Teacher needs advice

I fought and succeeded in getting my small middle school 7 digital cameras. The $200 canon and kodac type.

So the students and I are learning how to do basic photography and picture doctoring. BUT, the students are interested in adding laser blasts and such to their pictures.

Is there a free program that will allow that?

There was a tutorial on how to add lazer beams to a photo on Photoshop User TV a month or so ago (free podcast). They uses Photoshop, wich isn't free, but as a teacher, you can get a huge discount on it. I paid $200 for the entire CS2 package ($1200) with a student discount.

There is a free program called the Gimp, but I have never used it, and I don't know what it's capable of.

What programs did the cameras come with? You might already have the capability to make these types of edits with the software that came with the cameras.

Thank you for that reply, i just did a search for laser tutorials with this gimp program and found a couple... program does seem very confusing and not too user friendly.

I will ask about funds or if we have any extra licenses for photoshop tomorrow at school.

If you're interested in GIMP, there is also a free podcast that deals with the GIMP. I don't remember what it's a called, but I think it's part of the Photocast Network.

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Originally Posted by Suffocate

I will ask about funds or if we have any extra licenses for photoshop tomorrow at school.

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Digital imaging and photo manipulation can be very deep subjects. You're right about Photoshop. the full version of is super complicated and way more than you need. You will do fine with the light version, Photoshop Elements. It's still not inexpensive at $99. But as someone said, you can get an educational discount. It's also a much more user-friendly program than Photoshop CS3. You could also try Corel Paint Shop Pro or Ulead Photo Impact. You can find all of those programs along with prices and reviews in our photo editing software reviews.

I know exactly how I'd do a laser. It's not as simple as it would seem. But it's possible there's a program out there that makes it really easy.

Thank you photo john, yeah i had one of the students show me something with GIMP, and some layers thing, was totally confusing...took like 3 layers did some guasian blur ...looked more like a lightsaber.