GIMPing Along

In this GIMP project, you are going to use a couple of wood texture images as well as a few GIMP techniques to create a fairly realistic-looking 3D text image.

Source images: Wood Texture by kovik (stock.xchng) | Wooden Plank from Image*After

Begin by opening GIMP and creating a new document with a size of 1200 x 600 pixels. Make it transparent (under Advanced Options, choose Fill with: Transparency).

Open up the Wood Texture image and resize it to a width to 1200 pixels, set X and Y resolutions each to 72 pixels/inch, Image - Scale Image… .

Copy the Wood Texture image into the original document. First select all of the Wood Texture image (Select - All) and copy it (Edit - Copy). Switch to the new image you are creating and paste the Wood Texture image, (Edit - Paste), it will appear in the Layers pallet as a Floating Selection. Make it a layer (Layer - To New Layer). Save the current image.

Now, add some text with the Text Tool. The font I used is Impact Condensed, 244 px, but most any bold font will do.

The wood is going to be used as the face of the text, Make the text layer active in the Layers pallet. Create a selection from the text (Layer - Transparency - Alpha to Selection). A “marching ants” outline of the text should appear. Invert the selection to the area outside the text (Select - Invert). Make the wood layer active and clear the selection (Edit - Clear). Hide the text layer.

Now to give the text depth. Create a new layer, Black text. Invert the selection again, be sure the colors are the default, and fill the selection with the foreground color, black (Edit - Fill with FG Color). Deselect. You should now have one text layer that has the wood texture and one that is black.

Move the black text layer under the wood text layer. The next step is to reshape the black text layer. Using the transform tool (Tools - Transform Tool - Scale), move all of the side anchor points inward to get something like this.

Then when you click the Scale button, this is what you should have.

To create the depth of the 3D effect, zoom into the text and, using the Free Select Tool, make a selection that connects each corner of the wooden text with the corresponding corner of the black text. Paint all these selections with black (on the black text layer).

Give the text a more natural edge that goes with the grooves of the wood. Make the wood text layer active, then goFilters - Map - Displace… . Set the horizontal and vertical displacements each to 2 and click OK.

Open the Wooden Plank image. You are going to do some color adjusting to this image to make it darker for the text sides. From the Colors menu, choose Curves..., adjust the curve to something like this.

The color is really bright, so change that by choosing Hue-Saturation... from the Colors menu and change the Hue to 30, Lightness to -60, and Saturation to -30. This should give you a dark brown color.

Scale the width of the Wooden Plank image to 1200 pixels. Using the copy-paste procedure you used earlier, bring the Wooden Plank image into the text image as a new layer. This wood layer goes between the wood text layer and the black text layer. To remove the excess wood texture, make the black text layer active, go Layer - Transparency - Alpha to Selection, then invert the selection. Be sure to select the Wooden Plank image layer, thenEdit - Clear. This should leave just the wood texture where the black text was.

!!! Note: You will need the GIMP Layer Effects Plugin installed to complete the next step. Get it here.

The next step is to add a bevel to the text. Make the wood text layer active and go ScriptFu - Layer Effects - Bevel and Emboss… . Set the Depth to 65, the Size to 2 pixels, and the Angle to 55. To get a little warmer edge to the bevel change the Highlight Color to #FFCC33 and the Shadow Color to #663300 rather than using the black and white default colors.

Now add an inner shadow to the wood text face layer. Go ScriptFu - Layer Effects again and this time chooseInner Shadow. Use the default settings. This will make the bevel stand out more and make the text look more like each letter is wooden.

Now you can add a shadow. You should drag the black text layer to the top of the layers stack to make it visible. With the Select by Color Tool, make a selection of the black text. Enlarge the selection by about 4 pixels (Select - Grow…).

Create a new layer, Shadow, and fill it with black (Edit - Fill with FG Color). Deselect. Go Filters - Blur - Gaussian…, Radius of 30 pixels.

Hide the black text layer (you can delete it if you like). Drag the Shadow layer under all the wood layers and over the background layer. With the Move Tool, drag the Shadow layer in the image down and slightly to the right. Reduce the Opacity to about 50%

You can use these techniques to create 3D text using pretty much any sort of textures you’d like with only minor modifications.

This project was adapted from a Photoshop tutorial by Tyler from DenisDesigns.

Vintage Letterpress Effect

2013-08-20T09:55:00.001-05:00

In this GIMP 2.8 tutorial you will learn a quick and easy way to give your typography an ink-stamp-style effect that originated from the old letterpress printing technique.

Letterpress printing is a technique of relief printing using a printing press.Movable type is composed and locked into the bed of a press, inked, and pressed against paper to transfer the ink from the type.

This can result in some texturing, especially if some areas of the printing surface receive little or no ink. Back in the day, this would be seen as a flaw in the print, but now we try to fake this kind of texturing to simulate an aged and nostalgic appearance.

The letterpress effect is created from a texture file. The texture can be anything with plenty of fine grainy detail. Concrete, rust, or grunge textures all work well. For this exercise, I used a rusty metal texture that can be downloaded free from Image*After.

Desaturate the Texture, Colors - Desaturate…, Choose shade of gray based on Lightness. Open the Levels dialog, Colors - Levels…, and use the slider handles to increase the contrast of the image (80, 0.70, 208). Try to generate harsh white details that will represent the paper showing through the ink.

I used the Text Tool to create a layer of text, then added a mask to that layer, Layer - Mask - Add Layer Mask… .

Select all of the Texture layer, Select - All (or ⌘+A), then copy the selection, Edit-Copy (or ⌘+C). You can now hide or delete the Texture layer.

Then right-click the Layer Mask’s little thumbnail in the Layers pallet to make it the target. Paste the copied texture into the layer mask, Edit - Paste (or ⌘+V), then anchor the layer to the mask, Layer - Anchor Layer (or ⌘+H).

The texture has now been applied as a mask and is rendering black areas of the mask transparent and white areas opaque. Adding a background layer of a solid color will show the effect more clearly. If too much of the text is currently being erased, as is the case here, inverting the colors may result in a better effect, Colors - Invert.

Finally, I added an old paper texture layer to enhance the effect, File - Open As Layers… .

The final effect gives the text a popular vintage look by simulating the pressed ink appearance of those old letterpress prints.

This tutorial was derived from a Photoshop tutorial by Chris Spooner.

Quick and Easy Pencil Sketches

2013-06-13T11:45:00.001-05:00

In this short project you will learn how to use GIMP to quickly and easily get a pencil sketch effect.

Note that the settings used in this tutorial work for the image I used. They can vary widely to achieve desired results for different source images. If you would like to download the picture I used in this tutorial, click here.

Open the image that you want to modify. Duplicate the image layer, Layer - Duplicate Layer.

Desaturate the duplicate layer, Colors - Desaturate..., Choose shade of gray based on: Lightness in the dialog.

Now, use the Edge-Detect filter on the duplicate layer to get the basis of the sketch effect, Filters - Edge-Detect - Edge..., select the Roberts Algorithm from the drop down menu, set the Amount to 5.

Invert the colors on the duplicate layer, Colors - Invert.

Reduce the Opacity using the controls in the Layers pallet. I turned it down to 50%.

To get a black-and-white sketch quickly, the process is almost identical.

However, after you duplicate the image layer, go to the Colors menu and select Desaturate..., Choose shade of gray based on: Luminosity. Duplicate the desaturated layer and continue as above.

Filters - Edge-Detect - Edge...

Algorithm (Roberts) - Amount (5)

Colors - Invert
Reduce Opacity (75%)

This text tutorial is based on a YouTube video tutorial by Techtonicc.

Color Sensitive Text

2013-03-22T08:56:00.001-05:00

In this GIMP tutorial you will see how to make the color of text alternate between light or dark depending on the background. I developed this procedure to meet the needs of someone who follows this blog and made a request for help. I hope others among you will find it useful, too.

Open the background image.

Duplicate the background layer, Layer- Duplicate Layer. Desaturate the background layer copy, Colors - Desaturate... by Luminosity.

Apply the threshold filter to the background layer copy, Colors - Threshold…, push the slider to the right until there's hardly any white bits in the black.

With the Brush Tool, paint out any details to match the dominant color, black or white.

With the Text Tool create your text layer in black or whatever dark color you want to use. Position it with the Move Tool. Expand the text layer to the image size, Layer - Layer to Image Size.

Make the text layer invisible by clicking the 'eye' icon in the Layers pallet.

Make the black and white layer active by clicking it in the Layers pallet. With the Select by Color Tool in Replace the current selection mode, click anywhere in the black.

Make the text layer visible and active. With the Select by Color Tool in Intersect with the current selection mode, click anywhere in the text. You should now have the portion of text that overlays the darker buildings selected. Make the black and white layer invisible.

Create a new transparent layer, Layer - New Layer..., on top of all the others and name it Light Text. Now, fill the selection on the Light Text layer with white or whatever light color you choose, Edit - Fill with BG Color. Deselect, Select - None.

Building a Spy Movie Banner

2013-02-02T16:51:00.001-05:00

In this GIMP project, you will learn the basics of creating a movie banner in a style that might be used for a spy movie. You will use layer blending modes, text layers, and color manipulations, as well as other skills.

Source images you can download or use your own similar images:
Kremlin (Original photo by Yaroslav Ushakov)
Man in Suit (Original photo by Rubén B. Todos)
Bull’s Eye

Part 1. The Kremlin

Apply a dark, monochromatic red, slightly blurry effect to the Kremlin image.

Open the Kremlin source image. Convert it to grayscale, Colors -Desaturate..., Choose Shade of gray based on: Luminosity.

Duplicate the layer, Layer - Duplicate Layer. Set the blending Mode of the copy layer to Multiply and slide the opacity down to 70%.

Merge these layers into one, Layer - Merge Down. Name the new layer, Kremlin.

Apply a slight Gaussian blur with a radius of 5 for both Horizontal and Vertical, Filters - Blur - Gaussian Blur... .

Now, for the dark red hue. From the Colors menu, click Colorize... . Set the Hue slider to 360, Saturation 50, Lightness -15.

You can now set this image aside for a bit.

Part 2. The Man in the Suit

Open the Man in Suit image. With the Crop Tool, remove most of the background area. Now add transparency (an alpha channel) to the image, Layer - Transparency - Add Alpha Channel.

You need to remove the remaining white background. The Select by Color Tool will do the heavy lifting here. Click and drag in the background until all that remains is to clean up the detail around the edges of the man. Toggle on Quick Mask mode, zoom in and, with the Paintbrush Tool, clean up any remaining bits of the background, especially in the hair and inside the man's right elbow. Grow the selection by 1 px, Select - Grow. Then clear the contents of the selection, Edit - Clear. Save the image and close.

You can now reopen the Kremlin background image. Open the Man in Suit image you just worked on as a new layer, File - Open as Layers... . Be sure that in the Layers pallet it is above the Kremlin layer and name it Man.Use the Move Tool to position the Man layer to the left side of the picture and down just a bit.

Part 3. The Text

Add the movie title and some other bits of text to the banner. Select the Text Tool. For the title choose an appropriate font and size. I used HeadlineA, 240 pt, Color white. Click in the picture and type the desired text. Position the text in a good place.

Create a selection around the text with the Select by Color Tool. Click anywhere on the white text and it will all be selected. Create a new transparent layer on top of all the others, Stroke. Reset the color swatches to the default. Apply a 4 pixel black stroke to the selection on the Stroke layer Edit - Stroke Selection... . Merge the Stroke layer down onto the text layer.

Similarly add additional text elements to the picture.

Part 4. The Bull’s Eye

Open the Bull's Eye image as a new layer under the Spy Movie text layer. Set the blending Mode to Lighten Only. Reduce the Opacity to about 85%. Position the bull's eye where you like with the Move Tool.

You've now brought all the components together. Use this lesson as a starting point for your creative expression. Modify and experiment to your heart's delight!

Stick a Label on It

2012-12-22T14:30:00.001-05:00

In this GIMP tutorial you will create an effect that appears similar to a strip of embossed tape as produced by some label makers.

Some of the things used in this project:

Layer Effects-Drop Shadow
Layer Effects-Bevel and Emboss
Path Tool
Merging layers
Selection by color
Text Tool

Note: To complete this tutorial, you will need to have the Script-Fu Layer Effects plugin installed. Get it here if you don't have it yet.

Create a new image 800 pixels wide by 250 pixels, File - New... . Set the foreground color to a medium gray (8b8b8b), then fill the image, Edit - Fill with FG Color.

With the Rectangle Select Tool, make a selection about 500 pixels by 100 pixels.

Make a new transparent layer, Layer - New Layer..., named Strip. Reset the color swatches to the default colors. Fill the selection on the Strip layer with the foreground color (black).

The next step is to add a white drop shadow to the strip. Script Fu - Layer Effects... - Drop Shadow... . Set the Color to white and the Size and Offset Distance each to 2.0.

Deselect, Select - None. Make the Strip layer active and merge it with the Script-dropshadow layer, Layer - Merge Down.

Click the Text Tool in the Toolbox. In the Tool Options, I used Monospace, 64, white. Click in the black strip and type a line of text. With the Move Tool, position the text in the center of the black strip.

Use the Select by Color Tool and click anywhere in the text to select the white text. Apply the embossing effect, Script-Fu - Layer Effects - Bevel and Emboss… with the settings shown below.

Deselect. In the Layers pallet, select the upper of the two new layers created in the emboss process and merge it down to the lower layer. To the resulting layer, apply a slight blur, Filters - Blur - Blur.

Get an even more authentic effect by 'folding down' a corner.

Make the Strip-dropshadow layer active. With the Paths Tool (in Design mode), draw a triangle in the upper left corner of the black strip. In the Tool Options dialog, click the Selection from Path button. Delete the selected area, Edit - Clear.

Deselect everything. From the Paths pallet, delete the path you drew.

Make a new transparent layer, Fold over. Use the Paths Tool again to draw a triangle to represent the folded corner. Convert it to a selection.

Fill the triangle with white, Edit - Fill with BG Color. Deselect, and delete the path.

Note: The Bevel and Emboss settings were determined after a lot of experimentation. You might improve the effect by further refining these settings.

Carve the Text

2012-12-01T11:25:00.001-05:00

In this quick, fairly simple GIMP project, you will create the effect of text having been carved into a textured surface using layers.

Some techniques you will use in this project:

Layers

Text layers

Merging layers

Selection by color

Alpha channels

Noise generator

Gaussian blur

Open a texture image as the Background layer. I used a marble texture that I downloaded from Image*Afterhere. Select the Text Tool and create a text layer with your desired text and center it. Use a bigger, bolder font. I chose Futura Ultra-Bold Condensed, 196 pt.

Create a new empty layer, Layer > New Layer…, name it Gray. Use the Bucket Fill Tool to fill it with a medium grayish-pink color. Drag it under the Background layer in the Layers pallet.

With the Text layer active, make a selection of the text. Use the Select by Color Tool and click on the text.

Hide the Text layer by unchecking its ‘eye’ icon in the Layers pallet. Select the Background layer and add transparency to it, Layer > Transparency > Add Alpha Channel. Clear the selection, Edit > Clear. The Gray layer should now be showing through the text.

Add a new layer, named Black. Invert the selection, Edit > Invert Selection. Reset the color swatches to their defaults, and fill the Black layer with black, Edit > Fill with FG Color.

Duplicate the Black layer, Layer > Duplicate Layer. Name the copy White. Fill the White layer with default white, Edit > Fill with BG Color.

Deselect all, Select > None.
With the White layer selected, choose the Move Tool, slide the White layer up slightly, one or two pixels.
Do the same with the Black layer, except move it straight down. (Note: I have exaggerated this a bit for clarity.)
Select whichever of the Black layer or the White layer is on top, then merge them together into one layer, Layer > Merge Down. Name the merged layer Shadow.

Apply a slight Gaussian blur with a radius of about 3.5 pixels to the Shadow layer, Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur… . Drag the Shadow layer between the Background layer and the Gray layer.

Finally, add a little texture to the carved surface within the letters.
Select the Gray layer. Add some noise, Filters > Noise > Noise Generator. In the dialog, click the Poisson tab, 1 Photon, Luminance noise only is checked, Gamma correction is not checked.

Apply a Gaussian blur with a radius of 2 pixels.

To extend the project, you might like to use the original textured background instead of the Gray layer. Make some slight brightness adjustments and apply a little blur.

Happy Holidays!!! A Text Project

2012-11-28T10:42:00.001-05:00

In this GIMP project, you will use layers, strokes, and several other techniques to create a festive holiday text effect.

Resources you can download:

Background texture | Text fill texture | Bow

Open the background texture image as the Background layer.

Select the Text Tool and create a Text layer using a big, bold font. I used Futura Ultra-Bold Condensed, 196 point. Set the size of the Text layer to the size of the image, Layer > Layer to Image Size.

With the Rectangle Select Tool, make a selection on a vertical section of a letter.

Create a new layer, Ribbon. Select the Blend Tool and fill the rectangular selection with the preset Golden gradient.

Create another new layer, Ribbon edge. Apply a 1 pixel stroke to this selection, Edit > Stroke Selection…, Stroke line, Solid color. Deselect, Select > None.

Select the upper of the two ribbon layers and merge them together, Layer > Merge Down.

Make the Text layer active and select the text by clicking anywhere on the black text with the Select by Color Tool. Invert the selection, Select > Invert. Now, with the Ribbon layer active, clear the part of the ribbon that lies outside the text, Edit > Clear.

You can now hide the Text layer by clicking the 'eye' icon in the Layers pallet.

Open the red damask image as a new layer, File > Open as Layers..., name it Damask. In the Layers pallet, drag the Damask layer between the Text and Ribbon layers. Add transparency to the Damask layer, Layer > Transparency > Add Alpha Channel. Clear the selection to remove the part of the Damask layer outside the text.

Invert the selection again so that you can paint a thin border around the text. Create a new layer, Text edge. Use the Color Picker Tool to choose a color from the middle of the gold ribbon (the Ribbon layer must be active). Select the Text edge layer, and from the Edit menu, choose Stroke Selection…, Stroke line, Solid color. The width should be about 3 pixels. Deselect.

Open the gold bow image as a new layer and place it on top of all the others. Name it Bow.

You now need to shrink the bow down a lot. Choose the Scale Tool, grab a corner handle of the bounding box, and appropriately size the bow. Expand the Bow layer to the image size, Layer > Layer to Image Size.

Make a selection from the Bow layer. With the Fuzzy Select Tool, click outside the bow, then invert the selection. You might want to zoom in to do this more easily.

Create a new layer, Bow shadow. Set the color swatches back to default colors and fill the selection on the Bow shadow layer with default black. Deselect. Apply a Gaussian blur with a radius of 2 pixels, Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur… .

With the Move Tool, slide the Bow shadow layer a bit down and right. Drag the Bow shadow layer under the Bow layer. Merge the Bow layer down onto the Bow shadow layer.

Duplicate the Bow shadow layer, Layer > Duplicate Layer, and position the bows where you like.

You might want to add a horizontal ribbon, use bows of various colors, or different textures. Happy holidays!

Ghost in the Forest

2012-09-21T09:06:00.001-05:00

By following the steps in this GIMP project you will see how to use layer blending modes and a variety of tools to create the effect of a ghost appearing in the forest.

Some of the concepts used in this project:

Adding an alpha channel
Desaturating an image
Cropping to a fixed aspect ratio
Using the Fuzzy select tool
Opening an image as a new layer
Using Layer masks
Using Layer modes
Selecting using transparency (Alpha to selection)
Stroking a selection

I used this image of a lady from stock.xchng as the basis for the ghost. The first step is to eliminate all the white background around the lady and replace it with transparency. Begin by using the Crop Tool to eliminate most of the background area.

Add transparency to the image, Layer > Transparency > Add Alpha Channel. Pick the Fuzzy Select Tool and click and drag forward in the background. This will select most of the white background without selecting anything within the lady herself. (You might want to use Quick Mask mode to be certain that no part of the lady is selected and to clean up your selection if necessary.)
Feather the selection about 5 pixels, Select > Feather... . Clear the selection, Edit > Clear.

Deselect, Select > None. Zoom in on the lady and use the Eraser Tool to manually clean up any remains of the white background around the edges of the lady.

Convert the lady to a black-and-white image, Colors > Desaturate... with Luminosity selected in the dialog. Select Brightness-Contrast... in the Colors menu. Slide the Brightness down to about -50 and the Saturation up to about 30 to give the image a darker appearance.

Now, fade out the lower part of her body. Add a white layer mask, Layer > Mask > Add Layer Mask... . With the Blend Tool, drag a FG-to-BG gradient (default colors) vertically from the bottom of the image to about the level of her waist.

Finally, scale the image to a height of about 850 pixels, Image > Scale Image... . Save and close the image of the lady.

Moving on to the forest image. As the source for the forest, I used this image, also from stock.xchng. The first step is to crop out a portion of the image with the Crop Tool, in the Tool Options, select Fixed Aspect Ratio of 5:8.
Resize the resulting image to a height of 1200 pixels, Image > Scale Image... .

Open the previously saved image of the ghost lady as a new layer in the forest image, File > Open as Layers... . Make sure the image and not the mask is active in the ghost lady layer. Use the Move Tool to position the lady where you like. Set the Layer Mode to Overlay in the Layers pallet. Reduce the Opacity to about 60%.

Duplicate the ghost lady layer, Layer > Duplicate Layer. Set the Layer Mode to Grain Merge and reduce the Opacity to about 25%. Apply a Gaussian blur with a Radius of 10 to the ghost lady copy layer, Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur....

Add a soft glow around the ghost. Again, open the saved image of the ghost lady as a new layer. Rename this layer as glow. Delete the layer mask, Layer > Mask > Delete Layer Mask. Temporarily hide all the other layers by clicking the “eye” icon for each.

Now, to paint a white border around the lady. Select the image of the lady, Layer > Transparency > Alpha to Selection. Swap the default colors. Now stroke the selection, Edit > Stroke Selection..., Line width: 10 px. Clear the selection. Deselect.

Apply a Gaussian blur of 20 px. Unhide the other layers and use the Move Tool to position the glow layer around the ghost.

Swap the default colors back to black FG and white BG. Add a mask to this layer and fade it exactly as you did to the ghost lady layer earlier.

Experiment with various settings as you try out this lesson. Changing just a few things can dramatically affect the results you get. I hope you have fun playing around with this project.

A Framed Painting

2012-09-05T09:36:00.001-05:00

A Framed Painting

In this GIMP project, you will learn how to frame a portion of an image and apply a nice painted effect to that portion while turning the remaining part of the image to black-and-white.

Start by opening an image of a picture frame. I used this one by Billy Alexander, from Stock.xchng.

I began by adding an alpha channel to the image so there would be transparency, Layer > Transparency >Add Alpha Channel. Use the Crop Tool to trim away the white area outside the frame. Select the white area inside the frame with the Rectangle Select Tool. Clear the selected area, Edit > Clear. Deselect, Select > None. I scaled the picture frame image to 85% of the base image, Image > Scale Image... . Save the image as Frame.xcf and close the image.

Now open the image that will serve as the base for the project. If you would like to use the same image (by Christa Richert) that I’ll be working with, you can download it free from Stock.xchng.

With the base image active, click Open as Layers... from the File menu, and open Frame.xcf as a new layer.

The next step is to rotate the Frame.xcf layer a bit. From the Layer menu choose Transform > Arbitrary Rotation..., or choose the Rotate Tool from the Toolbox . Either drag the frame counter-clockwise a bit or enter -10 degrees in the Rotate dialog.

With the Free Select Tool select a rectangle corresponding to the frame smaller than the outside of the frame, but bigger than the inside of it. Make the background layer active.

At this point, apply an oil painting effect to the part of the image inside the frame, Filters > Artistic > Oilify... and set the Mask size to 10. Soften the image just a bit by applying a little blur, Filters > Blur > Blur.

Now, to desaturate the outer part of the image. Invert the selection, Select > Invert. From the Colorsmenu click Desaturate, choose Shade of gray based on Average in the dialog. Deselect.

To finish, we’ll give the frame a shadow. Make Frame.xcf the active layer. From the Filters menu choose Light and Shadows > Drop Shadow... with the default settings.

Most of the settings I used in this example are just suggestions, not hard and fast choices. Adjust the settings that you use to reflect your own tastes and objectives.

Blending Two Images - Updated

2012-08-14T15:00:00.000-05:00

Blending Two Images with GIMP has been by far the most popular tutorial I have ever posted. However, it is 5 years old and much in need of updating to reflect the many improvements made in GIMP in that time. Following is an updated tutorial using GIMP 2.8.

Select two pictures you want to blend. Choose one to use as the base image and open that one. Name it Base.

Next, you will need to increase the canvas size, Image>Canvas Size..., of this image to accommodate pasting in the other image. In this example, I increased the width of the canvas to 200%, but kept the height the same. In the canvas size dialog, slide the existing image all the way to the left on the canvas. Later you can crop out any unused transparent area.

Open the other image as a new layer in the base image, File>Open As Layers... . Name it Top.

With the Move Tool, position the Top layer so that it overlaps the Base layer an appropriate amount.

Temporarily hide the Top layer by clicking the in the Layers pallet. Drag a vertical guide out from the ruler on the left to mark the right edge of the Base layer.

Make the Top layer visible again, by clicking the . Add a layer mask to the Top layer. In the Layers palette, right-click the Top layer and select Add Layer Mask…, select White (full opacity).

Be sure the color swatches are set to the default colors. With the Blend Tool paint a FG-to-BG gradient on the layer mask by drawing a horizontal line from the middle to the right edge of the overlapping area.

The two images should now be blended together as shown.

Finish up by flattening the blended images into a single layer, Image>Flatten Image. Use the Crop Tool to remove any unwanted portions of the image.

This is a simple procedure to blend two images. There are many other things you can do to further enhance the image, but those are not the subject of this tutorial.

Southern Exposure

2012-08-09T12:09:00.001-05:00

In this short lesson you will learn a quick, easy procedure to use when you need to recover a badly underexposed photograph. A photograph is described as underexposed when there is not enough light in the photo, so it has a loss of shadow detail. This GIMP tutorial is based on a method described by Dave Johnson in PCWorld.

Open the image you want to make a bit more presentable.

Duplicate the background layer (right-click on the layer and select Duplicate Layer or select Duplicate Layer from the Layer menu) so that there are two identical layers in the Layers pallet.

Be certain the duplicate layer, [image name] copy, is the active layer. From the Colors menu select Hue-Saturation... . Slide the Saturation control left to reduce the saturation to -50.

Again from the Colors menu, choose Invert.

The top layer should now look more or less like the negative of a black-and-white photo.

In the Layers pallet, change the Mode of the duplicate layer to Overlay.

You should now have a somewhat better looking photo than you started with.

I'm going to flatten the image merging the two layers (Image > Flatten Image), and repeat the entire process once more (saturation reduced to -30 this time) to further enhance the image.

Although this isn't a great fix, it will make an underexposed photo much better for casual use, say for Twitter or Facebook, with very little time and effort.

Through a Keyhole

2012-04-14T11:54:00.001-05:00

In this GIMP project, you will learn how to use layers, selection tools, the stroke dialog, and filters in creating the effect of looking through a keyhole.

Start by creating a new image 600 pixels wide by 800 pixels high. Open the image that you want to appear through the keyhole as a new layer, File > Open as Layers… . Note: It may be necessary to scale and/or reposition this image to get the best effect.

Making the keyhole.

Create a new layer, brass, on top. With the Bucket Fill Tool, fill it with a brass-like color. I used #8a4500.

Set gridlines every 25 px in the Preferences panel, Edit > Preferences. In the View menu, turn on Show Grid (the box is checked).

Using the Paths Tool, draw a tall, narrow trapezoid, as shown below, to be the lower part of the keyhole. Suggestion: Dragging out guides can make the selections easier.

Now, in the Tool Options click the Selection from Path button to turn the path into a "marching ants" selection.

With the Ellipse Select Tool (in Add to the current selection mode) draw a circle to be the top portion of the keyhole as shown below.

Be sure brass is the active layer. Clear the contents of the keyhole-shaped selection, Edit > Clear. In the View menu, turn of the grid and guides.

Putting a slight edge around the keyhole.

Create a new layer named edge on top. Make sure edge is the active layer and stroke the selection, Edit > Stroke Selection…, click the radio button for Stroke with a paint tool, and choose Paintbrush from the drop-down menu. In the Tools pallet, select a paintbrush of about 3 pixels. Set the color to a very dark brown (#532a00). Finally, in the Stroke Selection dialog, click Stroke.

Put a little bit of shadow inside the edges of the keyhole.

Make a new layer on top, inside shadow. Using Stroke Selection again, chose the Stroke line style, a width of about 15 px, and solid default black, click Stroke. Then, remove the selection, Select > None.

Apply a Gaussian blur with a radius of about 35, Filters > Blur > Gaussian blur… . Drag the inside shadow layer immediately under the brass layer. Decrease the opacity to about 75-80%.

Add some shadow through the keyhole.

Create a new layer above the inside layer, name it gradient, and fill it with black using the Bucket Fill Tool. Add a layer mask to the gradient layer, right-click the layer in the Layers pallet and select Add Layer Mask… .

Select the Blend Tool and choose a black-to-white radial gradient. Drag the Blend Tool vertically downwards in the lower portion of the keyhole to reveal the inside layer. You may have to experiment a few times to get a good result. Decrease the opacity to about 75%.

As they say in Montreal, “Voila!” There are numerous opportunities for modifications and variations in this project, so be bold and have fun!