Author Topic: Gimp - who knows that one? (Read 7982 times)

mihalkrol · « **on:** November 01, 2008, 12:46 »

Hey! I'm new in stockphotography. I wanted to photo some objects at white background but I don't know how to edit it in GIMP (it's program quite similar to Photoshop). For example I had lemon photo (made in some kind of defuzing room and with light from 30 wat photographers lamp) but it's background is not quite white as I would want to. I think everybody understands me. Please be calmful for me. I'm new in editing photography. I've never need it.

Please answer

Michael from Poland

(sorry for my english)

crazychristina · « **Reply #1 on:** November 01, 2008, 14:17 »

The main difference between GIMP and Photoshop is lack of adjustment layers. A simple way to achieve what you're after in GIMP is to duplicate the layer, apply a levels adjustment to it to blow make the background white, then carefully mask the subject to retain it's original values. Levels, curves, threshold, etc are found under the Tools->Color tools menu. Just about any technique that works in Photoshop should work in GIMP, but using duplicates of layers instead of adjustment layers.

ljooc · « **Reply #2 on:** January 06, 2009, 14:46 »

Saw your question. in case you are still looking for some answers:

I used GIMP sparingly, it uses a lot of my RAM when I am editing and one has to set it up right so it does not eat up your Ram and freeze up your computer. I find it harder to use than Photoshop

I have bookmarked a link some time back to help me learn GIMP. It has a series of GIMP tutorials which you might find helpful:
http://www.gimpguru.org/Tutorials/

Here you will find the GIMP documentation on its features, in case you don't have the link already: http://www.gimp.org/

oboy · « **Reply #3 on:** January 06, 2009, 15:01 »

I use GIMP for most of my editing.

Search Google for tutorials: Search1, Search2

If most of your background is close to white, then duplicate your layer and adjust the levels, add a transparent layer and change its mode to Overlay, pick the paintbrush tool and select a soft brush. Reduce the opacity of the paintbrush tool to about 10-20%. Change the foreground color to white. Paint over the area on the transparent layer where the background is not completely white.

madelaide · « **Reply #4 on:** January 06, 2009, 15:24 »

I used it once years ago and found it very confusing.

I am also a fan of free software, but I don't like to suffer, so I purchased "Paint Shop Pro", which is a very complete program not behind PS. I paid US$60 for the standard edition, but sometimes there are special offers.

Regards,
Adelaide

takestock · « **Reply #5 on:** January 06, 2009, 15:34 »

Quote from: madelaide on January 06, 2009, 15:24

I used it once years ago and found it very confusing.

I am also a fan of free software, but I don't like to suffer, so I purchased "Paint Shop Pro", which is a very complete program not behind PS. I paid US$60 for the standard edition, but sometimes there are special offers.

Regards,
Adelaide

I also use Paint Shop Pro - I'm used to it and it does the job.
I had a look at the Gimp before but was not so crazy about the interface.

sharpshot · « **Reply #6 on:** January 06, 2009, 16:04 »

Gimpshop makes it much more like photoshop http://www.gimpshop.com

e-person · « **Reply #7 on:** January 06, 2009, 16:26 »

Gimp does not support 48 bit RGB, though, unless I do not remember correctly.

crazychristina · « **Reply #8 on:** January 06, 2009, 16:45 »

Quote from: e-person on January 06, 2009, 16:26

Gimp does not support 48 bit RGB, though, unless I do not remember correctly.

Referring to Yuri Arcurs' workflow (and he seems to get it right enough), he does all curves/levels adjustments in his RAW processing software of choice (Capture One I think - he dislikes ACR), saves as 16-bit TIFF, opens in PS and converts to 8-bit for further editing. I could easily do the same (my Pentax RAW converter is good if a bit clunky) and do my editing on 8-bit files in GIMP. I don't use plugins much (except Primatte Chromakeyer for isolations, but channel masking works just as well except when blue/green spill is involved). For me the biggest drawback of GIMP is lack of adjustment layers, and some performance issues.

oboy · « **Reply #9 on:** January 06, 2009, 17:41 »

Quote

GEGL

Important progress towards high bit-depth and non-destructive editing in GIMP has been made. Most color operations in GIMP are now ported to the powerful graph based image processing framework GEGL, meaning that the interal processing is being done in 32bit floating point linear light RGBA. By default the legacy 8bit code paths are still used, but a curious user can turn on the use of GEGL for the color operations with Colors / Use GEGL.
In addition to porting color operations to GEGL, an experimental GEGL Operation tool has been added, found in the Tools menu. It enables applying GEGL operations to an image and it gives on-canvas previews of the results. The screenshot to the right shows this for a Gaussian Blur.

http://gimp.org/release-notes/gimp-2.6.html

They worked on the bit-depth with the current version of GIMP 2.6. So it looks like they will improve further on this in coming versions.

e-person · « **Reply #10 on:** January 07, 2009, 05:30 »

Quote from: averil on January 06, 2009, 16:45

Quote from: e-person on January 06, 2009, 16:26
Gimp does not support 48 bit RGB, though, unless I do not remember correctly.
Referring to Yuri Arcurs' workflow (and he seems to get it right enough), he does all curves/levels adjustments in his RAW processing software of choice (Capture One I think - he dislikes ACR), saves as 16-bit TIFF, opens in PS and converts to 8-bit for further editing. I could easily do the same (my Pentax RAW converter is good if a bit clunky) and do my editing on 8-bit files in GIMP. I don't use plugins much (except Primatte Chromakeyer for isolations, but channel masking works just as well except when blue/green spill is involved). For me the biggest drawback of GIMP is lack of adjustment layers, and some performance issues.

I would not know what to do with layers on a photo. I do my work on camera and only adjust levels and do some scratch/dust removal. Sometimes curves. About 5 times I have worked on the sky. And some noise removal when needed, of course. I know my photos don't look as pretty and colourful as the average microstock ones. Maybe I should get better at computer graphics. Thing is I do not have anything against reality. That's another story though.

When they will implement a RAW processor as good as ACR, Gimp will probably be more than good enough for me. As others have posted, they are already working on higher bits RGB samples.

stokfoto · « **Reply #11 on:** January 07, 2009, 05:46 »

considering that it is a shareware it is a very hand software but obviously the features and quality they offer nowhere near photoshop and their user interface drives me mad,I mean disappearing windows,lack of brushes etc. I hope they will improve it so I'd be happy to use it.but for the time being for those on a tight budget I think even PS elements would do a better job.but then again GIMP offer a lot for a freeware.

sharpshot · « **Reply #12 on:** January 07, 2009, 05:57 »

I am now using elements and just use the gimp for the pen tool.

WarrenPrice · « **Reply #13 on:** January 07, 2009, 13:02 »

Quote from: sharpshot on January 07, 2009, 05:57

I am now using elements and just use the gimp for the pen tool.

Out of curiosity, I just watched a video tutorial on the Pen Tool. Amazing... I need that. Is as simple in GIMP as it seemed to be in Photoshop?

PS: I also use Elements for cataloging and editing my work.

crazychristina · « **Reply #14 on:** January 07, 2009, 14:52 »

The pen tool in GIMP does the same things as it does in PS, although the hotkeys are different and a few other variations.

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Author Topic: Gimp - who knows that one? (Read 7982 times)

mihalkrol

crazychristina

ljooc

oboy

madelaide

takestock

sharpshot

e-person

crazychristina

oboy

e-person

stokfoto

sharpshot

WarrenPrice

crazychristina

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