[RESOLVED] How to put together 3 photos into just 1 photo

I am not sure if this is the right forum to post in or not, but I am sure someone will tell me if I need to move somewhere else.

I do a lot of photo editing to my digital pictures. I have several different editing programs that I use--some do some things better than others, so a lot of times I might use more than one program just edit just one picture.

What I am trying to figure out how to do is to take 3 different photos, crop them and then put them together so that they look like just one picture. I am trying to make a photo like this for my step daughter because she needs one that shows both her, her husband & 2 kids together, but I don't seem to have one photo that shows them all together at the same time. I have experienced around with the editing programs I have, but none of them do what I want them to do, or either I just don't know how to use the program to do this. Below is a list of all the editing programs that I have on my computer--and some of them are so hard to use that I still don't know how to use them:

1. PhotoScape (the one I use the most)
2. Paint.net (the one I use the second most)
3. GIMP (still can't figure out how to use)
4. Serif Photo Plus 6.0
5. Photo! Editor 1.1 (haven't tried it yet)
6. Picasa 3 (can't seem to use it correctly)
7. S10 Red Eyes 3 (does the best job on red eyes!)

Any suggestions or directions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Sheila

You could just select and cut out the person to be added to a photo and paste it into the new image but gimp at least has a much more powerful option of using layers to achieve that.

https://discussions.virtualdr.com/im...2009/08/41.jpg

As you can see i have added two photos, an old shack to be the background layer, and a second photo a portrait that i want to add into the background.

I want to erase everything around the portait to reveal the background.

Right click the portrait photo in the layers layers/channels/masks panel and select Add layer mask

https://discussions.virtualdr.com/im...2009/08/42.jpg

In the layer mask dialog select the default white (full opacity)

So it looks like this.

https://discussions.virtualdr.com/im...2009/08/43.jpg

Now we want to paint around the portrait in black, which will erase the photo and show the background.

Make sure black is selected.

Click on the top (portrait) layer in the layers panel to make sure its active.

https://discussions.virtualdr.com/im...2009/08/25.jpg

Then using a paintbrush "paint" over the photo, to reveal the background, zooming in and using a smaller brush around fine details.

https://discussions.virtualdr.com/im...2009/08/44.jpg

If you make a mistake, painting with white will bring back the foreground.

When finished Layer -merge down, then save as a new file (always work on a copy, never on an original, for safety)

Obviously if the photo to be merged is a lot bigger or smaller or of a radically different colour ie if a pale faced winter child is to be added to a warm sunny barbecue picture, then you will have to either live with it, or edit the photo adjusting the size and colour beforehand.

General Winter:
First thank you for going to so much trouble on how to do this with GIMP. I have tried to use GIMP in the past and could not figure out how to use it. One of the problems I have with photo editing programs is what some of the features mean--such as layering. I thought layering was only when you wanted to layer, say a duplicate photo, over and to the side of it. Never could understand what that would do to improve a photo. And color grabbers or color pickers, I have never been able to make those work. Anyway, I am going to print out your whole post and when I come back from taking my husband to work (75 miles away from our house), I am going to start following your directions & trying to make it work. It may be tomorrow before I can post back.

And the last part of your post where you mentioned size of photos and color of skin tones, I had already thought of that & have been working on several photos trying to do just what you suggested so that if I do ever merge them they won't look so fake.

I will post back after I have tried everything you suggested or if I have any more questions about something I don't understand.
Thank you so much,
Sheila

General Winter:
It is almost midnight here & I have been working for hours on just trying to combine 2 photos together--I can't even tell you how many mistakes I have made--and then couldn't figure out how to undo the mistakes, (undo under editing did no good), and then I would have to start all over again!:eek: One of the main problems I had at first was just how to get a photo into the program. Once I right clicked on a photo and told it to "open with", then I got to chose GIMP. I finally figured out to drag another photo on top of the first one, but then it covered up all of the first photo! So I started all over again but made the second photo really small so it would not cover up the first photo. But then when I dragged the smaller photo onto the second one, it would not let me place it where I wanted to place it--it dragged the second one right in the middle of the first one! Then it took me a while to figure out how to move it around (after more mistakes and having to start over again!). Right now I am just too tired to think any more and am going to bed so I will be of a fresher mind tomorrow. But I have 2 doctor appointments tomorrow, so it will be late again tomorrow night before I can try and start this project again. So if you don't hear back from me right away, just know that I am still working on the project, just may take me awhile to figure things out. This has been the hardest photo editing program I have ever tried to figure out. I like all the different features that I see in the program, just have to learn how to be able to use them. One thing I don't understand is why it has to have two different windows open to work on a photo--one window has a blank screen with all types of editing tools at the top of it, and the other smaller window is where I am having to put the photos--just does not make much sense to me why it is set up that way.
Will get back to you later,
Thanks,
Sheila

How did you get 2 photos to open in the same window in Gimp? I've tried it a hundred times and can't figure it out. FRUSTRATING!!!!!!

**EDIT**
There has to be a better way than this. Isn't there any free software that makes this type of thing easy? I can figure out most programs but GIMP is difficult well beyond the norm. If gypsy63 and I can't figure out how to open 2 photos at the same time, how can we use it beyond the "basics"?

I got up at 6 this morning & started again! I finally got a finished product, but it was not perfect or what I really wanted. This is what I had to do. First I had to find a background photo to put the portraits of people I wanted to place. The best I could come up with was of a firework that I took last month that only showed half of the firework. Which meant that half the background was in black with some of the firework on the other half of the background. Then I found 2 photos I wanted to add to the black part of the background. I had to choose something with a black background because by following General Winter's instructions, I had to black out the background around each of the portraits. And that was unbelievably hard to do because I could never make the brush small enough to black out around faces, arms, etc. I had to undo a lot and the do again trying not to black out the skin. One of the photos was of my step-daughter with her husband and little boy all standing together, and then the only up to-date photo I had of her daughter showed her sitting down--with a white background. So I blackened everything out round all people, then resized both photos, then I dragged the bigger portrait of the 3 people together, up into a blacken area of the firework background. Then I took the daughter, and had her sitting at their feet. It was not a great photo when I finished, but it will just have to do until I can experiment more with all the features & learn how and when to use them. I will attach the photo so that you can see what the final results were. The portraits took a lot of editing.(Note: I don't know how to post the photo into this post & when I opened the attachment to see how it looked, it did not look like this on my PC-it was not blurry on my PC)
Sheila

After 100s of mistakes & re-reading over and over again General Winter's instructions, I finally figured out what I was doing wrong!:o I was not interpreting the instructions correctly so everything I tried to do was wrong. I have been so excited that I have spent 10 hours today doing nothing but making photos with layers. I am still making mistakes, but not about how to make the layers--just from experimenting around with some of the other features. But I tell you one thing that I learned, something that may help others--when you are making a second layer with a portrait, try not to use one where someone is wearing a navy blue shirt and the original background with that photo was black! When I was erasing the black background from around my grandson's pic, it was almost impossible to see where to erase next to his navy blue shirt--it was almost the color of the black background. Did a lot of undoing with that problem! Next time I will make sure either the clothes are dark with a light background or the clothes are light with a dark background before I paste a second layer! I also found a site that has lots of instructions for using GIMP if anyone is interested in it. Here is the link:
http://docs.gimp.org/2.6/en/index.html

I guess we can call this thread solved, at least until I get stumped about another problem I can't figure out with GIMP--will just post a different thread if I do.
Thanks everyone,
Sheila :)

Thanks for the update. My experience with the GIMP was the same as HAN's and yours. A totally incomprehensible user interface, and I was never able to get anything useful done before I gave up on it.

Once you have the main or background pic in the editing window, if you File - open and try to add a new pic it gets opened in a new window.

So either, File - open as layers and the new pic becomes a new layer, or easier, open a folder in explorer where the file is and simply drag it out into the editing window and it becomes a new layer automatically.

While you are erasing around the top layer to reveal the background, if you want click the eye icon on the background layer to hide it.

https://discussions.virtualdr.com/im...2009/08/32.jpg

That way as you erase, the background becomes the checker board pattern which may be easier to see especially if the background image is dark.

https://discussions.virtualdr.com/im...2009/08/33.jpg

For fine erasing, zoom the picture and from the paintbrush tool use the scale option to increase or decrease the brush size.

https://discussions.virtualdr.com/im...2009/08/34.jpg

https://discussions.virtualdr.com/im...2009/08/35.jpg

General Winter: I just printed out your 2nd set of instructions to go with the 1st set. But I do have to tell you, some of the pic that you show I have not seen since using this program. In your first pic in your first posting, I have not see anything that looks like the side pic next to the main picture--the one that shows you both the portrait and the background picture--and with that showing the brushes beneath it.
And it took me a long time to figure out how to save a photo. I once tried "Merging down" and it left little marks on the photo. So next time, I tried flattening the photo and that worked and let me save it. One of the problems I have with saving is that even though I drop down the menu and choose JPEG, it saves it with some unreadable extension. After that, I learned to change the file extension itself in the save box, then click the menu and choose JPEG--that has been the only way I have been able to save the photos with an extension that other programs will be able to read. I learned on my own to drag a photo onto the top layer--that is, after I had already edited the second photo and cropped it as much as possible. I don't remember seeing an "eye icon" on the background layer, but I was not looking for it so I probably just did not notice it. If what you say is true about turning the background into a checkered background so that a dark top picture can be more easily edited, how do you get the background layer back when you are through? When scaling an image, how can you just scale the second active layer that you are working on rather than the background layer? I ask because I tried this feature a few times & only once did it scale the active layer--usually it scaled the background layer. I know it seems like I have a million questions, but I really would like to learn to use this program--wished there were videos on how to use GIMP--a video would be worth a thousand words! :cool:
Thanks,
Sheila

Gypsy, gimp can have tools docked and moved around the screen, the way you see mine is the default used in gimp portable, so depending on your version the layout might be different.

http://portableapps.com/apps/graphic.../gimp_portable

To see the eye icon, just mouseover the layer where the eye should, and you will see two blank boxes, click in the left most box and the eye will appear, click again the eye will disappear, the eye shows the layer is visible, so no eye means the layer is invisible.

https://discussions.virtualdr.com/im...2009/08/24.jpg

That way you can turn off a layer so you will not be distracted.

You can have multiple layers, the layer at the top ( in my pictures the one called stockvault..) is always regarded as the topmost layer, the ones below it behind it, ie like laying a set of photos down, one on top of each other.

To scale a layer, just click the layer in the layers list to make it active,

https://discussions.virtualdr.com/im...2009/08/25.jpg

Then click the scale tool, tick keep aspect and preview grid.

https://discussions.virtualdr.com/im...2009/08/26.jpg

Then just click in the main editing window, and the layer you are about to scale will show up with a nice grid to help you ( you will also get a new window scale window pop up, partially off screen to the top left in the image below)

https://discussions.virtualdr.com/im...2009/08/27.jpg

Since you ticked keep aspect ratio, left click on one of the corners, and drag the image to rescale, the grid will shrink or increase as you do but will still show the original image as a guide.

If you can't see the corners to click on them, zoom out of the image via the selection tool on the bottom on the editing window.

While scaling, if you click the middle of the image ( the circle ) you can hold the mouse and drag the entire layer you are scaling around to position it better.

Once you are happy, then, hit the scale button in the scale window that popped up and gimp will rescale the image for you .

https://discussions.virtualdr.com/im...2009/08/28.jpg

If you are unhappy, remember you can always use ctrl-z to cancel things you have done, indeed, you can continue to ctrl-z multiple times, gimp remembers everything you have done ( at least till you save or shut down the program )

Thanks for more good advice on how to do things. By the time I finish printing out all your instructions, I will have me a small book--which is what I need! Yesterday I was invited to give a review about GIMP on C-net because that is where I downloaded it from, and I was amazed at so many people posting that it was very easy to use! One member even said he learned out to use it in 10 minutes--hard for me to believe! Every day I learn more and more on my own as well as from your instructions, so maybe sooner or later I will have learned how to use the program. I don't have the portable, so that is probably why some of your Pics with your instructions were a little confusing to me.
Thanks,
Sheila

Gimp tutorials should help then.
http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/
Got a bunch of them listed there.

Thanks for the link, but I already had it, just have not had time to read it all. I just has surgery on my spine so I am not allowed but to sit up for more than 20 minutes at a time--so I am slowly reading a little at a time, but I am getting there. Thanks.

You are Welcome and wish the best with the back!

Found lots more tutorials with this search.
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=Gimp+...fp=uJKuPBMYFsU

Train: Thank you so much for the search link on Google. I had used Google once before trying to find more information but the one you sent me had more helpful links on it. There is one that I found that is just fantastic, and I wanted to post the link here for all the others that have found GIMP as frustrating as I did. This site has many, many tutorials on it, complete with photos on how to do things, and there are many varieties of tutorials on how to do different things. I saved most of the ones I would really be interested in into My Bookmarks because there was too many to print out. I only printed out the ones that I really need at this moment. The rest I will go back and read as I need them, & then I will probably print them out as I need them. This is the site for everyone that uses GIMP and is either frustrated by the program or just want to learn even more about some of its uses:

http://gimp-tutorials.net/

Thanks a bunch! :D

Be sure to backup your book marks.
Because sooner or later, that hdd is going to quit working. :(
Although we all hope for later, like years and years later.

Learned the hard way.

You should find this thread of interest.

http://discussions.virtualdr.com/sho...d.php?t=239981

My search was a simple " Gimp Tutorial '.

You might want to consider installing something like Pdf995 to create .pdf copies of the tutorials on your hard drive, in case they disappear from the web at some point.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jdc2000

You might want to consider installing something like Pdf995 to create .pdf copies of the tutorials on your hard drive, in case they disappear from the web at some point.

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And boy, have I SEEN THAT enough over the years.

A file on the hard drive is worth two on the Internet.

Train:I went to the discussion site that posted the links for backup programs for Firefox & posted a question there about the different programs that was listed. I appreciate that link because I didn't even know programs like that existed--will save a lot of headaches later I am sure.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jdc2000 View Post
You might want to consider installing something like Pdf995 to create .pdf copies of the tutorials on your hard drive, in case they disappear from the web at some point.

---

How to I find this Pdf995 you mentioned and will it have good instructions on how to make copies of tutorials? This is completely new to me so I would not even know how to begin.

Thanks,

PDF995 is one of several free programs that allow you to create .pdf files from anyting you can print. It adds a printer driver to your system that creates Adobe Acrobat .pdf files. Once it is installed, you can select File, Print from Internet Explorer and select Pdf995 and create a local .pdf copy of the web page that is saved to your hard drive. Not all web pages can be printed successfully, but most can. Install instructions and the download for PDF995 can be found at the link below:

http://www.pdf995.com/

jdc2000 you said:

Quote:

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Print from Internet Explorer

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I have not used IE in the last 5 years, I only use Firefox. Does this work in Firefox too? I read the article in the link you gave to me but could not find any mention of it supporting Firefox. I really don't want to use IE if I can get out of it. Firefox has so many add-ons and pug-ins, maybe they would have something like this on their site--just would not know what to put into their search engine to find a program like this--might be called something else since it would be a Firefox Plug-in or Add-on. Any idea if the program you recommend works with Firefox or not?
Thanks,

General Winter:
Since you seem to be an expert in GIMP, would you please, please, take a look at my thread under, "General & Business Software" about WinZip problem? It concerns what files to drag & drop into the Gimp brush folder. No one seems to know the answer but since you work with GIMP all the time, I thought you would probably know the answer. I have been holding everything open with WinZip since I posted the problem over an hour ago, thinking someone would know the answer right away & I could go ahead and finish the operation without closing everything out.
Thanks once again for your help,

PDF995 and similar programs will work with any Windows application that can print usig a Windows printer driver, so Firefox will work the same way. I have not used it with Firefox as much, so I can't tell you how well it will work, but it should do about as well as it does with Internet Explorer.

jdc2000:
Thanks for the info. I tired to do a search on Firefox for an add-on like this, but got no results, so I am glad you told me it would work with Firefox. :)
Sheila

It installs as a printer driver, and thus can be used by any program that can print to a printer, ie if you can file - print in a program you can use the program.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gypsy63

General Winter:
Since you seem to be an expert in GIMP, would you please, please, take a look at my thread under, "General & Business Software" about WinZip problem?

---

Posted an answer for you, at least it works for me anyway.

Actually the first time i used gimp was when i read the software list in your very first post in this thread !

God, it is so hard to believe that you became such an expert the first time you used this program--unbelievable!! :cool: All I can think is that you must either be a graphic designer or have used other very difficult programs in the past, such as Photoshop to be able to catch on so fast! And oh BTW, I had already tried your suggestion about the brushes with my WinZip program and replied to your post.
Thanks a million,

Thanks !

Yes, used Photoshop before, that helped a little.

Actually my main strength in life is knowing a little about a lot of things, but having no in depth knowledge or great competence in anything..

Might be useful for quizzes etc but sucks for getting a decent job.

;-)

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.