Gimped! Gimp Tutorials

How To Use Gimp For Beginners Lesson 6 - Layer Modes

2012-04-09T11:48:00.000-07:00

This gimp video tutorial touches base on a very powerful tool that if used properly can really improve on your photo editing. Layer modes allow you to dynamically change how your image appears by modifying how the layers underneath look.

Click here for the layer mask script I mentioned.

Isolate a Background Using Color - Gimp Video Tutorial

2012-03-22T20:03:00.001-07:00

This Gimp Video Tutorial talks about a very cool discovery I recently made while writing my upcoming book on layer masks. I was digging through Gimp's documentation, and discovered exactly how Gimp looks at colors to determine how light or dark parts of any image is when you desaturate it.
This video talks about how you can take what I learned and apply it to your layer masking using gimp.

My book on layer masks can be found on Amazon.com for 4.99. Click here to take a peek inside!

The Photo used in this Gimp tutorial can be downloaded from here.
Free eBook - Principles of Photo Editing.

Tutorials of photos shown in the beginning of the video:

Product Photography Using Gimp (Photo of Beer):
How To Make a Zombie Using Gimp:
How To Make a Girl Cold and Scary Using Gimp:
How To Make a Photo Look Vintage or Retro Using Gimp:

Gimp Video Tutorial - How To Use Gimp To Crop in Bulk

2012-03-02T18:55:00.000-08:00

Script File: http://registry.gimp.org/files/export-layers.scm This Gimp video tutorial teaches you how to open several images and crop them down in an efficient manner. Related Tutorials: How To use gimp for beginners - Layers and Selections

Roughing Edges In - Quick Gimp Tutorial

2012-02-07T18:45:00.001-08:00

This quick Gimp video tutorial will show you how to "rough in edges" using Gimp. Related Tutorial: Layer Masks Using Gimp

Layer Masks Explained - Lesson 5 - How To Use Gimp For Beginners

2012-01-22T09:22:00.002-08:00

This lesson explains how layer masks work, and will give you an open introduction to the power this tool can bring to your photo-editing. This is probably the most important lesson on this site, because without this tool you will never be able to effectively get the more complicated edits down.

Related Posts:
3 Tools Every Gimp User Should Know About.
Sign Up for my exclusive lessons and free eBook
Make a Logo Using Gimp
The Benefits of Shooting in RAW

My book on Layer Masks has finally been published, and is available on Amazon.com for 4.99! Click here to get a peek inside! Lessons Shown In Beginning and End of This Video:

Product Photography Using Gimp (Beer Bottle Lighting)
How To Use Gimp To Make A Zombie
How To Use Gimp To Make The Tip Jar
Cool Wallpaper Design Using Gimp
Exposing a Waterfall Using Gimp
How To Use Gimp To Make a Dramatic Tornado Scene

<<<Lesson 4 - Adjusting Colors and Exposure

Lesson 6 - Layer Modes>>>

How To Use Gimp To Make a Photo Frame

2012-01-15T16:37:00.000-08:00

In this gimp video tutorial, I will show you how to use gimp to make a border. Related pages:
Custom Greeting Card Printing
Print Your Photo On Coffee Cups, T-Shirts, and more.
Adjusting Exposure Using Gimp
Checkerboard Text Using Gimp

Exposing A Waterfall Using Gimp

2012-01-02T11:00:00.000-08:00

This Gimp tutorial will show you how to use gimp to turn this image:

Into this:

What You Will Need:

A Raw Shooting Camera (see my list of Affordable Raw Shooting Cameras, or The Benefits of Shooting in Raw.)

Gimp

UFRaw

Tripod

Part 1.) Taking the photos This is the most important part of this tutorial, because you're going to need to have more than one version of the same image using various settings on your camera. This is a prime example of one of my free exclusive gimp lessons about "developing your photo-editor vision," that you get for subscribing to my email list. First off, I took my "base photo," focusing on getting the majority of the image to expose. Here is what I did.

I set my tripod up, and framed in the shot with my camera
I turned my ISO to the lowest possible setting, and set my camera to shutter priority
I adjusted the shutter speed down until I got a reasonably good exposure, referring to my histogram for reference
Once I found a good exposure, I set my camera to fire after 10 seconds, so that I wasn't touching the camera when it fired the shot

I ended up with this photo:

This shot exposed nice, but the waterfall's fast motion made the waterfall blur.

Next, I took an "auxilliary photo," which is focused primarily on getting the fast-moving waterfall to expose properly. I turned my ISO to a much higher setting (800 I believe.) and turned my shutter speed way up. The goal here is to get the waterfall to expose better. I adjusted my shutter speed as high as I possibly could before losing the detail in the photo. I ended up with this picture:

You can't quite tell in this version, but the higher ISO setting made this image very grainy, but we don't care - all we want is the waterfall.

Part 2 - Combining the Photos Using Gimp and UFRaw
The remainder of this lesson is in a gimp video tutorial. Enjoy!
Related Posts:
The Nature Hiking Photography Checklist.
Aperture, ISO, and Shutter speed explained.
Layer Masks Explained
The Benefits of Shooting in Raw

Checkerboard Text Using Gimp

2011-12-31T08:37:00.000-08:00

This Gimp Video Tutorial will show you how to make checkerboard text using Gimp.

What you'll need:
A basic understanding of layers
An understanding of how layer masks work
A brief explination on how Gimp's interface works.

In this tutorial, I mention subscribing to Gimped! to create an easy open line of communication between you and me. That page can be found here.

Product Photography Using Gimp

2011-12-26T16:55:00.001-08:00

In this gimp tutorial, I'm going to show you how to use gimp to do some product photography lighting using common household items. We're going to turn this:

Into this:

What You'll Need: Click here for a complete list of what you'll need for this project. Most of the things you need are common household items that most homes already have on hand. You'll also need UFRaw, and Gimp. Part 1 - Setup 1.) Get a Box and a Sheet of Cardboard

First off, get your box and a sheet of cardboard and lay them out like this. Both the box and sheet will be covered later

2.) Using Thumbtacks, Stick a black sheet to the cardboard sheet

Don't worry about the sheet not covering everything, the backdrop is pretty easy to duplicate using Gimp.

3.) Put a black sheet on your box

4.) Place your product

5.) Set up your tripod and camera

Part 2 - The Photos
Now that you have your scene set up, simply set up your tripod and camera. You're going to take a series of several photos. It's very important that you do not move your camera, or the product during this process because we're going to tie these photos together in Gimp later. Set your camera to shutter priority, and adjust the shutter to a fairly slow speed, and crank your ISO setting to the lowest possible setting. If possible, set your focus to manual after autofocusing on your product, that way the camera doesn't try to focus on something else later. Finally, make sure you're shooting in RAW - this will give you unbeatable flexibility when doing this project (as always, I have a list of affordable raw shooting cameras available.). The only light that is going to be used in this scene is your LED flashlight, and a as much ambient light as possible without compromising the contrast that your LED flashlight can put out. In other words, turn your LED light on, and adjust your light until you find a good balance of contrast and light between your LED light and your ambient light.
1.) The Scene

I held the flashlight up high, and aimed it at the top surface of the box. I set my camera to go off after 10 seconds, and held the flashlight in place. Keep adjusting your shutter speed until your photo exposes like so.

2.) The bottle's lighting
Take a series of different photos at different angles. Take a ton of photos of different angles, intensities, and angles with your LED flashlight.

It's very important to get all of the photos on the right side before removing the box. Once you move the box it will be difficult to get it in the exact same position as it was in before, making it a lot harder to edit your photo.

Part 3: How To Use Gimp To Put It All Together
The final part of this tutorial consists of taking all of the information we gathered with our photos, and putting them together with Gimp and UFRaw. Check out the video below for the complete tutorial.

Related Topics:
Layer Mask Gimp Video Tutorial
How To Use Gimp For Beginners - Layers
The Benefits of Shooting in Raw
Affordable RAW-Shooting Cameras

Practical HDR Using Gimp

2011-12-17T12:58:00.000-08:00

This tutorial will help you learn how to use gimp to make HDR images in a practical way.

What You'll Need:
A RAW-Shooting Camera. Check out my list of Affordable RAW-Shooting Cameras.
UFRaw gimp addon

More Information:
Related lesson - Layer Masks Using Gimp
The Benefits of Shooting in Raw

Original Image:

Final Image:

Gimp Video Tutorial:

Gimp Video Tutorial: How to use GImp to make a Cool Wallpaper Design

2011-12-03T08:33:00.001-08:00

This gimp video tutorial will show you how to make a cool background wallpaper using GIMP.

Recommended Prerequisites:
Layer Mask Gimp Video Tutorial Layer Modes Gimp Video Tutorial
Gimp for beginners lesson 3 - Layers and Selections
Principles of Photo Editing
Running my website, and making my tutorials takes a lot of time, and a little money to make. Please help keep Gimped! free by donating.
Related Videos:
How to use Gimp to make a logo

If you liked this video Please share it!

How To Use Gimp To Make a The Tip Jar

2011-11-23T19:08:00.000-08:00

In this lesson, I'm going to show you how to make the Tip Jar icon I am using for my donate button shown in the right column of this page. The beauty of the way this image is set up is that you can easily change what color the glass on the jar is, and also easily change the background. As usual, we're using layer masks to get this job done. Here is the final result:

What You'll Need:
Money by ~richardxthripp Jar by ~dropoflight
Gimp Paint Studio (Recommended addon)
Suggested Prerequisites:
An Understanding of Layers
An Understanding of Layer Masks
Another Layer Mask Video (highly recommended)
Free Gimp eBook - Principles of Photo Editing

Part 1: How To Use Gimp To Make the Jar

I felt that this part of the gimp tutorial was a bit tricky, and felt it was best explained as a video.

Part 2: How To Use Gimp To Make the Sticky Note

Create a new file, make it 800X800 pixels. Click on the blend tool set the foreground and background to two different shades of yellow, and create a gradient from the top to the bottom of the image. Your notepad should look something like this:

Although it's very subtle, the gradient makes the note feel more "alive"

Using the text tool, and find a font you like and type TIPS in all capital letters.
Adjust the font size until it is something you're happy with. I used this font.
Right-click on the text layer, and click "Text To Path" this will create a path from the text you typed.
Create a new layer. Name it TIPSBrush
Make sure you're editing the TIPSBrush layer, and right-click on the newly created path from text and click "path to selection" get your brush tool, and set it to the "chalk" preset. This ONLY works if you have the GPS addon installed.
Set your brush color to black, and fill in the selection with the brush tool so that it creates an effect similiar to my finished notepad shown above.
Click select>>>none underline the text with a single stroke. This is a lot easier with a wacom tablet, but definitely doable with a mouse.

Part 3: How To Use Gimp To Place the Note on the Jar

right-click on your completed sticky note, and click "new from visible."
This will create a new layer from the visible layers for you to place into your jar.
Simply drag the newly created layer and drop it into the opened jar image.

You should end up with something like this:

That looks good, but the sticky note wouldn't look so perfect. Let's make it look more real.

Click on the perspective tool, and then click on the sticky note. Edit it so it looks something like this:

That's better, but the curve of the bottle would make the top have a slight arc.

Add a layer mask to the sticky note, initilize the mask to white.
Using the paths tool, create a path that runs across the top corners in a slight curve like this:

hit the enter key after drawing your path. This should make a selection. If that doesn't work, right click on your path and click "path to selection. Make sure you're editing your sticky note layer mask and fill the selection with black. Click select>>>none (or press CTRL+SHIFT+A). Your image should look like this.

The sticky note looks like it was placed randomly, and looks much more in place now.

Part 4: How To Use Gimp To Add the Money

Open up the money file you previously downloaded.

Using the paths tool, trace the outer edge of the money. This will take a lot of time, be patient.
After your path is completely made, press the enter key to make your selection. Press edit>>>copy or CTRL+C to copy the selected money from the image Switch back to your Tip Jar Press CTRL+V or click edit>>>paste to paste the previously copied money into the image.
In the layers dockable dialog, you will see a new layer has been created called "floating selection." right click on that and click "new layer." this will place the money into your tip jar image.
Rotate the money, and place it behind the jar and notepad image.
Duplicate the money layer. click on the rotate tool, and rotate the duplicated money tool 180 degrees. Move both money layers around until you are happy with you come up with.
You may have to erase some "floating pieces" of money and also hide some straight edges behind the notepad. I ended up with this:

You'll notice I made some tweaks to how the sticky note looks. I used the same tools shown above, but later decided that it didn't look as good as I wanted it to look and started over.

Gimp Video Tutorial - How to use gimp to create a logo

2011-11-08T16:37:00.000-08:00

In this Gimp video tutorial I teach you how to use gimp to create a logo.
First, make sure you have seen these Gimp Tutorials:
Gimp Video Tutorial - Layers
Gimp Video Tutorial - Layer mask
Free Gimp eBook - Photo-Editing Principles The site using this logo can be found here.

Gimp Tutorial: How to Make a Zombie Using Gimp

2011-10-25T19:04:00.000-07:00

In this gimp tutorial, I'm going to show you how to make a zombie using gimp.
What you will need:
Stock Image 1
Stock Image 2
Stock Image 3
GPS (Gimp Paint Studio) addon (suggested, not required.)

Suggested Prerequisites:
An understanding of how Layer Masks and Layer Modes work.
An understanding of how the color modification tools work.
An understanding of my Photo Editing Principles.

Suggested Tools:
Wacom Tablet
Raw-Shooting Camera. (Check out my list of affordable Raw-Shooting Cameras)
Tripod
Gimp Bible
My eBook on Layer Masks.

We're going to start with this photo:

and make a zombie like this photo:

Zombie Tutorial Part 1 - Isolating the image from the background:

Your photo should end up looking similar to this:

Reminds me of the old iPod commercials...who knew they were secretly zombies?

Right-click on the black and white "silhouette" image, and click "add layer mask." initialize the mask to "grayscale copy of layer." this will effectively transfer the layer over to the layer mask side.
Right-click on the silhouette layer mask, and click "mask to selection."
Right-click on the original image, and click "add layer mask." initialize the layer mask to "selection." This will transfer the black and white image you created to an actual layer mask.
delete the previously created black and white layer. You no longer need it. You'll end up with this:

Ugh. Zombie Breath.

Zombie Tutorial Part 2 - The background and Style
Adding a good background to this zombie tutorial was vital in keeping a good effect, without taking away from the zombie itself. After a lot of searching, I found the perfect stock image for it.
Insert the background stock image you downloaded earlier under your existing face layer by clicking file>>>open as layers>>>(browse to the file)
Drop the file down underneath the original human layer.
create a new layer. Name the layer "BGLightFix" Set the layer mode to overlay. Place this layer
in-between your background and zombie layers.
Fill the BGLightFix with a white to black gradient (going from left to right.) This will make the background look like the light is coming from the same side as the light came from in the zombie image.

The hotel background really sets the mood for the rest of the image, I thought.

Create a new layer, set the layer mode to overlay, fill the layer with teal, and name the layer "bluetint"
Create a new layer, name the layer "EyePop." Set the layer mode to overlay, and fill the layer with black. Adjust the opacity to 80.
Add a layer mask, initialize the layer mask to white (full opacity.)
Using the brush tool, and ensuring you're editing the layer mask, brush the eyes black to remove the overlay from them. This is vital to making the eyes pop out.
Create a new layer, name the layer "ColorReduce." set the layer mode to color, and fill the layer with black. Adjust the opacity to something you like. (Mine is set to 80.) It looks like this:

Adjusting the tones of the images makes me look more zombie like, and also sets a creepy mood for the image.

MAKE SURE EVERY LAYER ADDED FROM HERE ON IS PLACED UNDER THE "COLOR REDUCE" "EYEPOP" AND "BLUETINT" LAYERS. otherwise something will look "funny" in your image.

Zombie Tutorial Part 3 - Grunging it up.

No zombie should be clean. Not one square inch.
Create a new layer, name it "dirt." set the layer mode to burn, and fill the layer with black.
Add a layer mask, initialize the mask to black (full transparency.)
Using the brush tool, find a brush that creates small particles (a great example is the "dust" preset from Gimp Paint Studio) brush the dirt layer mask with white until you end up with something like this:

My Gimp Zombie Tutorial will make your zombie dirty.

Create a new layer, name the layer "blackeyes" and fill the layer with black.
Add a layer mask, initialize the layer mask to black. (full transparency)
Using the brush tool, and brushing on the blackeyes layer mask, fill the whites, iris, and pupil of each eye with black.
Create a new layer, name the layer "EyeHighLight." Fill the layer with white, and set it's layer mode to "screen."
add a layer mask, initialize the layer mask to black (full transparency.)
Using the brush tool, and brushing on the EyeHighLight layer mask, brush a small circle, in the left eye and a small crescent shape in the right eye. This is meant to emulate light coming from a light source, and helps keep depth in the eye. It looks like this:

A lot of people go with the glowy white zombie look. I always thought that just looked like a Night Elf. I don't want to be a Night Elf, I want to be a ZOMBIE!

Create a new layer, fill the layer with black and name the layer "DarkSockets." Set the layer mode to Overlay.
Add a layer mask, initialize the layer mask to black (full transparency.)
Using a soft brush, brush around the lower side of each eye to create some eye pockets, making our zombie look more sick.

Zombie Tutorial Part 4 - The Gashes
If you take your time giving your zombie gashes, and actually add the shadows properly, these can make or break the image.
Now create a series of three layers. Set each layer to overlay. Fill each layer with black, and have a layer mask initialized to Black (full transparency) on each layer. Name one "Form", one "Cut," and another "Shadow."
Create a few paths that can serve as gashes, like you see in the image below:

Don't try to make the gashes jagged. The goal of the paths tool is just to create the general shape. We'll make the edges more rough later.

Right click on one of the paths you created, and click "path to selection."
click on your "form" layer mask, and fill the selection with white.
Click on your "Cut" layer mask, and fill the selection with white.
Repeat this process for each gash you created. Mine look like this:

Note that my top path was actually done by stroking a path, not filling a selection from a path. That's why it looks different.

Assuming you're using the GPS tool set, use a rugged brush preset like the oil brush, and brush the edges of your "form" and "cut" layer masks black. to give a rugged and more natural look to your gashes sort of like this:

And this is why we have two separate layers. Together they will create rough edges, and a "light red ring" around the gash, as if the skin were irritated, or raised up a bit.

Next, use the same rugged brush on your "shadow" layer mask to create shadows. Pay attention to the light source, and think about where a shadow would be if your skin was sticking up in your gashes. Ignoring the edge, brush that area white to create your shadow. Switch to black, and then "trim off" the excess parts of the shadow (the part that goes over the edge, and parts of the shadow that go too far into the gash.) I ended up with this:

And this is why we have the third layer, specifically for the shadows that really pull the gashes together.

Use a splatter-type brush (similar to what you used earlier for the "dirt" layer) and brush some random splatters on the form and cut layer masks. Be sure to keep the splatters on the face, and do not cross edges that would make it look unrealistic (ears, nose, eyes, etc.)
I added a few more gashes using the same steps above to my neck and the opposite side of my face.
Here is what I ended up with:

No Gimp Zombie tutorial is complete without some sort of blood splatter.

Zombie Tutorial Part 5 - The Hair
I had no idea what to do with the hair honestly, so I just made my zombie hair dark.
Create a new layer, fill the layer with black, and set the layer mode to "burn." Adjust the opacity to 50 percent, and name the layer "hair blacken."
Add a layer mask to the hair blacken layer and initialize it to black (full transparency).
using a soft brush tool, and ensuring you're working on the hair blacken layer mask, carefully brush the zombie's hair white. I ended up with this:

Truthfully, I wish I were balding at this point.

Zombie Tutorial Part 6 - The Cracked Forehead
click file>>>open as layers>>>browse to the file titled "Rust_by_struckdumb.jpg" that was previously downloaded.
This should insert the rust image as a new layer into your current zombie image. Move this image directly above your original zombie image (that way every other layer is above it.)
click on colors>>>curves, and adjust the curves of the rust until you get a very strong contrast of white and black between the parts.
Rotate and scale the rust image. Your image should now look something like this:

Add a layer mask. Initialize the layer mask to "grayscale copy of layer."
Make sure you're editing the rust layer's layer mask, and click colors>>>invert
set the layer mode to overlay. You should end up with this:

Think about what the grayscale copy of layer initialization did here. As the rust gets lighter, it gets more transparent. The dark parts stay opaque, emulating cracked skin fading back into normality.

Using a white brush (preferably a rough one like the oil brush mentioned earlier) brush on the layer mask to remove unwanted parts of the rust. Mine ended up like this:

Duplicate the rust layer, name it rustdarken.
Using a rough white brush, brush on the newly duplicated rust layer's layer mask and remove parts of the rust that made the image too dark. I ended up with this:

duplicate the rustdarken layer.
fill the newly duplicated rust layer with black. Keep the layer mask as it is.
click on the layer mask, click filters>>>blur>>>Gaussian blur
blur the layer mask a bit. This will make the skin in-between the cracks appear red and irritated. I ended up with this:

Zombie Tutorial Part 7 - The Boiling Skin
The rust image you use here makes your skin look absolutely disgusting! It would be perfect to use for burnt skin, or - well...a zombie!
click file>>>open as layers>>>browse to the file titled "Rust_Bubbles_by_DimondDoves.jpg"
Move this layer directly above the original zombie layer.
desaturate the new rust layer
click colors>>>curves>>adjust the curves so that the rust has a dramatic difference between white and black.
Scale, rotate, and skew the rust image in a way that you're happy with it. Mine ended up like this:

Set the layer mode to overlay.
Add a layer mask. set the layer mask to black (full transparency).
using a white brush, brush on the layer mask to remove the rust so it looks something like this:

Yuck.

Zombie Tutorial Part 8 - The Chin and Neck
click file>>>open as layers>>>browse to the file titled "Rust_by_struckdumb.jpg" that was previously downloaded.
click filters>>>blur>>>Gaussian blur>>>blur the inserted rust image slightly.
move and rotate the rust image toward the chin. I ended up with this:

set the layer mode to burn. Add a layer mask, and initialize the layer to black (full transparency).
using a rough white brush (like the previously mentioned oil brush preset from GPS), mask off the layer so the bloody patch only shows up on the chin and some of the teeth. I ended up with this:

repeat the same general process for the neck, ending up with this:

Zombie Tutorial Part 9 - Final Touches
Add 3 layers named "blood 1" "blood 2" and "blood 3." Set each one to layer mode "overlay" and add a black layer mask to them. Fill each layer with a deep red color.
on the blood 1 layer, use a white splat-type brush (like the GPS dust brush) and a few other rough brushes on the layer mask. Brush the shoulders and neck area to make shirt look bloodstained. I ended up with this:

on the blood 2 layer, use a white rough brush (like the GPS oil brush) and brush on the layer mask. Brush the inside of the mouth, and the teeth to make the teeth look bloodstained. I ended up with this:

Do the same thing to the blood 3 layer as you did to the blood 2 layer. The goal here is to have some intersecting strokes that will make some parts of the teeth darker red than others, like this:

The dark red instead of black makes great bloodstains.

And there you have it. How to make a zombie using gimp.

How to use Gimp for Beginners - Lesson 4 - Adjusting Colors and Exposure

2011-09-24T18:16:00.000-07:00

Click here for to learn how to use gimp to create the retro girl photo (mentioned in the video)
Thanks to the Gimpchat forums for helping me figure out how to perfect these videos. Come check us out and join our community at http://www.gimpchat.com
In this tutorial, I explain how to use gimp for beginners. This video explains how to adjust the exposure of a photo using gimp, and also explains how to make changes to the color of a photo including color correction using gimp.
This tutorial was made using Gimp 2.6. If you are running a different version some functions and methods, although slight, may be different. I recommend using the newest version of Gimp.
Lessons Shown In Beginning of Video:
Cool Moving Train Sunset Wallpaper
Selective Colorization (Baseball Player)
Make an image look retro using gimp (girl blowing bubbles)
Make a girl look cold and scary
Make a house look haunted
Related Posts:
3 Tools Every Gimp User Should Know About.
Free eBook - Principles of Photo Editing
A Powerful Way of Editing Black and White Photos.
The Benefits of Shooting in RAW
<<<Lesson 3 - Layers and Selections

Layer Masks Explained - Lesson 5>>>

Gimped! Gimp Tutorial: How to Use GIMP to make a Dramatic Tornado Scene

2011-09-22T03:18:00.000-07:00

In this lesson, I'm going to teach you how to use gimp to make a tornado using layer modes, layer masks, and the scissors tool.
What you'll need:
A basic understanding on how to use gimp's layers, layer modes, and layer masks
A basic understanding on how to use gimp's selections, and understanding how they work.
two stock images from deviantart.com. Here are the files I used:
Field
Clouds
Suggested items:
Wacom Tablet (For shading the tornado.)
My eBook on Layer Masks - This is crucial to any advanced editing. If you get good with layer masks, you'll get good with Gimp.
Here's the result:

Step 1 How to use Gimp to make the field look dark and cloudy
In the first part of this lesson, we're going to focus on how to use gimp to make the field more dark, more similar to how it would look in a real tornado.
Create a new layer, name it "Yellow Skycast"
use scissors tool to create a rough skyline selection like this:

I used the scissors tool to roughly select the skyline, and then closed the shape by clicking into the grass a few times.

give the yellow skycast layer a layer mask. Set the layer mask to selection.
Deselect all by pressing select>>>none
fill the layer (not the mask)with White your image should look like this:

using a hard brush and the brush tool, and making sure you're working on the layer mask. fill in the rest of the grassy area with white. My image looks like this:

Now that we have the skyline figured out, let's make it a bit easier to clean up that roughed in skyline.

make sure you're still editing the layer mask, and click on colors>>>invert

Now we can create some fog.

using the brush tool, and a very large soft brush, gently brush the skyline (A wacom tablet really helps with this step.) This will create a "fog" effect.

Set the Yellow Skycast Layer mode to "color" and fill the layer with a yellow color. Adjust the opacity to 32
Duplicate the yellow skycast layer, rename the duplicated layer "Ground Darken"
click on the darken layer's layer mask and click colors>>>invert
Set the ground darken layer mode to overlay.
Fill the ground darken layer with black. Adjust the opacity to a level you like. I set mine to 54), and it looks like this:

Now that our image looks like like we want it, let's add the clouds.

duplicate the yellow skyline layer. Name the duplicated layer "white Sky" Fill the layer white. Set the layer mode to screen, and adjust the opacity to 70.
click file>>>open as layers. Brows and open the clouds file. This will insert the cloudy backdrop as a new layer.
Scale the cloudy backdrop layer down so that it roughly fills out the sky like the image below:

Now we have our clouds where we want them. Now I'm going to show you how to use gimp to make cloud shapes with the scissors tool.

Use the scissors select tool to create a rough cloud shape from one of the cloud formations in the layer like this:

Now add a layer mask to the cloud layer, and set it's layer mask to "selection"
click select>>>none to deselect the selection.
Fill in the probable "gaps" around the edge of the clouds. Set the clouds layer mode to "value."
Using the blur tool on a high setting, blur the edge of your layer mask to give your clouds a softer look.
Mine ended up like this:

Be picky. Don't hesitate to undo all the way back to the cloud selection and creating another cloud. I did these steps several times before I was finally happy with the clouds I got.

duplicate the cloud layer. Rename the original (lower-leveled) layer "backdrop Cloud 1"
hit CTRL+A to select all
make sure you're on your layer mask. Using the bucket tool, and ensuring that the bucket tool is set to "fill whole selection" fill the layer mask with white. This will clear the mask so we can create another cloud.
Set the backdrop cloud 1 layer's opacity to 65
using the same steps as before, create a second cloud like so:

Duplicate the Backdrop Cloud 1 layer and rename the duplicated layer to backdrop cloud 2.
re-do the steps to remove the layer mask like you did before
right-click on the yellow skyline layer mask and click mask to selection
switch back to the cloud backdrop 2 layer's layer mask (which should be all black right now.)
click select>>>inverse
fill the selection with white
follow the steps to create a third cloud. Mine ended up like this:

Tornados often have an eerie yellow tint to them. Next up, I'll show you how to use gimp to add that tint.

Create a new layer. Rename the layer to "yellowtint." Fill the layer with a yellow color, and set the layer mode to overlay. Adjust the layer opacity to 45. You'll end up with this:

I like this, but the ground is too light for this weather. Let's darken the ground.

create a new layer. Name the layer "ground darken2" Fill the layer with black. Set the layer mode to overlay.
add a layer mask to the ground darken layer.
using the blend tool, create a black to white gradient starting from the ground and ending about 2/3'rds of the way to the bottom of the photo. I ended up with this:

That matches a little better

part 2 - How to Use Gimp to Make the Tornado

Using the paths tool, create a path to outline your general tornado shape like so:

Getting the tornado just right may take you a few tries. Be picky about your tornado shape, and don't hesitate to restart your tornado. Look at some online, and try to find a shape that looks real.

Create a new layer, name it Tornado Shape
click file>>>open as layers
open the tornado backdrop image
using the scale tool, scale the tornado down until it is just a tad bit larger than your tornado shape.
right-click on your path and click "path to selection."
add a layer mask to the tornado shape, and set the layer mask to "selection" this will create a tornado shape.
click filters>>>blur>>>gaussian blur. Give the layer mask a faint blur
It ended up like this:

Duplicate the tornado shape layer. Name the duplicated layer tornado shade.
go to the tornado shade layer, and click select>>>all. fill the entire selection with white. Set the layer mode to overlay.
using the brush tool, brush the edges of your tornado shape with black to give it a faint shadow on each side. I ended up with this:

I later decided the shading here was far too intense and softened it up a lot (as shown in the next image)

duplicate the tornado shape layer. Rename the duplicated layer "tornado fade." Adjust the opacity to 70
Click select>>>all. fill the selection with a light gray color. Mine ended up like this:

Usually you don't see much of any cloudy texture in a tornado's funnel. The fade grays it out a bit. Experiment with how light/dark your gray color is until your tornado matches your cloud well.

Now that we have our tornado shape, I'm going to show you how to use gimp to blend the tornado into the clouds.
duplicate your cloudy background layer. Name the layer "Over Cloud"
using the scissors tool, create a funnel-shaped selection in the clouds like so:

add a layer mask to the over cloud layer. Set the mode to "selection.
using the move tool, move the over cloud layer on top of your tornado layer like so:

using a large soft black brush, fade in the left and right side of the over cloud layer by brushing on the layer mask.
scale your brush down, and repeat this process for the top side of the cloud.
click filters>>>blur>>>gaussian blur. give it a slight blur. Mine ended up like this:

duplicate your cloud layer. Set the duplicated layer mode to normal. delete the layer mask.
move the layer above your tornado.
scale the image down to where it is slightly larger than your tornado
create a layer mask. Set the mask to black
using a large soft white brush, brush around the bottom end of the tornado to create a smoky feel around the tornado. I ended up with this:

Here's the final image of my version of this:

As you can see, with the variations in how the clouds are drawn, the shape of your tornado, and what part of the cloud you use for your over cloud layer, you can end up with several different versions of this. This is my favorite take on the tornado image.

How to use Gimp for beginners - Lesson 3 - Layers and Selections

2011-09-14T16:19:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the Gimpchat forums for helping me figure out how to perfect these videos. Come check us out and join our community at http://www.gimpchat.com
In this tutorial, I explain how to use gimp for beginners. This video explains how layers work, and goes over some basic selection methods that will be built on in later lessons.
This tutorial was made using Gimp 2.6. If you are running a different version some functions and methods, although slight, may be different. I recommend using the newest version of Gimp.
Lessons Shown In Beginning of Video:
Make a girl look cold and scary
Make a house look haunted
Add Sun Rays to a Photo
Selective Colorization (Baseball Player)
Related Posts:
Principles of Photo Editing - Free eBook
3 Tools Every Gimp User Should Know About
<<Lesson 2 - Under the Hood

Adjusting Colors and Exposure - Lesson 4>>

How To Use Gimp For Beginners Lesson 2 - Under the Hood

2011-09-13T19:44:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the Gimpchat forums for helping me figure out how to perfect these videos. Come check us out and join our community at gimpchat.com
This tutorial was made using Gimp 2.6. If you are running a different version some functions and methods, although slight, may be different. I recommend using the newest version of Gimp. For a tutorial on different Gimp installation options, including installing the newest version on a trial basis without making changes to your current installation, check out the tutorial below.
In this tutorial, I explain how to use gimp for beginners. This video explains the preferences dialog box and how to install additional brushes into GIMP easily. This topic is frequently glossed over and I felt it was important to explain this early on.
Lessons Shown In Beginning of Video:
Make an image look retro using gimp (girl blowing bubbles)
Make a girl look cold and scary
Make a house look haunted
Add Sun Rays to a Photo
Related Posts:
Awesome Gimp Addon - GPS
3 Tools Every Gimp User Should Know About
<<<Lesson 1

Lesson 3>>>

How to use Gimp for beginners - Lesson 1 - Getting around GIMP

2011-09-10T16:58:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the Gimpchat forums for helping me figure out how to perfect these videos. Come check us out and join our community at gimpchat.com
This tutorial was made using Gimp 2.6. If you are running a different version some functions and methods, although slight, may be different. I recommend using the newest version of Gimp. For a tutorial on different Gimp installation options, including installing the newest version on a trial basis without making changes to your current installation, check out the tutorial below.
In this tutorial, I explain how to use gimp for beginners. The first video in the gimp tutorial series will teach you how to use gimp's interface, as well as how to change it.
Lessons Shown In Beginning of Video:
Cool Moving Train Sunset Wallpaper
Selective Colorization (Baseball Player)
Make an image look retro using gimp (girl blowing bubbles)
Make a girl look cold and scary
Make a house look haunted
Related Posts:
3 Tools Every Gimp User Should Know About
Did you like this video? Show me some love by sharing it!

Under the Hood - Lesson 2>>>

Gimp Video Tutorial - How to convert color to black and white properly using GIMP

2011-09-05T09:30:00.000-07:00

In this video tutorial for gimp, I teach you how to use layer masks, and layer modes to convert color to black and white in a selective and powerful manner. Check out the video below for a detailed description on how to convert color to black and white with descriptions on how each tool works.

Here is a quick breakdown on the steps that the video teaches:
Create a new layer, fill that layer with black, and set the layer mode to "color" this will remove all color from the layer, and will effectively convert color to black and white on the fly.
add layer mask, set the layer mask to white. This will let us change parts of the black and white photo to color.
use the path tool, take your time, and trace noah.
In the paths tab, right-click on the path you've created, and click "path to selection." This will select noah.
using the bucket tool, fill the selection with black. Make sure that you're on the layer mask, not the image when you fill in.
Using the brush tool, and setting the brush to the color white, brush off the excess color from the grass near his shoes.

Gimp Tutorial - How to Use Gimp to do an HDR Photography inspired method of editing a black and white photo

2011-05-09T19:21:00.000-07:00

I'll start this post with a quote:
Ted Grant once said: “When you photograph people in colour you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in B&W, you photograph their souls!"
Now, I don't know if that's true or not, I can't say I've ever seen a soul in a black and white photo, but I can't argue that there are definitely times where that pesky color gets in the way!

In this post, I'm going to show you how to use GIMP to take HDR-like methods, and use a photo's color (that's right, it's color) and adjust the levels of gray with it, in a very fine-tuned, and accurate way. Most importantly, using this method will allow you to make changes at later points in your edit that would normally be impossible otherwise.
Here's the original photo:

Here's the finished photo:

And HERE is what GIMP came up with when I simply clicked "Colors>>>Desaturate"

Note that some key areas lack the contrast obtained in my final version. Also note that this version is a lot more challenging to modify.

Step 1: How To use GIMP to create the HDR effect
Did you say HDR?
Close. This GIMP how to is HDR inspired. In case you don't know, HDR Photography is a unique method of photo-editing that is done by taking multiple versions of the same image, taking samples of each version, and putting it together to make a single unique shot. HDR Photography makes for some stunning images, but using it's concept in a black and white photograph can give us a lot of control.
Duplicate the background layer. Name the duplicated layer "Green."
click on Colors>>>levels

Adjust the levels of the red and blue channel all the way down, removing all red and blue information from the layer. Your photo should look like this:

There's 1/3 of our information.

Duplicate the background layer. Name the duplicated layer "Red"

Click on colors>>>levels

Adjust the levels of the blue and green all the way down, removing all green and blue information from the layer. My red layer looks like this:

There's the other third. Guess what's next?

Duplicate the background layer. Name the duplicated layer "Blue"

Click on colors>>>levels

Adjust the levels of the red and green all the way down, removing all green and red information from the layer. My blue layer looks like this:

And there's the final bits of info.

It doesn't matter what order these three layers are in, but it will change how your layer masks work. Try to move them in an order that works best for you. In this tutorial, my order of layers (from the bottom up) is Background, Red, Green, and then Blue.
Create a new layer. Fill the layer with black. Name the layer "Desaturate." Set desaturate's layer mode to "Saturation." Make sure the desaturate layer is the topmost layer. This will desaturate the image.

add a layer mask to the blue layer. Fill the blue layer mask with black. This will hide the blue layer, and will make your High Water sign show up again.

using the lasso tool, trace the striped tubing gating the road. Make sure you're still editing the blue layer mask, and fill your selection with white.

Your image should look something like this:

By masking off everything but the fence, we get the high-contrast the blue layer offers, without sacrificing information in other parts of the photo.

Add a layer mask to the green layer, filling it with white.
Select the skyline. Make sure you're editing the green layer mask, and fill it with black. This will darken the sky a bit.
Using the brush tool, mask off parts of the image with black or white. Alternate between black and white, slowly going over underexposed or overexposed parts of the image until you have adjusted the image to something you're happy with.
I ended up with this:

Remember, if you ever notice anything that you want to change about your photo at a later point, this method will make modifying it a lot easier.

What do you guys think? How would you have edited this photo? Do you think this is a viable method of editing a black and white photo?
Related Posts:
Layer Masks Using Gimp

Gimp Tutorial - How to Use Gimp to Give a photo a retro or vintage look (and touching up bubbles!)

2011-05-03T17:49:00.000-07:00

In this GIMP how to, we're going to do some basic curves adjustments to make this photo have a cool stylized retro-type look. All of these steps could also be done using photoshop as well.
What you will need:
A basic understanding of how to use gimp's curves tool
A basic understanding of how to use gimp's layers and using gimp's selection tools.
An Understanding On Layer Masks (for the bubbles)
An Understanding On Layer Modes (Also for the bubbles)
Suggested Items:
Wacom Tablet (for editing the bubbles.)
My eBook on Layer Masks - This is an extensive, but short book that will help you get insanely good at layer masks. If you get good at layer masks, you'll get good at Gimp.
Start with this:

End with this

Part 1: How to Use GIMP to Get the Retro Colors
Most of the effect for this photo is simply from adjusting the curves of each channel (the red, green, blue, and alpha channels) like so:

Note: To change which channel to adjust, select the channel from the channel drop-down. You can switch back and forth between channels. all of these curves adjustments should be done in ONE COMMAND, not a series of four commands.

After making the adjustment, your photo should look something like this:

This looks pretty cool, but we need to tone the contrast down a bit.

Next, do another curves adjustment like so:

My photo looks like this:

Not bad, now if only those bubbles didn't disappear in the process.

Part 2: How to use GIMP to Enhance the Bubbles
The bubbles seem to have disappeared in this photo. We're going to use a combination of selections, and soft brushes to put some pop back into them.
Create a new layer, name it "bubbles"
Now we will select the bubbles. Using the path tool, trace around the outer edge of each bubble.
One all of the bubbles have been outlined, right-click on the path in the path menu (located in the same window as the layers,) and click "path to selection."
Set your foreground and background to a lime green and hot pink.
using a fairly large and soft brush, carefully brush in a few spaces of pink, and green in each bubble, like so:

Now that we have added the color to the proper areas of the bubble, let's change some layer styles and adjust the opacity to make the bubbles look realistic.

Set the layer mode to Overlay
Duplicate the layer. Name the duplicated layer "bubblebrighten"
Set the duplicated layer mode to addition.
Adjust the opacity of both the "bubble" and "bubblebrighten" layer until you end up with something you're happy with. My opacity settings are set to 23 and 40 respectively, and they look like this:

Now that our bubbles are a little more visible, let's dramatize the photo a bit.

Part 3: How to Make the Final Touches
Create a new layer, name it "dramatize" set the layer mode to Overlay, and fill the layer with black.
Add a layer mask to the dramatize layer.
Using the blend tool, set the gradient mode to radial, and use a gradient that goes from black to white.
Create a gradient that goes from the center of the photo outward. Adjust the opacity of the layer to something you're happy with. Here is what I ended up with:

Did you like this? Please share it!

Gimped! Blog: How To Edit Photos With GIMP 101 (Part 2)

2011-04-23T06:17:00.000-07:00

Click here for Photo Editing 101
Suggested Prerequisites:
Layer Mask Gimp Video Tutorial
Layer Mode Gimp Video Tutorial
Adjusting Colors Using Gimp
Layers and Selections Gimp Video Tutorial
Suggested Items:
Wacom Tablet (For Shading and Masking)
My eBook on Layer Masks - This short and inexpensive book focuses on one thing -getting you insanely good at making Layer Masks. If you get good at layer masking, you'll get good at Gimp.
In this lesson, I'm going to show you how to edit a photo using GIMP. This method will allow you to maintain complete control of the edits at all times. Often times a I have found that I will make an adjustment to a photo, think I like the adjustment, continue to edit the photo, and 30 minutes later realize that edit I made ruined my photo. The worst part? There's nothing I can do at that point to take my edits back, shy of starting completely over. I have found that manipulating layers, layer styles, and layer masks as much as possible is generally favorable to editing the photo directly in any way if at all possible.
Start with this photo:

This photograph was taken by Jessica Jordan of Jordan Photography. Her website can be seen Here

End with this photo:

Part 1: How to use GIMP to Stretch The Backdrop

First, we're going to fix the backdrop by extending it to the edges of our photo. This will be done by collecting a sample of the backdrop, and copying it over.
We'll start by adding the backdrop to the right-side.
Make a selection like the one below:

Notice the selection is off-center, and to the right. This is because the slight shadow used on the right side will be flipped over in later steps to give the perfect shading.

Copy, and paste the selection. Right click on the floating layer in the layer box, and click "new layer." Name this new layer "backdrop"
Using the flip tool (shift+F), flip the backdrop layer horizontally.
Move the layer in the top-right corner. Your photo should look like this:

duplicate the backdrop layer, and move the duplicated layer down 1 fill distance. Continue to duplicate the backdrop layer until the right-side of your backdrop is covered. Your photo should look something like this:

Right-click on the topmost backdrop layer, and click "merge down" until all of the backdrop layers are merged as a single layer.
right-click on the newly merged backdrop layer, and add a layer mask. Fill the layer mask with white.
using the blend tool (L) create a gradient to blend the left side. The photo should look like this:

The gradient effectively blends the edge in a realistic way. Now we just have to brush the backdrop off of the boys.

using the brush tool and making sure that you're on the layer mask of the backdrop layer. carefully brush the backdrop off of the boy.

Brushing black will hide the backdrop . If you brush too much off, brushing in white will always bring the backdrop back.

Your photo should look like this:

Repeat the steps for the backdrop on the left side.
My photo now looks like this:

This next step is entirely up to you, although I felt it made the photo's backdrop look more realistic. We're going to ad a small shadow at the bottom edge of our backdrop.
Create a new layer, name the new layer "backdropshadow"
Using the blend tool (Shortcut Key "L") change the settings to a black to transparent gradient, and the shape setting to bi-linear.
Create a thin gradient, and make it horizontal. Don't worry about the exact location on the page, and don't worry if it doesn't line up correctly. We're going to move it, and rotate it in place after the gradient is created.
using the move tool, drag your gradient to a position like so:

Placing the end of our gradient directly on top of the edge on the left-side of the photo gives us a point to rotate off of that will allow us to perfectly align the gradient with the photo.

Now that we have the gradient in place, let's rotate the gradient. Click on the rotate tool (Shift+R)
Click on the gradient to put it into rotate mode. Notice the circle with cross hairs in the center of the rotation box? That marks the center of your rotation. Click on that circle, and drag it to the far-left side of the screen, right on top of your gradient like so:

We want to rotate off of the endpoint on the far-left side of the photo as shown.

Rotate the gradient down so the photo now looks like this:

Now the the gradient is lined up, let's make the photo look real.

Set the layer mode to overlay. Now it looks more shadow-like.
Right-click on the layer, and click "Add Layer Mask."
Brushing on the layer mask, brush off the areas of the shadow that should not be there. (AKA the parts on top of the children.)
Set the layer mode to Overlay. My photo looks like this:

Part 2: How To Use GIMP To Edit The Faces
Next up, we're going to edit the faces to add more shadow to the children's faces.
Duplicate the background layer. Name this new layer "Shadereference"
Click Colors>>>curves>>>adjust the curves as shown below.

Don't panic. The photo is supposed to look like that.

You just created a reference for your facial shading. Notice the different colors in the face? Those are exaggerated versions of ever-so slight changes in the brightness of the person's face. Using this layer as a reference, we can add the shadow we want on our "normal" photo.
Create a new layer, fill it with black, and name it "Faceshade1"
Add a layer mask to Faceshade1, and fill the layer mask with black.
Ensuring that you're brushing on the layer mask, and using the shadereference layer to help determine where the shadows are (hint, they're usually blue in this photo.) brush extra shadow into the proper parts of the boy with glasses's face.
My photo looks like this:

Not all of the different colors accurately represent different shades. Frequently hide and un-hide the reference layer to get a full look at how the shadows will look.

Set FaceShade1 to Overlay, and adjust it's opacity to something you're happy with. I set mine to 45, and it looks like this:

The shadows help add a little extra depth to the face.

Repeat this process with the young boy's face.

Here is how my layer looked after I masked the photo away.

Here is what I ended up with after setting my layer to Overlay, and adjusting the Opacity to 60

Part 3: How to Use GIMP to Enhance The Eyes
The eyes are always a critical part of a photo. It is usually the first thing a person looks at when they look at a photo. Making them pop often brings the photo out a lot.
Zoom in on the kid with the glasses. Create a new layer, called "EyeWhiten1." Fill the layer white, and set the layer mode to Saturation.
Add a layer mask to EyeWhiten1, fill it with black.
Make sure you're editing the EyeWhiten1 layer mask, and brush the whites of the eyes with white.

Use a soft brush when working on the eyes.

Adjust the opacity down to something you like. I set mine to 50, and it looks like this:

The goal is to make the eyes appear more white by desaturating key parts of the photo slightly.

Create a new layer, name the layer "EyeHighlight1" Fill this layer with white, and set the layer mode to Overlay.
Create a layer mask for EyeHighlight1, fill the layer mask with black.
Ensuring that you're working on the layer mask of EyeHighlight1, and that you're Using a soft brush, brush each iris white. I ended up with this:

Feel free to adjust the opacity to something that works for you, although I left the opacity at 100%

Repeat these steps for on the younger boy's eyes. I ended up with this:

Although the eye highlighting is far more effective when the eyes are well-lit, it can still help at least a little bit.

Part 4: How to make the Final Touches
In the final touches, we're going to add light to a few spots that were underexposed, and darken the area around the photo to help pull your eyes to the subject.
Create a new layer, name it "LightenJeans" fill the layer with white, and set the layer mode to overlay.
Add a layer mask to LightenJeans, filling the layer mask with black.
Ensuring that you're editing the LightenJeans layer mask, brush the older boy's jeans with white. If you make a mistake, remember that brushing with black will serve as an eraser.
I ended up with this:

Create a new layer, name it "Highlight." Set the layer mode to Overlay, and fill the layer with black.
Create a layer mask for the highlight layer. Fill the layer mask with white.
Select the blend tool (Shortcut Key L) and change it settings to to a white-to-black gradient. Change the shape to radial.
Click and drag from the center of the boys, and drag out to the end of the older boy's foot.

Now that the editing is done, let's crop the photo to something more reasonable.

Select the Crop Tool (Shift+C)
In the crop tool options, make sure the "fixed aspect ratio" box is checked. That will ensure that the photo will still print at the same ratio as the original size.
Click, and drag a box. Move the box, and adjust the handles until your photo is set to something that you like, and press enter.
My final photo looks like this:

What do you think? How would you have edited this photo differently?

Gimp Tutorial - How To Use Gimp to Create Beautiful a Sun Ray Photo

2011-04-07T15:08:00.000-07:00

In this lesson, I'm going to show you how to use GIMP to take a photo of the sun, add some sun rays to the photo, and change the color to make the photo look more dramatic.

Suggested Prerequisites:
Layer Mask Gimp Video Tutorial
Layer Mode Gimp Video Tutorial
Adjusting Colors Using Gimp
Layers and Selections Gimp Video Tutorial
Suggested Items:
Wacom Tablet (For Shading and Masking)
My eBook on Layer Masks - This short and inexpensive book focuses on one thing -getting you insanely good at making Layer Masks. If you get good at layer masking, you'll get good at Gimp.

In this how to, we will start with this photo:

This beautiful photo was taken in Dun Laoghaire.

...and we will End with this photo:

As if the photo actually needed editing...although a few color effects really do go a long way

Suggested Prerequisites
Understand Layers
Learn about layer modes and layer masks
Understand the color menu
Learn my 5 Photo Editing Principles
Suggested Items
Wacom Tablet (for masking)
Gimp reference manual
Part 1: How To Use GIMP to Create the Sun Rays.
Using a pretty cool technique, I will show you how to create sun rays (or beams) without using special brushes, complicated gradients, or any stock photo.
Duplicate the background layer. Name that layer "Sun Rays."
Click "Filter>>>Blur>>>Motion Blur."
Set your settings something like what I have shown below.

The important thing is to make sure the center of the blur is set properly. You have to type the coordinates into GIMP. To get the coordinates, simply move your mouse over where you want the center of the photo to be, and check the bottom-left corner of your GIMP screen. The coordinates will be displayed there.

Note that this step often takes a long time to render (for me, it took GIMP about 10-15 minutes.)
My photo now looks like this:

It's pretty apparent where the rays are going to come from, right?

Click "Colors>>>Curves" adjust the curves something like what I have below:

Oh S-Curve...you're so awesome.

I ended up with this:

Notice a lot of the information is now washed out, but the detail in the sun rays are starting to really shine through (no pun intended.)

Filters>>>Edge Detect>>>Edge. Set it to "Sobel" and "10."

And just when you thought you understood what was going on, we go and do this. Don't worry, the black won't be a factor for long,

Click on Colors>>>Curves
Create a curve that looks something like this:

My photo turned out like this:

Now we have a very good contrast on our sunbeams...although they're a little too sharp. Time to blur them a bit.

Click Filter>>>Blur>>>Gaussian Blur
Blur the entire photo at a value around 25.
Set the sun rays layer to the layer mode "Overlay."
You should end up with something like this:

That looks pretty good, but we lost a lot of our photo as a result. Time to add a layer mask.

Right click on the Sun Rays layer>>>click "Add Layer Mask" Set the mask mode to White.

Reset your color palette by clicking on the black and white boxes in the bottom-left corner of your toolbox.
Switch the foreground and background colors on your palette by clicking the arrows beside the color palette (or by pressing the X key.)
Choose the Blend Tool (Shortcut Key: L)
In the tool options window, change the gradient to "radial"
Click and drag a gradient from the center of the sun outward. This will cause the layer to gradually fade away in the darker areas further from the sun. My photo looks like this:

The gradient in the layer mask gives us the best of both worlds.

Part 2: How to use GIMP to Dramatize the photo
Now that we have our sun rays in place, it's time to give the photo that "golden sky" look, as well as pull out some of the shadows in the clouds and water using a technique that differs from the usual "curve adjustment" concept shown in previous tutorials.
Duplicate the background layer. Name the duplicated layer "Dramatize"
Set the layer "Dramatize" to overlay
Ensuring that you're editing the Dramatize layer, click colors>>>desaturate.
Click Filters>>>>enhance>>>unsharp mask
Play with these settings to something you like. Mine were set up with these settings:
Radius: 26.3
Amount: 4.37
Threshold:0
Set the dramatize layer to overlay, and adjust the opacity to something you like. My overlay is set to 37.5, and looks like this:

Using a combination of overlay, and transparency, we're able to sharpen the image without giving up too much detail.

Create a new layer. Name that new layer "Glow Color"
Choose the Blend Tool (Shortcut Key: L)
Set your foreground color to a light yellow, and your background color to a bright orange (kind of like the colors found on a piece of candy corn.)
In the tool options window, change the gradient to "radial"
Click and drag a gradient from the center of the sun outward. This should create a gradient that looks something like this:

Note the location of the yellow glow. It is in-line with the sun.

Set the layer mode to "Hue"
Adjust the opacity to something that you're happy with. (I set mine to 40, and came up with this:)

The purpose of this layer is to pull some (not all) of the blue out of the sky.

Duplicate the glow color layer. Name the duplicated layer "Sun Color"
Set the opacity of the sun color layer to 100.
Right-click on the sun color layer>>>click "add layer mask"
Set the layer mask to "Grayscale copy of layer"
Make sure you're editing the sun color layer mask, and click Click colors>>>brightness-contrast
adjust the contrast to something you're happy with. Mine is set to these settings:
Brightness: -61
Contrast:100
And my photo looks like this:

My photo...it's...GOLD! Too gold.

Adjust the opacity to something you like. Mine is set to 25 and looks like this:

That's a little better. Now for the final touch, the lens flare.

Part 3: How To use GIMP to Add a Lens Flare
This final step is not hard to do, since GIMP automates the lens flare creation. The only problem is GIMP has to put the lens flare on the same layer as your background layer. To help better preserve the data, we're going to duplicate your background layer and add the flare to the duplicated layer, that way if you decide that you don't like the flare at a later point, you can always delete the duplicated layer and still use the original. It's a good practice in general to always keep the original image on a layer, and only edit duplicates. Sometimes progress requires looking at where you came from.
That being said, start by duplicating the background layer Name the duplicated layer "Lens Flare Background"
Ensuring that you're editing the lens flare background layer, click filters>>>light and shadow
In the window, position the lens flare inside of the sun, so that the flare appears to be coming from the sun.
Click OK.
I ended up with this:

What do you think? What would you have edited this photo differently?

Gimped! Gimp Tutorial: Photo Tweaking 101: How to do basic photo tweaking using GIMP

2011-03-23T13:16:00.000-07:00

In this lesson, I'm going to show you the basics on how to edit a photo using GIMP. We're going for realism here, so the changes are going to be very acute in contrast to a lot of my other posts, although a lot of acute changes add up to a big difference in the end.
Part 2 can be found here.
Suggested Prerequisites:
Layer Mask Gimp Video Tutorial
Layer Mode Gimp Video Tutorial
Adjusting Colors Using Gimp
Layers and Selections Gimp Video Tutorial
Suggested Items:
Wacom Tablet (For Shading and Masking)
My eBook on Layer Masks - This short and inexpensive book focuses on one thing -getting you insanely good at making Layer Masks. If you get good at layer masking, you'll get good at Gimp.
Here is the photo we're working with:

Click on this photo to download the original version.

All in all, the photo is a good shot. I personally don't think there's too many things wrong with it. The girl's eyes don't have much pop, the guy's eyes are semi-bloodshot, and the background seems to be a little on the busy side. With the use of layer masks, layer modes, and tweaking opacity, we are going to try to make this couple pop just a little better.
Part 1: How to use GIMP to Fix a Smile
First off, we're going to whiten those teeth. They're not too bad now, but you'll be surprised at how much better they can be.
Create a new Layer, set the layer mode to "color." Name the layer "teeth."
Create a layer mask on this layer. (Right-click on the layer, click "Add Layer Mask") Set it's color to black.
Change your color palette to black and white by clicking on the black and white squares in the bottom-left corner of your toolbox.
Click on the arrows near the color boxes to switch your foreground, and background colors. (Shortcut Key: X) You should now have a white foreground color, and a black background color.
Using the paintbrush tool (shourtcut key: P) and a soft brush, slowly "paint" the color out of the teeth. Be sure you're painting the layer mask, and not the layer itself. If you make any mistakes, switch over to the color black, by pressing the X key. Painting black in a layer mask will restore the color. When you want to remove color again, simply press the X key again.

The layer mask black-white relationship allows for quick fixing, tweaking, and fine tuning. It's a few extra steps to set up, but I recommend getting in the habit of using one whenever possible.

After you're finished with one set of teeth, go ahead and do the same to the other set.

No matter how clean a mouth is, the teeth can always be a little bit cleaner. Desaturating the teeth is an effective way to clean them.

Duplicate the teeth layer. Set the duplicated teeth layer mode to overlay. This will brighten the teeth up quite a bit (probably too much, in fact.)

Adjust the opacity to something that looks realistic. I ended up setting my opacity to 40. Here's what I ended up with:

The teeth have been whitened. Who needs toothpaste, anyway?

Part 2: How To use GIMP to Enhance Eyes

With a lack of proper equipment, the both of their irises seem to disappear. The man's eyes are a little bloodshot too. Using almost the same methods as we did with the teeth, we will help bring their eyes out in this photo.

Create a new layer, name it ManEyes. Fill the layer with White.

Set ManEyes to the layer mode overlay

Add a layer mask to ManEyes. Fill it with black.

Make sure you're editing the ManEyes layer mask, and are brushing in white. Fill the iris (not the pupil) with white.

Although it doesn't always work, Overlay will often pull natural color out of the eyes. Sometimes you will need to tone down the opacity, although in this photo this is not the case.

Create a new layer. Name it EyeWhite. Fill the layer with white.

Set the layer to Saturation

Add a layer mask to EyeWhite. Fill it with black.

Make sure you're editing the EyeWhite layer mask, and are brushing in white. Fill the white portions of the eye with white.

Removing color is often as powerful as adding color.

Adjust the opacity to something that looks realistic. I set mine to 60. Here is what I ended up with.

The change is slight, but a bunch of slight changes add up.

Now for the girl's eyes, which seem to almost disappear altogether.

Create a new layer, fill it with white, name it GirlEyes, and set the layer mode to overlay.

Create a layer mask for GirlEyes, and fill the mask with black.

Make sure you are editing the GirlEyes layer mask, and are brushing in white. Using a large brush, Fill the girl's sockets with white.

Be careful with how much of the shadow you pull out with the overlay. If the skin looks orange, you probably overdid it. Press the X key, and start brushing the orange skintones away.

Adjust the opacity on the layer until it looks realistic. I adjusted mine to 50, and ended up with this:

Another small difference, but they add up.

Create a new layer, fill it with white, name it GirlIris, and set the layer mode to overlay.

Create a layer mask for GirlIris, and fill the mask with black.

Make sure you are editing the GirlIris layer mask, and are brushing in white. Fill the girl's iris with white. The photo should end up like this:

Now that we have the eyes lightened up to an amount that we can work with, it's time to really pull the color out.

Duplicate the GirlsIris layer, and adjust the opacity to something that makes the photo look realistic. I set my opacity to 30, and the photo looks like this:

The duplicated layer gives you control over a little extra boost of color in her eyes.

Select the background layer

click colors>>>hue saturation

Increase the saturation by an amount that works for you. I increased it by 25. Here is what I came up with:

Adding saturation to an outdoor photo will really bring some pop to the photo.

Part 3: How to use GIMP to Make the Couple Pop

In the final portion of this tutorial, we will show you how to make the couple pop out of the background without looking fake. The trick is to pull color away from the background, not add color to the couple.

Create a new layer, fill it with white, and name it saturation.

Add a layer mask to the saturation layer you just created, fill it with white. This should remove all color from the photo.

Using the lasso tool (shortcut key F),make a selection similar to the photo below.

The goal of this selection is to get the majority of the couple. We'll use another method to get the edges.

Make sure that you're using the bucket fill tool (Shift+B), working on the layer mask you just created, and are using the color black. Fill the selection. Your photo should now look something like this:

Zoom in, and using a soft brush with the paintbrush tool, start painting color into the edge of the couple that the fill did not get.

You could also have used the pen tool, but in my opinion, a soft brush works much nicer in this case.

After your couple is completely in color, and the background is completely black and white, adjust the opacity until the background looks realistic. I ended up with an opacity of 50, as shown below:

And that's it! The differences aren't huge, but not all photo-editing work is meant to make, or break a photo. Often times, it is only there to improve on slight issues with a photo.

OK photographers, what would you have done with this photo to make it better? How would you have edited this photo?