STICKY:  The Gimp - free alternative to Photoshop

Thanks for the responses!

is been long. i had nothing to do so i gave it a try with gimp.
im no expert !

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illrooster132 wrote in post #10950561
is been long. i had nothing to do so i gave it a try with gimp.
im no expert !

This is a good image to practice on. Experiment with the different tools to experiment and learn how they work:

Clone tool: recreates the source area exactly.

Healing tool: similar to clone, but fills in the surrounding texture as well.

Brushes: Large vs. small, soft vs hard,

One thing that helps a lot is to duplicate the original layer and work on that. Then, after you've worked on an area you can flip back and forth and see excactly what's happening. It's amazing what will be revealed (e.g. how something doesn't look as good as you thought)! Also, you can easily clone back from the original to the new image to fix things you've screwed up.

I noted that GIMP is very slow to load the extensions.
I unistalled and reinstalled more than once but the problem still remain.
I found some advises on the net, for instance to delete the file .fonts/cache1 but I didn-t find this file. Some tips?

I wrote the same post also under the proper topic regarding the Sharpening but since the post is strictly connected to GIMP I re-post it also here. The aim of this post is to share with you my opinion relating the way of sharpening: I prefer to use the Selective Sharpening because the USM introduces halos and I don't like it. Moreover the SS sharpen only what needs to be sharpened.

This is the original photo as obtained by my Canon 400D without particular PP:

dinifra wrote in post #11217414
the USM introduces halos and I don't like it.

Try this: Make a luminance selection (or use the red channel for portraits), invert it, then sharpen.

Thanks I will try what you suggested me but what do you think about selective sharpening as suggested in the link I posted? Did you ever try it? I like it the effect the it produce.

Update, I tried to apply USM to the red channel with Radius 0,5, Amount 1,5, Threshold 0, but I still prefer SS:

And here I did something new that is, new layer (as usual), sharpen a lot (70) on only the red channel, than selected blended mode Value and reduce the opacity to 75%. Not bad, similar to the SS:

Can someone help me please. I DL & installed GIMP & the help file. Now Gimp cannot find its HELP file. This is what I did and what I get:

Edit > Preferences > Help System. > "Use a locally installed copy"

below that is a globe that says "Thare's a local installation of the users manual"

Help Browser to use: GIMP help browser.

Click OK & Window Closes

go to Help Click Help (F1 does not work) and this message appears:
The GIMP HELP BROWSER IS NOT AVAILABLE
The Gimp Help browser plug-in appears to be missing fron your installation. You may instead use the web browser for reading the help pages.

Why does HELP not work?

Also, there are no "Tips & Trixks" I can see. Where are they?

GIMP 2.6.11 installed in "C:\Program Files (x86)\GIMP-2.0\bin\gimp-2.6.exe"

gimp-help-2-2.6.0-en-setup 23,888 KB installed in C:\Program Files (x86)\GIMP-2.0

Thank you,

GilBean

Gil Bean wrote in post #11308702
Can someone help me please. I DL & installed GIMP & the help file. Now Gimp cannot find its HELP file. This is what I did and what I get:

Edit > Preferences > Help System. > "Use a locally installed copy"

below that is a globe that says "Thare's a local installation of the users manual"

Help Browser to use: GIMP help browser.

Click OK & Window Closes

go to Help Click Help (F1 does not work) and this message appears:
The GIMP HELP BROWSER IS NOT AVAILABLE
The Gimp Help browser plug-in appears to be missing fron your installation. You may instead use the web browser for reading the help pages.

Why does HELP not work?

Also, there are no "Tips & Trixks" I can see. Where are they?

GIMP 2.6.11 installed in "C:\Program Files (x86)\GIMP-2.0\bin\gimp-2.6.exe"

gimp-help-2-2.6.0-en-setup 23,888 KB installed in C:\Program Files (x86)\GIMP-2.0

Thank you,

GilBean

From the gimp site:

GIMP 2.6 on Windows does not include the Help Browser plug-in, instead your web browser is used to display the help. You may need to go to GIMP's Preferences, click on "Help System" and select "Web browser" under "Help Browser".

Do you guys know of any upsizing plugin for gimp?

i like gimp but now i find a need to do batch processing.
is there some way to make this happen?

Total Newbie question here...... Can RAW image data being viewed and manipulated in iPhoto?

~A

MarcoCanon wrote in post #10558634
I just wanted to comment on how to make an HDR image with Gimp.
I found this tutorial and it words out pretty well on many images.

http://gimpology.com …ew/fake_hdr_loo​k_in_gimp/

She goes through it pretty fast but it works.
http://www.youtube.com​/watch?v=R8_tL7UCXuc

I wonder if you can do a "REAL" as opposed to "FAKE", HDR image in Gimp. What makes "FAKE" vs REAL", in HDR. Is Photoshop the only program that makes "REAL" HDR's. From what I can see, is that if you use EnfuseGUI or Photomatix Pro, in tandem with Gimp, you can make a "REAL" HDR image. I hate the fact that unless it's the almighty Photoshop an HDR image is "FAKE".

Just to inform you that I'm reading this book about GIMP: "GIMP 2.6 for Photographers: Image Editing with Open Source Software" (Rocky Nook) Klaus Goelker.
I'm finding it very interesting, it has devoted to photographers and the author threats well the image editing.
Bye
Francesco