8. Putting the Finishing Touches on Your Work

This chapter pays attention to a number of “little details” that couldn’t be addressed in the other chapters to help you put the finishing touches on your work using some of GIMP’s lesser known tools.

This chapter may seem less organized than the previous ones, but only because you can do a lot of little things to an image to polish it a bit. You’ll learn enhancements of techniques and tools you’re familiar with, as well as touch on tools you haven’t used before. You’ll spend some time reviewing the contents of the GIMP toolbox taking a look at and using tools such as align, shear, clone, and dodge, that can all be used to make specific adjustments on drawings and photographs, letting you add small improvements to your work. Let’s get started.

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Using Zoom to See the Details

You usually use the Zoom tool in combination with other tools in order to make edits or remove imperfections you can’t see clearly when the image is viewed at full size. Zoom doesn’t change the size of an image, but rather, lets you zoom in on a particular area of a graphic, blowing up its apparent size so you can see the area more clearly.

To change the apparent size of an image, you typically use the View menu on the Image window toolbar, but a Zoom feature exists on the Main Toolbox as well. It doesn’t work quite the same way as the Zoom feature under View, but it is a quick method of magnifying the image you are working with.

For this exercise, you can use any kind of image.

1. Open an image with GIMP.
2. Click the Zoom tool button on the Main Toolbox (it looks like a magnifying lens).
3. Click anywhere in the open image to zoom in, and continue to click until you get to the correct magnification.
4. On the Zoom tool tab, select Zoom Out and Auto-resize Window, as shown in Figure 8.1.
   

   Figure 8.1. Setting the Zoom tool to zoom out and to adjust the windows size during zooming.

   

5. Click in the image until you return to the original magnification.
6. You can also select a specific magnification, such as 50% or 800%, from the drop-down menu at the bottom left of the Image window.

You’ll notice on the Zoom tool tab that there aren’t a lot of options present, so you can’t select the specific percentage of the view zoom, as you can using the Image window toolbar option.

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Using the Measure Tool to Find Dimensions in an Image

This tool lets you measure the distances between pixels in an image as well as measuring angles. The can be important if you need to display an object in an image that must adhere to precise dimensions. Here’s how it works.

You can use any sort of image for this task.

1. Open an image in GIMP.
2. On the Main Toolbox, click the Measure tool button (it looks like a math or drafting compass).
3. In Tool Options, on the Measure tool tab, select the Use Info Window check box.
4. Click a point in the image and, holding the mouse button down, drag the cursor to another point on the image; then release the mouse button.
5. Make note of the information displayed in the Measure dialog, as shown in Figure 8.2, and then click Close.
   

   Figure 8.2. Measuring distances and angles with the Measure tool.

   

6. Close the image.

Besides displaying the various measurements, this tool doesn’t actually do anything to act on the image, but depending on your goals for creating and publishing the graphic, the information can be very helpful.

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Using the Shear Tool to Shift an Image

The GIMP Shear tool is used to shift a part of an image, a layer, a selection, or a path to a different direction, such as shearing the upper part of an image in one direction and the lower part in the opposite direction. You’ve experienced rotating an image before, but this is different because the image is distorted through the shearing process. You can use the tool, either by dragging or setting specific coordinates. For this task, you can use any type of image.

1. Open an image in GIMP.
2. Click the Shear tool button in the Main Toolbox (it looks a little like a pet door being opened).
3. Click in the image and drag it in a particular direction, as illustrated in Figure 8.3.
   

   Figure 8.3. Dragging the image with the Shear tool produces a preview of the result.

   

4. In the Shear dialog, click Shear and observe the result.
5. Click Edit and then click Undo Shear.
6. Select the Rectangle Select tool and make a rectangle selection anywhere in the image.
7. Select the Shear tool again and on the Shear tool tab, next to Transform, select the Selection button (red, square button).
8. Click inside the selection to open the Shear dialog; then set a value in either the Shear Magnitude X or Shear Magnitude Y fields, such as 1050, and then click Shear.
9. Press the Delete key to clear the image inside the selection, as shown in Figure 8.4
   

   Figure 8.4. Selecting a portion of an image, shearing the selection, and then clearing the inside of the selection.

   

10. Close the image without saving it.

As you can see, using the Shear tool can produce some pretty interesting and perhaps artistic effects, depending on what sort of graphic you want to generate.

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Using the Clone Tool to Turn a Pattern into a Brush

No, this is nothing like the clones in some of the more recent Star Wars films. The Clone tool lets you copy some portion of an image using a paintbrush-like effect and then apply the pattern and colors you’ve cloned in a new image. The tool has all the same controls as the Paintbrush tool but can produce some amazing results.

For this exercise, you’ll need a previously created image, such as the example we’ve been using so far, and a blank, white canvas to paint on.

1. Open your already created image in GIMP.
2. Click the Clone tool in the Toolbox (it looks a little like an old-fashioned rubber stamp).
3. On the Clone tab, next to Brush, select a brush size such as Circle Fuzzy (19), although you can use the brush size and type of your choice.
4. Remove any brush selections, such as Fade out Apply Jitter, on the tab.
5. Press and hold the Ctrl key on your keyboard and then move your cursor to the part of the image where you want to start cloning, and then click.
6. Open a second image such as the mirror I’m using in my example, as shown in Figure 8.5
   

   Figure 8.5. Painting on one image using a pattern taken from another image.

   

7. Paint over an area of the second image with the clone tool to use the pattern or image from the first photo as a paintbrush and notice how the close tool is moving over the area of the original image you are cloning from, reproducing that area in the second image.
8. After you are done, lose the second image without saving it, and then close the first image. The cloning process did not affect the original image.

As you can see, it’s like dipping a paintbrush in both light and pattern and being able to impress the same colors, patterns, and tones on a new surface.

Polishing Up the Pictures

Just like rummaging through the toolbox, this section won’t show you every single method or tool you can use to touch up imperfections in an otherwise perfect drawing or photo, but it will give you an idea of what is possible. You’ve already performed some tasks in other chapters that provide image enhancement. Here are a few more.

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Creating a Sepia Tone Photo the Easy Way

You’ve probably seen at least a few old sepia tone photographs (printed in “brownscale” rather than grayscale) that recall a bygone era and give the image a particularly nostalgic feel. You may have some photos in your digital collection that you feel would benefit from that look and feel. With GIMP, you can convert a color digital photo to sepia tone.

For this exercise, you’ll need to have a digital photo that you believe would benefit from a conversion to sepia tone. This exercise will use a photo of a desert scene as shown in Figure 8.6.

Figure 8.6. The original photo.

1. Open the desired photo in GIMP.
2. Click Filters, Decor, and then click Old Photo.
3. On the Old Photo dialog, accept the default settings and click OK.
4. Save the photo.
   

   The result is what you see in Figure 8.7.

   Figure 8.7. The same photo in sepia tone.

   

That was quick, simple, and painless. However is it possible to do a better job if the conversion is handled manually? Let’s find out.

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Creating a Sepia Tone Photo the Long Way

Although Script-Fu methods are great and save a tremendous amount of work, you don’t always learn much by using them. Because this is a learning book and all about getting our hands dirty, it’s time to return to the digital darkroom and to see what we can accomplish without the macros.

1. Open the same desert image in GIMP if it’s not already available.
2. Click Image and then click Duplicate to create a copy of the original photo, ensuring that the base image remains untouched.
3. On the duplicate image, click Colors and then click Desaturate, accept the defaults, and click OK.
4. Click Colors and then click Levels.
5. In the Levels dialog on the Input Levels slider, move the values from their defaults of 0, 1.00, 255, to approximately 31, 0.80, and 209 to make the darks darker and the highlights brighter, as shown in Figure 8.8, and click OK.
   

   Figure 8.8. Adjusting levels in a grayscale photo.

   

6. Open the Change Color Foreground editor and set the RGB values to 160, 130, and 100, respectively.
   

   There is a range of RGB values that will render similar effects, so you are free to make adjustments.

7. Click Layer and then click New Layer.
8. In the New Layer dialog, give the layer a name like sepia tone, select the Foreground Color option button, and then click OK.
9. With the sepia tone layer selected, on the Layers tab, use the Mode menu to select Overlay.
10. Select the Background layer and then click Colors and Brightness and Contrast; adjust the sliders to produce an effect you believe enhances the photo.
11. Save the image.
    

    The result should look something like Figure 8.9.

    Figure 8.9. The result of manually configuring sepia tone for a color photo.

    

Compare the two photographs and see which one you prefer. For the manually created photo, you could also have added some Gaussian blur and created a vignette to more closely manufacture that old-fashioned feel.

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Lighten Up with Dodge

Once of the handy tools in the Toolbox you haven’t used before now is the Dodge/Burn tool. This tool, which looks like a black ball with a rod protruding from its upper right area, can alternately lighten or darken colors. It works like any other paintbrush tool in terms of its tool options.

In the following exercise, you’ll practice using the Dodge tool to lighten areas of a photo. You can use any image for this task.

1. Open the desired photo in GIMP.
2. Select the Dodge/Burn tool in the Toolbox.
3. If necessary, use the Zoom tool to magnify the image so you have a closer view of your working area.
4. Modify the Dodge tool brush size if necessary to something like Circle fuzzy (19).
5. Paint the desired areas of the image with the Dodge tool brush to make them appear lighter, as shown in Figure 8.10.
   

   Figure 8.10. Making areas of a photo appear lighter with the Dodge tool.

   

6. When you’re finished with your work, save the image with a new name and then close it.

You may not immediately notice the modification to this image, but if you look to the upper-left of the central dark mass in the photo, you’ll see that the highlighted areas appear brighter than other similar areas in the photo. This creates the effect of a greater light source being projected onto that area.

You’ll also notice in Figure 8.11 that in Tool Options, under Type, the Dodge option is selected. Dodge is selected by default, but if you wanted to darken parts of an image rather than lighten them, you could choose the Burn option button.

Figure 8.11. Adjusting parameters on the Bump Map dialog.

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Adding Texturing with Bump Map

Earlier in this chapter, you saw how a photo can be enhanced by applying a sepia tone, giving the image a more old-fashioned feel. Some images are also enhanced by adding a texture. Adding texture to any graphic is easy using Bump Map.

1. Open any image you want to work with.
2. Click Layer, Duplicate Layer, and give the new layer a name like matte.
3. With the matte layer selected, click Filters, Map, and then Bump Map.
4. When the Bump Map dialog appears, adjust the available sliders until you see the textured look you want in the Preview window, such as adjusting the Depth value to about 16, as shown in Figure 8.11, and then click OK.
5. If desired, save the image under a new name and then close it.

As you can see from your final result, you can give an image a wood carved effect. You can also adjust the opacity of the matte layer to make the effect appear softer.

Modifying the other sliders applies different kinds of texturing effects. Have fun and play with the options to see what you can create.

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Creating a Selectively Colored Object

You’ve probably seen a number of ads and photos where an image was generally black and white except one object, which was colorized. This can be a very dramatic way to draw attention to a particular element in a photo for artistic or advertising purposes. This effect can be accomplished in GIMP using layers and masks.

For this exercise, select a photo that contains a central object that you want to appear in color, with the rest of the image in black and white. You’ll need to have an original photo that is completely in color.

1. Open the desired photo.
2. Click Image and then click Duplicate to create a duplicate of the original photo.
3. On the duplicate, click Color and then click Desaturate, accept the defaults, and click OK.
4. On the black and white duplicate image, click Edit, Copy.
5. On the original color image, click Edit, Paste.
6. Right-click on the Pasted Layer selection, select New Layer, and re-name that layer B-and-W.
7. Right-click on the B-and-W layer again and select Add Layer Mask.
8. When the Add Layer Mask dialog appears, make sure that White (Full Opacity) is selected and then click Add.
9. Magnify the image to about 200%.
10. Make sure the foreground color is black and then select the Paintbrush tool.
11. Select a fairly large brush size and then start painting in the area of the image you want to be colored.
12. When you get near the edges of the object you want to be colorized, increase the zoom to about 400%, select a smaller brush size, and carefully paint the edges, as shown in Figure 8.12.
    

    Figure 8.12. Painting the edges of an image to add color.

    

13. When you are finished, return to the original magnification, verify that the effect is what you want, and then save the photo with a new name.
    

    You’ll receive a number of warning messages because you are saving a Layer Mask. Accept the defaults and continue to click through the dialogs until the photo is saved.

    The final result should look something like Figure 8.13.

    Figure 8.13. The final result of colorizing an object in a photo.

    

Now, every time you select a tool in the Toolbox, a tab for that tool will also appear. As you’ve just experienced, the most challenging part of this task is the careful painting of the edges of the desired image so you don’t add any color to the surrounding black and white background. With some practice, you will likely become quite proficient. Remember: Set the image to a very high zoom level when you are painting the final touches.

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Healing Imperfections in a Photo

GIMP’s Heal tool is another paintbrush-like utility you can use for touch up work. In this case, you can smooth out little imperfections in a photo, including those on a person’s face. This is certainly less expensive than cosmetic surgery and requires a lot less training.

For this exercise, I’m choosing a photo of my family, including my father (this was a few years ago) with the idea of taking a couple of years off this face. For this task, choose whatever photo you believe would benefit from some “healing.”

1. Open the desired photo in GIMP.
2. On the Toolbox, select the Heal tool (it looks like two bandages crossing each other).
3. Choose the desired size and type of paintbrush, such as Circle (03), which you will use to sample from the area you want to use to heal imperfections.
4. If necessary, magnify the photo so that the area you want to heal is more apparent.
5. Press the Ctrl key and then click the cursor on the area you want to copy from, which should be relatively blemish and wrinkle free.
6. Very gently click the areas you want to smooth out, as shown in Figure 8.14.
   

   Figure 8.14. Smoothing out imperfections with the Heal tool.

   

   If you brush an area excessively, or certain details such as eyes, you’ll probably get unexpected and unattractive results. Don’t forget that you can always Undo what you have done on the Edit menu.

7. When you are done, return to the original magnification to examine your work and, if you’re satisfied, save the image.

With the Heal tool, you can remove wrinkles, shadows, and liver spots on a person’s face, giving them a younger appearance. You can also soften many other types of photographic imperfections to give an image a cleaner look.

Adjusting GIMP

For this last section of the chapter, I’ll be presenting some methods of modifying preferences in GIMP and solving a few problems you may run into.

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Using Tool Option Tabs

What if a tool option doesn’t open in a tab on the Toolbox when you select it? Usually when you click a tool in the Toolbox, the tool options tab for that tool appears in Tool Options. However, any number of accidental configuration changes can be made that will alter the default behavior. If the Tool Options tab doesn’t appear, what do you do?

1. Click the arrow in the tab area to open the menu.
2. Click Add tab, and in the menu that appears, click Tool Options, as shown in Figure 8.15.
   

   Figure 8.15. Selecting Tool Options.

   

The tab for each tool you select from now on will appear in Tool Options on the Toolbox.

If you want to detach the Tool Options and use it as a floating dialog, click the Configure This Tab arrow and select Detach Tab. If the Detach Tab option is grayed out, it’s probably because the Lock Tab to Dock option is selected. I like to keep tabs docked to Tool Options as a matter of preference, but you may want to work differently.

Also, on the Image window toolbar, you can open any tool as a free standing dialog by clicking Windows, Dockable Dialogs, and then selecting the desired tool you want to appear in a dialog.

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Finding More Tool Options Features

To truly configure all your Tool Options selections the way you desired them to appear and behave, do the following:

1. On the Image window toolbar, click Edit and then click Preferences.
2. When the Preferences dialog appears, click Tool Options in the menu, as shown in Figure 8.16.
   

   Figure 8.16. The Preferences dialog and the Tool Options selection.

   

3. In the Tool Options pane, make whatever selections you desire, including selecting the Save Tool Options on Exit check box, selecting any of the check boxes under Paint Options Shared Between Tools, or clicking the Reset Saved Tool Options to Default Values button.
4. When you’re done, click OK and then close the Preferences dialog.

There are probably no two GIMP users who have GIMP configured the same way. The Preferences dialog lets you create the exact GIMP environment that works best for you.

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The Rectangle Select Tool Creates Selections from the Center

The default behavior of the Rectangle Select tool is to select from the corner on which you initially click in the canvas and then expand in the direction you drag the cursor. Once, I experienced this tool expanding from the center and it drove me nuts until I realized I had accidentally modified the tool’s behavior earlier and needed to fix it as follows:

1. Select the Rectangle Select tool in the Toolbox.
2. On the Rectangle Select tool tab, verify that the Expand from Center check box is selected, as shown in Figure 8.17, and then remove the selection from that check box.
   

   Figure 8.17. Selecting Tool Options.

   

   You can now use the tool with its expected behavior.

This may seem like an amazingly simple fix, but if you aren’t familiar with how the various tools can be modified, and you don’t recall having made a particular selection, such problems can seem very frustrating.

Getting GIMP Help Online

When you downloaded GIMP, you may have also seen an option to download the help files for GIMP so you’d have them available on your local computer. If you didn’t, or if you can’t find them, don’t worry. You can always go to the official online GIMP documentation by clicking Help in the Image window toolbar and then clicking Help in the menu that appears. The GNU Image Manipulation Program User Manual will open in your default web browser.

Also, in the Preface of this book, I included a few links to helpful GIMP discussion boards that contain a wealth of information and that let you ask questions and get answers back from a large number of experienced GIMP users.

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Getting GIMP Help on Your Computer

It’s likely that if you downloaded GIMP for Windows, a separate executable for the help files was also downloaded. Those files won’t become available until you install them.

1. Locate the folder where you downloaded the GIMP installation file. This is the most likely location of the help files executable.
2. Double-click the executable for the help files to launch it.
3. In the Open File—Security Warning dialog, click Run, as shown in Figure 8.18.
   

   Figure 8.18. Click Run to install the GIMP help files.

   

4. Go through the wizard, accepting the default settings.
5. When the Completing the GIMP Help 2.6.0 Setup Wizard dialog appears, click Finish to conclude installing the help files on your computer.
6. If GIMP is not open, launch GIMP.
7. On the Image window toolbar, click Help, click User Manual, and then click one of the options in the available menu, such as Basic Concepts.
8. The GIMP User Manual will open in your default web browser from the help files installed on your computer, as shown in Figure 8.19.
   

   Figure 8.19. The GIMP user manual.

   

Now you can view the entire GIMP user manual without having to be connected to the Internet.

Conclusion

Although this is the end of the book, it isn’t the end of your adventure with GIMP. As you are well aware, there is still so much more about GIMP to learn. You may already know everything you need to accomplish your immediate goals for image editing, but hopefully the excitement of working with GIMP propels you into learning even more. As you continue to work with GIMP, you’ll discover how you’re able to build on what you’ve learned with this book and go beyond the beginning. Good luck.