Re: [Gimp-user] [Gimp-developer] Test images and test suite (was Re: GIMP should fork babl and GEGL)

[Elle Stone <ellestone ninedegreesbelow com>]

On 11/13/2014 09:51 AM, Jehan Pagès wrote:
> > I take it as given that Pat, Jehan, and myself will do the actual work of
> > assembling the images, yes? And all three of us will also contribute test
> > images. We each have websites so we can put up pages with thumbnails of
> > suggested test images for consideration.
>
> Well for the "contribute test images" part, I'm not a photographer. I
> have a good enough Canon camera and I can try to shoot some objects
> with RAW on request though, but I won't guarantee the art quality for
> these. Though you'll say that's not the purpose of this test set
> anyway. :P

Well, I think it's asking a lot to expect a test image to also be 
artistically pleasing, except for maybe for people's faces, and Pat 
David makes really good photographs of people's faces.

> For the rest, yes, I can help organize, host if necessary, put up a
> small website (nothing fancy, I'm not really into web UI design) or
> something.

If you are willing to put together a small website, that would be 
wonderful. Simple is better than complicated.

To allow for displaying and sorting through potential test images, I 
think jpeg image "large thumbnails" would suffice and would minimize 
demands on your server.

For actual storage and distribution of a finished pack of test images 
plus associated raw files, server demands would go up. So that's a 
separate issue to be addressed.

> Also we should probably broaden the user list to encompass other FLOSS
> graphics projects which would also be interested and can provide user
> input and well as contribute photos. I don't think it should stay a
> GIMP-only project.

+1.

> As for gathering user input for instance, if every potential
> interested project (GIMP, ImageMagick, Krita, G'Mic... are the ones
> I'd think without much searching) would make a blog post to ask user
> input and later user raw photos once we got the input, we could have a
> usable test image set in no times (which can anyway always improve
> with time and more user input).

> I think the first step would be a small simple page to present the
> project with a way to contact us. We could have a basic survey there
> "what are you looking for when you want test image and for what
> purpose?". I can do such a thing.

Sounds good to me.

It might be nice to put up a page of sample test image "large 
thumbnails" comprising a mix of synthetic test images, colorful 
subjects, and faces. And we could include a list of links to existing 
useful but copyright-encumbered test images to give people an idea of 
the kinds of test images we'd like to put together.

I can supply thumbnails of some of the synthetic and colorful test 
images that I've put together. Would "512px max dimension jpegs" be a 
good size?

The thumbnail images wouldn't represent any composite test images. But 
once we have a good set of images to work with, suitable composite test 
images would be easy to put together.

> Then we can redirect people to this URI anytime, and ask projects to
> do blog posts. Because staying email-only is a way to have the project
> end up in limbo with time passing.

> Then at some point, we go to the "gathering step" where we ask users
> to send raw photos, ask them to accept the licensing (I would agree
> with CC by and CC by-sa personally), and ask them to get the explicit
> agreement of the model (maybe with a written agreement scan even?).
> And of course we could present what we already have.
>
> For the decisions on exact contents, I would let any of you in charge
> though, since I am not the best fit to decide.

That's a place where input from users would be really, really helpful. 
Otherwise the people putting together the test images don't know what 
other people would find useful.

Elle