Learning Basics of Gimp

Selection Tools
Mask Tools
Zooming
Layers
Cutting & Pasting
Eyedropper
Clonestamp
Opacity Changes
Color Adustments
Cropping
Gradient Tool

Step 01

Welcome to Gimp 2: a suprisingly powerful program with many sublte improvements from its previous incarnations. In this tutorial you will learn some of the basic workings as well as some of the advanced methods by manipulating two photos. This is what Gimp 2 looks like when opening it for the first time. The Toolbox is the dialog to the left. The Options, Layers, Brushes, etc.. dialog box is to the right. Each option is in a little tab marked with an icon.
To get the necessary picture files download them here.




Step 02

In the left hand dialog box select File, then open.




Step 03

An Open dialog box will appear. On the left side of the Open dialog box select the appropriate drive for your file(you drive is probably C:\ or U:\) and hit enter. My drive is F:\




Step 04

It will now show the folders of the F Drive. Scroll the left dialog vertical scrollbar until you find the correct folder. My folder is Gimptut.




Step 05

Select the appropriate folder and hit enter.




Step 06

In the middle dialog box there will be a list of files. Scroll the left dialog vertical scrollbar until you find the correct file. It will be named F1000035.jpg. Select the file and press OK.




Step 07

Now our wonderful picture is ready to be messed with. Notice the filename F1000035.jpg appears in the top blue bar of the picture window. Select the rectangular selection tool in the toolbox. It is the square icon in the left side of the first row of the toolbox.




Step 08

Drag the rectangular select tool over an area by holding the left mouse button and dragging it over an area. (The picture was zoomed in for better clarification)




Step 09

Once the mouse button is released a dotted line should appear around the selection. Hold down your left mouse button anywhere inside the selection. Drag the selection somewhere. Notic white appears where the selection once was.




Step 10

Click the left mouse button anywhere outside the selection box. The dotted line should disappear. This is how to remove a selection.




Step 11

Select the circular select tool. It is directly to the right of the rectangular select tool. Drag the circular select tool over an area by holding the left mouse button and dragging it over an area. (The picture was zoomed in for better clarification)




Step 12

As before, once the mouse button is released a dotted line should appear around the selection. Hold down your left mouse button anywhere inside the selection. Drag the selection somewhere.




Step 13

Click the left mouse button anywhere outside the selection box. The dotted line should disappear.




Step 14

Now hold Ctrl and press Z(also seen as Ctrl+Z). Repeat this process untill the picture is back to its original appearance. This is called Undo.




Step 15

The next selection tool directly to the right of the circular tool is the Lasso tool. Draw the tool around a certain area by holding the left mouse button. Once finished a dotted line will appear.




Step 16

Like the other selection tools the selected area can be dragged.




Step 17

Undo again. Select the Magic Wand selection tool from the toolbox. It is the left icon on the 2nd row of the toolbox. Click your left mouse button quickly twice(or more) on the icon and the Options dialog should appear in dialog box on the righthand side. In the Options dialog change the threshold value to 2.9.




Step 18

Select the black area in the top righthand corner of the picture. Notice it selects some of the picture.




Step 19

Like the other selection tools the selected area can be dragged. Undo and deselect the area.




Step 20

The selection tool works by selecting and area based on a specific range of values. If you increase the value of the threshold(thereby increasing the range), the selection area becomes greater. Now change the value of the threshold to 8.7. Select that same area as before. The selection area should have increased.




Step 22

Like before the selection area can be dragged.




Step 23

Undo everything again.




Step 24

Use the lasso tool and select around the man and child. Make sure to circle around the border of the lower area of the picture.




Step 25

Select the rectangle in the left corner of the very bottom of the picture dialog box. This should change your picture to mask mode. Notice the pink on the unselected area.




Step 26

Mask mode allows you to make cleander selections by using a brush or pencil tool to paint areas. Notice the colors near the bottom of the Toolbox dialog are black and white. The black will add pink. The white will remove pink. To select between Foreground(top) and Background(bottom) colors use the arrow next to the colors. On the bottom of the Options dialog box there is a brush selection toolbar with varous circle, fuzzy circles, etc... Selecting on of the different brushes will change how the brush paint on the picture. Paint around some of the space so there is more pink closer to the man and child.




Step 27

To zoom in hold shift then press +. Shift and - will zoom out. The objective is to get the pink drawn as closely to the man and child. This will make the cleanest selection possible.




Step 28

To further illustrate using white to remove and area here is an untouched pink area.




Step 29

Here is whire drawn in that area.




Step 30

Select a soft or fuzzy circle from the brushes to get a "softer" cut or edge.




Step 31

Slowly but surely the pink is getting closer to the man and child.




Step 32

Move the mouse cursor to the bottom right edge until you see a diagonal arrow. Hold down the left mouse button and drag diagonally toware the right. This will resize the window.




Step 33

Notice that the window is bigger.




Step 34

Do the same thing to the top left cornder to make the window even larger.




Step 35

Put even more pink around until it is close to the edges of the man and child.




Step 36

Now zoom in again. Make sure to select a smaller brush and pain right up to the edge. Notice how the ear is made up of multiple colored squares. These are called pixels.




Step 37

Zoom out and the different pixels blend together to get a sharper image.




Step 38

Zoom out again and the ear gets even sharper.




Step 39

Zoom back in and continue to draw.




Step 40

Hold the middle mouse button or select the crosshairs(in the lower right corner of the picture window) to move the view of the zoomed image over.




Step 41

Hit F11 to go in or out of full screen mode.




Step 42

Once the pink is perfectly painted around the objects, get out of the mask mode.




Step 43

Now there is a dotted line around the man and child.




Step 44

Right click on the image and select Edit, Copy(Ctrl+C).




Step 45

Select the Layers tab which looks like three stacked papers. It is in the right hand dialog box. In the middle of the dialog box there is a button in the far left side which looks like a sheet of paper. Press it and a new layer will appear.




Step 46

Select that new layer. Right click on the image and select Edit, then Paste(Ctrl+V)




Step 47

Temporarily there will be a pasted layer in the Layers dialog.




Step 48

Deselect the dotted line and now there is a two layer. The orginal background and the cut man and child. Select the background layer again.




Step 49

Create another new layer.




Step 50

Select that layer and then select the Paint bucket tool from the toolbox. It is the icon to the left 7 rows down and it looks like a paint bucket spilling. Select the white color.Click you left mouse button on the empty space surrounding the child and man. The layer should now be white.




Click to move on - Gimp Tutorial Part 2