Week 10 - Photostory Preview

Below are some of the photos I'd like to use in my story of an Evening On The Lake.  From beginning, middle, and sunset (with my happy son), I've included some of the photos I took just the other day.  I do not plan on using all of these and have more I'm going to include.  There are three below that look almost identical and I am wrestling with which one to use.  Thank you for all of your feedback.     

 #1

 #2

 #3

 #4

 #5

 #6

 #7

#8

                                     

#9

#10

#11

Week 10 - Paint Tools

#1 - Original 

#2 - Painted

I will admit I had a hard time trying to figure out what photo of mine I was going to use the paint tool on and what I was going to do with it once I did.  I could have grabbed any photo of mine and doodled all over it but I noticed that one of the brush options was a star so I went with that knowing I had a photo with stars in it.  I played around with the size of the brush, opacity, color, angle, and aspect ratio particularly for the one I placed on the star ornament.  I tried to get it roughly the same angle and size as the others.  Not so sure I got the size quite right.  I also placed stars in other parts of the photo.  

Week 10 - Text Tool

For this photo, I found a short tutorial on YouTube to watch.  I probably could have fumbled my way through it but at least this way I learned how to do it right the first time.  I then found a quote about flowers somewhere else on the internet and above is the finished product.  

I actually used two different text boxes because it wouldn't let me change the size of the font within the same box.  

Week 10 - Clone Tool

#1 - Original 

#2 - Cloned

This clone tool is pretty neat and although there are many different ways of using it, I'm just trying to get the most basic way perfected and under my belt for now.  The photo above is certainly not the best one I've ever taken but I thought it would work well for the purposes of this week's assignment.  

As you can see, in photo #1 there is a sign on the edge of the roadway and my daughter's right hand is sticking up out of the ATV.  In using the clone tool on 100% opacity and using a combination of brushes, poof, they're gone!  This reminds me of those "what's the difference" games my children sometimes play only this time, I could make my own :-).  

Week 9 - Dodge & Burn

#1 - Original

#2 - Dodged & Burned

In #2, I dodged the tree trunks and burned some of the lighter white water.  I feel it did not do too much to darken the water but the differences are there, I promise. :)  Dodging worked well with the tree trunks though.  

Applying dodge & burn was hard and you definitely have to have a steady, patient hand on your mouse.  You have to be careful not to overlap, which I did numerous times, and that in and of itself felt tedious.  I'm sure there is a better, easier way of doing it but being a beginner at it, I don't know what that way is.  I will continue to experiment and try to correct some more photos in the future.    

Week 9 - Filters

 #1 - Original

#2 - Filtered

For this one, the changes seem a little subtle but I applied Artistic/Oilify/Van Gogh.  

#1 - Original

 #2 - Filtered

The changes to this one are subtle as well.  I applied Artistic/Apply Canvas (Depth of 5).  The apply canvas filter is one of my favorite ones.  

#1 - Original

 #2 - Filtered

I had fun with this one.  The possibilities truly are endless!  I applied Light & Shadow/Gradient Flare/Hidden Planet.  I also applied Distort/Page Curl with a duplicate layer underneath of the exact same photo.    

Week 8

This one can also be included and was an afterthought.  The GIMP website itself also has great tutorials and this one caught my eye.  I used the QuickMask feature.  Within that, I used Distorts/Waves and Blur/Gaussin Blur.  At the end I inverted it and filled it with the background color of my choice!  

Week 8

 #1

 #2

 #3

#4

Ok, so I think I'm starting to get the hang of GIMP.  Slowly but surely for sure but it's starting to make more sense to me the more I play with it.  The layers portion is still a little confusing but the color and filter tools are much easier to grasp and understand.  

#1-I simply used the fuzzy select tool and made blue the color of my background.  

#2-This was a photo from a previous week.  I used the color tool and played around with the hue saturation.  I settled on a dull green.

#3-Same thing except this time was a brighter green.  I think with these selections, the color option has a greater effect due to the dark foreground of the original photo.  

#4-Again, a photo from a previous week however I dove into the filters option in GIMP. I used Render/Clouds as well as Artistic/Apply Canvas.  There are a lot of different options and I could easily drive myself nuts playing around with all of the different combinations.  I had to stop myself once I finally found one I liked.  

I see that the sky is certainly the limit with these types of programs but with A LOT more practice I'm hoping to get more proficient at using them.   

Week 7

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I'll admit I had a tough time with this assignment.  I have never used Photoshop or Gimp before and there is certainly a learning curve.  These photos are certainly not the best representation of what Gimp can do but I think I've at least accomplished the assignment goals of merging two photos into one.  

The tutorial videos were helpful and I actually kept them running in the background to follow them step by step.  I really enjoy using GIMP and I have a feeling I will be spending a lot of time practicing.