I consider myself an average photographer. My photo skills are typical of most. I try to employ the rule of thirds in most of my photo shots. Beyond that the rest is left up to the camera. Recently I dove into the world of photo manipulation. Before I had primarily adjusted and cropped all my photos with Picasa. There is no learning curve in Picasa and it's simple enough for even a 10 year old to use. Even though Picasa does an excellent job in photo editing basics, I still thought it wasn't enough. Something seemed missing. I was looking for that extra "tweak" that might make my photos a little better. I wanted to find a way remove unwanted elements without cropping.
To get the effect I felt I needed, I knew I would need to learn PhotoShop or Gimp. Since Gimp is "Free" the choice for me was very easy. Even though Gimp is not exactly Photoshop, you will find that CNet Editor's Reviews give Gimp very High Marks- " five stars". Photoshop only gets 4.5 stars from Cnet's editors. Saying which is better is probably akin to arguments of PC vs Apple, blonde vs brunette, or tall vs short. When both application are very good, the determining factor for most of us is price. Gimp is a "Free Application" that is available to everyone. Photoshop carries a price up to $600 or $250 on a student version. For those of you who are lucky enough to have PhotoShop this post is not by any means to convince you to switch to Gimp.
While Gimp is a Great Program, I found there is really no clear "how to" manual or a clear guide on how to use the Gimp Application. There are over a 1000 YouTube Videos covering the "how to's on Gimp". Some are very good and some are terrible. The two videos I recently posted are pretty average. My goal in posting a series of "how to's" on what I've learned to date in Gimp, is simply to get you comfortable with using the application. I'll provide video links that helped me learn. By sharing some the basics of what I've learned to date, I hope I can make "Gimp" less intimidating and more of a fun experience for you.
I know when I first "opened Gimp" I didn't have the slightest clue on what to do with it. I know it was a few years ago that I attempted it. It was only recently that I decided to once again try Gimp. All the uploads to YouTube helped me in deciphering how to use the program.
The only way to tackle a Program of Gimp's magnitude is to take it in steps. I remember the answer a guy gave on how to eat an elephant by taking it "one bite at a time. The same applies to learning Gimp, it is a big an awesome Elephant. There is no way to teach you in a couple of post or way for you to learn it in a few days. You need to take a few bites, let it digest and play with images and photos over time. While I haven't come close to knowing even a tenth of what I can do with Gimp, I do believe what I can share with you will be worthwhile in helping you get started more quickly. My goal here is to increase your appetite for Gimp. Since I'm not a technology Guru, I won't be able to answer questions related to bugs. A series of my "how to gimp" post will follow. The main thing is to have fun and take your time in learning.
To download Gimp go to Cnetdownload clicking here. You will need to do this if you want to learn Gimp while following my series on this photo editing application. Painting in Gimp is a horse of a different color. I've seen some amazing artistic renderings. It will be another few years before I would even think of attempting painting with Gimp, but if that is what you would like to learn, there are some great videos on it.
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