Fun with The GIMP

I didn’t go out last night. For one thing, it’s just too hot outside to walk around much. For another, my new book on The GIMP, the free open source image editing tool which is on par with Photoshop, arrived yesterday and I made my way through the first three chapters.  The book recommended using my own images, taken with my digital camera, for the exercises.  I took several images that were poorly lit, and using The GIMP’s Colors -> Levels option, was able to make them look even better than Picasa can do.  Then I decided to have some Photoshopping – or in my case, GIMPing – old photos.  Here’s one of my first image projects, a pic of what Big Foot Lodge bartender/former BFF Meghan might look like if she got my name tattooed on her chest:

You can get a free copy of The GIMP here.  Make sure you download the Help as well as the program itself.  Note:  Either one of two things will happen.  Either you’ll get frustrated with it and give up after 15 minutes, or you’ll get addicted to it and nothing you planned to do today will get done.  Here’s a hint for you:  After you fire it up, go to the File menu and select File->New and create a new image, or FIle->Open to open an existing image.  The GIMP isn’t much fun unless you’ve got an image to work with.  I know that sounds like basic advice, but I sat there for a while thinking the Layers dialog was an open image, and wondering why I couldn’t do anything with it.

Probably skipping brunch again, because I want to play with the GIMP some more, and because I’ve got momentum going on my next site and don’t want to give that up.  I’ll be out later today, probably around 3:30.