After my first month on 365, I think it's time to spend a few words on this forum.
When I started the project I thought I could not be possible for me to post a decent shot a day and planned to post mostly fillers; I'm glad to say that I was able to take my camera with me almost every day and only once I uploaded a filler taken in October anyway.
I'm following my own rules and, so far, I'm still trying to experiment with different kinds of pictures: alleys, people, still life, etc... I hope I'll be able to be driven a bit more by this great community, so I'm starting my first thread and I've even taken part to this week theme!!!
I've found many posts about "the sort of shots" everyone should take at leas once in their lifetime (water droplets and stuff like that); what I have not found yet is a similar list for image manipulation: I use GIMP (and I suck at it...) and would like to learn some basic tricks: I guess selective coloring is a must but what else should I try?
BTW: a massive thank you to all my followers who commented my shots and encouraged me!
What do you want to achieve in GIMP? I'm learning it too as I go along, and because it's something I'm just getting to grips with I possibly can explain it. The other question is which operating system?
You haven't tried selective colour that I could see - the easy way is creating a Duplicate Layer:
Layer menu -> Duplicate Layer.
Grey scale one layer by Colour -> Desaturate
On the colour layer cut out what you want in colour using intelligent scissors or the free select tool - roughly (both on the Tools > Selection Tools menu)
use the eraser and 400% to neaten up the edges (Tools > Paint tools)
merge the layers back together (Layer menu)
blur the edges together using the smudge tool (Tools > Paint Tools)
@shanne I use Debian GNU Linux as OS. Thanx a million for the tip: will try it for sure: need to find the right picture first. What I still find hard, is to find the right effect for the specific pictur. I'm not a fan of heavy PP: I'd like to be able to apply the minimal effects which might improve a particular shot. At the moment I'm so bad that I I cannot even know if I should convert in B&W or not
@woot You need to add an alpha channel before you delete to the colour layer Layer-->Transparency-->Add Alpha Channel
(My daughter who does this much better than me looked at this and said:)
To do the eye colour change:
Select the shape you want to change colour Scissors Select Tool (Ctrl+I)
Add a new layer Layer-->Add New Layer-->Transparent
Select the Blend Tool
Then pick the Gradient and the Shape shape you want
When you get to the picture, you have to pull a line across to get the radius, holding down left mouse button
Set the layer to overlay
Adjust Opacity to whatever you would like it to be
@woot I'm on Linux too -that's going to make life easier - Ubuntu
On the Colour menu - try curves and GEGL - you can just lift colours using that - adjusting the curves on all colours or the colours separately. It depends on the picture how effective it is. Or you can increase saturation on the Hue-Saturation menu
If you're using b&w and desaturate, you'll need to up the contrast and brightness on the Brightness and Contrast menu. And if you use the Colourise menu and drag the top bar to the left you can create a sepia colour - tweaking the saturation and brightness controls.
@shanne thanx soooo much! I tried on a sample pic and it worked!!!! I had some basi knowledge about layers: the only manipulation I sometimes do is duplicate a layer and try out the various blending modes. I'm still referring to your first two posts:I need to understend better the one about alpha channel and GEGL (which I never heard before)
If you want a layer to be mainly transparent, because you're using the colour section from it to overlay the grey scale layer, you need to set it as an Alpha Channel - I find that one by right clicking on the layer in the layer section of the toolbox, but it's also under Layer -> Transparency -> Add Alpha Channel
@swilde if you click on @asrai 's picture he's linked to instructions on how to do it. I had noticed he's done this, and I keep meaning to find a shot that will work with it and let me try it out
Someone advised me to make my album "my own", doing what I loved - whether it was a photo from that day or a filler from years before. That was really helpful for me because it freed me from the "guilt" of posting fillers that until that point I actually discovered I had. Sometimes life is busy, messy, complicated, we can't feel guilty for doing what's right for our individual situations. We all have other commitments - some more than others, some less. Your followers will understand that and be happy you're posting anything at all! Good for you for trying things you've never tried before - I think it will be very rewarding for you! : )
@beautifulplanet wise and true:) I'd like to let the community guide me especially for pushing me to try things I'd probably never do otherwise. As long as I can find some spare time to look around and shot, it's great to be guided by random events though.
Write a Reply
Sign up for a free account or Sign in to post a comment.
Tweets ahoy!
Join the Group
Pin With Me
a clone image
an eye colour change
fake tilt shift
out of bounds photo
Levitation
minaturisation
the smoke picture
You haven't tried selective colour that I could see - the easy way is creating a Duplicate Layer:
Layer menu -> Duplicate Layer.
Grey scale one layer by Colour -> Desaturate
On the colour layer cut out what you want in colour using intelligent scissors or the free select tool - roughly (both on the Tools > Selection Tools menu)
use the eraser and 400% to neaten up the edges (Tools > Paint tools)
merge the layers back together (Layer menu)
blur the edges together using the smudge tool (Tools > Paint Tools)
to get rid of the stuff you don't want - you invert select (Select menu) the object you've just cut out and then delete
I've been using Gimp for almost a year, and I still can't do any of the techniques you provided examples for. :( lol.
(My daughter who does this much better than me looked at this and said:)
To do the eye colour change:
Select the shape you want to change colour Scissors Select Tool (Ctrl+I)
Add a new layer Layer-->Add New Layer-->Transparent
Select the Blend Tool
Then pick the Gradient and the Shape shape you want
When you get to the picture, you have to pull a line across to get the radius, holding down left mouse button
Set the layer to overlay
Adjust Opacity to whatever you would like it to be
On the Colour menu - try curves and GEGL - you can just lift colours using that - adjusting the curves on all colours or the colours separately. It depends on the picture how effective it is. Or you can increase saturation on the Hue-Saturation menu
If you're using b&w and desaturate, you'll need to up the contrast and brightness on the Brightness and Contrast menu. And if you use the Colourise menu and drag the top bar to the left you can create a sepia colour - tweaking the saturation and brightness controls.
If you want a layer to be mainly transparent, because you're using the colour section from it to overlay the grey scale layer, you need to set it as an Alpha Channel - I find that one by right clicking on the layer in the layer section of the toolbox, but it's also under Layer -> Transparency -> Add Alpha Channel