STICKY:  The Gimp - free alternative to Photoshop

I recently discovered a quick method for sharping in GIMP using the NL Filter under Filter/Enhancement/NL Filter.
It has three options: the first two serve for smoothing but the third (Edge enhancement" works on the edges and gives a good result similar to my preferred Selective Sharpenging method that works on the edges of the image.
Anyone has never proved?
Please let me know what you think about.
Original:

Nice discovery, dinifra. I hadn't known about that tool.

From my experiments and reading the documentation, it looks like it works best on images that are already pretty sharp. That's because the maximum radius is just one pixel beyond the pixel being processed. So it's great for snapping things up a bit, or for pictures resized smaller.

On another front, I just discovered the G'MIC (pronounced "gimmick") plugin. It has tons of variants (over 250); it's basically a whole new set of filters all by itself. I've been experimenting with the "anisotropic smoothing" (how's that for a word?) for skin smoothing.

dinifra wrote in post #12658804
I recently discovered a quick method for sharping in GIMP using the NL Filter under Filter/Enhancement/NL Filter.
It has three options: the first two serve for smoothing but the third (Edge enhancement" works on the edges and gives a good result similar to my preferred Selective Sharpenging method that works on the edges of the image.
Anyone has never proved?
Please let me know what you think about.
Original:

With NL Filter at 0,30 and 0,33 for Alpha and Radius

I tried this but my results are not as good as yours . I can hardly tell a difference on few pics I tried .
This is just one layer ?
I still like smart sharpening with layer mask as you can adjust the opacity of the sharpened layer .

Edit: to get improvement like yours I had to up settings like 0.60 , 0.60 , only raising one didn't seem to do much .

The idea is to use the NL Filter recursively on a new layer till you obtain the result you like and than reduce the opacity of that layer just to a fine correction.
GMIC is a very complex world of plugins, I installed it but I use it very few.

dinifra wrote in post #12669650
The idea is to use the NL Filter recursively on a new layer till you obtain the result you like and than reduce the opacity of that layer just to a fine correction.
GMIC is a very complex world of plugins, I installed it but I use it very few.

ok, yeh that would work .

I use gimpfx-foundry 2.6.1 which has assortment of filters . most of the ones in "photo" work pretty good and I use them .

What is gimpfx-foundry 2.6.1?

dinifra wrote in post #12670196
What is gimpfx-foundry 2.6.1?

http://gimpfx-foundry.sourceforge.ne​t/

best i can describe is an assortment of plug-in .

GIMP 2.8 released!
http://www.gimpusers.c​om …gimp-2-8-finally-released

Ciao
Francesco

dinifra wrote in post #14378029
GIMP 2.8 released!
http://www.gimpusers.c​om …gimp-2-8-finally-released

Ciao
Francesco

I just downloaded this and it works very well,a Good upgrade..It runs alot faster than the old version for me.Very nice tool and FREE.

My first GIMP:ed picture, even if the feet of the girl are really hard to create a good shadow from. I found really good tutorials here; http://www.youtube.com​/user/GIMPtricks?featu​re=watch

Thanks to the OP for the info. I use Lightroom and Photoshop but this is a great program that I can "offer" to my students. I wish it had a different name though....reminds me of the freak in Pulp Fiction.

_______________
Chuck Dee - AKA Chris
"A good photograph is knowing where to stand." -Ansel Adams
www.bellissimofoto.com
www.rhinobldg.com

I have a problem - I just downloaded GIMP, along with X11 for my mac (version 10.6.8) and whenever I open gimp, a grey screen comes up and thats it? Has anyone had this, or know what I can do about it?

CaterhamF1 wrote in post #14855919
I have a problem - I just downloaded GIMP, along with X11 for my mac (version 10.6.8) and whenever I open gimp, a grey screen comes up and thats it? Has anyone had this, or know what I can do about it?

http://www.partha.com/
Tried that version?

CaterhamF1 wrote in post #14855919
I have a problem - I just downloaded GIMP, along with X11 for my mac (version 10.6.8) and whenever I open gimp, a grey screen comes up and thats it? Has anyone had this, or know what I can do about it?

True grey, or kind of a stippled/dithered gray made up of black and white pixels? If it's the latter, that's the default X11 background and I would guess that the problem is that Gimp is crashing right after it starts.

gkuenning wrote in post #14868967
True grey, or kind of a stippled/dithered gray made up of black and white pixels? If it's the latter, that's the default X11 background and I would guess that the problem is that Gimp is crashing right after it starts.

The latter - black whitish grey, how to I fix it. It did it as soon as I downloaded it, first time I ever used it. Thanks.