Reflections

In this GIMP tutorial you will learn how to place a reflected scene in the mirrored lenses of a girl's sunglasses. This method can be adapted to inset any picture within another picture.

Some of the things you will do in this lesson:

• Duplicate a layer
• Flip an image
• Use the Fuzzy Select tool
• Add an alpha channel
• Scale a layer
• Use a layer mask

You'll need two source images, one of someone wearing sunglasses (best if the subject is looking directly at the camera) and another of the scene you want to reflect in the lenses. Use images of your own or download the ones I used:

Girl in sunglasses by Tanel Teemusk | London bus by Paulo Oliveira Santos

• Begin by opening and preparing the picture of the bus.

Crop the image to include only the essential parts of the picture which you want to appear in the reflection. The proportions of the cropped image should approximate those of the sunglasses' lenses. I cropped to a fixed aspect ratio of 1:1. Because the picture is going to be a reflection, you will need to flip the image horizontally, Image > Transform > Flip Horizontally.

• Now open and prepare the girl in the sunglasses.

Duplicate the Background layer, Layer > Duplicate Layer. Create a new layer, Black, filled with the foreground color, black, and drag it directly under the Background copy layer.

Working on the Background copy layer, you will now select the lens area of the glasses with the Fuzzy Select Tool in "Add to the current selection" mode.

See this in a video

Use Quick Mask (press Shift+Q to toggle Quick Mask) and a soft brush to clean up the selection if necessary.

Feather the selection by about 10 pixels, Select > Feather… . Add transparency to the layer, Layer > Transparency > Add Alpha Channel. Delete the selection, Edit > Clear. Deselect. The lenses should now appear to be filled with solid black, though what you are actually seeing is the Black layer showing through.

• The next task is to fill each lens with the bus picture.

Select all the bus image, Select > All, and then copy it, Edit > Copy. Make the picture of the girl active and paste the copied bus picture as a new layer, Edit > Paste as > New Layer. It will appear as a new layer in the Layers pallet, name it Bus right.

Scale the picture of the bus, Layer > Scale Layer…, to be a little larger than one lens of the sunglasses. In my example, I scaled to 165x165 pixels. With the Move Tool position the bus over the right lens. Now, in the Layers pallet, drag the Bus right layer under the Background copy layer. Adjust the position of the Bus right layer to fill the right lens of the glasses.

Duplicate the Bus right layer, Layer > Duplicate Layer, name it Bus left. Position this layer under the Background copy layer so it fills the left lens of the glasses.

• Now to add a bit of shadow at the bottoms of the lenses.

Select the Bus left layer and add a layer mask to it, Layer > Mask > Add Layer Mask…, initialized to White.

Choose the Blend Tool with a black-to-white gradient selected in the Tool options pallet. Drag a gradient up from the bottom of the Bus left layer to about 1/5 of the lens to add a bit of dark shading to the lower part of the lens. Repeat this for the right lens of the sunglasses.

That's it! You might extend the project by brightening the tops of the lenses in a manner similar to that used to darken the bottoms.

Two Heads Are Better Than One

 

In this easy GIMP exercise you'll combine two images together into a nice, blended single image with two views of the same subject.

Some of the things you will do in this lesson:

• Create a new image of a specific size
• Select and copy an entire image
• Paste a new layer from the clipboard
• Use a layer mask with the Blend Tool

First, grab the two source images by Annika Banfield from stock.xchng:

Image A | Image B

These images will be very large, so the first task is to resize the two images to a smaller easier-to-work-with size, but more importantly, so that both images are the same height, Image > Scale Image… . I resized both to have a height of 1200 pixels,

Create a new image, File > New…, with the same height (1200 pixels) and a width approximately equal to the sum of the widths of the two source images (2300 pixels).

Select all of Image B, Select > All (or Ctrl+A). and copy it, Edit > Copy (Ctrl+C). Paste it onto the new image as a new layer, Edit > Paste as > New Layer. It will appear as a new layer named Clipboard. Rename it as Layer B. Use the Move Tool to position Layer B a bit right of center in the new image.

Repeat this process with Image A, naming this layer Layer A. Position Layer A a bit left of center in the new image, overlapping Layer B.

Add a white (full opacity) layer mask to Layer A, Layer > Mask > Add Layer Mask (or right-click Layer A in the Layers pallet).

Select the Blend Tool from the Tools pallet, and choose the foreground-to-background (default colors) linear gradient in the Tool settings. Click and drag the cursor horizontally from the right edge of Layer A to gradually fade in the overlapping portion (to about the middle of Layer A).

See a video showing how to do this.

Finally, with the Crop Tool, remove the excess background area of the image. You now should have a nicely blended image combining two portraits of the model.

I'm going to apply each of two different effects to Layer A as possible extensions to this project. (Be sure Layer A is the active layer in the Layers pallet before applying any of these effects.)

Desaturate Layer A

Remove the color from Layer A, Colors > Desaturate.

Blur Layer A

Add a Gaussian blur to Layer A, Filter > Blur > Gaussian…, with a Radius of about 20.

Be bold and creative, experiment with as many effects and filters as you like.

 

In the Spotlight

In this brief lesson, you will learn a method to use GIMP to highlight a target in a photo by shining a simulated spotlight on it.

Some of the things you will do in this tutorial:

• Make a selection using the Path Tool
• Feather a selection
• Apply a Gaussian blur
• Add a Layer Mask
• Use the Blend Tool to apply a gradient

Open the image to which you want to add the spotlight effect. Create a new layer named Dark, Layer > New Layer... . Use the Bucket Fill Tool to paint the Dark layer black. Adjust the opacity to about 80-90%.

With the Ellipse Select Tool, select an oval around the target of the spotlight on the Dark layer. Feather the selection about 40 pixels, Select > Feather... , and clear the selection, Edit > Clear. Deselect.

Now, using the Path Tool, make a polygonal (almost triangular) selection to simulate the beam of the spotlight. Note that you need only draw three sides of the path. When you click on the Selection from Path button in the Tool Options the final side will be drawn automatically.

See this in a video.

 

Create a new layer, Beam, and fill the selection on the Beam layer with white using the Bucket Fill Tool. Deselect. Apply a  Gaussian blur with a radius of 25, Filters > Blur > Gaussian... .

Add a mask to the Beam layer, Layer > Mask > Add Layer Mask... .

Apply a FG to BG (black-to-white) gradient to the mask with the Blend Tool from the target to the light source.

See how to do this in a video.

 

Slide the layer's opacity down to about 80%.

There you have it!