Hi,

due to my Ubuntu upgrade yesterday, I'm actually not sure if my last post made it to the list, so here it is again.

Here's a link to my latest attempt at using Inkscape for photo retouching:

http://home.arcor.de/ccyrny/images/bild015_neg.nr.n15a._detail_4x.jpg

For me, this is better than mere bitmap editing, due to the necessity to edit larger areas, where the clone brush doesn't work so well. The keys of the technique I used here are a) that the inserted vector shapes are slightly blurred, b) that they are semi-transparent, in order to blend better with the rest of the image.

My work flow:

a) Importing the photograph into Inkscape (as a PNG or TIFF). b) Drawing the vector shapes.This implies single-color fills as well as linear gradients where necessary.(Shapes where 'Stroke' is disabled are more flexible for retouching.) c) 'Select All'. d) Exporting the final image for fine-tuning into Gimp, CinePaint, Krita, or whatever (I'm working under Ubuntu Linux). e) Fine-tuning, final adjustment of color levels, advanced Unsharp Mask.

Claus