48 bit editing in Linux?

Hello,

I am a Linux user, and I do not have Windows anywhere (no, I'm not a

fanatic, it's just how things are). The standard, free Linux program

for working with photos on this platform is GIMP, but I am hardly

impressed with it - unless I'm terribly mistaken, it can't handle

anything more than 24 bits per pixel. I do not need more for the final

print, at least not typically, but working on a 24 bpp picture greatly

limits my abilities to adjust scanner and camera output without

ruining the picture sooner or later - there's just not enough

information to increase contrast or brightness significantly without

losing details.

So far, I'm dealing with it by adjusting parameters on the camera for

digital photos, or in VueScan for scans. Unfortunately, both LCD and

VueScan preview window offer inferior quality and are not particularly

useful, and working in a rescan - view - adjust cycle is not really

convinient.

So, my question is, are there any half-decent free (or not too

expensive) tools for performing basic adjustments, corrections and

cropping of 48 bits per pixel images? I am not looking for advanced

color management or superior quality.

Thanks.

There is a version of Gimp called <a

href="http://filmgimp.sourceforge.net/">Film Gimp</a> that supports

48-bit images. I have never used it myself, so I cannot tell you

more about it.

Hey you don't need to be a fanatic to be using Linux! As you have found out the current

GIMP does not support the higher bit depth images, however as Tom mentioned filmgimp

does. Filmgimp is simply an earlier version of GIMP that has branched off to support the

specific needs of the film industry (including high bit depth support).<p>

When 48bpp is necessary I use VueScan to scan my images, make initial level adjustments

in filmgimp and then use the current GIMP for further tweaking and output. I say when

necessary because I often find, if I am careful, 24bpp gives excellent results (remember

how long we had only 24bpp in P*shop)<p>

Note that these improvements (called GIMP-16) are scheduled to be included in the Gimp

2.0 product. Development slowed in 2001 but it seems to be picking up speed again. I

hope you hang in there and continue to use Linux and GIMP for you photo needs. I feel we

need more photographer's help in shaping the future of the GIMP.

Thanks for your comments. The reason I'm not using VueScan for adjustments is that I often scan cross-processed slides (negatives with no orange mask), and I haven't figured out a good way to handle those - I can select "Negative film" and get a greenish cast caused by the attempt to remove orange mask that is not there, or "Slide film" and, well, get negatives that are not really useful for adjustment as-is. When I save them, open in GIMP, invert and try to work on them, I often find that 24bpp just doesn't cut it.

Any ideas how to handle it in VueScan?

Filmgimp looks promising, but I have an awkward problem. No matter what pictures I edit, it seems to crash sooner or later after using "Brightness / contrast" adjustment tool - sometimes it happens after clicking "OK", sometimes shortly after, when browsing menus. GIMP works fine, so I guess there's something wrong with the code...