About GIMP
A high-end Photo Editing program.
GIMP – the photo masterpiece
What can you do with GIMP?
Everyone knows about Photoshop whose name has become synonymous with “photo manipulation”. Well, GIMP is the equivalent to Photoshop when it comes to photo editing and manipulation.
Photoshop is an immensely huge program which includes many features most users will never use. It is therefore a very bloated piece of software requiring some 4GB hard disk space against around only 200Mb for GIMP which does essentially the same thing. With GIMP, you choose to install plug-ins only for features that you really need if not already available in the base install. Honestly, we have never had to install any plug-ins.
This tutorial series is aimed mainly at readers who want to enhance or “fix” photographs for the Web or print production. Artists can easily create truly wondrous pieces of art with this program but I dare not venture into this realm reserved for the gifted.
I will show you the tools we use in our business to improve the images supplied by customers to produce the final prints that wow them – tools like sharpening, brightening, creating transparency, and removing backgrounds.
Despite its immense power, it is really so very easy to use.
Lessons coming soon
A couple of features I use often:
Adjust Colour Levels
This great tool allows you to finely adjust highlights, shadows and midtones while viewing the effects in real time. Not all commercial packages have this tool.
Removing backgrounds.
The Fuzzy Select tool (or Magic Wand) was used to remove the grey background and saved as a png file to retain its transparency. GIMP’s Sharpening tool was used to give the flowers a little lift.
Inscape was then used to place the flowers over the beach photo which it also easily put off focus.
