Tone-on-Tone Image Manipulation

Tone-on-Tone GIMP tutorial

Removing Under-Eye Bags with GIMP

Removing Under-Eye Bags with GIMP

Get Sharper Images Using Blur and Blending

Get Sharper Images Using Blur and Blending

Using GIMP to Add Falling Snow to an Image

Use GIMP to Add Realistic Falling Snow to a Photo by xmath

Stencil on Wood Background

Stencil on Wood

An Easy Halftone (Newsprint) Photo Effect

Learn how to apply a halftone, newsprint effect to a photo in just a few quick, easy steps using GIMP.

Halftone Effect in GIMP

Quick and Easy Pencil Sketches

In this short project you will learn how to use GIMP to quickly and easily  get a pencil sketch effect.

Note that the settings used in this tutorial work for the image I used. They can vary widely to achieve desired results for different source images. If you would like to download the picture I used in this tutorial, click here.

Open the image that you want to modify. Duplicate the image layer, Layer - Duplicate Layer.

Desaturate the duplicate layer, Colors - Desaturate..., Choose shade of gray based on: Lightness in the dialog.

Now, use the Edge-Detect filter on the duplicate layer to get the basis of the sketch effect, Filters - Edge-Detect - Edge..., select the Roberts Algorithm from the drop down menu,  set the Amount to 5.

Invert the colors on the duplicate layer, Colors - Invert.

Reduce the Opacity using the controls in the Layers pallet. I turned it down to 50%.

To get a black-and-white sketch quickly, the process is almost identical.

However, after you duplicate the image layer, go to the Colors menu and select Desaturate..., Choose shade of gray based on: Luminosity. Duplicate the desaturated layer and continue as above.

• Filters - Edge-Detect - Edge...

• Algorithm (Roberts) - Amount (5)

• Colors - Invert

• Reduce Opacity (75%)

This text tutorial is based on a YouTube video tutorial by Techtonicc.

Color Sensitive Text

In this GIMP tutorial you will see how to make the color of text alternate between light or dark depending on the background. I developed this procedure to meet the needs of someone who follows this blog and made a request for help. I hope others among you will find it useful, too.

Open the background image.

Duplicate the background layer, Layer- Duplicate Layer. Desaturate the background layer copy, Colors - Desaturate... by Luminosity.

Apply the threshold filter to the background layer copy, Colors - Threshold…, push the slider to the right until there's hardly any white bits in the black.

With the Brush Tool, paint out any details to match the dominant color, black or white.

With the Text Tool create your text layer in black or whatever dark color you want to use. Position it with the Move Tool. Expand the text layer to the image size, Layer - Layer to Image Size.

Make the text layer invisible by clicking the 'eye' icon in the Layers pallet.

Make the black and white layer active by clicking it in the Layers pallet. With the Select by Color Tool in Replace the current selection mode, click anywhere in the black.

Make the text layer visible and active. With the Select by Color Tool in Intersect with the current selection mode, click anywhere in the text. You should now have the portion of text that overlays the darker buildings selected. Make the black and white layer invisible.

Create a new transparent layer, Layer - New Layer..., on top of all the others and name it Light Text. Now, fill the selection on the Light Text layer with white or whatever light color you choose, Edit - Fill with BG Color. Deselect, Select - None.

Stick a Label on It

In this GIMP tutorial you will create an effect that appears similar to a strip of embossed tape as produced by some label makers.

 

 

Some of the things used in this project:

• Layer Effects-Drop Shadow
• Layer Effects-Bevel and Emboss
• Path Tool
• Merging layers
• Selection by color
• Text Tool

 

Note: To complete this tutorial, you will need to have the Script-Fu Layer Effects plugin installed. Get it here if you don't have it yet.

Create a new image 800 pixels wide by 250 pixels, File - New... . Set the foreground color to a medium gray (8b8b8b), then fill the image, Edit - Fill with FG Color.

With the Rectangle Select Tool, make a selection about 500 pixels by 100 pixels.

 

Make a new transparent layer, Layer - New Layer..., named Strip. Reset the color swatches to the default colors. Fill the selection on the Strip layer with the foreground color (black).

The next step is to add a white drop shadow to the strip. Script Fu - Layer Effects... - Drop Shadow... . Set the Color to white and the Size and Offset Distance each to 2.0.

 

Deselect, Select - None. Make the Strip layer active and merge it with the Script-dropshadow layer, Layer - Merge Down.

 

 

Click the Text Tool in the Toolbox. In the Tool Options, I used Monospace, 64, white. Click in the black strip and type a line of text.  With the Move Tool, position the text in the center of the black strip.

 

Use the Select by Color Tool and click anywhere in the text to select the white text. Apply the embossing effect, Script-Fu - Layer Effects - Bevel and Emboss… with the settings shown below.

 

 

 

Deselect. In the Layers pallet, select the upper of the two new layers created in the emboss process and merge it down to the lower layer. To the resulting layer, apply a slight blur, Filters - Blur - Blur.

 

 

Get an even more authentic effect by 'folding down' a corner. 

 

Make the Strip-dropshadow layer active. With the Paths Tool (in Design mode), draw a triangle in the upper left corner of the black strip. In the Tool Options dialog, click the Selection from Path button. Delete the selected area, Edit - Clear.

 

 

Deselect everything. From the Paths pallet, delete the path you drew.

Make a new transparent layer, Fold over. Use the Paths Tool again to draw a triangle to represent the folded corner. Convert it to a selection.

 

 

Fill the triangle with white, Edit - Fill with BG Color. Deselect, and delete the path.

 

 

Note: The Bevel and Emboss settings were determined after a lot of experimentation. You might improve the effect by further refining these settings.

Ghost in the Forest

By following the steps in this GIMP project you will see how to use layer blending modes and a variety of tools to create the effect of a ghost appearing in the forest.

Some of the concepts used in this project:

• Adding an alpha channel
• Desaturating an image
• Cropping to a fixed aspect ratio
• Using the Fuzzy select tool
• Opening an image as a new layer
• Using Layer masks
• Using Layer modes
• Selecting using transparency (Alpha to selection)
• Stroking a selection

I used this image of a lady from stock.xchng as the basis for the ghost. The first step is to eliminate all the white background around the lady and replace it with transparency. Begin by using the Crop Tool to eliminate most of the background area.

Add transparency to the image, Layer > Transparency > Add Alpha Channel. Pick the Fuzzy Select Tool and click and drag forward in the background. This will select most of the white background without selecting anything within the lady herself. (You might want to use Quick Mask mode to be certain that no part of the lady is selected and to clean up your selection if necessary.)
Feather the selection about 5 pixels, Select > Feather... . Clear the selection, Edit > Clear.

Deselect, Select > None. Zoom in on the lady and use the Eraser Tool to manually clean up any remains of the white background around the edges of the lady.

Convert the lady to a black-and-white image, Colors > Desaturate... with Luminosity selected in the dialog. Select Brightness-Contrast... in the Colors menu. Slide the Brightness down to about -50 and the Saturation up to about 30 to give the image a darker appearance.

Now, fade out the lower part of her body. Add a white layer mask, Layer > Mask > Add Layer Mask... . With the Blend Tool, drag a FG-to-BG gradient (default colors) vertically from the bottom of the image to about the level of her waist.

Finally, scale the image to a height of about 850 pixels, Image > Scale Image... . Save and close the image of the lady.

Moving on to the forest image. As the source for the forest, I used this image, also from stock.xchng. The first step is to crop out a portion of the image with the Crop Tool, in the Tool Options, select Fixed Aspect Ratio of 5:8.
Resize the resulting image to a height of 1200 pixels, Image > Scale Image... .  

Open the previously saved image of the ghost lady as a new layer in the forest image, File > Open as Layers... .  Make sure the image and not the mask is active in the ghost lady layer. Use the Move Tool to position the lady where you like. Set the Layer Mode to Overlay in the Layers pallet. Reduce the Opacity to about 60%.

Duplicate the ghost lady layer, Layer > Duplicate Layer. Set the Layer Mode to Grain Merge and reduce the Opacity to about 25%. Apply a Gaussian blur with a Radius of 10 to the ghost lady copy layer, Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur....

Add a soft glow around the ghost. Again, open the saved image of the ghost lady as a new layer. Rename this layer as glow. Delete the layer mask, Layer > Mask > Delete Layer Mask. Temporarily hide all the other layers by clicking the “eye” icon for each.

Now, to paint a white border around the lady. Select the image of the lady, Layer > Transparency > Alpha to Selection. Swap the default colors. Now stroke the selection, Edit > Stroke Selection..., Line width: 10 px. Clear the selection. Deselect.

Apply a Gaussian blur of 20 px. Unhide the other layers and use the Move Tool to position the glow layer around the ghost.

Swap the default colors back to black FG and white BG. Add a mask to this layer and fade it exactly as you did to the ghost lady layer earlier.

Experiment with various settings as you try out this lesson. Changing just a few things can dramatically affect the results you get. I hope you have fun playing around with this project.

A Framed Painting

A Framed Painting

In this GIMP project, you will learn how to frame a portion of an image and apply a nice painted effect to that portion while turning the remaining part of the image to black-and-white.

Start by opening an image of a picture frame. I used this one by Billy Alexander, from Stock.xchng.

I began by adding an alpha channel to the image so there would be transparency, Layer > Transparency >Add Alpha Channel. Use the Crop Tool to trim away the white area outside the frame. Select the white area inside the frame with the Rectangle Select Tool. Clear the selected area, Edit > Clear. Deselect, Select > None. I scaled the picture frame image to 85% of the base image, Image > Scale Image... . Save the image as Frame.xcf and close the image.

Now open the image that will serve as the base for the project. If you would like to use the same image (by Christa Richert) that I’ll be working with, you can download it free from Stock.xchng.

With the base image active, click Open as Layers... from the File menu, and  open Frame.xcf as a new layer.

The next step is to rotate the Frame.xcf layer a bit. From the Layer menu choose Transform > Arbitrary Rotation..., or choose the Rotate Tool from the Toolbox . Either drag the frame counter-clockwise a bit or enter -10 degrees in the Rotate dialog.

With the Free Select Tool select a rectangle corresponding to the frame smaller than the outside of the frame, but bigger than the inside of it. Make the background layer active.

At this point, apply an oil painting effect to the part of the image inside the frame, Filters > Artistic > Oilify... and set the Mask size to 10. Soften the image just a bit by applying a little blur, Filters > Blur > Blur.

Now, to desaturate the outer part of the image. Invert the selection, Select > Invert. From the Colorsmenu click Desaturate, choose Shade of gray based on Average in the dialog. Deselect.

To finish, we’ll give the frame a shadow. Make Frame.xcf the active layer. From the Filters menu choose Light and Shadows > Drop Shadow... with the default settings.

Most of the settings I used in this example are just suggestions, not hard and fast choices. Adjust the settings that you use to reflect your own tastes and objectives.