Retouching and Enhancing Colors in Gimp

Editing Old Photos and Working With Contrast, Saturation and Hue

Jul 31, 2008

Two tutorials on Gimpshop 2 with quick and simple tips for editing photos, old or new.

Enhancing Colors

STEP 1) My favorite tool to start with is Image / Adjustments / Hue-Saturation. I increased Saturation by 82 and decreased by only 6 to avoid unnatural changes in color. These numbers will wary according to each picture.

STEP 2) Next, I do Layer / New Layer and fill this new layer with a very light red. You can find the one I used by typing f3c3c7 into the HTML notation box in the Change Foreground Color window. Then from the Layer window, I change the Mode of this layer to Burn (you can use other modes if you find they work better for you). I also changed its opacity to %60. Then do Layer / Flatten Image.

STEP 3) The final level is Image / Adjustments / Brightness-Contrast. I adjust these according to my taste. Now my picture looks as if it was taken in the desert, with an extra red hue!

Retouching Old Photos

When working with old photos, you have to beware that some pictures are never going to look perfect the way you want them. These are just some quick tips to increase their quality.

STEP 1) If your picture is scanned and is not the perfect rectangle you want it to be, you can use the rotate the layer or shear the layer buttons. Click on the button on the menu, then on the picture, and a window will come up where you can change the angle of the picture or shear the layer according to your needs.

STEP 2) The picture we have lacks contrast and seems as if there was a red filter put on it. Do Image / Adjustments / White Balance. This should add the needed contrast, if you're not satisfied with the result, use the Image / Adjustments / Brightness-Contrast option to adjust it yourself.

STEP 3) Now we want to sharpen this somewhat blurry image. If you are a perfectionist and feel that you have time, click on the Blur or Sharpen tool (the water drop icon) and make sure you pick Sharpen. You can adjust the opacity, type and sensitivity of the brush, and sharpen exact places you want to. A simpler method is to go Filter / Sharpen / Sharpen. This is where you have to make a choice between blurry and grainy. Unfortunately, it's near impossible to make old, low quality pictures perfect with a few quick tricks. You can do Brightness-Contrast after sharpening to enhance its effects.

STEP 4) We have an unbalanced picture in that the right side is brighter than the left side. There are a few possible ways to solve this problem, Image / Adjustments / Levels or Image / Adjustments / Curves are two ways to do this, but they can seem a little confusing if you're a beginner, although you're welcome to try them if you don't mind playing around a little. After all, Gimp is best learned through curiosity. What I did with this picture was Layer / New Layer, and then fill it with a linear black and white gradient (black part on the lighter side of the image). From the Layers window, I picked this layer's mode to be Soft Light (you can pick others if you see more fit). Then I decreased its opacity to %40 and did Layer / Flatten Image.

STEP 5) Once all these steps are done, you can tweak the picture further with Brightness-Contrast or Image / Adjustments / Hue-Saturation to get the perfect look.

The copyright of the article Retouching and Enhancing Colors in Gimp in Graphic Design Tutorials is owned by Bengisu Kuscu. Permission to republish Retouching and Enhancing Colors in Gimp in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.