# GIMP Photo Editing Tutorial



## Rion (Dec 29, 2006)

So I've had a few people suggest I write up a tutorial for photo editing for fixes like color balance/exposure so I've finally gotten off my lazy butt and figured I'd type it up while insomnia has its grip on me so forgive me for muddled sentences or spelling/grammar mistakes I'll fix them when my brain works better.

Now on to the question of why I chose GIMP and not Photoshop to write a tutorial with, easy, *GIMP is free.* Therefore available to more people and leaves considerably more dollars in your pocket to spend on your aquariums. The program is a little bit more clumsy to use than Photoshop, at least to me, but I've been using it since Photoshop 6 was out so I'm a little bias. Despite this it has most of what you need for basic and advance photo manipulation. Alright enough explanation on to tutorial.

Let's start by opening the image you want to edit, cropping can be done in this program but not entirely important in this tutorial so if needed I can show how it's done in this program later.










Check out that terrible white balance, that's just bad, the exposure isn't very good either but I can live with it with a few tweaks.

Alright almost all of tools can be found we need to fix the image are conveniently in the "Colors" menu.










We are going to start by fixing the exposure slightly and select "Levels". This brings up the Levels window where you see a histogram at the top and a bunch of buttons that you can around with is you so desire but we are really only interested in the three arrows directly underneath the histogram. there's a black one, a grey one, and a white one. Adjusting the black one adjusts blacks/dark tones in the picture While adjusting the white one changes the whites in the pictures, while the grey arrow adjusts the contrast of the picture (pretty straight forward, no?). When you adjust the arrows you can see the changes you've preformed on the image so feel free to play with the arrows to get accustomed to them and how they relate to the histogram above them. I adjust the histogram so that the black lines up so what I want black is black without impeding on details in shadows, this usually means moving the black arrow up to the nearest spike on the graph to the left side if there isn't one there already. The same goes for the white arrow though I tend to leave the white arrow alone unless the photo is under exposed. The grey arrow is to personal taste, I like a decent amount of contrast in my photos so I move it towards the white arrow but once again this is where the "preview" option is nice so fiddle until it looks good to you and click "OK" at the bottom of the window.











Next up select "Color balance" from the "Color" menu so we can fix the white balance. There is not much to explain here as it is adjusted on a picture by picture basis and just takes a little playing with sliders. As you can see below I decided the red foxtail was not as yellow as it is in person so I altered the yellow also altered the cyan balance to take a little warm out, and pushed the green slightly to bring it back after increasing the yellow so to make the green more "true". When you have it how you like it click "OK", then Save your image (making sure to save it as a .jpeg file type) and you're done. Upload. Post.










There are a lot more tools and options you can select but these are the basic tools I use for photo editing that are the most effective.

Easy, no? If you have any questions on photography, photo editing or any questions about GIMP, Photoshop, or tutorial requests please let me know and I'll be happy to help. As for now I'm going to bed.


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## fishsticks (May 15, 2010)

Thanks for the good info!


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## cggorman (May 9, 2009)

Another GIMP user checking in...


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## Gatekeeper (Feb 20, 2007)

This is great! Something I certainly want to try out. Thank you for taking the time to do this.


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## Rion (Dec 29, 2006)

Always happy to help. I'm primarily a Photoshop user but GIMP is close enough I can muddle through it easy enough to demonstrate how to use it. I might write up a photography tutorial here as well in the future just to cover basics on photography and lighting, maybe through some advance stuff in it as well and try to explain everything along the way. Lots of information to gather and format into a logical order, might take awhile, so stay tuned.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

I'm famous, I'm pictured in your toolbar!  Thank you so much for doing this! I've been messing around for a good 30 minutes trying to see what I get. This is fantastic for people like me that have a basic camera without a lot of options.


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## ukamikazu (Jun 4, 2010)

Another GIMP user checking in, been running the GIMP on Kubuntu Lucid Lynx! Great write up, too!


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## Karackle (Dec 11, 2007)

thank you so much for this tutorial, I think it will be really helpful!!! :biggrin: 

Also, I would DEFINITELY be interested in the photography tutorial, I could use some tips on the "how to" of the actual picture taking part roud: (i'm sure it's time consuming to write it out so I'm more than willing to be patient )


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## Bahugo (Apr 18, 2011)

another gimp user! 

You can also click color's and go to auto and mess around with the auto options.


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## Jeffww (Aug 6, 2010)

I use GIMP myself. Great tool and it's kind of daunting to use it at first. Definitely good to have a tutorial.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Okay, Rion. Check it out. I took a picture on my camera not tweaking anything other than turning off the flash. It came out like this:



















The pink bubble wrap was put behind the tank for comparison of colors. I only used the Levels feature and must say this is impressive. It simply darkened the over exposure without adding funky colors. I'm incredibly happy. Thank you so much for the tutorial!


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