Gimped! Gimp Tutorial: Photo Tweaking 101: How to do basic photo tweaking using GIMP

In this lesson, I'm going to show you the basics on how to edit a photo using GIMP.  We're going for realism here, so the changes are going to be very acute in contrast to a lot of my other posts, although a lot of acute changes add up to a big difference in the end.
Part 2 can be found here.
Suggested Prerequisites:
Layer Mask Gimp Video Tutorial
Layer Mode Gimp Video Tutorial
Adjusting Colors Using Gimp
Layers and Selections Gimp Video Tutorial
Suggested Items:
Wacom Tablet (For Shading and Masking)
My eBook on Layer Masks - This short and inexpensive book focuses on one thing -getting you insanely good at making Layer Masks.  If you get good at layer masking, you'll get good at Gimp.
Here is the photo we're working with:

Click on this photo to download the original version.

All in all, the photo is a good shot.  I personally don't think there's too many things wrong with it.  The girl's eyes don't have much pop, the guy's eyes are semi-bloodshot, and the background seems to be a little on the busy side.  With the use of layer masks, layer modes, and tweaking opacity, we are going to try to make this couple pop just a little better.
Part 1: How to use GIMP to Fix a Smile
First off, we're going to whiten those teeth.  They're not too bad now, but you'll be surprised at how much better they can be.
Create a new Layer, set the layer mode to "color." Name the layer "teeth."
Create a layer mask on this layer. (Right-click on the layer, click "Add Layer Mask") Set it's color to black.
Change your color palette to black and white by clicking on the black and white squares in the bottom-left corner of your toolbox.
Click on the arrows near the color boxes to switch your foreground, and background colors.  (Shortcut Key: X) You should now have a white foreground color, and a black background color.
Using the paintbrush tool (shourtcut key: P) and a soft brush, slowly "paint" the color out of the teeth.  Be sure you're painting the layer mask, and not the layer itself.  If you make any mistakes, switch over to the color black, by pressing the X key.  Painting black in a layer mask will restore the color.  When you want to remove color again, simply press the X key again.

The layer mask black-white relationship allows for quick fixing, tweaking, and fine tuning.  It's a few extra steps to set up, but I recommend getting in the habit of using one whenever possible.

After you're finished with one set of teeth, go ahead and do the same to the other set.

No matter how clean a mouth is, the teeth can always be a little bit cleaner.  Desaturating the teeth is an effective way to clean them.

 Duplicate the teeth layer.  Set the duplicated teeth layer mode to overlay.  This will brighten the teeth up quite a bit (probably too much, in fact.)

Adjust the opacity to something that looks realistic.  I ended up setting my opacity to 40.  Here's what I ended up with:

The teeth have been whitened.  Who needs toothpaste, anyway?

 Part 2:  How To use GIMP to Enhance Eyes

With a lack of proper equipment, the both of their irises seem to disappear.  The man's eyes are a little bloodshot too.  Using almost the same methods as we did with the teeth, we will help bring their eyes out in this photo.

Create a new layer, name it ManEyes.  Fill the layer with White.

Set ManEyes to the layer mode overlay

Add a layer mask to ManEyes.  Fill it with black.

Make sure you're editing the ManEyes layer mask, and are brushing in white.  Fill the iris (not the pupil) with white.

Although it doesn't always work, Overlay will often pull natural color out of the eyes.  Sometimes you will need to tone down the opacity, although in this photo this is not the case.

Create a new layer.  Name it EyeWhite.  Fill the layer with white.

Set the layer to Saturation

Add a layer mask to EyeWhite.  Fill it with black.

Make sure you're editing the EyeWhite layer mask, and are brushing in white.  Fill the white portions of the eye with white.

Removing color is often as powerful as adding color.

Adjust the opacity to something that looks realistic.  I set mine to 60.  Here is what I ended up with.

The change is slight, but a bunch of slight changes add up.

Now for the girl's eyes, which seem to almost disappear altogether.

Create a new layer, fill it with white, name it GirlEyes, and set the layer mode to overlay.

Create a layer mask for GirlEyes, and fill the mask with black.

Make sure you are editing the GirlEyes layer mask, and are brushing in white.  Using a large brush, Fill the girl's sockets with white.

Be careful with how much of the shadow you pull out with the overlay.  If the skin looks orange, you probably overdid it.  Press the X key, and start brushing the orange skintones away.

Adjust the opacity on the layer until it looks realistic.  I adjusted mine to 50, and ended up with this:

Another small difference, but they add up.

Create a new layer, fill it with white, name it GirlIris, and set the layer mode to overlay.

Create a layer mask for GirlIris, and fill the mask with black.

Make sure you are editing the GirlIris layer mask, and are brushing in white.  Fill the girl's iris with white.  The photo should end up like this:

Now that we have the eyes lightened up to an amount that we can work with, it's time to really pull the color out.

Duplicate the GirlsIris layer, and adjust the opacity to something that makes the photo look realistic.  I set my opacity to 30, and the photo looks like this:

The duplicated layer gives you control over a little extra boost of color in her eyes.

Select the background layer

click colors>>>hue saturation

Increase the saturation by an amount that works for you.  I increased it by 25.  Here is what I came up with:

Adding saturation to an outdoor photo will really bring some pop to the photo.

Part 3: How to use GIMP to Make the Couple Pop

In the final portion of this tutorial, we will show you how to make the couple pop out of the background without looking fake.  The trick is to pull color away from the background, not add color to the couple.

Create a new layer, fill it with white, and name it saturation.

Add a layer mask to the saturation layer you just created, fill it with white.  This should remove all color from the photo.

Using the lasso tool (shortcut key F),make a selection similar to the photo below.

The goal of this selection is to get the majority of the couple.  We'll use another method to get the edges.

Make sure that you're using the bucket fill tool (Shift+B), working on the layer mask you just created, and are using the color black.  Fill the selection.  Your photo should now look something like this:

Zoom in, and using a soft brush with the paintbrush tool, start painting color into the edge of the couple that the fill did not get.

You could also have used the pen tool, but in my opinion, a soft brush works much nicer in this case.

After your couple is completely in color, and the background is completely black and white, adjust the opacity until the background looks realistic.  I ended up with an opacity of 50, as shown below:

And that's it!  The differences aren't huge, but not all photo-editing work is meant to make, or break a photo.  Often times, it is only there to improve on slight issues with a photo.

OK photographers, what would you have done with this photo to make it better?  How would you have edited this photo?

Gimp Tutorial: How To Use Gimp to Make the Abandoned House Creepy

In this tutorial, I'm going to show you how to take a photo of an abandoned house, and made it look extra creepy using GIMP by simply duplicating the photo, changing how the photo looks, applying various layer styles, and masking everything properly.
Suggested Prerequisites:
Layer Mask Gimp Video Tutorial
Layer Mode Gimp Video Tutorial
Adjusting Colors Using Gimp
Layers and Selections Gimp Video Tutorial
Suggested Items:
Wacom Tablet (For Shading and Masking)
My eBook on Layer Masks - This short and inexpensive book focuses on one thing -getting you insanely good at making Layer Masks.  If you get good at layer masking, you'll get good at Gimp.
Start with this photo:

This photo was taken by me.  Feel free to do whatever you wish with it, just throw some credit my way.

End with this photo:

Again, created by me.  Feel free to do whatever you wish with this photo, just throw credit my way.

Click colors>>>curves - adjust the photo to something like this.

Before I ever edit any photos, I always tweak the original photo using basic tools.

My curve diagram looked like this:

Often times, the secret to the curves is the "S" shape.  Adjusting the intensity of this S shape creates some awesome results.

Part 1: How to use GIMP to create Cloudier Clouds
Whenever it comes to making clouds more "cloudy," sometimes, you're better off using a stock photo and replacing the skyline all together.  In this case, the tree's thin network of very thin twigs makes this nearly impossible to do without looking bad.  Fortunately, there are already clouds in the sky that we can pull out.  That's exactly what we're going to do.
Duplicate the background layer by clicking Layer>>>duplicate layer.  Name the duplicated layer "Clouds"
Remove all color from the cloud layer by clicking Colors>>>Desaturate.
Now that our clouds are gray, it's time to make them pop out.  Click on Colors>>>curves - adjust the photo to something like this.

Don't worry about how anything but the clouds look.  Nothing else will be visible in the final photo.

My curve diagram looked like this:

Identifying where the clouds are effected in the histogram is what makes curves so much more powerful than the Brightness/Contrast tool.

Hide the Clouds layer
using the pen tool, trace the outline of the sky, like this:

Notice that the path goes outside of the photo, and around to the beginning.  This is so the selection can be properly made.

Un-hide the Clouds layer
Right-Click on the path, and click "path to selection"
Click Select>>>invert (or press CTRL+I)
Right-click on the black and white layer, and click "Add Layer Mask."
Initialize the layer mask to selection.
Take the brush tool, making sure you're painting on the layer mask.  using a soft brush, and brush the trees in the background white.  This will darken them.

Although you could have included the trees in your original path selection, I found it to be better to have a softer edge on the bottom-edge, since the line between the trees and ground is not so defined.

Brush the side of the tree closest to the house, giving the tree some depth.

Notice the right side of my tree is dark.  This is done with the mask tool, using the brush used to darken the trees in the background.

Your photo should look something like this:

Now that our clouds are dark and scary, let's make the rest of the photo match.

 

Part 2:  How To Use GIMP to Blend the House
The clouds look pretty good.  Now we want to make the house look like it belongs in the photo just a little more.
duplicate the background layer.  Set the duplicated layer mode to "Overlay."  Name this duplicated layer "Color"
Add more color to the duplicated layer, by clicking Colors>>>hue-saturation.
Increase the saturation by 50.
Right-click on the Clouds layer layer mask, and click "mask to selection"
select>>>invert (CTRL+I)
Create a layer mask on the layer "color."  Initialize the layer mask to selection.
Your photo should look something like this:

The purpose of this layer is to preserve some of the red in the house when we remove color from the photo.

Duplicate the background layer, set the mode to "darken only."  Move this layer above all of the other layers.  Name this layer "Darken"
Remove all color from the darken layer by clicking Colors>>>desaturate
Right click on the overlay layer mask, and click "mask to selection."
Add a layer mask to the darken only layer.  Initialize the layer mask to selection.
Set the opacity of the darken only layer to about 55.  You should end up with something like this:

Now the house looks like it should be in the photo.  The chipped paint is so exciting.  Too exciting to not pull out more.

Duplicate the darken layer you just created.  Set the duplicated layer to "overlay," and adjust the opacity to 100.  Name it Overlay
Desaturate the  newly created overlay layer by clicking Colors>>>desaturate.
Colors>>>Curves>>>adjust the curves until the photo is at something you like.
My photo looks like this:

The imperfections of the house are really pulled out with the overlay layer.

My curves diagram looked like this:

And again, you'll see where the "S" Shaped curves comes into play.  I almost always start here with my curves adjustments.

Create a new layer.  Name it "Yellow."  Fill the layer with a dark-yellow color.  The color code I used was 54502a.  Copy and paste that code into the HTML notation box in the color palette in order to get the exact color I used.
Set the layer mode to color
Adjust the color layer opacity to something you're happy with.  I set mine to 35.  Here's what I came up with:

I tried several different colors and tones here.  Yellow was what I liked best.  Play around with it, you may like a different color more.

Create a new layer.  Name it Gradient.
Using the blend tool (Shortcut Key: L) set to the gradient "FG To Transparent,"
Create 4 gradients along each edge, your photo should look like this:

Notice that the house is mostly still visible.  This is because we want to keep the clouds and the house light, so they stick out more for the finished product.

Set the layer mode to overlay
Duplicate the gradient layer.
You'll end up with this photo:

The Gradient Overlay layers darken the ground, and a lot of the photo to really add some cool finishing touches to the photo.

What do you guys think?  How would you have edited this photo differently?

Gimp tutorial: How To Use Gimp to Make A Girl Look Cold and Scary

In this lesson, I'm going to show you how I took this photo:

This incredible photo was found on a stock photo site, and was taken by the talented
Belovodchenko Anton.  Some of his photos can be seen here.

 

And made that photo look like this:

Suggested Prerequisites:
Layer Mask Gimp Video Tutorial
Layer Mode Gimp Video Tutorial
Adjusting Colors Using Gimp
Layers and Selections Gimp Video Tutorial
Suggested Items:
Wacom Tablet (For Shading and Masking)
My eBook on Layer Masks - This short and inexpensive book focuses on one thing -getting you insanely good at making Layer Masks.  If you get good at layer masking, you'll get good at Gimp.

Part 1: How to Give the Hue a Blue Color
The first thing that we need to do is tweak the original photo a bit.  We need to create more dramatic shadows, and give the entire photo a blue hue.
First off, we're going to give the blue hue to the photo.  In my findings, the best way to do this is by altering the red channel in the photo.  A photo is made up of 4 channels, Red, Blue, Green, and Alpha.  Editing an individual channel will only modify that specific hue in the photo.  This time, we want to completely remove the red from this photo, (which will give the photo the blue hue that we seek, without sacrificing the green hues.)
To do this, switch to the channels tab in your layers, channels, paths window.  Next, Click on the green, blue and alpha channels so that they are deselected.
Select>>>all (control+A)
Using the bucket tool (shift+B) and making sure that the affected area is set to "entire selection," and not "fill similar colors," fill the entire selection with black.  Your photo should end up looking like this:

Removing the red from the photo keeps some of the yellow tones in her hair, giving a very cool-icy feel.

Colors>>>curves adjust to settings shown below

The curves tool makes it easier to pinpoint exactly what part of a histogram you wish to darken or lighten.

I ended up with this:

The curves adjustment really helps exaggerate the shadows.

Part 2: How to Edit The Eyes

A huge part of this photo (and most all photos of a face) rests in dramatizing the eyes.  That is where a person tends to look first, so making them pop out will really make a difference in this photo.  We are going to modify the color of the eyes, lighten them up, and darken areas around the eyes.

Create a new layer, name it "eyecolor." Set the layer mode to "color," and fill the layer with Cyan.

Create a layer mask in the layer eyecolor.  Set it to black.  This will make the layer completely transparent.Using a soft brush, take the brush tool (shift+B) and making sure that you're brushing the layer mask, brush each iris with white. If you make a mistake, you can "erase the blue" by brushing black.

We want these eyes to look ice cold, but still pop out.  Now that we have the ice cold color, it's time to make them pop.

Since we already masked the iris properly, there is no need to do it again.  We will duplicate the eycolor layer, and modify it so that we can re-use the mask that is associated with it.
Duplicate the eyecolor layer, rename it "eyelighten"
Set the eyelighten layer to overlay, and fill the entire layer with white.  My photo looks something like this:

Now that the eyes are lighter, it's time to add depth to them by creating some highlights in the center.

Duplicate the eyelighten layer, name it "eyehighlight."

Using a soft brush, take the brush tool (shift+B) and making sure that you're brushing the layer mask, carefully brush the edges of the iris black, keeping the center of the iris brighter, and darkening the inside and outside edges of the iris.

By duplicating the eyehighlight layer again, we make it easy to remove what we do not want to be extra bright.

Adjust the eyehighlight to something you're happy with.  I set my opacity to 55, and ended up with this.

The eyes look much more dramatic, although the left eye appears to be slightly darker than her right eye.  Let's fix that.

Duplicate the Eyehighlight layer, name it eyeEQ.Take the brush tool (shift+B) making sure that you're brushing the layer mask, brush her right eye with black, so that only her left eye is being highlighted further.Adjust the opacity of the eyeEQ layer until both eyes appear equally bright (mine is at 43).  I ended up with this:

The difference is very slight, but critical to maintaining the balance in the photo.

When it comes to making anything stick out in an photo, it's all about contrast.  Now that we have lightened the eyes up, we will make the area around the eyes darker.Create a new layer.  Name this layer "eyedarken," and set the layer mode to overlay. Fill this layer with black.Give the eyedarken layer a layer mask, and make that layer completely black.

In the brush tool options, make your brush a soft brush, and the opacity of your brush to a low value (I set mine to 15).  Giving the brush opacity gives you control of how dark certain areas of the eye are.Take the brush tool (shift+B) making sure that you're brushing the layer mask, brush the area around her eyes with white. Switching to white to darken, and black to lighten, work on the area around the eyes until they are darker and fade into the skin in a semi-natural way.

Take your time darkening the eyes, using both white to add color, and black to remove.  Use the shadows in the photo to give you an idea on how to make it look correct.

Part 3: How To Make The Final Photo-Editing Touches
In the final steps of making this photo, we're going to add the snow, the stripes, and darken the photo one last time.
First off, we're going to create the snow, using a selection of random white pixels from another photo.
Download, and open the snow file found here:  http://browse.deviantart.com/resources/?qh=&section=&q=snow#/d1xps68

Use the color select tool (Shift+O), click on one of the bright white pixels.

Copy, the selection, and paste it into the girl photo.  Name the layer created "Snow."

Duplicate the snow layer, and move it to create more snow.  Continue to duplicate the layer, and move it around until you have the snow covering the entire photo.  Take your time, and try to keep the photo somewhat random.  Don't be afraid to rotate, or flip the photo.Right-click on each duplicated snow layer (except for the original), and click "merge down."  Continue to merge the layers until you only have 1 snow layer.

Filter>>>blur>>>motion blur, Set an angle between 45-60 degrees at a long distance.  Your girl should end up looking something like this:

The snow is cool, but it is way too visible.  It takes away from the rest of the photo.  Let's work to fix that.

Give the snow layer a layer mask, filled with white.

Using the free select tool, (shortcut key F) roughly select the girl's face, like so:

Don't try to be too accurate with this selection, we're going to blur it afterward anyway.

Make sure you're working on the layer mask, and fill the selection with gray.  This will make the snow around the face a little bit lighter.Make sure you're still working on the layer mask, and click filter>>>blur>>>gaussian blur.  Set the value of the blur around 150.  This will soften the edge on your selection.

Adjust the snow's opacity to something that you're happy with. (mine is 65) I ended up with this:

The layer mask really helps keep the snow off of the main subject - her face, without sacrificing the effect, or looking bad.

Next, we're going to add the icy stripes that give the photo a little extra texture.

Download, and open the wood grain texture found here: http://browse.deviantart.com/resources/?qh=&section=&q=wood+grain#/d2ez3p7

Click Colors>>>threshold, and adjust the wood to an amount that works for you.  Keep in mind, the Black values are the only parts that will be visible when we put this into the final photo of the girl.

The black values will turn into the blue stripes, and the white values will disappear.

Click Select>>>all (or press CTRL+A) to select the entire wood grain.

Copy, and Paste the photo into the photo of the girl.

using the scale tool (shortcut key SHIFT+T) stretch the white and black photo to fit in the photo, like so:

You may want to stretch it a little bit wider than the original photo, so that you can move it to the left or right without cutting the stripes off of the photo.  This will give you some control on where the stripes will go.

Set the stretched wood layer's layer mode to divide.

Adjust the opacity to something you're happy with (mine is 20) I ended up with this:

Although the stripes and snow aren't necessary, I think they're cool.  What do you think?  Does this photo look better without them, or with them?

Create a new layer.  Name the layer "darken."  set the layer mode to overlay, and fill the layer with black.  The photo should look like this:

The overlay really makes the photo a lot darker.  Of course, we don't want the eyes to be dark, so let's work to keep those lighter.

Add a layer mask to darken.  Fill the layer mask with white.
Make sure you're working on the layer mask.  Using the brush tool and a soft brush, brush the iris of each eye black.  This will pull the eyes out one final time.

And there you have it.

What do you guys think?  How would you have edited this photo?