Copyright (c) 2007 Dean Barnard
Some still hold the opinion that graphics and art is a mind thing and one cannot become a graphics artist just by tweaking some shots in a computer. Creativity may still be elusive but there is little doubt that computer generated imagery and graphics have taken art to a new level. With the availability of new and better graphics tools an artist has more time to do things which he does best ......creating . It used to be domain of Mac's, high end graphics workstations with the whiz kids hunched on its big impressive screen. But soon a slew of PC based graphics suites hit the market, turning every kid into a master craftsman. Adobe Photoshop may be considered to be a pioneer in this field. Corel's Photopaint and Paint Shop Pro were and are being used widely even today. Windows based graphics software has made computer graphics accessible to the common man. With the advent of digital cameras, need for enhancing and improving family photos has lead to phenomenal growth of home grown studios. The pace has quickened with cameras mounted on mobile phones. The number of formats for graphics files has also increased with the times. Starting with the humble bit map file, bmp other popular formats are JPEG, TIFF, GIF and TARGA (.tga).
Adobe Photoshop
The field of computer graphics would not be complete without the mention of Adobe Photoshop. In fact, it can be considered as the Microsoft windows of the graphics world. The Photoshop tools make retouching, manipulation and color correction possible within a few minutes as compared to many days used by professional photographers using traditional tools. Photoshop uses its own native format .psd for storing files. The layer information can be preserved in this format, permitting the user to effect changes at a later date. However the native format .psd gives rise to large and heavy files which are rather difficult to transfer to other computers. Photoshop can also work with several other graphics file formats like BMP, JPEG, and Gif etc. It is also capable of importing vector graphics. In the latest version, it is also possible to work on several digital camera formats making it easy for home users to manipulate digital images.
Along with several other Adobe software, Photoshop can be used to create images not only for the print media but also for the internet, animation and motion pictures.
An important feature of Photoshop is the plug-ins. With plug-ins the capability of Photoshop is extended phenomenally. In fact, a sub culture or mini world has developed under the umbrella of plug-ins. Effects such as grain, lens flare, degauss etc. are quite popular. Color correction and manipulation is an important feature of Photoshop, lending magic to real world images.
Adobe Photoshop software is a pioneer in the field of computer graphics. It is moderately priced and is suitable for manipulating high resolution graphics. It can convert into a variety of graphics formats which are suited both for the print as well as web-sites.
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