've been using it as my only image manipulation program for the last 6 or 7 years, and I have my reasons to use it, but I have to remember myself all the time (when talking to friends and colleages) that some things I find convenient or even great maybe aren't a big deal for other people, and things I got used to ignore/endure/workaround ARE a big deal for other people (high bit depth editing, non-destructive layer styles and adjustments, for instance).

I'm not sure if it is a good idea to mention that those annoyances will be fixed anytime soon (most of the historical issues are being addressed in the current development version and the rest are part of the roadmap for the next versions). The hard fact is that the current stable version of GIMP still has some limitations that can constrain the artistic freedom of a high end photographer.
Of course you and me and several other GIMP users have learned to use some workarounds and minimize the impact of those limitations but it's a good idea to keep in mind that some of our workarounds can be deal breakers for other users with high productivity in mind.

So, my advise is: stay true. Curb your enthusiasm and try to focus on the stuff that GIMP can do well.

Don't get me wrong. As I mentioned before, I love your tutorials because you do show a professional-grade usage of GIMP. You know your trade and I'm sure you'll do a great job, just please be very careful with the choice of words and comparisons.

So, if anyone would like to see something in particular worked into an article, either a feature or technique, that I can write against something a bit broader in the photography world, I'd love to hear it! I'll do what I can to raise awareness, even if only small steps at a time.

I think the kind of stuff you show in your tutorials is good. I can't think of a specific subject right now, but I guess that any photo-related procedure explained in the way you do in your blog will be fine.

Cheers,

Gez.