Getting to know The Gimp

I’ve spent quite a lot of the last few weeks getting to grips with The Gimp, the free and open-source alternative to the not-free Adobe Photoshop.

Image manipulation is an important part of any multimedia journalists toolkit, whether its to generate graphics or artistic images, or just to touch up your photographs, and if you haven’t got the Gimp, you really should (unless you’re lucky enough to have Photoshop of course).

A heavily manipulated image using layers & curves for Viking FM

A shot from an audio slideshow I'm making with minor contrast edits and a light vignette effect

Short for GNU Image Manipulation Program, it is as complicated as its Adobe counterpart, at least at first appearance. But half the trick is learning what the Gimp’s important tools are. I have personally found the most important bits to grasp – at least at first – are:

• layering
• controlling curves
• creating, feathering and manipulating sections

But as the iPhone is hypervalued by its homemade apps, the Gimp’s real value lies in a vast library of tutorials and guides…produced by Joe Public. Working on both my audio slideshow and the Viking FM graphics, I’ve been able to instantly get help just by visiting Youtube.

Here are five top tutorials to help you get to know the Gimp.

01. Using curves for selective exposure correction

02. using curves to improve night shots

03. a very basic introduction to layers

04. creating vintage/vignette effects

05. and some Gimp basics