How To Use Gimp

Untitled

2012-07-05T08:29:00.001-07:00

Alice from Alice in Wonderland is known for painting the Queen of Heart’s roses red, to hide that they are in fact white. What would happen if the paint started to drip off of the roses? Well, that’s sort-of what I am teaching you to do here. In this gimp video tutorial, we’re going to use a a lot of Gimp’s tools in combination to make the color of a rose appear to be melting off into a puddle on the ground. In a lot of ways, this is a painting tutorial, and in many more ways it’s a gimp tutorial on photo manipulation. Either way, the video for this lesson is a solid 40-minutes, and it explains everything that was done to make the final product. The tutorial can be seen here

Replacing Picnik Webcast Schedule

2012-04-14T12:53:00.001-07:00

I'm excited to announce that I will be hosting 4 Q&A Webcasts on my uStream channel next week. Each Q&A session will go for 1 hour, and I will be talking a little bit about some resources for the Picnik community who are looking for a replacement for Picnik in Gimp. I will answer questions for people who need help with the gimp interface, as well as anyone who wants to know more about my new eBook titled "Replacing Picnik."I will be going live on these dates: All times are in Eastern Standard TimeThursday, April 19'th from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PMThursday, April 19'th from 7:00 PM to 8:00 PMSunday, April 22'nd from 4:00 PM to 3:00 PMSunday, April 22'nd from 7:00 PM to 8:00 PMCome join in! Simply visit this page within any of these time brackets.

To all of the Picnik fans out there...

2012-03-30T15:13:00.001-07:00

I know that you are sad that Picnik is going away, but never fear! There is a great open-source program that you can download for free on your computer that can do everything Picnik can do plus so much more. It's called gimp.I'll be honest, it's...different, but I do tutorials for Gimp and I would be happy to help everyone learn the program! I am going to talk about how you can transfer from Picnik to Gimp do a google hangout on google+. I will also be answering questions posted on my gimped tutorials Facebook wall. If you happen to be a Twitter user, I will also be answering any questions with the hash tag #pic2gimp.

I am doing this both for you and me. I want to learn what you guys did with Picnik so I can best-teach you with great video tutorials to make your transfer as truly painless as possible.This Google Hangout will go for a few hours on this Saturday, starting at 7:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. I'll host this until I'm tired of hosting, or until everyone leaves.I highly recommend that you circle me on Google+ so that you see the google plus post that I will be hanging out in. Post your Q&A facebook questions on my Gimped! Tutorials Facebook Page, or follow me on my Twitter page.

Photo Study - Sunshine by Phatpuppycreations

2012-03-25T18:31:00.001-07:00

Click on the photo to view it on Flickr.

This fun photo was assembled using a series of various stock images from one of my favorite resources for free stock images, DeviantArt. With the help of layer masks and layer modes, this photo was made. personally. I think I would have removed the blue hue from the neck of the giraffe, and simontaneously modified the color of the field to match what the sunset would create with an orange colored layer mode set to either overlay, color, or maybe even both. A really good example of this can be seen in my gimp tornado tutorial. In that tutorial, I modify the originally green hues of a field to a very yellow tone to better match the tone that the sky would create.

Click here for the gimp tutorial on how to make a dramatic tornado scene.

The sky on this photo looks really good, and even if the sun rays are real, they could have just as easily been made digitally much like I had done in this sun ray photo I made using gimp:

Click here for the gimp tutorial on how to make sun rays using gimp.

All-in-all, I thought that this photo was very fun and it was a pleasure to stumble on it. Please go check out more work by phatpuppycreations, there are a lot of very cool photos there.

Gimp Tutorial - Isolating a Background using Color

2012-03-23T04:22:00.001-07:00

Earlier this week I mentioned on Google+ that I discovered something about gimp that was pretty huge, something that would change how I edit photos forever.

Since then, I've been determined to figre out how to boil this small bit of information, and show you just how much this can help your layer masking and isolating backgrounds, especially in the studio scene and landscape photography.

I finally decided to simply do what I do best - record a gimp video tutorial using the method that I discovered, and share it with everyone.

Click here for the gimp video tutorial.

Awesome Gimp Script - Copy Layer Mask From Above

2012-03-22T13:15:00.001-07:00

The wonderful thing about open-source software is that anyone can modify their version of the program at their own free will. What's even better, is that the open source community loves to share how they customize their own version of their program to fit their needs, giving you the ability to duplicate their customizations.

In a recent conversation on the GimpChat forum, we talked about how to duplicate a layer mask using Gimp and in the process uncovered a fantastic script that copies the above layer and turns it into a layer mask.

I went ahead and put the file together for download here.
This script came in with great timing, because I've stumbled on a very fascinating find that will help everyone isolate foreground images from background images in a new way. I hope to have a tutorial written up on this soon. Until then, I recommend that you brush up on your understanding of layer masks using gimp, you'll want to know about them when I post this tutorial.

PS: I use this script in this gimp video tutorial.

How They Did It - Shyness by Alin Petrus

2012-03-17T19:21:00.001-07:00

Click here for the original photo.
This incredibly creative photo was taken by the talented Alin Petrus, and if you like this shot I highly recommend checking out his other works on his Alin's 1x website. The shadow in this photo could be created using gimp. To do this, it would take a little effort with shooting for the edits, and an understanding of layer masks and layer modes. Here are the steps that I would take to do this:

Take the photo of the girl holding the rose.

Take the photo of the boy on a white background so he is easy to remove from the background. It is recommended that you shoot in raw for this. For more information about the benefits of shooting in raw, check out the linked post. I also recommend that your boy wears all red for the shot, because that will also help. The next step will explain why.

Now, remove the boy from the background much like I removed my own face in the beginning of this gimp zombie tutorial. If you watch that video, you will realize that the secret to pulling the face out of the background rested upon darkening the color red. Your face has a lot of red pigment in it, so darkening that effects the body and not the white background. This is why wearing a red shirt will help this step a lot.

Now that you have isolated the child from the image, we're going to use his shape as a silhouette for an all black background on the image with the girl.

On your girl image, Insert the image of the black on white boy. Move him and scale him appropriately Right-click on the boy layer and click "add layer mask."

Now click "grayscale copy of layer, and then click colors>>>invert to invert the layer mask. This will turn your layer into a layer mask. Now that we have the image turned into a layer mask, we can remove the image and replace it with what we need it to be - all black.

Fill your layer with the color black. Our edge will be defined by our layer mask.

Remove the lower part of the feet and legs by painting in the color black. Move him so that the top
third of his legs are on the corner between the sidewalk and wall, if you haven't already.

Manually paint the legs in by painting your layer mask the color white in the areas that you want to add the legs to. This may require the use of the lasso tool or paths tool for more accurate drawing.

Set the layer mode to overlay.

Click on your layer mask, and click filters>>>blur>>>Gaussian blur

Add a slight blur to the layer mask to make it look more like a shadow.

Adjust the opacity as needed.

What do you guys think? Please share your results if you take the time to do this, I would love to see them. Also, if you have any questions or comments don't hesitate to ask!

Photo Study - Lighthouse by Suzanne Friedrich

2012-03-12T04:48:00.001-07:00

the photographer who took this can be seen here

This cool photo can be emulated using gimp with the right tools. The lens flare combined with color modification tools could create your general "guiding light" shape. With that, you could create a layer mask and fill the layer white. Alternatively, another effect that may work is very much like what I did in my sun rays using gimp tutorial. only instead of using the burst for the sun, you could use this gimp effect to create the burst for the lighthouse.

Gimp Video Tutorial - Cropping in Bulk

2012-03-02T19:02:00.001-08:00

Today, I posted a new tutorial on how to use gimp to crop several images to a specific size in bulk. This is great for people who are converting slides and want to turn them into 5x7 photos or something like that. The gimp video tutorial can be seen here.

3 Bad Photo Editing Habits To Avoid

2012-02-29T20:33:00.001-08:00

Gimp is a very powerful program with many different tools to edit your photos however you want. With this massive amount of functionality comes a steep learning curve. Watching some great gimp tutorials will help you learn, but be aware that there are several tutorials out there that are not teaching you the best way to do things. Here are 3 very common bad habits that I have found some tutorials are teaching online, and I wanted to bring attention to then so you are aware of these and are able to avoid them when possible.

Trying to Edit the Whole Photo at one Time
this one is one of the biggest culprits. Too often I will see a tutorial that teaches you how to enhance a photo by editing the entire photo at one time. Although there are always goings to be circumstances where this is a viable option, more often than not this is not the best way to go about doing things in gimp. Instead of making all of your edits on a single layer with the various color modification tools, try duplicating the layer of the image that you are wanting to modify and the modify that image. You can then use a layer mask to mask off everything but the area that you actually intended on changing the exposure of. A great example of this in action is my gimp tutorial on how to expose a waterfall using gimp.

Erasing instead of Masking
Is this drilled in your head yet? If not, odds are you haven't seen too many of my gimp tutorials yet. Using the eraser tool where a layer mask can be used instead is one of the most frustrating and limiting habits people get into. I know it is a few extra steps to make a layer mask, but it is well worth the extra effort once you understand how these can become a very powerful tool for your photo editing. If you are not familiar with layer masks, I highly recommend that you watch this gimp video tutorial on layer masks before you ever erase or delete anything using gimp again.

Assuming That Gimp can Easily Fix Anything
Often times, people will jump into photo editing assuming that these photo editing programs will be able to turn their photos into photography gold with little effort on their end at all. My gimp zombie image took over 30 layers and 4 hours of my time to make, and that was with a well-prepared photo taken specifically for the task of making myself into a zombie. My point is that it WILL take time and it DOES take effort to get good results from your photo editing. One of my free exclusive lessons about gimp talks about "shooting for the edits," which is an important lesson to learn about photo editing, because it teaches you how your camera and gimp can work together to create the best image. Stop thinking about gimp as a tool that can fix your photographs, and start thinking about gimp as a tool that can be used in combination with your camera to create images that would have otherwise been very difficult or impossible to do.

Photo Study - Mushroom house

2012-02-13T05:09:00.001-08:00

The original photo can be seen Here I love...LOVE this photo. The time spent on making everything look so real is awesome. Each window has its own "glow" added to it. And the little light post is a really nice touch. Also notice the feint glow that comes out off the window in the door and the lantern outside. Those glows are what make these look so convincing in my opinion, and all it would take is a single layer with a glow color added to it, a working layer mode (probably multiply), and a blurry layer mask to hide everything but the glow.

Ultimately, the magic in photos like this rests in taking the time to make them correctly. It seems like too many people are out to make "quick edits with gimp," when editing a good image with gimp can take several hours to do.

Photo Inspiration: Vintage Photo

2012-02-12T07:58:00.001-08:00

The original photo can be found here.

This well-posed photo is a great example of how an artistic touch can be added to a picture with the right curves adjustments using gimp. These colors were most likely added much like I added similar colors in my tutorial on how to use gimp to create a retro effect.

I also think this photo has a very nice darkened touch around the edges. This could easily be done with an overlay layer and a few gradients around the edges much like I did with my moving train background tutorial. of course I am referring to these steps:

Hide all layers except for the background layer.

Create a new layer above all the rest, set its layer to overlay.

Set your foreground and background colors to black and white by clicking the button in the bottom-left corner of your tool palette.

Click on the blend tool (shortcut key: L)

Set the gradient to “FG to Transparent”

Darken the sides by creating 4 gradients over each of the four sides of the photo. Hold in control to keep your gradient line straight.

Set the layer mode to overlay.

Photo study: unknown title by unknown photographer

2012-02-11T12:37:00.001-08:00

The original photo was found here.
First off, I want to point out that this is a self-taken photo. The look and feel of the image is just incredible to me. I love the blue hint of color and the exaggerated eyes. All of the techniques shown in this photo are essentially what I did with my ice girl tutorial, she just used different colors. Wow...just...wow.

How It's Made - Police Line by Aloen D.art

2012-02-10T04:25:00.001-08:00

View the original image here.
his photo makes good and subtle use of selective colorization. The police line tape is not fully saturated, in fact it's barely saturated at all. To acheive this Aloen D probably used 3 layers to get the job done.
One layer is the main image
The second layer is a layer filled with black, with a layer mode set to "color" with a layer mask applied to everything but the tape. This would make everything but the tape black and white.
The final layer is the same as the previous layer, filled with black with a layer mode set to "color." This image would not have a layer mask. With this layer you now have control of how saturated the tape is. simply adjust the opacity until you are satisfied with the result.
For more information on selective colorization, check out my how to convert color to black and white tutorial.

Photo Study - And the beat goes on by Jonni

2012-02-08T13:05:00.001-08:00

View the original image here.
This photo has great lighting and the boy has a really great pose, but what about these cool little music notes Jonni added? How could one go about adding those music notes to their photo and make it look convincing like this photo did?
This is a great example of how to use a custom-made brush and a good layer mask effectively. I can only assume that the "edge" of the notes on the microphone are defined by a good layer mask paired with a layer that is nothing but a pattern. The key here is the highlights and lowlights that were kept on the notes on the microphone. That is what gives this the realilistic look, and it could be acheived with a white layer on the right layer mode paired with another layer mask that would hide everything but the highlight.
What do you guys think? How would you have gone about making these edits?

Plan Your Edits

2012-02-06T03:59:00.001-08:00

When you're photo editing, it's important to remember that the best photographers and photo editors do not take photos, and then edit them. They envision their final result, and take all of the photos they need for the editing before they ever sit down. If you find yourself staring at your photos trying to "apply effects" to them instead of taking photos with an idea on how you're going to make your edits you will never truly make the best use out of the tools gimp has.

Here are a few example tutorials that better explain what I am trying to say:

how to make a zombie using gimp
This tutorial takes a photo with the intent on removing the background. As a result, the photo of my face was posed accordingly.

Product Photography Using Gimp
This lesson took several different photos and combined them together with intent to make a complete image. This tutorial is the essence of what I'm trying to explain to you.

looking for some inspiration?

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

2012-01-22T09:24:00.001-08:00

At long last, I have finally sat down and Recorded the layer mask tutorial for Gimp. The video is 18 minutes long, and I still feel like I barely touched the surface on how they work.

The complete gimp video tutorial for beginners can be seen here.

Photo Study - ET Phone Home

2012-01-11T04:23:00.001-08:00

view this photo on Flickr

What do you guys think of this photo? I really enjoy its small color palette. For all we know, this photo could have been built from scratch using some tree layer masks similar how I made my android logo tutorial.

Of course, it could also have been made by editing a photo directly. Given the right conditions, it would not be very hard to make a layer mask out of the ground and trees using some Exposure tools. as soon as you had the ground masked off, building the sky and the silhouettes would be fairly easy to do, and would produce a great result.

Exposing a Waterfall Using Gimp

2012-01-02T11:20:00.001-08:00

A lot of my subscribers have shown interest in learning my process for "general images." As a result, I have been doing a few gimp video tutorials showing this process. This gimp video tutorial will show you how to use gimp to do this:

The tutorial can be found here.

this image:

into this:

with a little help from this image:

Enjoy.

Product Photography Using Gimp

2011-12-31T13:03:00.001-08:00

At long last, I finally uploaded this tutorial. Sorry it took so long, I had a very hard time getting the video to record. Enjoy this tutorial guys, I also went over how I actually took the shots as well.

Final result:

View the tutorial here.

Checkerboard Text Using Gimp

2011-12-31T09:02:00.001-08:00

Today, someone on Yahoo Answers asked how to do checkerboard text. I went ahead and did a gimp video tutorial for them since it was easier than typing up the entire tutorial. The tutorial can be seen here

Quick Tip - Quickly Scaling Your Image

2011-12-29T13:32:00.001-08:00

Hands down - one of the most annoying things about trying to upload a photo is scaling the thing down to a small 100x100 icon that some websites restrict you to. I wanted to let you know that there is a very easy way to do this in GIMP that a lot of people miss. Simply do this:

click Image>>>Scale Image

A box will come up. From here, you can set the new size of your image to whatever you want. The best part? This will scale all of your layers as well. It's much easier than trying to use the scale tool, or any other method.

Think they'll hire me?

2011-12-26T15:40:00.001-08:00

Tutorial coming soon!

Happy Holidays Everyone!

2011-12-24T10:15:00.001-08:00

Sincerely,

Alex's Gimp Tutorials

PS: the original .xcf file can be found here if anyone wants to see how I made this. It was done using layer modes as always.

Photo Study: Bridge

2011-12-20T20:27:00.001-08:00

This past weekend I went out hiking and took a few wonderful photos of some waterfalls, as well as this bridge:
See also: The Nature Photography Hiking Checklist

Click on the image to see high-quality print pricing options for this image.

Of course the bridge didn't look like this when the photo was taken, I just really enjoy making my photos look off-tone. I know a lot of my fans don't yet have a Raw shooting camera, so I wanted to share a few of my photos in RAW format so that you could have a chance to try editing a photo in raw.
Related Post: The Benefits of Shooting in Raw.
I went ahead and uploaded a few of my Raw-formatted photos here. Check them out and practice this gimp Practical HDR tutorial with them.