Photo and Pictures

Gimp 2.6.9 is merely a bug-release and we are still waiting for the one window version 2.7 that is slowly coming. Then also GEGL will be more of a motor. Now it seems Gimp is having two motors and GEGL is more like another filter that is able to do some edits.

I think C2G is a wonderful tool that really adds to the picture though as well as mono-mixer it still feel like another filter and not an addition to the motor. I hope that the new version is different both to the graphic interface and the motor that drives it making it easier to do edits.

I think that Gimp still is ahead as the most powerful editor that you can get for free. Gimp has given at least me so much letting me be able to spend my money on hardware instead of software.

Being an amateur taking pictures 8-bit is more than enough and being 16-bit is merely an argument people make because they spent alot of money on their software. What i do wait for is adjusting layers so you can use same adjustment on different pictures. Now you do alot of same things over and over.

So what i want of a new Gimp is only adjustment layers so i can do same adjustment over and over again. Maybe some new graphical interface that make it easier to work. Even so i am very satisfied with how well this free software work and together with G’mic it is doing very well.

Read more: Gimpusers, My gimp page

I have been using Xnview, which is a viewer software on most platforms. As one of its features is that it takes also Raw. Xnview is free to use even though it is not open source. I have been shooting in Raw and put the setting to Monotone. Thus still having the information in colour but seeing the result in B/W. This is a common trick to fool the camera thinking you are shooting in B/W while still having the information in colour.

It is working with my camera that is an Olympus E-PL1 and taking in the Raw file so it is also bound to take your new camera. Be sure to check it out that your camera is avaible first.

You need a software program after you shot to convert it to BW. I have used Xnview to turn the Raw-file to jpg then i used monomixer in Gimp to turn the photo to BW. Shooting this way you still got the information of colour but you see the result in camera as BW. Do you have questions please comment.

This knowledge is a good tool while you are learning which photo is suitable for BW because you will see the result directly and you are able to make a color photo if you like.

You can use saturation to make your photo stand out from the rest. Be careful though since it easy to pull to much in your saturation and making the photograph unnatural.

Having more colour it fools the eye to notice it more. Don´t forget to add some sharpness to the picture. This will also making it slightly darker.

It is something that will make your photograph go from ordinary and lift them up to be better. Photo editing shall be so it improve your photography applied careful it adds to your photograph. Remember though to work on your photo skill. Since bad in means bad out.

Yesterday I saw that someone suggesting Ipernity to Wii interface. I think this would be very cool. Wii got also a sdcard reader and i need it to start reading my E-PL1 camera to. In the meantime i think it probably read the old Canon Powershot.

I have made a screencast how to do a vignette on Gimp. You can probably do the same with photoshop if you want. I have used layers to do a vignette to show you how easy it is. I hope you will learn some and how to use gimp. I think you can do the same thing in Elements or Photoshop.

Here is the finished picture…

I had a conversation about one of my picture about mirroring your photo when you are photo editing. Now and then you get stuck on photo editing and then simply by mirroring the image or turn it black/white you might find new inspiration. I hope that this might be common among photographers.

Here i have turned the image around and showing both mirror-side at the same time. It might feel odd first but you actually get a new perspective on things. Be sure not to have anything in the picture that may give referens. Writings will be turned around and may look odd. So signs in the picture is a no no.

Nature photography is definitely working. You have to try yourself and you will get experience in time.

A short simple effect is Orton effect where you give your photos a soft, soft tone. You could as an example soften your portrait with it. It’s simple but it helps if you know how to use layers and layer mode in the Gimp. Part of the effect means that we light up the picture with layer mode screen . I plan to use a picture of me that I took when I was out with my class at Gåseborg .

What we do is very simple. We start by loading the image that we want to have the effect on. We duplicate the layer so we get two copies of the original. At the lower copy we change the layer mode to Screen to lighten the image. The upper copy, we then do Gaussian Blur, which you will find
under the menu Filter / Blur / Gaussian Blur. Here you can test with different values because it depends a little on the resolution. I used 20 px in x and y-axis which I thought worked well for my resolution.

The next step will be to change the layer mode on the top copy to Multiply, which will provide a soft, soft tone of the image. You can then control the layer opacity to get a darker effect on the image. Again, you get to experiment because it could be different depending on how your image is. I used an opacity of 75%.

How do you darken down your bright images in Gimp or Photoshop, you can quickly do this using the layers. You duplicate the first layer and then select Multiply at the upper layer. Then adjust the layer opacity so that you get the right light.

Here you see that I have selected around 60% opacity. It does not work so well if you have overexposed the image so much that it is completely burned out. Is the image just slightly overexposed or so it works good. It doesn´t work with all pictures but most of them.

There are of course much better and other ways to do the same thing, but this is a very quick and simple way to get a little more impact to your pictures.

Here is a description how you can brighten up dark areas in your photos using Gimp. It’s important that you understand how to use layers and layer mask . We have an image to start from where we have large dark areas.

The idea now is that I’ll just light up the dark areas. I create only one copy of a new layer by duplicating my original layer. The next step will be to me to make the image black and white and that is accomplished by the easiest way by Colors / Desaturate. Next, you invert the black and white layer, which you do under Colors / Invert.

Then we’ll take and make this layer blurred using Gaussian Blur, which you will find the Filter / Blur / Gaussian Blur. Here you can adjust it a little depending on what resolution the picture has. Now that you have your blurry black and white image, you should make a layer mask on it, you can do by selecting the layer and right click. You should choose to make a layer mask in gray-scale copy. You adjust the layer mode to Soft Light then so will the dark areas to light up. Is not it enough, you can copy the layers several times and even adjust the strength of the opacity.

You can easily fake a short depth of field with the Gimp. It may be interesting for you to have a compact camera as the lens for most compact cameras do not allow for a short depth of field. You need a picture where you want to highlight a portion of the picture clearer than the foreground and background.

You start by making a copy of the layer. So you have two identical layers. The next step is to use the filter “Gaussian Blur” on the top layer to make the entire stock blurred. The next step is to create a layer mask and it can be done by right-clicking the layer in lagervyn and choose “Add layer mask”. You then select the menu item “White (full opacity)”

Use selective sharpening through layer mask not to loose so much information. This might be applied to all corrections of some part of the picture that might be dangerous to the information of the picture as a whole. If you use layer masks creatively you might have a end product using jpg as good as the one´s that use Raw, but it might be time consuming. So use it only if the corrections are small and on some corrections. You have to choose your battles when photo editing.