Meet the GIMP!

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This week I’ll answer the first search term that led according to the logs someone to „Meet the GIMP!“. “Getting rid of people in GIMP“ was the question. And here, about 9 months later, is the answer.

I took two shots of the same scene with my point and shoot camera to remove some moving cars (the runner shown here was just an accident. But I like the idea and will do a “real” one soon). I used a technique similar to that shown in episode 44, only this time a bit more sophisticated using layer masks instead of the eraser.

But I had no tripod and no beanbag. So unintentionally I moved and rotated the camera between the shots. Registering (adjusting them to a perfect fit) is the largest part of the work to be done. This involves the selection of a point of reference, moving the top layer, setting the centre of rotation and finally rotating the top layer. With more than two layers this has to be repeated for each layer.

I hadn’t thought that this would work out so good and easy. You can just shoot any public place without moving traffic if you make enough images. Imagine a big crossing, all traffic lights red.  And you don’t need the tripod. OK, it’s better with….

Some links, as promised:

The exhibition in Hannover’s Sprengel Museum and the formidable book from the museum, in German and in English. Helen Levitt in Wikipedia, an interview with her on NPR and some images on “Masters of photography”

The file with the images from the podcast is at the usual spot.

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This week I am absolutely late with the show. I recorded on the weekend and had to find out later, that I had messed up the sound.

As an emergency fill in I made this. It’s a project I wanted to do for a long time - and did now without anny planning and preparation. I even forgot to take a tripod for the video camera with me. But the lab provided a clamp for Erlenmeyer flasks. Worked great.

I got the idea from Allan J. Ager and Simon Taylor from the Tips from the Top Floor Forum.

You can download the four finally used files and a shrinked xcf file as an archive. The full resolution output is here.

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I was in Berlin for four days last week. And I only took a point and shoot digital camera with me. So this episode covers quick editing of holiday pictures, done in two minutes.

In this short time one can only do the basic stuff. And so I give you some easy recipes for getting more out of your snapshots. If you take this small amount of time, your images will get a lot better.

• Rotate them, so that they are level
• Adjust the perspective to get these falling lines out
• Find a good crop
• Adjust the contrast with the curves tool, applying an S-curve helps in most cases
• Double the layer and use a layer mask to apply your edits only to a part of the image. Get more light into a dark corner or dim down a bright spot
• Double the layer and use overlay or screen mode to change the overall contrast in an image. Use the opacity slider to adjust the strength of this effect. Try other modes, sometimes they work really good.

Don’t forget the challenge! Make a monochrome image and post it in our meetthegimp.org photogroup at 23 and be sure to use the tag “mtg-monochrome”. The challenge ends March 31 1600GMT and I’ll draw a winner by random choice.

You can find the image used in this episode here on the Download Page

Contact me!

You can leave your comments on this blog or write me a mail.

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This week you are in for a strange show. I try to make an image out of a not so good night shot by Stuart Martin from New Zealand. Stuart had his camera for three days and was experimenting with it. He shot the Christmas decora- tion of his neigh- bour but only got a dark and a bit blurry image.
With no specific goal in mind I just played around with UFRaw and layers in GIMP and got a quite nice result. The 100% crop you see here is a bit like a painting, the full image looks like seen through night vision goggles. The lesson to learn except a refresh of using UFRaw and layers: Play around! Make experiments! There is no right way - just interesting results.

Stuart has an incredible collection of links to sites about language - from fun to pure science.

Don’t forget the challenge! Make a monochrome image and post it in our meetthegimp.org photogroup at 23 and be sure to use the tag “mtg-monochrome”. The challenge ends March 31 1600GMT and I’ll draw a winner by random choice.

You can find the image used in this episode here on the Download Page

Contact me!

You can leave your comments on this blog or write me a mail.

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Germany License.

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In this last episode (for now…) about monochrome con- version I show you a way to get full control over the process of making a monochrome image.

I “decompose” the RGB image into three layers, each containing one of the three colour channels.
By adjusting the opacity of the three layers I mix the channels as with the channel mixer. But I have the full image as “preview area” and can change the values as long and often as I want.

Each of the layers can be further modified with the curves tool, other tools or partially masked off. Don’t forget to make a safety copy of the layer.

The image on the top of this page was done in this way. It’s an enhanced version of the one I showed in the video. I have added a masked red layer for the background and a bit red layer for all of the image. This version is in the files for downloading - just two layers more than in the video.

The challenge

You can use this technique in the current challenge. Do a monochrome conversion with GIMP, post the image in the meetthegimp.org photogroup at 23 and be sure to use the tag “mtg-monochrome”. The challenge ends March 31 1600GMT and I’ll draw a winner by random choice.

You can find the image used in this episode here on the Download Page

Contact me!

You can leave your comments on this blog or write me a mail.

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Germany License.

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Today I have two videos made by viewers of “Meet the Gimp!”.

Torsten Kunkel made a video about the image on the left side. He had two passport images of a person taken 40 years apart. One with age 17, the other now. And he combined them in one image, showing what changes and what stays constant.

I added some tips about an easier way to paint the dividing line and about ways to further improve this image.

Michael Schönitzer sent in the scond video. He shows how to fit a selection around an object on a uniform background. Of course I had to try it too.

You’ll her a lot of rumbling noises. I have new microphone stands and forgot to isolate them acoustically from the desktop. Too much clutter…. Sorry.

You can find the files used by Torsten here on the Download Page.

Contact me!

You can leave your comments on this blog or write me a mail.

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In this show John Arnold from Photowalkthrough draws the winner of the triptych contest. Before that we talk about why you should also listen to his podcast and about a really nice workshop. I have to work at that time (May 5th to 7th), but otherwise I would have shelled out the money and gone there.

Then I’ll show you a new way to make a frame around an image or to do a triptych. It works with layer masks. The tip to do it that way was sent by Jason from New York.

Finally you’ll see all the triptychs made by you in a slideshow to the full lenth “Surreal in Vienna” by _Ghost - the music I use in the intro. More from _Ghost at ccmixter.

Get the files!

The files from this episode.

Contact me!

You can leave your comments on this blog or write me a mail.

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Germany License.

 Podcast Video (76.9 MB): Download (2657)

Triptychs - and nearly one hour of them. In this episode I’ll show you how to combine three images to one good looking set and get some frames and borders around them. Again a layer mask is used to partially edit a picture with the curves tool.

The idea to this show came from this thread at the Tips from the Top Floor forum.

More about triptychs can be found at the Wikipedia here and here. More triptychs can be found here at google.

And I have a challenge for you. Make a triptych and put it online at the photogroup “meetthegimp.org” at 23. (23 is a friendly danish image hoster. I am their customer since flickr.com decided to censor my access to images because I am living in Germany.) I’ll show all the images in show 16 - so you have time up to October 16 or so to upload your stuff. I have asked a potential sponsor 23 to donate a bit - so it is possible that I have something as a price for you. (No, it’s not a license for the full version of the Gimp….. ) - and they have given me some codes for getting a year of full service at 23. I’ll choose the winner (if there is a price…) by random - so equal chances for all.

Get the files used!

The files from this episode.

Contact me!

You can leave your comments on this blog or write me a mail.

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Germany License.