Printable View
I`ve been using the GIMP program for a while now, it was on a free disk with a magazine i bought, below is an example of what can be done with the program.
I think it is a brilliant program to learn to use, the image below is in the GIF format, i would recomend this program to anyone, the tools are very powerful and it is so entertaining. Hope you like it.:)
https://discussions.virtualdr.com/im.../2009/08/3.gif
What magazine did you buy? If you have been using GIMP for a while now, the magazine with the disk is probably no longer available. I spend hours every day on the computer, researching different articles on how to use GIMP. GIMP's site is OK but does not really get into enough detail on how to do things. If you are unfamiliar with some terms and what they do, then the instructions don't do you much good. I really want to learn this program, but the way things are going, it looks as if it will take me years to learn how to use it all!:(
Today I spent 9 hours on making a photo using layers and when I went to save it, the program crashed and I not only lost the photo itself, but lost the 9 hours of hard work! :mad: I can't tell you how upset that made me, I wanted to pull my hair out and scream bloody murder! So I have given up for now on trying to recreate that certain photo, & I really wanted to have it made by this weekend for someone.
Thanks for the info that disk are some times available,
Hi Sheila, i cant remember the magazine, i think it was pc answers.
I learned everything through trial and error, i still dont know how to use a lot of the tools in the program, i have noticed that the more images you have open at the same time, does tend to overload the program, i cant explain why that is.
Dont give up, the results can be very rewarding, when i am creating an image in the format like the image above, i create the first image then save it, then the second and save that and so forth. Then i open the images in layer form, one at a time.At least if it does crash, i have the images saved individually.
Sorry i cant explain any more than that but, keep experimenting, i am not very hi-tech and i have grasped the main part of the program so, i`m pretty sure you can.
If you get stuck, i will be more than happy to try and give any tips that may help you.
jawdeeboy: Later I thought about what you just suggested--that as I added a new layer I should have saved the whole picture with a different name, and then as made another layer, save that one too with a new name and so forth. Then if the program crashed, I would still have the last photo I had saved and could continue on with it.
The reason it is taking me so long to make a layered photo, is because I look for an appropriate background according to what I am trying to create, and then add different friends/family members to the background. I use other programs to crop down the people I am going to use, then drag them over to the background into GIMP. Then I hit the move icon and drag the person to the position I want that person to be in on the background. Then I start using "Tools-transform-scale" to scale down the person I am putting on the background. When I have the right position and size of that person, then I hit Mask-add, then paint brush, and then I start to erase around that person. It may take me as long as an hour to erase around the person because of either the color they are wearing, or because of delicate things like fingers, toes, noses, etc that I have to keep using smaller brushes for and being more and more precise and careful--lots of undos!:eek: The one I lost had a 4 month old baby (my granddaughter) that I put into the center of the background because the center was black and the baby had all white on--but the problem was that the mother had laid the baby on a pure white blanket. So I had a devil of a time erasing around the baby because so much of the white blended into gether!:( That must have taken me over an hour to do because of all that white and I had to keep undoing so much.) I wished that I could figure out a way before using GIMP how to erase around people and then save just the person without any surrounding background and then it would be so much easier to be able to position and re-size them exactly after you had dragged them into GIMP onto a background--and then only touch ups may be required of something you might have missed! I know there must be a way to do this, just can't figure out how. I would love to save these single photos of people without any background surrounding them because then later I might want to use that figure again and would not have to go through all the trouble to erase their surrounding background again! Do you know if this can be done, and how? And one other question & I won't ask any more at this time. I have a friend whose photo I took to add to a background (a different one than the one I just lost), but she was against me taking the photo of her unless I could do something about the T-shirt she was wearing. The T-shirt was white and she did not want to appear in a white T-shirt. She also had her hands folded in front of her stomach, so I could not layer another shirt over the top of her T-shirt. I tried painting, but it looked so fake so I undid it all. I have tried to use the bucket so many times to see if this would take care of the problem, but I don't know how to use it or how to make the pallet work for the colors I want. I have a very hard time with the color pallet because no matter what colors I click on, it is not the color that comes out when I use it. Any suggestions too for coloring this T-shirt? I know all of these questions are a lot to ask of you, especially since you are like me and still learning the program, but maybe you have discovered how to use some of these things I mentioned that I do not know how to use.
Thanks for your advise and help,
Hi sheila, i know its very frustrating as i have been where you are now.
After Gimp is opened, open up your background first, [ assuming its ready for use ], then your first image to be pasted from. when this image is open, look to your tool arrangement. on the very top row of tools, you will see what appears to look like a small lasol.This tool is called the free select tool, if you hover the curser over it the description should appear. Click once on this tool then, go to your image to be pasted from and with the curser draw round the target very carefully [ it must be done in one go, dont release the mouse click until you have completed a complete revolution of the target and, joining the end point to the start point, once you have done this, then release the left click.This should then outline the target you have just drawn around. then, right click in the target area and copy,once copied, right click again and go to edit, when you do that, a new menu will appear, go to PASTE AS on the menu and then choose NEW IMAGE.
when you have chosen that, a new window should appear with the target inside it, normally with a white background. Then, go back to the tool menu and choose the red eraser tool. Once you have clicked on that, you can then once again draw around the target until you are happy with the result. You must erase all the white background, then when the target is surrounded in a sort of two-tone grey effect [ alpha i think its called? ]. You then right click the target and copy, this can then be pasted to your background.
when you paste it to the background it will remain live until you click the background when it will then become fixed. while it is still live, go to the tool menu and choose what appears to be a small blue square with a smaller blue square at the top corner of it, the smaller square also has a white arrow attached to it, when you hover the curser over it, it will be described as scale tool, click on this and then click the target and, as you do that, the target will then be surrrounded by a square, each corner of the square will have a drag point, you can use these drag points to enlarge or decrease the target.
Once you are happy with the size, and position, click in the second box that also opens to confirm the scale, cancel it or reset it.Once confirmed, the image will be complete. I will add, that when you have drawn around the target at the beginning, you can also just right click and copy then paste, providing of course it needs no fine adjustment, if it does need adjusting then, the steps i have given to PASTE AS NEW IMAGE can be followed.
The same applies to your problem with the tee shirt,you can draw with the lasol tool around the arms of the target and right click and CUT, then it will be removed from the picture where you can then paint and match the original colour of the tee shirt [ or change the colour with the paint tool ]. When the colour has been changed, then go back to the point where the arms were cut and paste them back on over the frshly painted tee shirt. It might take a few attempts and a very steady hand to do the above but, it can be made to look very natural.
Sorry i cant be more technical, give it a try and if you get stuck let me know.
Good luck with that.
To follow on regarding the saving of the cut out figure without any background, i`m afraid i havent come across a way to do this other than the previous steps where it can be PASTED AS NEW IMAGE, even when you have used the erase tool and cleared the background, when you save and rename it, it will then be saved with a white background. This will mean again using the erase tool to cut out the white. This does`nt mean its not possible but, i have no knowledge of that.
Again, regarding the colouring,there is another method in which you can select a portion of the image and then copy and paste with and exact replica of the copied part. This can be done using the tool which appears in two forms on the tool arrangement, at the top they appear as an egg shape and a rectangle shape, they have the description Elipse select tool and Rectangle select tool. Its the same sort of funtion as the LASOL but does not require a full revolution of the target, more a fixed shape which you govern the size of, the shape being either circular [ elipse ] or rectangular. Once the outline has been made, then simply copy that and paste it. Its similar to painting but, it gives an exact copy of the target source, hence any particular pattern can be carried on or over.
I hope this is clear for you.
Good luck.
You can also use, colors-curves to adjust the to the color you want.
One way would be to use one of the selection tools, to carefully select the area you want to change, then colors-curves, select the channel as red blue or green and drag the curve to adjust the color.
You can also, import the image, duplicate the layer, and on the background layer, use the colors-curves, then on the top layer, add a layer mask and "paint out" the area you want to change to reveal the background layer that has had its color changed.
For example, lets add a red tie to this picture.
https://discussions.virtualdr.com/im...2009/08/14.jpg
This is the background (bottom) layer, when i am adjusting the color via colors curves.
https://discussions.virtualdr.com/im...2009/08/15.jpg
And this is the result, after i have on the top layer, used the mask and painted over the tie to reveal the layer below.
https://discussions.virtualdr.com/im...2009/08/16.jpg
You two have been very helpful to me and if my mind was not so fuzzy right now I could better understand what you posted. Last night I found this great site with not only instructions on how to use the tools in GIMP, but also each set of instructions had a video to go with it to show you exactly how it was done. I got so excited that I started a new thread here on Digital Imaging to let everyone know that there was information for people who had a hard time with GIMP. I posted the link in that thread so that others could go to the site and view the videos as well as the written instructions. I have all the written instructions loaded down as a PDF file on my computer and save all the video web addresses in my Bookmarks. Wished I could have saved the videos too! Anyway to get back what I first started to say about being so fuzzy, I watched almost all the videos and downloaded almost all the text instructions in PDF--the next thing I knew, it was 3 AM and then I was afraid to go to sleep. I had to met my daughter, who lives an hour and a half from me, at her house to go somewhere at 9 AM. I was afraid I would not wake up in time to keep our appointment so I just stayed up all night studying
GIMP. Now I am back home again and it is after 2 PM & I have been up for over 32 hours now. I just wanted to check my email before hitting the sack and that was when I found all of your messages. After I take a nap, I will come back here and study your responses when I am better able to take it all in. In the meantime, go to my posting where I posted the link in my thread to the site I was just telling you about. So tired I can't remember the name of the topic, but I am sure you will know it when you see that GIMP is mentioned in the topic.
Get back to you later this evening,
Came back here after my nap and re-read both of your posts-- & as usual I will copy your instructions into a Word Document so that I can refer back to them when I start trying out some of the things that the both of you mentioned in your posts. Until I can actually try out your suggestions, I won't know what questions to ask until I try them and have a problem with something. And knowing me, I will probably have some problems until I get fairly familiar with what I am doing and why.
But I do have one question for now. Something that has always puzzled me.:confused: Whenever I read anything about duplicating a layer, I always wonder why you would do that. Does that mean that you are suppose to duplicate the same layer over the top of like layer? What would be the benefit of doing this?
Thanks,
Well, in my example where masking is being used , we need two layers as the layer below is to have the color changed and the top has to match it, so we can erase part of it to show the beneath layer.
Also you can work on one copy of the layer and the other is untouched, any edits are to that layer only, so if you foul up you can quickly revert to the original copy.
Also, some effects you may want to add to the image, may be slightly too strong, so you can use whatever effect you want on the bottom layer, and decrease the opacity on the top layer to sort of "blur" the effects together till you see the exact effect you want.
I have only duplicated layers when creating in GIF format, suppose you have 5 layers and you duplicate the 5th layer, when the GIF is created, the 5th layer will then be viewed for longer...then the cycle begins again ie: 1...2...3...4...5...5..5.....depending on how many times you duplicate the 5th layer will determin the length of viewing time in the GIF.
I hav`nt used ot for anything else.
General Winters: I am missing a step somewhere when trying to use color curves as you suggested. Every time I try to use color curves, it shows colors everywhere in the photo except where I want it to show--in the T-shirt! The T-shirt stays white while everything else turns colors. So finally I thought maybe if I used "invert" that it would reverse the colors so that the shirt was no longer white--but evidently that is not what the invert tool is for. So I discarded that image. Then next I tried to use the original again but this time by using the rectangle tool and using bucket to throw red paint on the T-Shirt. I figured it would not make any difference if I got out of line with the red on the T-shirt because I was going to add/duplicate another original layer over the top of the first layer that I had used paint bucket on and with the second layer I was only going to have to use the erase tool for the white t-shirt and have the red beneath to come through. But when I hit "duplicate" layer, naturally it showed me the same image of the bottom layer that I had just edited with paint bucket. So next I tried dragging the original photo (a duplicate of the original bottom layer) over on top of the first layer and use the erase tool on the white T-shirt of the second layer. But I still missed another step somewhere because when I tried erasing the white T-shirt, instead of seeing red come through, all I could see was a barely pink color. After I finish editing the first layer, (the background layer), what do I do next before importing another layer, such as the photo as it originally looked liked before I edited it? I know this is not making much sense the way I am wording it, but I just wanted to know how to add the same photo back on top of the first layer in the state it was originally. And how do I get it to let me erase to the red color of the bottom layer with the erase tool--not barely pink--so that the red layer shows up in the second layer? I really like the idea of the way you did your color curve, but some where I missed doing something since I could not make it work for me. It would have been so much simpler to me if I could have used that method to change the shirt color. When you said, "then on the top layer, add a layer mask and--how did you add a layer mask, I mean where did you go or what tool did you use to make a layer mask? And when you said "paint out", did you mean paint out using the erase tool and a brush? I think one of the reason I am messing up so badly is because I don't really understand how you duplicate a layer without duplicating the background layer that you have edited. What makes all of this so bad, is I only wanted to edited this one picture of this woman so that I could layer her photo into another photo with all her friends in it. It was her request not to have her wearing a white t-shirt to use in the bigger picture with her friends. So when and if I ever get her photo right, will I have to save it as a JPEG file or gimps extension file so that I can use it again to insert into the other photo? I know this is a lot of questions, but I am so lost and am about ready to give up on GIMP--just so frustrated :mad:!Quote:
"paint out" the area you want to change to reveal the background layer that has had its color changed"
I am about to leave the house to take my husband to work (75 miles from home), so it will be a while before I can get back here to check for any of your answers.
Thanks,
Ok, how to change a white t shirt into another colour t shirt.
Fast and dirty way, ie that takes the least time.
Load an image.
https://discussions.virtualdr.com/im.../2009/08/8.jpg
Make sure the layers window is open, and right click,, duplicate layer. (You want to make a duplicate layer before any editing, infact you can make a second or third or fourth, duplicate layer if you want, as spares, and so you can compare the image you are working on back to the original, you can hide the spare layers by clicking on the eye)
https://discussions.virtualdr.com/im.../2009/08/9.jpg
On the top layer we will add the layer mask, and paint out the tshirt to reveal the bottom layer, the bottom layer will have the changed colour.
You should see this.
https://discussions.virtualdr.com/im...2009/08/10.jpg
Click the eye icon on the top layer to hide it for the moment, then click the bottom layer to make it active.
Select the bucket fill tool, select a colour you like, set opacity down around 40-50%, if you keep it at 100%, the entire layer will be totally filled with opaque colour, set affected area as "fill whole selection", and click in the image to fill with the colour.
Select a reasonable colour to add, its easy to select a really bright colour, that makes the wearer look like they are radioactive !
You will now have a layer washed with the colour.
Right click the top layer, add layer mask (white full opacity)
https://discussions.virtualdr.com/im...2009/08/11.jpg
Hover the mouse over the top layer, where the eye should be, click in the box, to bring back the eye ( to unhide the layer)
Then, using black, paint over the top layer on the t shirt, this will reveal the coloured layer below.
https://discussions.virtualdr.com/im...2009/08/12.jpg
You should end up with an image such as,
https://discussions.virtualdr.com/im.../2009/08/6.jpg
To play around with the colour, select the lower layer, and use the various options such as Colors-Hue and Saturation or Colors-Brightness Contrast.
For example, since i added a blue colour to the shirt, on the Hue/Saturation screen i would click the B radio button to select to adjust blue, and move the sliders below around to adjust.
Infact moving the hue slider around can totally change the colour, allowing you to change radically the colour, ie to green and even pink !
Brightness - contrast is a useful screen, it helps to add "definition" to the colour, when you tweak the contrast, otherwise the colour can be a little flat as per above.
Contrast adjusted.
https://discussions.virtualdr.com/im.../2009/08/7.jpg
This was just a quick run through as its after 130am here, so you can be more careful than i was in the masking ( lots of little white original edges showing above ), plus you can play around with the color options, contrast etc, to made it more realistic.
Thank you for posting such detailed instructions. It is also late here now, not as late as where you are, but time for me to go to bed, but I will start trying out your instructions tomorrow. I have saved them and printed them out so I shouldn't have any more trouble. I spent all day today just on that one image that we have been talking about. I have saved so many messed up photos it is unreal. I still have not found that "eye" that you keep talking about, but will look again tomorrow. I have used GIMP so much today that it kept crashing on me, so I am sure I was using too much memory--all for one simple photo! I will get back to you as soon as I have tried out your instructions.
Appreciatively,