Posted by ljmacphee on December 31, 2007 under gimp, graphics, how to | 
Some images that you post online you wish to protect. A very simple way to watermark your image is to to create a transparent image the same size as your original, put your logo or website url in white, copy that to a new layer in the original image and change the transparency to what ever pleases you.
Original image
Create an image the same size
Use the ‘advanced options when you create the watermark and make the background transparent.
In your original image to go Dialogs->Layers
In the layers dialog create a new layer same as the first by clicking the copy button on the bottom ( 2 pictures )
Go to the watermark image and click edit->copy
Go to the original image and click edit->paste
You can use the arrow keys on your key board to move the watermark’s position
Slide the Opacity slider in the layers dialog until you like the way the watermark looks in your image.
Posted by ljmacphee on December 19, 2007 under gimp, how to |
How many times have you seen a cool sign somewhere, snapped a picture and come home to find one side is significantly smaller than the other? This is perspective. It tells us things are further away. Usually we only notice it when we look off into a long distance at a road or train tracks. If you take a picture off to the side instead of straight on this effect is magnified in your photo.
You can fix this in your digital photos using Gimp. Open up a copy of your photo in Gimp. Click on the Perspective Tool. It is a button that has a square that is stretched at the bottom with two arrows at the bottom. A dot will appear in the middle of your image. Click on one of the corners you wish to stretch out, an arrow appears, drag it so the line is level.
In this photo I began with the top left corner and dragged it up until the top line was horizontal. Then I did the same for the bottom line. You may have to go back and forth a couple of times. Once you are happy click the ‘Transform’ button on the pop up perspective window.
Now that the picture is straight I adjusted the color with Colors->Levels-Auto and then cropped it to size.
Posted by ljmacphee on September 17, 2007 under gimp, graphics |
The eraser does just what you’d expect. It erases your image. If you have a transparent background you can erase the parts of the photo you don’t want just leaving part of the image. This is useful for separating out items in an image.
Convolve blurs your image a bit. This is handy for smoothing out skin tones in portraits. You can also use convolve to sharpen specific areas of your image.
Smudge works as if you dragged your finger across a charcoal drawing. The area you run over will blur and the colors will drag following the mouse.
Dodge - Burn, dodge will lighten areas, burn darkens areas. This is useful for highlighting parts of an image.
Gimp Basics: Beginning
Posted by ljmacphee on September 10, 2007 under gimp, graphics |
Gimp has four main drawing tools, a pencil which draws with sharp edges. You can change the opacity, size, shape and use all the modes available to layers.
You have a paint brush which has all the same options as a pencil but the edges are not as sharp. The paint brush also offers more options to blend such as fade out, incremental and gradient color options.
The air brush works as you’d expect with opacity, modes, size, shape, fade out and gradient options. You can also control the paint rate and pressure.
Ink give the effect that using an old style ink brush and ink well would give you. You have 3 shapes, and can adjust your pen size and angle and pressure.
Next: Gimp Basics: Erase, convolve, smudge, dodge and burn