GIMP Basics: Simple Borders

Written by Marc Roberge | 09 February 2012

If you’d like to add a simple border to your images in GIMP, the process is fairly straightforward. This particular technique uses the Decor>Add Border filter to create a flat or slightly beveled border. Keep in mind that this filter creates a border outside the dimensions of your image, not an overlay, so you’ll need to consider this when sizing and cropping your image prior.

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GIMP Tutorial: How To Repair Blown Highlights In Photos

Written by Marc Roberge | 26 June 2011

In this tutorial you will learn how to salvage an image that has blown out highlights. This is a problem that is familiar to photographers shooting transparency film, which has an effective contrast range of about 5 stops. If you are not careful with your exposure you can easily lose all detail in your highlight areas, with no way to get it back: they “blow out” to clear (white).

The basic technique is to graft matching areas of the image into the burned out parts using the clone tool and then to use several additional tools to blend the seams of the cloned areas.

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GIMP Tutorial: Interesting And Surreal Eyes Photo Effect

Written by Marc Roberge | 25 June 2011

In this GIMP tutorial, you will learn how to create some interesting photo effects for eyes. Amongst other things, you will see how to accentuate eye color as well as how to add surreal effects.

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How To GIMP: Create A Simple Vignette Effect

Written by Marc Roberge | 11 June 2011

In this how to GIMP tutorial, we will examine a few ways to create a classic vignette effect. “Vignette” is the term used to describe the photographic effect or technique by which an image’s brightness, saturation or clarity fades towards the edges or corners. For more information about vignettes, Wikipedia is always a good place to start: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vignetting.

Before we get started, I should also mention that typically vignettes tend towards dark, smoky hues although they work equally well with lighter tones. For the purposes of this tutorial, I will be using this photo of Marylin Monroe.

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