Levels and Curves with GIMP
4/5
()
About this ebook
Learn how to use these two powerful tools with one of the best free image and photography editors.
Second edition with added contents.
Related to Levels and Curves with GIMP
Related ebooks
Inkscape Starter Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Beginning Graphics Programming with Processing 4 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPhotoshop Box Set: 3 Books in 1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsColor Management for Digital Photography Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Digital Zone System: Taking Control from Capture to Print Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Take Control, Go Manual Part 3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlender 3D Incredible Machines Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDramatic Black & White Photography Using Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAutodesk Maya 2016: A Comprehensive Guide Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMastering Photoshop CC Layers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFine Art Printing for Photographers: Exhibition Quality Prints with Inkjet Printers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Digital Painting with KRITA 2.9: Learn All of the Tools to Create Your Next Masterpiece Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGIMP 2.8 for Photographers: Image Editing with Open Source Software Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInkscape Beginner’s Guide Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Photographer's Guide to Luminar 4 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Photographer's Guide to Luminar AI Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe HDRI Handbook 2.0: High Dynamic Range Imaging for Photographers and CG Artists Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInkscape 0.48 Illustrator's Cookbook Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEssential Affinity Photo Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFine Art Digital Nature Photography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Inkscape 0.48 Essentials for Web Designers: LITE Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Affinity Photo How To Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCreative Black and White: Digital Photography Tips and Techniques Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Papervision3D Essentials Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPhotoshop CS6 A Complete Guide - 2020 Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMastering Nik Silver Efex Pro 3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTake Control, Go Manual Part 4 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Photoshop Toolbox: Essential Techniques for Mastering Layer Masks, Brushes, and Blend Modes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Photography For You
The iPhone Photography Book Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Complete Portrait Manual: 200+ Tips & Techniques for Shooting the Perfect Photos of People Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Betty Page Confidential: Featuring Never-Before Seen Photographs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Book Of Legs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Photographer's Guide to Posing: Techniques to Flatter Everyone Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Extreme Art Nudes: Artistic Erotic Photo Essays Far Outside of the Boudoir Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Digital Photography For Dummies Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bombshells: Glamour Girls of a Lifetime Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Rocks and Minerals of The World: Geology for Kids - Minerology and Sedimentology Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Photography Exercise Book: Training Your Eye to Shoot Like a Pro (250+ color photographs make it come to life) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Photography Bible: A Complete Guide for the 21st Century Photographer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Through the Lens of Whiteness: Challenging Racialized Imagery in Pop Culture Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHumans of New York Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Workin' It!: RuPaul's Guide to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Style Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Humans of New York: Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Bare Bones Camera Course for Film and Video Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Edward's Menagerie: Dogs: 50 canine crochet patterns Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Photography 101: The Digital Photography Guide for Beginners Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/59/11 THROUGH THE LENS (250 Pictures of the Tragedy): Photo-book of September 11th terrorist attack on WTC Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFifty Places to Hike Before You Die: Outdoor Experts Share the World's Greatest Destinations Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Tree a Day: 365 of the World’s Most Majestic Trees Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Native Mexican Kitchen: A Journey into Cuisine, Culture, and Mezcal Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPatterns in Nature: Why the Natural World Looks the Way It Does Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Conscious Creativity: Look, Connect, Create Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5LIFE The World's Most Haunted Places: Creepy, Ghostly, and Notorious Spots Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Historic Photos of North Carolina Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5On Photography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Haunted New Orleans: History & Hauntings of the Crescent City Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jada Pinkett Smith A Short Unauthorized Biography Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5
Reviews for Levels and Curves with GIMP
1 rating0 reviews
Book preview
Levels and Curves with GIMP - Alberto García Briz
Introduction
Since a few years now, I am editing a couple of blogs on image edition – mostly, with GIMP, a free application with Open Source license. I even published a book (you can see the details at the end of this one) on the conversion to black and white with that program.
During the preparation of these publications I realized the importance and power of curves adjustment in photographic edition. Maybe as important as to dedicate a whole book on this… if you can read this, it means I was right.
Of course, curves adjustment is closely related to how digital information is created, calculated and stored. And there is a relationship to information tools such as the histogram. As a consequence, these concepts have also been incorporated here, in order to provide a global overview of the tool…
Maybe you have a too complex book in your hands? Not needed? I hope some people will find it useful… Anyway, I tried to use plain language, with down-to-earth expressions, introducing the concepts in a logical line of thought, to reach that global view of the presented tools.
Some of the texts presented here are adapted both from my book and blogs (if you have time, just check http://albertog.over-blog.es and http://albertogblog.blogspot.com). But of course, different sources were also used from the Internet, such as the great blog by Petteri Sulonen (http://www.prime-junta.net, check the How to
section).
I tried to keep a simple layout towards the publication as eBook and PDF document. But you might be reading the paper version, with some more details for those who still prefer real hardware
…
About this edition
One of the topics I referred to in the first edition of this book, which was not really explained, was the use of masks; even when they are not strictly needed, they can help in simplifying the edition process, by limiting the areas affected by our curves or levels edition.
With this in mind, I prepared (for the second edition of this book, in Spanish) a new specific section. This forced me to treat is as a fully new book, since it was an important edition and the number of pages (and so the ISBN) was also affected. Little by little, I achieved to remove the original book from the market.
Regarding physical format, the second Spanish edition was produced in a slightly smaller size that the original version, to facilitate handing and postage.
However, this new format (five by eight inches) was not a standard for colour books in bookshops. This reduced strongly the commercial possibilities. So I decide to go back to the Statement
format (5.5 by 8.5 inches) of the current paperback version. In parallel, I made some style and writing correction.
By reducing font sizes, the increase in contents did not affect the number of pages in the paperback version, so that final price was also not affected (which is good: this book is printed on demand).
Digital images
Nowadays, we can find digital cameras almost everywhere. What just a decade ago was limited to computer work, has been universalized by the Internet and the possibility of printing onto almost any desired support.
You could also say that everyone in a developed country has access to a digital camera (with better or poorer quality…), at least to the ones included in most modern cell phones. So the possibility of creating digital images is there, for good or for bad.
But, in many cases, the limitations on the camera or the captured scene will result in images that do not match our expectations. In many cases, we may want to improve them, to share them with our online contacts, or rather to prepare collages or specific documents.
Above: A modern cell phone can generate files with some kinds of edition, such as cropping and colouring (here, a sepia tint)
Of course, many smart phones do include edition apps that allow you to modify your pictures on the fly
, so that basic edition can be applied on the very handset: change to black and white or sepia, simulation of old film pictures…
And many edition programs such as GIMP, used in this book, include automated functions for quick edition, developed to avoid many headaches – but also a share of creative possibilities.
In this book we will see how to handle digital information in order to produce results closer to our expectations, closer to the planned scene we wanted to capture – or rather, more spectacular and appealing.
We will also see the way to automate (up to some extent) our
personal editions, so that we can recall and apply them in a later edition to the same picture – or to a different one.
Points and pixels
Main concept that we need to understand is that digital images are made of points with a single colour. Those points are referred to as pixels (from PICture ELement). They are defined by their colour, and they are the smallest information piece possible in a picture.
E:\Publicaciones\Libro 11 - Levels and Curves with GIMP\Amazon eBook\Levels and Curves with GIMP_eBook_files\image002.jpgAbove: Any digital image is made of square
points with a single colour (pixel). We can always see them, by zooming in to the maximum…
Notice: a very useful keyboard shortcut in GIMP is the zoom tool, which allows for zooming-in (by pressing +
)