I originally did this as a Tech Tuesday, but I’m posting this part here for anyone who wants a quick intro to GIMP. It’s been a year since I wrote this but the general actions should still be the same. This post will deal with three basic photo editing tasks using GIMP, a cool (and free) alternative to Photoshop. I will show how to crop an image, adjust it’s levels, and apply spot healing.
Cropping an Image:
Once you have opened your image in GIMP, go to the Toolbox panel and click on the Crop tool. Its the one that looks like a scalpel.
This tool pretty much works the same as the Photoshop one. Just click on the image and drag out the amount you want to crop. Adjust the size of the grid by dragging out the corners if you need to, and then hit enter to actually crop it.
Adjusting Levels:
To change the levels of a photo, go up to the menu bar and click on Colors. Then, click on Levels. This will open up a new panel for levels.
Once again, this feature is similar to Photoshop. Just drag the sliders or set the numbers in the boxes to change the levels of the photo. Click onOK to apply your changes.
Spot Healing:
To fix blemishes or any other undesirable impurities in your image, you can use a couple different tools. I will be using the Healing tool to demonstrate first, and then the Clone tool. The Healing tool is the one that looks like two Band-Aids crossed over each other:
You use this tool the exact same way as in Photoshop. Ctrl-Click on an area of the image that is clear, and then draw over the spot you want to correct. The Clone tool, which is directly to the left of the Healing tool, works the exact same way. The difference between the two is that the Healing tool will actually try to blend the corrected area with the rest of the photo, while the Clone tool just copies whatever source area you’ve selected.
So that’s it for GIMP! It is definitely a good alternative if, like me, you’re too poor to buy Photoshop.
